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I had the opportunity to visit Ken's layout during one of his open houses, and in a word, it's AWESOME! Of course the size is impressive, but it's the little things that I really enjoyed looking at. The pictures in Model Railroader really don't do the layout justice. Almost all the equipment is weathered, and while not all of it reflects the 'Penn Central grunge,' the overall effect is a lot more convincing in person than from the photos in MR. There was quite a bit of Conrail motive power on the layout as well, which you didn't see in the pictures - having grown up near Penn Central and then Conrail tracks, I have a special place in my heart for that time frame. My first (and to date, only!) cab ride was on a GP series locomotive run by Conrail before NJ Transit took over from Green Brook, NJ, to Somerville NJ on the Raritan Valley line when I was quite young - but I digress. Due to marriage, the military, having a kid, and moving, I have been out of the hobby for quite a while. Seeing Ken's layout in person really sparked my interest again. What I missed most was the interaction with other people who have a common interest in the hobby - some of the most friendly and outgoing people I've met have been railfans and model railroaders, and Ken's operator group fits that description well. One gentleman let me run a train around the mainline twice (it takes a little while to make it all the way around!), and if seeing the layout in person didn't reinvigorate me, running a long train through realistic scenery sure did the trick. I also enjoyed the conversation with several other guys in his operator group, and their interests varied from short line narrow gauge through modern motive power on Class 1 railroads. To those that would say 'wasting' this much effort on a Penn Central layout is akin to some type of model railroading sin, I would say you're missing the point entirely. It matters less exactly WHAT railroad, period, or type of operation you model, but that you have fun and share it with others. I think Ken has succeeded on both counts! The MR article makes mention of the signals that Ken is installing, and I haven't seen a layout with operating signals, so I was quite impressed with that. The CTC board is another thing I haven't seen before, and it was neat to see how the interlockings worked. I'm definately going to install signals on my future layout - now, if I could only decide between HO and N! In any event, I would encourage everyone to follow Ken's lead and share the hobby with as many people as they can. Model Railroading is fun, and we shouldn't forget that!
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