Whirlwind Layout Tour

[CVSNE]

I showed one fellow around some local railroads yesterday - lives in the Buffalo, NY area, but we'd met him at Tony Koester's back in December when my friend Bernie Kempinski and I took a trip up to see some of the north Jersey boys and operate on Tony's NKP Third Sub.

 

This fellow mentioned he would be visiting his brother in Baltimore this past weekend - Saturday was spent at the Great Scale Train Show in Timonium, Md., but he asked if a tour of local layouts was possible. Since Washington DC is a leading tourist destination it's not an unusual for us to host modelers or groups of modelers visiting from other parts of the country (or world . . . ).

 

So, yesterday we spent an enjoyable six hours or so visiting some local layouts.

 

We started at Paul Dolkos' Baltimore Harbor District. (Actually, Bernie and I started the day playing golf . . . . Well I played golf, I don't know what Bernie calls what he was doing . . . but I digress) Paul's really starting to move along on this layout - and has completed a couple of scenes that haven't been featured in print yet. Probably because he doesn't "waste" weekend modeling time chasing a little white ball across the countryside.

 

Bernie came to Paul's with me. I enjoyed inspecting Paul's progress - he has added the center peninsula with the street trackage scene (inspired by Fells Point) and a waterfront scene with a Western Maryland carfloat operation. It's currently in the track/wiring stage, but we hadn't seen the layout since he added this new peninsula and both Bernie and I agreed it makes the layout look larger.

 

And, since Paul is no longer modeling New England he was having trouble justifying some of the New England cars on his layout . . . so I "liberated" a few of them (actually, I swapped him some turnouts and track components he needed) - so I went home with four very nice resin freight cars!

 

Our next stop was Bernie's to see his O scale USMRR, Aquia Harbor Line, circa 1863. Our guest is a Civil War re-enactor so he was very interested in what Bernie has done. Bernie's been working on finishing the scenery in the "main" layout room - the most recently completed scene is this one at Potomac Creek station - I have to say, 250+ painted figures in one scene is pretty impressive.

 

 

We also checked out his latest toy - a spin casting machine setup.

 

Then we headed out to Prince William County and went to Pete LaGuardia's "Almost Division" of the New York Central. Pete is a true New Yorker (the last name should be a hint . . .) and so his layout will feature big time railroading. Had to give Pete a hard time when we went downstairs and saw he had arranged all his cars by type and roadname!

 

He's been working on updating his car/card waybill system - the layout normally doesn't operate this way.

 

Our visitor had been thinking he needed 50-60 foot long trains on his planned layout to look "right" for being pulled by a 4-unit set of Fs. I picked out a string of cars in Pete's yard and asked him "Does that look good pulled by those 4 F7s?" "Yes" was the reply. Turns out the train in question was about 36 cars long - hardly 50-60 feet.

 

When we left Pete's he stopped by my house to see my CV Winooski Sub.

 

Sorry I wasn't able to bring him to Lance Mindheim's, Mat Thompson's, or Steve Williams layouts - those guys had conflicts or were out of town.

 

But, it was a fun day.

 

Marty

[trisonic]

Marty,

Tony K. lives in a town beginning with N in NJ right? Does he accept visitors from England who are living in New Jersey? I don't want to put you on the spot, however!!!

 

Best, Pete.

[CVSNE]

Marty,

Tony K. lives in a town beginning with N in NJ right? Does he accept visitors from England who are living in New Jersey? I don't want to put you on the spot, however!!!

 

Best, Pete.

 

I know Tony is pretty open to having visitors - with one exception - he doesn't allow "casual" visitors when the layout is operating.

 

I'd say give him a call or email him - his email address is not hard to find.

 

Marty

[trisonic]

Thanks, Marty.

 

Best, Pete.