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I Built A Layout in a Suitcase (M&M Sub)

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  • Member since
    April 2018
  • From: Northern NY (Think Upstate but even more)
  • 1,306 posts
I Built A Layout in a Suitcase (M&M Sub)
Posted by Harrison on Thursday, June 9, 2022 11:06 AM

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share some photos of my nearly-completed Z scale layout, the SOO Line M&M Sub set in rural Wisconsin/Minnesota. 

The layout lives/travels in a green hard-sided suitcase, but is seen without it for the sake of photos.

   

A short video of the railroad will be out on Monday.

I will also have a full length video on the railroad coming out in the next couple of weeks.

Harrison

Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.

Modeling the D&H in 1978.

Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"

My YouTube

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Posted by jjdamnit on Thursday, June 9, 2022 5:21 PM

Hello All,

Great work and photography!

Hope this helps.

"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"

  • Member since
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  • From: Central Vermont
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Posted by cowman on Thursday, June 9, 2022 7:03 PM

Looking good. You've come a long way since I saw you in St Albans.  

Have fun,

Richard

  • Member since
    April 2018
  • From: Northern NY (Think Upstate but even more)
  • 1,306 posts
Posted by Harrison on Monday, June 13, 2022 7:57 PM

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/AZ6oaDKNh9A

Here's a "short" video on my layout.

Harrison

Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.

Modeling the D&H in 1978.

Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"

My YouTube

  • Member since
    August 2011
  • From: A Comfy Cave, New Zealand
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Posted by "JaBear" on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 5:16 AM
“Short”!!!! It was so short my eyes didn’t have time to focus!!!
It was long enough however to see that you’ve got it running smoothly.Thumbs UpThumbs Up
Cheers, the Bear.Smile

"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."

  • Member since
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Posted by crossthedog on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 2:41 PM

Harrison, this is really sweet. Nice work.

The tunnel portal ceilings look dangerously low, did you shorten the castings? They remind me of top-of-train scenes in "The Great Train Robbery", where Sean Connery did his own stunts and -- facing backwards to the end of the train -- had to stumble "just in time" so that he didn't get bonked to death by a bridge coming up that he could not see. Terrifying to watch. He would not have survived a roof walk on your train.

-Matt

Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.

  • Member since
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  • From: Northern NY (Think Upstate but even more)
  • 1,306 posts
Posted by Harrison on Thursday, June 16, 2022 11:39 AM

crossthedog

Harrison, this is really sweet. Nice work.

The tunnel portal ceilings look dangerously low, did you shorten the castings? They remind me of top-of-train scenes in "The Great Train Robbery", where Sean Connery did his own stunts and -- facing backwards to the end of the train -- had to stumble "just in time" so that he didn't get bonked to death by a bridge coming up that he could not see. Terrifying to watch. He would not have survived a roof walk on your train.

-Matt

 

It was a 3D printed tunnel incorrectly scaled, which I learned too late. When I get bigger equipment I will have to expand or "daylight" the tunnel.

Harrison

Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.

Modeling the D&H in 1978.

Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"

My YouTube

  • Member since
    February 2021
  • 1,110 posts
Posted by crossthedog on Thursday, June 16, 2022 3:29 PM

Harrison
It was a 3D printed tunnel incorrectly scaled, which I learned too late. When I get bigger equipment I will have to expand or "daylight" the tunnel.

This is interesting to me because my mainline goes underneath my town, but in planning my layout my grade had to be steep and I only created a grade sufficient to get the tracks in the town high enough to clear the trains underneath. I accounted for roadbed depth, but it didn't occur to me that in having my town sit so low over my tunnel, the portals would stick up above ground level in the town. I would rather there was a little rise of topography behind the tunnel portal before the town grade was reached, but I didn't think of it.

In looking at all the tunnel portals available from Chooch and Woodland Scenics, etc., I started looking for ones not so tall, and not being very familiar with AAR tunnel specs, I didn't know if there is a minimum clearance, whether it would stand out as being unproto. I thought maybe you had gone ahead and shorted some commercial casting.

Anyway, I noticed the shorter clearance but it doesn't look wrong or bad to me. I wish I had those (in HO scale).

-Matt

Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.

  • Member since
    January 2007
  • 175 posts
Posted by hjQi on Friday, June 17, 2022 9:00 PM

Great work! So you can run them in your hotel room? Great idea!

Jerry

  • Member since
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Posted by Harrison on Saturday, June 18, 2022 6:37 AM

hjQi

Great work! So you can run them in your hotel room? Great idea!

Jerry

 

I can run them anywhere, but the idea is to use it to show the possibility of model railroading and Z scale. It also makes for some great views/clicks on YouTube, and I hope to "sneak" the layout into a train show (with permission of course).

Harrison

Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.

Modeling the D&H in 1978.

Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"

My YouTube

  • Member since
    November 2007
  • From: California
  • 2,388 posts
Posted by HO-Velo on Thursday, June 23, 2022 3:49 PM

Really cool layout Harrison, thanks for the fun pics and movie.  

Regards, Peter

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