Lost Layouts

[richhotrain]

RR_Mel

Great Topic Rich!

For me it was John Allen’s original G&D.

I tagged along with my Mother to the grocery store one day back in 1951 when I was still a teen (14) and while she was shopping I was looking through the magazines when I stumbled across the Model - Railroad Handbook, Fawcett 133.

Starting on page 28 there is a very nice good article on John’s original G&D.

I was hooked before we left the store.  HO became foremost in my tiny mind.  I had a paper route and before the week was out I was at the H&H Hobby Shop on Pershing Drive in El Paso TX.  I spent several hours driving John Henderson the owner crazy.  I ended up with a part time job cleaning his store and before the end of the month and $6.85 I was the proud owner of a Model Roundhouse 0-6-0 kit.  I was short on money so Mr. Henderson let me work off the balance

It still runs like new.

That book really helped my get going.  On page 36 there is an article on hand laying track, back then that was all there was, iron rails, spikes and a roll of fiber tie strip.

A bit worn after almost 70 years of use.

Great stuff, Mel, thanks for sharing.

Rich

[jjdamnit]

Hello All,

When we moved to Colorado in 2001 there were two model railroads in the basement of the Union Station.

The remodel of Union Station began in 2011.

In 2013 both were evicted from their respective spaces.

One, the Platte Valley & Western Railway, relocated to the White Fence Farm.

Unfortunately, the space that the railroad occupied was damaged by fire in October of 2020.

Hope this helps.

[SeeYou190]

When I finally made it to Helen, Georgia, the HO scale Layout "Charlemagne's Kingdom" had just been closed.

-Kevin

[gmpullman]

richhotrain

Anyone else have a favorite lost layout?

As a "little shaver" my dad used to take me to Mack Lowry's Railways of America in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio in the Cleveland-Akron area.

RR_Postcards_0018 by Edmund, on Flickr

Besides this large O scale layout he had several Pennsy passenger cars outside and a 3" scale Aerotrain you could ride.

RR_Postcards_0016 by Edmund, on Flickr

As I recall the story he was "forced" to vacate due to a planned highway interchange but something may not be right with this story as the bulding, a replica "depot" still stands and was a waterbed store and carpet store until recently.

Some of the PRR cars were moved to the "Quaker Square" complex along the B&O in Akron but much of that has since been abandoned and now turned ofer to University of Akron.

There was a feature on the layout in the August, 1974 M-R.

Regards, Ed

[rrinker]

 The NYSME still exists, still has an O scale layout - just not in the same place they were in when that photo on the cover of the book was taken. They have a large HO layout as well.

                                 --Randy

 

[SeeYou190]

The two "Lost Layouts" that were biggest influences on me were the VIRGINIAN AND OHIO and the ALLEGHENY MIDLAND.

They live on in tribute on my layout. I sent STRATTON AND GILLETTE boxcars to both Allen McClelland and Tony Koester. I hope they have circled these classic layouts a few times (I guess Tony's would have been on the NKP, the AM was gone by the time I sent it).

John Allen was my hero, but the GORRE AND DAPHETID is not my personal style of a layout. 

I plan to duplicate the last twenty years of John's life with the last twenty years of my life. No working, and just enjoying model railroading and building my final lifetime layout.

For layouts that are not lost... I would say the UTAH BELT and the MAUMEE ROUTE are two of my favorites.

(I do not have a MAUMEE freight car yet)

-Kevin

[Doughless]

richhotrain

Here is a scene from Lance Mindheim's Hoosier Line-Monon layout. It is my favorite scene in all model railroading.

Rich

08-31clearcreek2.jpg (768×506) (monon.org)

 

Having spent 25 years working and traveling around Indiana, I can say that layout captured the scenery of the rolling hills of the Bloomington and limestone quarry area very well.  I've been to every small town he modeled on the layout. That issue of MR is one that I have saved and recently looked at again.

Its unusual because it is a winter scenicked layout.  No snow, but there are a lot of 35 degree and cloudy days in Indiana that look just like that scene, and many others in that issue.

To answer your question for me, its the V&O.  I was just getting started in the hobby and the concepts McClellan wrote about triggered my interests exponentially.  There are several other layouts.

One was the Lowville and Beaver River project layout published in RMC around 1990.  I thought it was lost, but a quick search shows that its in a museum in upstate NY, at least as of the time of this web link.

CNY NRHS -- L&BR

 

[dknelson]

wjstix

Say Mel, does the book say where the cover photo was taken? I know there was (is?) a big O scale model railroad club in Milwaukee that shows up in several Kalmbach books over the years.

 

That O scale club layout, the Marquette Union Terminal, still exists in Milwaukee and is located in an unusual old Milwaukee Road depot (named "Allis" because it served workers at the factory which later became Allis Chalmers, which soon moved away and eliminated any need for the station), which was under a bridge - the passengers would wait down below and walk up the stairs to catch their train up above.  It was only used as a station for a few years, then closed for years, and since 1933 or so has been used by the Model Railroad Club of Milwaukee (Al Kalmbach and Bill Walthers were members and it was often featured in the early years of MR).  The electronic control system goes way back and is complex enough that only a few members know how to work it or fix it.  I think they converted from outside third rail to two rail in the 1960s.  You can still see the stairway up to the tracks from inside but it has been sealed off up above.  It is like travel back in time in more ways than one.

 

Speaking of lost layouts, the V&O even had its own historical society!

 

One famous layout to be mourned was Frank Ellison's fabulous Delta Lines, also in O.  It was carefully saved and taken apart on his death, but was damaged in the move and the years of storage took a toll (Ellison made much use of paper) and it was no longer possible to put it back together as it was, which was the original intent.  Portions were saved and have been used/restored/recreated by various O scalers.

 

Another lost layout would be the Mineral Point & Northern of one-time MR editor Paul Larson.  That was a beauty and often featured in MR during his late 1950s - early 1960s tenure (which brought copmplaining letters to MR that he was featuring his own expert modeling too much!).  

 

One sad loss was that Andy Sperandeo's illness and death prevented us from ever seeing a complete or nearly complete version of the large and ambitious AT&SF layout he had been building for decades.  At most there were photos of the grid benchwork and some signals that had been installed.  Andy S was a serious prototype modeler and that would have been a great one.

 

Dave Nelson

[angelob6660]

I always like David Barrow's Cat Mountain and Santa Fe. Imaging having that large layout covered in desert sand around those Santa Fe locomotives. 

A few times I thought of tweaking the stuff he had to fit my taste. I would also use the Southern Pacific and a passing Amtrak train like the Southwest Chief or the Sunset Limited.

Another one I remember is 5x9? DRG&W N Scale layout back in the early 90s. I like the style of scenery with one building. Looping itself twice I think. Mike Danneman I believe who designed it.

[RR_Mel]

wjstix

Say Mel, does the book say where the cover photo was taken? I know there was (is?) a big O scale model railroad club in Milwaukee that shows up in several Kalmbach books over the years.

 

 

Mel



 
My Model Railroad   
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[snjroy]

I sat hours looking at layout pictures in the Kalmbach books  when I was a kid. Of course, one of my favorites was Bill McClanahan's layout, in addition to the G&D layout of course. 

Simon

[middleman]

I've always liked the Santa Fe,Rich.I'll second your vote for Gary Hoover's great layout.

Another one that I admired was Chuck Hitchcock's Kansas area Santa Fe layout.

Mike

 

 

[richhotrain]

Here is a scene from Lance Mindheim's Hoosier Line-Monon layout. It is my favorite scene in all model railroading.

Rich

08-31clearcreek2.jpg (768×506) (monon.org)

[wjstix]

Say Mel, does the book say where the cover photo was taken? I know there was (is?) a big O scale model railroad club in Milwaukee that shows up in several Kalmbach books over the years.

[pt714]

Trevor Marshall's S scale Port Rowan (CNR) was dismantled this year. I've followed it for years, and as someone who loves simple track plans, rural-scenic switching and using details and framing to expand modest spaces, my thinking about my own layout and modeling has been heavily inflenced by that layout. It'll be interesting to see what he builds next.

 

Phil

[RR_Mel]

Great Topic Rich!

For me it was John Allen’s original G&D.

I tagged along with my Mother to the grocery store one day back in 1951 when I was still a teen (14) and while she was shopping I was looking through the magazines when I stumbled across the Model - Railroad Handbook, Fawcett 133.



Starting on page 28 there is a very nice good article on John’s original G&D.



I was hooked before we left the store.  HO became foremost in my tiny mind.  I had a paper route and before the week was out I was at the H&H Hobby Shop on Pershing Drive in El Paso TX.  I spent several hours driving John Henderson the owner crazy.  I ended up with a part time job cleaning his store and before the end of the month and $6.85 I was the proud owner of a Model Roundhouse 0-6-0 kit.  I was short on money so Mr. Henderson let me work off the balance.



It still runs like new.

That book really helped my get going.  On page 36 there is an article on hand laying track, back then that was all there was, iron rails, spikes and a roll of fiber tie strip.
 


My original copy of Fawcett 133



A bit worn after almost 70 years of use.

Sorry I got a bit carried away.

Mel



 
My Model Railroad   
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
 
Bakersfield, California
 
I'm beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.

[richhotrain]

NVSRR

the V&O original and second build.  Guess that counts as two.   But they had a huge impact on the hobby. 

Good one. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the V&O for those of us not readily familiar with the layout.

The Virginian and Ohio is both the name of a fictional railroad company created by W. Allen McClelland and the HO scale model railroad he built near Dayton, Ohio featuring this railroad. The V&O is famous in the model railroading world for setting a new standard for freelanced model railroads designed to operate in a prototypical manner and was a major influence upon many model railroaders of the time. He used the words "beyond the basement" and "transportation system" to reinforce the idea of moving freight from shippers and industries beyond the confines of the limited model railroad geography and layout you had in your basement. This required the notion of interchange with other railroads as well. 

[NVSRR]

Did you check the lost and found.?

 

ok. the V&O original and second build.  Guess that counts as two.   But they had a huge impact on the hobby.

shane

[richhotrain]

I came across a thread last night on the forum about Roadside America, a commercially operated layout that is about to be demolished after 85 years as the deceased developer's family moves on with their lives.

It got me to thinking about layouts that I admired that are now gone. Two that immediately come to my mind are (1) Gary Hoover's HO scale Santa Fe layout and (2) Lance Mindheim's N scale Hoosier Line - Monon layout.

Of course, there are more famous "lost layouts" like John Allen's Gorre & Daphetid RR. But, the two that I cited really had an impact on me and my modeling.

When Gary Hoover added a Dearborn Station module to his already completed Chicago to Los Angeles Santa Fe layout, I was totally impressed with his attention to detail, closely simulating the prototype. When Lance Mindheim completed his Hoosier Line - Monon railroad, I was fascinated with his open country scenery that created the illusion of endless space.

Anyone else have a favorite lost layout?

Rich