Whoa! Now THATSA layout!

[tstage]

Hi Gang!

I just got home from my club meeting this evening and - Man! - am I blown away. This month we were invited over to one of the member's home (Terry's) to have our monthly meeting and to bring a locomotive to run on his basement DC layout.

I arrived at Terry's house this evening with my BLI 2-8-2 Mike and my two Proto 2000 Alco S1s in hand. I then proceeded to and down the basement steps; expecting to find a nice, moderate, well-built layout. No sooner had I reached the bottom of the stairs when my jaw hit the floor. (Actually, I don't know which one hit the floor first; my right foot OR my jaw.)

Anyway, there standing in front of me was a huge yard, with a large cardstock roundhouse, carshop, and depot in about the same area as half my basement. After I picked my jaw back up off the floor, I turned to the left and noticed the layout continue all the way down to the end of the Terry's basement, came back up then snaked around the corner out of sight. I proceeded to find out that Terry's layout meandered throughout his entire 24' x 60' basement. [:0] All I can say is, "Wow!"

Just to give you a sense of how big this layout was, the minimum radius on the curves and staging area was 48". it was double-mained all around, with a few areas where it was triple, and sometimes quadrulple mained.

And, it not only was big, it was also scenicked - and tastefully. Terry's a huge UP guy so he was modeling the WY/CO areas of the UP, from Cheyenne to Denver.

Since it was DC, Terry had to play dispatcher - which did run into some snarls because Terry got distracted either by trying to keep tabs of 2 or 3 trains running simulaneously, or jawing with the others who were just watching. No problem. The train would just come to a halt till Terry threw the right switch or one of the trains cleared a block.

I'm sure if you have ever had a chance to run your trains on a large layout, you know how much fun it is to see your locomotives pull lengths of cars and watch them disappear into the distance. My Mike pulled a load of 25 cars up a 1.5% grade without breaking a sweat. I consisted my two Proto 2000 S1s and ran a small load up and down the same hill. They both ran and pulled like champs!

And, not only did I walk away from tonight's layout meet overwhelmed, I also walked away with some additional ideas - especially the use of trackwork and turnouts. I realize that I will never achieve the grandness of scale that Terry has in his basement "empire". But, I can learn from and apply a few of the things I saw to my modest 4 x 8 "parcel" that will help make it even more enjoyable to run.

Wish I had some pictures to share but I didn't bring my camera along. Maybe next time...

Tom

[NZRMac]

I can only imagine Tom, I don't think there is anything like that over here in wee NZ. Looking forward to some pics next time.

Ken.

[Medina1128]

How about you contact Terry, and ask him if he has a webpage with pictures posted? And if you should get caught before completing this mission, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of you and your actions.

[selector]

Wouldn't know if I should get envious or just enjoy the wow...maybe both. I hope you were able to run your Mike, Tom. It must have felt awesome to see it run along such a huge layout. Maybe sneak in a camera, next time you are there, and give us a peek.

-Crandell

[Anonymous]

now that you've told us you have to take a pic!!!! no chickening out now! (please...)

[Tom Bryant_MR]

The crew wants pictures ... pictures ... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures... pictures unstick darn keyboard and more pictures [tup]

Doesn't that Mike of yours have sound? Better make it video!

[tstage]

I should be able to get pictures whenever next time is. There were signs around the room that indicated that permission was required in order to post pics on the Internet. I can respect that, so I'll ask Terry the next we're over there. I sure wish I had had the foresight to bring the camera last night though. [%-)]

Crandell,

Yes, I did get to run my Mike. As I stated in the original post, it pulled about 25 cars up a 1.5% grade without breaking a sweat. It was just so much fun to run any of the locos in that length of expanse.

Even this morning, I'm STILL scooping pennies up off the floor with my mouth just thinking about it [:O] (Uh, oh...Looks like it's time to go to the bank...)

Tom

[Anonymous]

Yep... after teasing us with the descriptioon, we definitely need pictures. :)

[twhite]

Wow, Tom--for a minute there, I thought you were describing the UP layout that's featured in the latest MR DVD, but I checked and found out that the layout I was thinking of belongs to John Gray.
So talk to your buddy and see if he has a website, that you could post for us, okay? I think there's a whole BATCH of us that would like to visit it. Sounds spectacular!!
Tom [:P][:P]

[wairoa]

That sounds cool. NZRMac in Napier there was a large layout based on British Railways. I am from Wairoa Originally. Anyway it was very big, bigger and better than Liliput. I do not know if it is in existence anymore. I saw it in 99/2000 I think. It was one of the best layouts I have seen. Truly awesome. I want to see it was about 50 long and probably 20 feet in width, of course I maybe wrong with the specs but it was certainly a big one.

[tstage]

I did a Google search on Terry. He is mentioned on a couple of links but there weren't any pictures of the layout. I do know that Terry is a Div. 5 NMRA member here in Ohio. Sorry. Wish I could supply more. [:(]

Tom

[icmr]

Sounds like you had fun.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[Don Gibson]

In round numbers: The UP departs (6,000') Cheynne for (7,000') Laramy, or drops down via spur line to (5,000') Denver .

AMTRAK uses ex CB&Q E OF Denver; UP W .