I fired up AnyRail and spent some time trying some ideas.   I came up with a design with two linked ‘tuning forks’ in a space of 5’ 6” x 1’ 6”.   This would be a 4’ scenic board and a 1’ 6” fiddle yard.  I printed the design full size and got some bits of rolling stock out of storage to see if it could work.

I spent some time working out a design for the two baseboards built from 6mm ply and prepared a cutting list - took it to a timber merchant who cut the bits for me - the ply was assembled with 12mm x 12mm pine braces, a very large number of screws and Tite-Bond Original glue.  The resulting boards are strong and surprisingly light.

The scenic board track plan.

Fiddle yard track plan.

The underside with some of the ‘gubbins’ installed.

First project: One coach that is still missing from the ready to run offerings is a 70/72ft suburban coach, despite the fact that this length was the most common in commuter service for a long time. I'm going to try and make a passable model of the CNJ 72ft versions used on the New York and Long Branch.

I'll start with the Rivarossi 1920's coach, these can be had for £10 a go if you look out for them at exhibitions.

Anyone know where i can get them? 

These type of wagons

The line emerges on-scene past a truck stop.

The old Depot has had one end re-opened to act as the local Yard Office.

Opposite, an old grounded boxcar serves as a store.

All the best advice for laying model track is that it should be level, smooth and kink-free. Yeah, whatever....

Plenty of work to get it ready for June, but the track is complete and wired up. 

I am having difficulties moving photos across so pictures will follow shortly.

Mick

Having enjoyed the thoughts and ideas for people's planned American layouts, I am starting this thread to share my ideas for a retirement layout. It all depends on my retirement (hopefully in April) and then sorting some things out and moving house to a place with a suitable spare room for a medium sized N Gauge layout. 

I am keeping with the Great Northern interchange with an Interurban Railway (SRTC) of previous layouts set in the 1950s but this time based on a through station for the GN and a terminus to fiddle yard concept for the SRTC. The layout will be very loosely based on the GN route between Willmar  and Sioux City. This secondary route had 3 or 4 scheduled trains each way each day; a passenger/mail train, 1 or 2 through freights and a local freight. If space allows I can add some extra railway facilities, for example a quarry or a extra grain silo. Being a through route that connected to other railroads in Sioux City there is greater justification to run extra trains. 

To start with, here is a concept sketch to explain what I have in  mind. Obviously until I move, I will not know the actual space available. The basic idea is to have something interesting to operate but without filling the boards with lots of complex track. 

Future posts will cover ideas for suitable industries to include and hopefully will prompt some comments from those who know far more about American railways that I do. 

Regards 

Nick 

The reason for this is that my son has become interested in American Narrow Gauge.  I had previously resisted purchasing any On30 stock, but have always had a liking for the big narrow gauge locos, such as the K27-K36.

So, we have now started building a new layout.  A simple end to end layout with high level mine.

I'm trying to keep the stock list small, but couldn't resist a couple of MMI K27s which came up on Ebay.

The layout has been funded by a bit of money my mother left me after she died a couple of years ago.  This has led to the name 'Wittering Creek' in her honour!!

Pics to follow once I have put the layout up later this evening ...

There's nothing showing on his website,so probably have to phone or call in, it's a nice place for a day trip too.

https://furness-models.com/

This year the Convention / train show is open to the public on Saturday.

All North American outline layouts. RS Tower will also be there along with the Poole N Track the Black Diamonds modular layout plus a number of other layouts. Quite a few traders aswell this year.

Ian

Check them out over at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOIkT9bq-1N2BvrsBjhNlag

US railroads do much more moving of military equipment than seems to happen over here, as well as moving vehicles for delivery/storage/disposal many (most? all?) units seem to move to other locations along with their equipment for training on a fairly regular basis.

So - scope: layout era is 2005-2020, I think this train will sit roughly in the latter half of that as I really like the Greenbrier built TPDX cars that Walthers make but I still want to feature some or the 1960s/70s 89' flatcars that they eventually replaced. Eventually it'll be circa 20' of train which can run either direction, and is railroad-agnostic as where it will be used it may see different power being swapped on and off as well as direction changing. Visually I like the look of mixed equipment travelling for training, as you get a good mix of flatcar types and interesting equipment, and I try and prioritise overall effect over detail specifics but reserve the right to vary where that sits 😜

You can find older versions of the official loading docs available online which provide some great info on what you can and can't do loading-wise - search "Tiedown handbook for Rail Movements" if you want to find a copy.

So - first out of the gate was this HTTX car, the freight car is the MTH one which I think is actually a really nice rendition of these if you can find one, more detailed than the Walthers, heavier and more dimensionally stable than the Intermountain

The flat got a repaint and weather to represent an old one with an updated TTX logo on a patch

Loading is a pair of Bradleys - these are 2 piece (hull/tracks + separate turret) 3d prints bought off eBay (battlefield3d) - these seem to travel with the gun barrels unscrewed so I removed them, I also cut off the TOWS launcher on the side of the turrets to model it stowed. Unfortunately at this point I twigged the real Bradleys have had armour upgrades at some point and the sides look a bit different, but I decide to run with it.

Tie downs are the brass tie down chains from the Alkem flatcar kits...

This US & Canadian Railroads topic is perhaps not ideal for interurban traction, but do the denizens of this part of the forum have any opinions on the book? 

Anybody know who made this:

It has what look like Kadee wheels & Kadee couplings (not e-z) (maybe not original?)

It's of a reasonable quality not budget, e.g. the steps that hang down at the ends of the walkway are wire not plastic.

20240905_090101 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

However there were a few little things that bugged me (I wasn't crazy about parts of the rock face on the canyon side, track was unlevel in a few spots to the point where cars would uncouple/derail, and tunnel portals weren't big enough for modern cars) and I'd found a few other things I wanted to try, so in April of this year I decided to tear it all out and start over.

Half the demo work done:

20250330_114642 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

New foamboards down, track plan being tested. I eventually opted for a long "S" curve on the canyon side as the short straight above the bridge in this photo just didn't work for me. With a bit less space to work with than the original layout I felt like it would only cause problems.

20250402_080155 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

By mid April I started getting more foamboards down and the risers up.

20250415_162220 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

More work done as the year went on. I decided to go ahead and work on a hill on one side to test out the AK Terrains paint I was using, it's just barely out of frame on the left.

492528993_10171857599230271_138329243131122755_n by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

I have a ton of photos of the build in progress but don't want to overload the thread at once, so we'll jump ahead a bit. This is the yard as of late October. Ballast down in the yard with weathering applied.

20251026_165522 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

Factory area by one of the curves. 

20251021_161550 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

I began working on a road area on the canyon side with a pull-off area, of course this would naturally end up as a railfanning hotspot with a scenic rock face/tunnel nearby. I used CMR Easy Streets for the road, it's a thin styrene sheet that cuts very easily. I used WS Gray Fine ballast for gravel. I felt the ballast was a bit too large to represent gravel so I weathered it with powders to help hide the shapes/size a bit better. I wanted some posts around the pull-off to keep automotive traffic in, I had several Atlas telephone poles laying around with missing insulators from the last layout that I wouldn't be using again, so I cut them into small pieces, painted them and placed them.

20251018_143258 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

A few figures from Noch and a car from Busch (finding modern cars in N is a difficult task) and the area is starting to take shape. I need a few more vehicles to finish this off, 3-D printed cars are probably going to be my best option.

20251030_163602 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

And now for up-to-date progress, I worked on the canyon area yesterday, all the white area is sculptamold that I put down and smoothed in a 90 minute work session. The rock castings were already glued in as well as the bridge piers so I just focused on trying to blend everything in. I need another casting or two to finish off the canyon in the back. It's not going to be visible for the most part but I still think I want the illusion that something's back in there. The large vertical crack in the rock face will be filled in with hydrocal with a little carving to blend it all together.

20251113_163235 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

20251113_163228 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

20251113_163232 by Jeff  Wagoner, on Flickr

Model Railroading: The Ultimate Guide 2020 - newly written articles, free online video companions at https://mrv.trains.com/playlists/2019/03/model-railroading-the-ultimate-guide-playlist-2020

https://mrr.trains.com/issues/2019/model-railroading-the-ultimate-guide-2020

Best of Scenery - 164 pages of previously published articles

This is not my first adventure into the wonderful world of N& W Steam. Many years ago my brother had a layout called Crystal Creek on the exhibition circuit and I contributed to this (Mainly stock) and operated at exhibitions. A video below from 2010 shows a bit more of what we  achieved back then.

Now its my turn with assistance from my brother Ian. 

Ian is a bit of a genius when it comes to designing a layout and he uses a design package from the USA called 3rd Planit (https://www.eldoradosoft.com/)

Having moved house in 2021 I now have a garage with internal dimensions of 18 ft x 12 ft.. Those dimensions sounds great, but the garage is used for other things and has a fixed workbench among other things, so the available working dimension for a layout (internally) is 17ft x 8ft. I did also say to Ian that it was possible to extend the layout beyond the open garage door to make things a little more interesting. So after a couple of iterations and thoughts on operations we have arrived at the following: -

Low Level Section (Donford Junction and fiddle yards

High Level Section Beryl Inc. Mine No. 3

The Mine sits 6" above the fiddle yard and does involve a spiral to get up there.

Overall dimensions are 25ft x 6ft 8" as I managed to increase the width in the top right section by the boards fitting in between a couple of shelves!

I'm in the process of laying the first track on the first three boards that have been constructed, so hopefully I will have an update soon with some construction progress.

All the best 

Andrew

Originally known as ‘The Cranberry and Small Fry Line’, the Edaville Railroad is a 2ft-gauge narrow gauge line in Massachusetts. [1: p555]

It featured in a short article in the August 1952 issue of The Railway Magazine. This is the next article in a series looking at lines featured in early issues of The Railway Magazine.

Writing in 1952, Edwards comments: “Although never exceptionally numerous, lines of this type assisted materially in the development of many areas. As early as 1877, a 2-ft. gauge line, eight miles long, was inaugurated to link the Massachusetts towns of Bedford and Billerica, but the track and plant were removed to the State of Maine two years later, and used for the Sandy River Railroad. This line proved of great service to many previously isolated communities; its development was rapid, and extensions and branches soon brought its mileage up to 120. Other similar projects followed, mostly in Maine, and a sixty-year period of success resulted. In recent years, however, the usefulness of such small lines has declined. The present economic situation has proved an adverse factor … and nearly all of them have been closed.” [1: p555]

http://rogerfarnworth.com/2026/01/30/the-edaville-railroad-south-carver-massachusetts/

Edit

See newer posts for changes to the layout to make it bigger and better and adptable for use as a Freemo module.

Welcome to the Kipling Division of the Epsom Central Railroad. 

We had our annual meet in Epsom organised by Dan & Geoff with a little support from Alan, Tom & Myself. 
 

setting up Friday night

Oi! Setting up not sitting down!  😝

An electrical gremlin locked out the four way junction most of Saturday but we rejigged the operations to effectively make two railroads with a flat crossing. 
 

Melvyn hard at work trying to figure out why the two curve tracks were shorting out. 

This was the dispatchers desk plan with the four routes marked in separate colours. We only had the red and blue routes Saturday. 
 

diagrammatic route plan for controlling the hoarde. 
 

American Locomotive Co. Rogers Works. 0-4-0 locomotive for New Jersey Zinc Co.

https://www.shorpy.com/node/21065

# 

At one end of the loft is a 32mm, O gauge railway, intended for American 1/48th, 1/4" = 1foot models. My preference is for transition era, steam out/ diesel in. You'll spot it's for CNR, but I hope it will form a setting for more of the "fallen flag" lines I like. The available space would be better for a "shunting plank", but I do like to see passenger trains running as well, so it's a small station. About three years ago it got to the nearly ready stage, but nothing much has happened since, the only action being when my eldest granddaughter, who fancies herself as a train driver,pays a call. There are three main problems;

One, Me. I do more building than operating.

Two, the trains are patchy, plenty of decent freight cars, one good loco and one white elephant, and two passenger cars and one loco unfinished.

Three, a bad layout design. The run-round loop is half on the fiddle yard, half on the baseboard. I use cassettes, but find anything over 48" is unwieldy for O gauge train plus cassette, so they're split into 20" loco, and 46" train cassettes. This complicates things, and too much happens in the fiddle yard. Here is the plan, for public ridicule, to show what I mean:

The two photos. Show the track on the main baseboard:

(Sorry about the photos, lack of, that is, which I’m afraid recurs through this thread, ho hum)

Otherwise, I quite like the area, buildings, and scenic possibilities, and so it has drifted on. Within the last month I have visited the GOG Winchester Am & Con show, and got inspiration from a line there, Georgetown, CT, by Gordy of this parish. Having admired the look and finish, the main message for me was branch line operation with a shorter train. this would still meet what I wanted, with the plus that costs and scratchbuilding time would be lessened. Back home I got out two 48" cassettes, to see what would fit.

If the loop at the station was placed entirely on the two baseboards, there was room for these sets to run round and shunt, but no passing moves, which I could live with. A 20" cassette would be needed at the right hand end, so overall the length would go from 11' 1" to 11'3" ( the odd inch is to engage the cassettes).

As layouts go it's the bottom end of the food chain, and I know it won't be up to Georgetown standards, but I feel it's a step forward, and this was confirmed when recently I saw suggestions and comments on Catweasel's thread "where to start".

So, divert the track gang off other work, and start lifting track.... Oh, dreary me, what was the glue I used to stick the ballast down? It's set like concrete, and the rails and copperclad sleepers are tearing the soldered joins. Scrape, scrape, bash... Don't expect another post for sometime....

I thought now might be a good time to start a new topic on a much planned but so far unstarted layout build - the Interstate Railroad of Wise County, Virginia, in 1952.

A short history of the Interstate Railroad

Founded in 1869 by the Virginia Coal and Iron company, the Interstate was a small but extremely busy coal hauling railroad, interchanging with the Southern Railway, Louisville & Nashville, Norfolk & Western, and the Clinchfield. Though a common carrier of both freight and passenger traffic, the 81(ish) mile railroad was primarily a coal hauler, and owned a sizable fleet of 50 -55 ton hopper cars - 3147 at it's peak.

A profitable enterprise for almost 90 years, the Interstate was a savvy operation, earning it's money not only from hauling coal, but also from 'per-diem' car fees - it preferred to keep it's freight cars anywhere but on it's own trackage, as it's interchange partners paid a fee for every Interstate car on their rails. As such, there were always crews and locomotives kept ready to move as many cars as possible to other railroads' trackage before midnight every day.

When their aging fleet of hopper cars needed replacing, the Interstate management decided it would cost too much money, so they put the railroad up for sale. The Southern Railway beat the L&N to the purchase, and they took ownership of the Interstate in October 1960.

The layout

I planned to model the railroad before they dieselised their fleet, but I have the rolling stock to run the layout after dieselisation, as well as after Southern ownership and Norfolk Southern ownership as well.

I have chosen 1952 as the year to model as that was when the Interstate had - to me at least - their most interesting roster of locomotives, from a simple 0-6-0 switcher all the way up to ALCO/Brooks 2-8-8-2 mallet locomotives.

Though I have yet to work out a track plan, I know that I cannot prototypically model the railroad as I simply do not have the space. As such, the layout will be a proto-freelance model - a fictional layout but operated as per the prototype. Per-diem operations will be replicated by ensuring no loaded coal hoppers will remain on the layout at the end of each operating session, all will be in staging, with only empties in the yards and interchanges on the layout.

The L&N and the Interstate paralleled each other for a good chunk of the IRR's length, and it will be along one of these stretches of line that the layout will be set. Benchwork is about 50% complete at the moment, though I need to figure out how I want the layout to be situated in my layout room. The plan to begin with is to model a section of the Interstate main running through a small town, with a small yard, a few industries, and a coal tipple, as well as the L&N main line - and an interchange between it and the IRR.

The initial boards will be set up on the opposite side of my layout room to Piedmont Blues. Eventually I plan on raising PB up on a frame so that I can add further boards with hidden staging for the Interstate layout underneath it. In the interim, the initial boards will be a self contained switching layout - allowing for traffic from the mine, to the yard, then off layout to staging. Empties will be brought back onto the layout from staging, into the yard, then mine runs will take the empties to the tipple. There will also be regular local and interchange freight trains, and the occasional passenger train.

in short they aren't locomotives anymore but basically gutted into becoming control cars (which perhaps makes sense because they don't need two entire locomotives for a single consist but like the video said at 9:23 this would mean a locomotive unit at one end and ex-locomotive cab car at other end of the single consist itself)

I should also add that it would be fun to run a very odd "test" consist on your own public exhibition show layout too with regarding to two HHP-C's sandwiching two coaches and one locomotive??  but of course you can just use normal HHP-8's as its not like the show patrons needs to know that two of these three locomotives are still able to power themselves otherwise

In this video, you see strings of 149' turbine blades mounted in pairs on three TTX 89' TOFC flatcars. It appears that six sets of three cars are loaded onto the Alaska Marine Lines train ferry, leaving Seattle bound for Whittier, Alaska. Given my son's interest in Freemo, I have in mind to build a representation of a six-car four-blade train.

It's a bit difficult to pick out the reporting marks, and you certainly never see all of them but I've managed to spot TTYX 353991, TTYX 353646, TTYX 353451, PTTX 151416, PTTX 251793 and ?TTX 603748.

From that I've ascertained, TTYX is an evolution or derivative of TTEX which denotes Long Runner units, two 89' TOFC cars permanently coupled by drawbar, so carrying the same reporting mark and number, while PTTX (F89E, F89F) denotes a single similar car, repurposed to a pipe or blade carrier. Reporting marks and numbers is a rabbit hole I barely escaped from!

It seems Walthers, Atlas and Athearn all produced models of these cars, so the base cars shouldn't be too difficult. The uprights to which the root of the blades are bolted appear to be the ends of ISO container tank cradles, or at least model versions could easily be used. The cradles for the slings holding the blade tips will need to be scratched from Evergreen or Plastruct. The turbine blades themselves will probably be 3D-printed at work, as they scale out at just over a half-metre long each.

Even four blades on six cars would make for a remarkable sight, as each car is a real (not scale) foot long, so that's a six-foot long train before you add any locos and the two (what appear to be) barrier tank/hopper cars in front!

Is anyone able to confirm, augment or correct this limited research?