Recent Layout Visits

I recently made some visits to two of my friends layouts. Of course I forgot my camera, so I don't have any photos to share.

First is Tyler's layout. I've talked about his layout before, the White River Southern. He recently tore that layout down due to track headaches and other reasons, and he is now building a new layout. The Central Massachusetts Railway is a point to point representation of a branch line a little closer to home for him. I do not know what the line is called, but it operates between Fitchburg and Ayer, MA. His model represents the Pan Am interchange at Clinton, as well as the towns of West Berlin and Northboro. There are a handful of industries scattered along the old branch line, including a scrapyard in Clinton, a lumber yard in West Berlin, a chocolate factory at one end of Northboro, and a propane distribution center and a salad dressing plant on the other side of Northboro. An early drawing of his track plan can be found here, but keep in mind a few changes have been made since this was drawn.

Tyler lives about an hour from me, so visiting his layout is somewhat of a rarity. I went down there about a week ago to start laying track. We started with the 90 degree curve in Northboro, using 22 inch radius sectional track as a template for the absolute tightest curve we wanted. We ended up laying a curve that was probably closer to 30 inch radius. After putting the curve down, I worked my way towards the chocolate factory while Tyler worked on the industrial area in Northboro. I finished the passing siding when Tyler finished the industrial area, so we laid the broad curve around West Berlin and put in the switch for the lumber yard. The road salt transload area in West Berlin and the team track in Northboro have been removed from the track plan. The line in Clinton crosses the Pan Am line on a bridge, so the area between Clinton and West Berlin are going to be on a grade. We did not have the grading material yet, so we quit at West Berlin. We then hooked up power to the track and started running trains on what we had laid.

My other visit was to Chris's layout. Chris lives quite a bit closer to me than Tyler does, so I get to visit his layout more often. His is quite a bit smaller than Tyler's but is also under construction. It is roughly 7 feet by 7 feet, so space is limited. There is an access hole in the layout to one side, leaving three narrow sections and one big area of the layout. The big area of the layout has a small stub end yard, a passing siding, and a roundhouse. Going counter-clockwise from there, the railroad goes around the corner, a spur splits off for a furniture factory, the main goes over a bridge, around the other corner, and into a town which has another passing siding, a team track, and a sawmill. After the town, the track leaves the layout. Chris plans on adding a hinged section the lifts up to allow continuous running around the layout. Track had been laid as far is the bridge before, we continued it today into the town. The track in the yard has already been weathered.

As I said before, I forgot my camera when I went to both of these layouts, so I do not have any photos to share. Since I don't have much of a layout of my own, it is fun to help other people while they build their layouts. It lets me practice different techniques while also helping out others. It can be boring to build a layout all by yourself without anyone to help or even talk to!