operating – Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads

Shawmut scale test car

Several months ago, Perry Squier shared photos of a scale test car he was building for his Shawmut layout. He shared photos and notes of the finished HO scale model recently. It is frequently used in his operating sessions. Here’s Perry with the details.

I model the Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern RR (the Shawmut) in 1923. The railroad at that time had three scale track locations: St. Marys Yard, Prosser at the junction of the Olean Branch, and Moraine at the junction of the Wayland branch. All of these locations are included on my layout but I never modeled the weigh scales.

Boomer operator – Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern

I attended an operating session on Perry Squier’s HO scale Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern layout earlier in January. I had participated in several sessions a dozen years ago, before moving to El Paso. It’s a thrill to see all of Perry’s smooth-running steam power and equipment set in 1923. Additionally, it was great to see many familiar faces among the crew and meet a few new members.

Take me back to Tulsa

I recently attended the 2022 Layout Design and Operations Weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I signed up to operate on three layouts and to present on Prototype Inspiration for Manageable Size Layouts. I had a blast!

2018 RPM Valley Forge summary

Val keeps the west end of Little Ferry yard organized.

I journeyed to metro-Philadelphia last week for the RPM Valley Forge railroad prototype modeler meet. A winter Nor’easter was threatening but passed through a couple days before the event. I arrived on Thursday afternoon to participate in an operating session that evening.

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More Layout Adjustments

After working through the layout adjustments noted in the last blog post, additional issues have turned up. There are two locations on the Wheeling Freight Terminal where curved track crosses layout sections at an angle, as can be seen in the lead image. One or two tracks have been problematic but now the problems have increased after setting up the layout in a new home. Click on any image here to review larger size.

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