01-03-2011, 08:30 PM
My layout, the Lehigh Susquehanna & Western is a “Freelanced Prototype,” and was inspired by the example set by the railroads of Allen McClelland and Tony Koester and the other model railroaders who made up the “Lichen Belt” in the mid-seventies. I chose a name that sounded so realistic that no one has ever questioned it, and some people have even said they know of it. I chose two "major" rivers in eastern Pennsylvania and looking west, named it the Lehigh Susquehanna & Western. I developed a Company Herald using a typeface and a graphic style/convention reminiscent of the turn of the last century. I use the Herald as my Avatar here.
I have started construction on the layout at least five times, possibly six. In each case, before I got very far I had to move for a new job and the lumber went to the curb. The last start, however, was when the most was accomplished, including hand-laid track and turn outs. So, two of those 2'-6" x 6'-0" sections were wrapped in bubble wrap and went into the moving van ... four more times.
I am now in a nice, smallish rental house. I live by myself (no wife to tell me to do anything other than work on my model railroad.) I have now gathered a couple sheets of half-inch ply and some dimensional lumber and have it "acclimating" inside the house to reduce the potential for dimensional change after things have been measured, cut and screwed together. I have identified a potential source for Homosote (and have the Regional Homosote Sales Rep's phone number in case I need some leverage to get the local supplier to get some for me.
I have a track plan in final formulation (it'll be totally final when I squeeze the trigger on the saw.) I'm so looking forward to getting it going!
The geography and the towns are real upstate Pennsylvania towns in more or less the correct order, east to west for the small section of the branch of the LS&W that I will be modeling (it's been down-sized several times over the years from a basement-filling Division to a partial-living room-sized section of a branch.)
All of the businesses and industries on the layout are immortalizing family and friends, and some, but not all, include puns. My brother-in-law’s last name is “Schoch” and so there is a regional electrical parts distributer called “Schoch Electrical Supply.” The sign board in front of the typical little upstate Pennsylvania white clapboard Methodist Church has my father’s name as the pastor. The Chrysler dealer, with two shiny new Chrysler Airflows on the floor, marking the time as September, 1935, is named for a fellow Industrial Designer who worked for Chrysler in their West Coast Styling Studio. The hosiery mill is “R. Nold Mills,” named for my grandfather, Arnold Marsland, a hosiery mill machinist/mechanic.
Being an Anthracite hauler, motive power is all Wooten fireboxed Camelbacks, and there a lot of them!
As benchwork is erected and progress is beginning to be made, I will begin to document the construction of my (greatly reduced in size) “dream” layout … well, maybe not my dream layout, but my final layout, and one I will enjoy building.
I have started construction on the layout at least five times, possibly six. In each case, before I got very far I had to move for a new job and the lumber went to the curb. The last start, however, was when the most was accomplished, including hand-laid track and turn outs. So, two of those 2'-6" x 6'-0" sections were wrapped in bubble wrap and went into the moving van ... four more times.
I am now in a nice, smallish rental house. I live by myself (no wife to tell me to do anything other than work on my model railroad.) I have now gathered a couple sheets of half-inch ply and some dimensional lumber and have it "acclimating" inside the house to reduce the potential for dimensional change after things have been measured, cut and screwed together. I have identified a potential source for Homosote (and have the Regional Homosote Sales Rep's phone number in case I need some leverage to get the local supplier to get some for me.
I have a track plan in final formulation (it'll be totally final when I squeeze the trigger on the saw.) I'm so looking forward to getting it going!
The geography and the towns are real upstate Pennsylvania towns in more or less the correct order, east to west for the small section of the branch of the LS&W that I will be modeling (it's been down-sized several times over the years from a basement-filling Division to a partial-living room-sized section of a branch.)
All of the businesses and industries on the layout are immortalizing family and friends, and some, but not all, include puns. My brother-in-law’s last name is “Schoch” and so there is a regional electrical parts distributer called “Schoch Electrical Supply.” The sign board in front of the typical little upstate Pennsylvania white clapboard Methodist Church has my father’s name as the pastor. The Chrysler dealer, with two shiny new Chrysler Airflows on the floor, marking the time as September, 1935, is named for a fellow Industrial Designer who worked for Chrysler in their West Coast Styling Studio. The hosiery mill is “R. Nold Mills,” named for my grandfather, Arnold Marsland, a hosiery mill machinist/mechanic.
Being an Anthracite hauler, motive power is all Wooten fireboxed Camelbacks, and there a lot of them!
As benchwork is erected and progress is beginning to be made, I will begin to document the construction of my (greatly reduced in size) “dream” layout … well, maybe not my dream layout, but my final layout, and one I will enjoy building.
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & Western
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln