Sunday Photo Fun 1-22-06

[FJ and G]

Thanks, Keith, 3 visits in 1 day to layouts, as well as to my sister's house in Pa., left me pretty happy but exhausted. BB the beagle didn't make the trip as she gets carsick.

[1688torpedo]

Dave- Those are very nice photo's of Jim & Ben's Outdoor Railroads.Looks like they put in Hundreds of hours to get every detail right. Sounds like you enjoyed your visit as well.Did BB come along for this trip? Take care.

[FJ and G]

Hibernation of the Woodland Railway

Jim Strong's Woodland Railway was featured in the Dec. 05 Garden Railway magazine. Here's a photo essay of his railway, taken last Saturday, during the dormant time of year when leaves, twigs and gumballs clutter the tracks and many of the structures are protected with heavy-duty garbage bags, while other structures suffer thru the harsh weather months.

With no trains in sight, trespassers are allowed to hike along the tracks, which extend for quite a lot of distance, taking up approximately the space of a miniature golf course. And the rough terrain resembles a miniature golf course, with mountains and greens, represented by a profusion of mosses, which are thriving in the cool, rainy months. Actually, the area deer, rabbits and foxes enjoy munching on the moss and scattering it around.

The trackwork, handlayed, is holding up well after 20 years, as are the trestles, all made using redwood. Jim has an innovative way of keeping the track in place, running a steel strip beneath the center of the track (steel strip like that used to separate grass from sidewalks). The underside of the ties are notched to fit on the steel strip. I might be explaining it wrong but that's my understanding.

One question I failed to ask, is how often Jim treats his ties and trestles and what type of treatment is used. The wood shows no sign of decay and is rather stunning for being outside so long.

On the topic of trackwork, Jim has some very intricate crossings and turnouts, which look like they were built by a rocket scientist. Actually, they were, as Jim is a retired NASA scientist. One advantage of Jim's R/C-layout is that since electrical power is not used, the railheads can be rust-colored in places, adding greater realism.

The layout is ergonomically planned very well to accommodate heavy pedestrian traffic. Jim has skillfully layed out flat natural rock pathways throughout the layout that blend in very well with the scenery and look to be a part of the prototypical-modeled scene.

The yews and boxwood trees grow well in the shade and provide a scale-like forest appearance. The structures are also scale-like, and one can only imagine the amount of work that must have gone into their production.

The area Jim lives in is very close to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., the neighborhood is charming but unfortunately the developers have discovered his little neck of the woods and are busy behind his backyard bulldozing the entire forest except for Jim's enclave. What a shame!

Jim and his wife live in an older-style dwelling that actually resembles a railway station on the inside, with rail memorabilia placed here and there. His layout is quite popular with area garden train lovers, who love to visit Jim to operate their trains over his very spacious layout, that perhaps ranks up there with some of the largest.

My 19-year-old daughter accompanied me for the visit, as we were heading up to Pennsylvania to visit with my sisters. Unfortunately, she slept thru the visit, as trains don't really interest her that much. As a matter of fact, I'm the only one in the family who likes trains, real or modern. Jim is lucky to have a train family and his work speaks volumes of his aesthetic and detailed creation.

[FJ and G]

PBJ,

That is very innovative and spectacular. You're breaking new ground.

TMCC,

Ben is cool. He also has some toy train stuff but not set up. I'll try to post some other pix of another garden layout I visited.

[pbjwilson]

Layout is really progressing nicely. Have a station ordered, should be coming soon.

[jakeoregano]

QUOTE: Dwayne- Like your prewar trains & they are displayed nicely. originally posted by 1688torpedo

[:D] Thanks Keith. One of these day's I'm going to have a layout to run them on. For now, I'll have to settle for the Christmas oval and displaying them.

Dwayne

[tmcc man]

David, I will see Ben in York for the East Coast Large Scale Train Show. I have a huge liking of Hershey Cars, but do not own any yet.

[Brutus]

Very cool pics - I love the G scale stuff and that night scene is cool too!

[FJ and G]

OK, I posted some O stuff so apologies but asking permission to post some G stuff as well...at least you can see his aluminum bridgework which may interest one or 2 folks here.


Ben, whose handle is BennysRR2, lives atop a hill overlooking Amish farmland in Lebanon County, Pa. The hill gets quite a breeze. On Saturday when I visited him, the wind was whipping up so much that the only train that would stay on the track without blowing away was a colorful ACL RS-3



Some koi have taken up residence in the layout's pond. Hey, if you get bored watching trains, you can always go fishing! Just be sure to return them, as Ben doesn't like the idea of guests eating his fish.

Notice Ben's engineering skills with his trademark aluminum bridge. He apparently used a lot of trigonometry and other types of math to get the curves just right. And even with the strong wind, the bridgework does not sway one bit. I took a closeup photo of the construction to copy.





Ben has a giant indoor layout as well that perfectly complements his wall of trains (top shelf is the actual running train, which goes all around the top of his basement.

Notice all of the Hershey's trains, some of which are handpainted? Why so many? Well, Hershey, Pa., is a stonesthrow away from his house for one. Also, Ben retired from Hershey's plant, working in the syrup department. What a sweet job!





Moving again outside, we see that Ben makes use of common materials for the layout. Take this chimney flu, which makes a nice tunnel. Many of his structures are indoors being refurbished in time for the spring running. He favors the low-cost bird houses. He simply plugs up the holes and uses them as buildings, as shown here. The birds are not too fond of him closing up their dwellings, however.





A couple of points of interest on the layout; one of a mine that had a cave-in due to some rodent activity. Also, note the covered bridge. Covered bridges are not just a New England thing. There are several in Ben's neck of the woods as well.





An overview of a portion of the layout does not do the layout justice because the many hundreds of flowers are not in bloom. To see Ben's layout at its best, one would need to return in the spring on a day that's not too windy. We like to make fun of N scale trains blowing over at a mere sneeze, but G scale stuff can blow over too, when Mother Nature breathes too hard.

[FJ and G]

As promised, here are more. Wait, who's that knocking on the door??

Why it's BB the beagle!

[1688torpedo]

Nice Layout Photo's Everyone. Dwayne- Like your prewar trains & they are displayed nicely.Tim- Looks like the Big Yellow & Red Santa-Fe wins.[;)][:)]. Colin- Good Luck with your repainting. Take Care.

[ChiefEagles]

QUOTE: Originally posted by pigseyes



Good morning all. Really nice pics today..

Here's a dilemma.....With only one track ahead, who goes first ????

I'm bigger than you are kid, move over. [;)]

[laz 57]

Nice pics GIZ!
laz57

[Jumijo]

Love the photos! Tom has a lot going on at his farm. My daughter and I worked on landscaping our small layout's farm yesterday. Almost done.

Paul, nice countertop layout. Love the night sky background. A refreshing change! Also, I'll bet the smoke shows up better against the dark background.

Jim

[FJ and G]

Nice photos/layout progress, all; particularly biased towards Santa Fe (Pigseye locomotives).

Visited my buddy's layout yesterday. He grew up in NY in 50s and recreated the harbor scene and others on his NYC toy train layout. I'll have more fotos up later but busy now at work so here's a small sample of one:



Oh, forgot to mention.

He's sort of details sensitive guy and wants everything to be perfect. Even put barnacles on the pilings; that level of detail! He has a bunch of seagulls on the dock and I mentioned that he needs bird droppings. He looked kinda hurt and said darned if I didn't forget that. I'm sure he's doing droppings as we speak.

[csxt30]

Thanks Paul ! Nice backdrop too ! I never thought of a night time one, but with house lights off & just a lot of layout lights, etc, that would be really nice !

[pbjwilson]

Added a backdrop today. The idea is to give the effect of a night sky.





John - beautiful caboose. Conrail blue has never looked better.

[tmcc man]

John, that caboose is gorgeous. If I find one at a good price, I will re-paint it, and re letter it for Lehigh Valley. Maybe 2 another for my Seaboard C420

[csxt30]

Wow & Boy Oh Boy, you guys really have some great layouts !! Here's some pics of my new MTH motorcycles & my new Atlas Special Edition Conrail caboose !




Rear mkr. lights flash, plus lots of details, just no smoke !

[tmcc man]

Here are my sanded heavyweight passenger cars, here are the progress pics.

The combine


The observation.


My new book

[waltrapp]

All these pictures of 'adding on' and expanding and all I have left are pictures on 2005 [:(][:(][:(]







Tom, I swear you keep rebuilding every week! Nice pictures of scenes that I don't recall seeing you post before.

- walt

[Blueberryhill RR]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Buckeye Riveter

QUOTE: Originally posted by Blueberryhill RR

Buckeye...That has really come a long way, since I saw it last. Are you going with the same styrofoam top as the original table?
Looks great.
Chuck

Chuck, I am only going to use two inches of foam for the top and not the two inches plus the one inch low density this time. The facing boards are in place with screws and now I will remove them, sand smooth, stain, re-install, and then start cutting foam.

Here's the plan view. The bottom of the plan is Phase II.


I think you will be surprised to see how I connect the existing track to the new without much down time. [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D] The idea came to me after working on the Berea Grade Crossing three years ago. BTW, there is a hidden access hatch beneath the mountain.

Very nice plan, Buckeye. That ought to be fun to operate.

[Anonymous]

Good morning all. Really nice pics today..

Here's a dilemma.....With only one track ahead, who goes first ????

[Blueberryhill RR]

Here's newest addition to layout. MTH trolley. Very nice

[pbjwilson]

The layout I've been working on the last couple weeks. It goes along a countertop, wraps around a pole and through a doorway, into my office with the trains on the wall, and tunnels trough the wall back to the countertop. Hope the pictures give you an idea of this.

[Buckeye Riveter]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Blueberryhill RR

Buckeye...That has really come a long way, since I saw it last. Are you going with the same styrofoam top as the original table?
Looks great.
Chuck

Chuck, I am only going to use two inches of foam for the top and not the two inches plus the one inch low density this time. The facing boards are in place with screws and now I will remove them, sand smooth, stain, re-install, and then start cutting foam.

Here's the plan view. The bottom of the plan is Phase II.


I think you will be surprised to see how I connect the existing track to the new without much down time. [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D] The idea came to me after working on the Berea Grade Crossing three years ago. BTW, there is a hidden access hatch beneath the mountain.

[jakeoregano]

Buckeye the benchwork looks really good. Question: Maybe you've posted this before, but do you have a layout plan you could post? I'd like to see what the finished product is supposed to look like.

Good work.

Dwayne.

[spankybird]

Jim, This engine is an MTH 4-4-0 Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati RR.



Buckeye - you are years and years ahead of Chief

ZWBob - looks great.

Jon - great looking shelves.

[jonadel]

I posted several pic's of the new shelves earlier this week but I thought one today wouldn't hurt. The trainroom in the basement is really getting to be a favorite place to hang out, just think honey if we had a bigger house what we could do...............

Jon