01-03-2011, 10:37 PM
Every layout I've ever planned or built, up to now, has been based on a prototype or piece of one. When I was kid with the good old Lionel stuff and lived in Danville, KY, it was Southern Railway. When we moved to Frankfort, KY and I discovered the F&C Railroad (which I'd later work for), the Lionel stuff was used to try and model that short line.
After a three year hitch in the Army, I got involved in N scale and was again going to try to model the F&C, although there was no appropriate motive power available in N scale in 1969, so instead I built an N scale layout based on the L&N when I went to work for them after about 9 months on the F&C. That was the only layout were I ever got to the point of installing scenery and darn it, we had to move and that was the end of that. Once we finally had our own home (the first of several over the years), I sold off the N scale stuff and got in to HO.
In our first home and I was in the process of building an HO layout based on the L&N branch line that ran to the Old Crow and Old Taylor distilleries, when the April 3, 1974 tornado ended that project.
Another move or two came after that and now I was strictly interested in short line railroads, so every time I started a layout, it was based on a short line that I had visited and researched. First was the Louisville New Albany & Corydon. Then after another move and not having any room for anything but a 16foot narrow shelf along one wall in the garage, I modeled the Indian Creek Railroad, an agricultural railroad operation in Indiana, using an ALCo RS-11. Not much operation, but kept me busy for a while.
Another move to the house we're living in now (and staying!!!) and I've gone several different routes with a layout. First I modeled the Delta Valley Southern - in its entirety no less! But then I got interested in Kentucky logging railroads and 1:20.3 scale and down came the HO and up went the large scale logging railroad. After a couple of years of that and coming to the realization that there is no operation to speak of on a logging railroad, not to mention I had no idea how I was going to model Eastern Kentucky scenery in that scale; I switched to 1:29th scale and tried going that route for a while. An article in MR got me going in that direction. Still have some of that up modeling a small switching operation, but seldom fool with it and now I'm back in to HO scale.
My HO scale layout plans have included modeling any of several short lines that interest me, including the Kendallville Terminal Railway (actually built a reasonable representation of that on a narrow shelf) - then I wanted to model the Warrenton Railroad, then I wanted to model the Lapeer Industrial Railroad - but finally have settled on a free-lance industrial spur!
That's where I am at this stage in my life. No more dreams of large layouts filling the entire basement that I could never complete, just something small that I can get to a completed look in a short time and that has lots of prototype operation and enough scratch building and so forth to keep me occupied in my final years.
After a three year hitch in the Army, I got involved in N scale and was again going to try to model the F&C, although there was no appropriate motive power available in N scale in 1969, so instead I built an N scale layout based on the L&N when I went to work for them after about 9 months on the F&C. That was the only layout were I ever got to the point of installing scenery and darn it, we had to move and that was the end of that. Once we finally had our own home (the first of several over the years), I sold off the N scale stuff and got in to HO.
In our first home and I was in the process of building an HO layout based on the L&N branch line that ran to the Old Crow and Old Taylor distilleries, when the April 3, 1974 tornado ended that project.
Another move or two came after that and now I was strictly interested in short line railroads, so every time I started a layout, it was based on a short line that I had visited and researched. First was the Louisville New Albany & Corydon. Then after another move and not having any room for anything but a 16foot narrow shelf along one wall in the garage, I modeled the Indian Creek Railroad, an agricultural railroad operation in Indiana, using an ALCo RS-11. Not much operation, but kept me busy for a while.
Another move to the house we're living in now (and staying!!!) and I've gone several different routes with a layout. First I modeled the Delta Valley Southern - in its entirety no less! But then I got interested in Kentucky logging railroads and 1:20.3 scale and down came the HO and up went the large scale logging railroad. After a couple of years of that and coming to the realization that there is no operation to speak of on a logging railroad, not to mention I had no idea how I was going to model Eastern Kentucky scenery in that scale; I switched to 1:29th scale and tried going that route for a while. An article in MR got me going in that direction. Still have some of that up modeling a small switching operation, but seldom fool with it and now I'm back in to HO scale.
My HO scale layout plans have included modeling any of several short lines that interest me, including the Kendallville Terminal Railway (actually built a reasonable representation of that on a narrow shelf) - then I wanted to model the Warrenton Railroad, then I wanted to model the Lapeer Industrial Railroad - but finally have settled on a free-lance industrial spur!
That's where I am at this stage in my life. No more dreams of large layouts filling the entire basement that I could never complete, just something small that I can get to a completed look in a short time and that has lots of prototype operation and enough scratch building and so forth to keep me occupied in my final years.
Ed
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"
"Friends don't let friends build Timesavers"