Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
It has been a busy month of work and family visits. One of my step-sons visited at Thanksgiving and enjoyed his El Paso experience. I also began a new job in early November, so a combination of elements has slowed the hobby progress. It is time to offer an update here on the blog, if only to document the forward movement. The lead image offers a view of the first installed trackage on the B&O Wheeling Terminal layout. Click on any image here for a larger view.
As mentioned, I’ve been building benchwork sections for the new layout. I’ve employed a uniform design for five sections and all are nearly complete. The image above shows the last two sections. These sections follow some of my layout project rules.
As has been confirmed on the recent Model Railcast Show, I’ve chosen the Baltimore & Ohio Wheeling Freight Terminal layout design for my next project. Overall the smaller scope of the project just seemed to fit the room better than the sinewy Wheeling & Lake Erie line that winds through industrial Newburgh, Ohio. I do hope to model that line at some point, but this space is just shy a couple of feet in both directions make it work well. The narrow 15 inch benchwork of the Newburgh design meets the railroad operating needs but limits the scenic scope of the urban fabric that is a mutual component of that rail corridor. I will put those ideas aside for now and hope they can be reconsidered in another house a year or two down the line.
The B&O Wheeling, WV freight house and docks as seen from across Wheeling Creek. This is one of the HABS/HAER images taken before the facility was leveled.
As outlined in the previous post, I am contemplating a new HO scale model railroad in a spare bedroom of 9′ 10″ by 16′. I want to keep this layout simple to ease building, operating, and eventually tearing down and moving. I’m also lucky to have prototype details in hand to assist with two different projects. A portion of the Wheeling & Lake Erie was detailed in the last blog post, so now it is time to share details and thought processes for a second prototype.