N Scale and The Last Year

It has been a long time since I posted any updates. I have been very focused on going back to school to finish a college degree that had been sitting there like a hanging chad. I am happy to report that the degree is finished and I am focusing back on trains. I have a new house and a new space and so I am starting  a new layout. I will leave the Hollow Core Door (HCD) page up and start a new page for this layout. I decided to model the Western Maryland Eastern Sub between Emory Grove and Hagerstown, with the majority of the action taking place at four locations, Finksburg, Westminster, Union Bridge, and Woodsboro. The yards at Hagerstown and Baltimore will be used for staging. The layout will be two levels with two helixes  to allow for continuous running and operations. The staging yards will be on the lower deck and I am considering adding a small tourist railroad on the lower level that will run steam excursions. My plan is to model 1968-1973 and allow for Western Maryland, B&O, and Chessie System. I have collection of Maryland Midland power and may even hold some more modern opps sessions. Time will tell, but for now I am glad to be back to trains and this blog. I hope to be better about posting here on a more regular basis, please keep an eye on the new layout page, Western Maryland Eastern Sub.

I will start posting photos of the space and progress shots along with the current track plan on a the new page on this site and you can track the progress there

N-Scale weekend in Altoona PA.

Managed get 2 days out of three in Altoona this year. It is always a great time and there are often items there you can’t find anywhere else.  Overall attendance looked up and I heard Sunday was the best day. 

There were a bunch of local and regional layouts on display and unfortunately I failed to photograph them this year. I did however get over to the Horseshoe curve and grabbed what I think is a really cool wide angle shot.

N-Scale Weekend

This weekend is the annual N-Scale weekend in Altoona PA. It is a great place to see N-Scale exclusive layouts and meet vendors and manufacturers focused on N-Scale. You can pay at the door.  http://www.n-scaleweekend.com/

Also a great place to catch trains on Horseshoe curve.

Caught a Maryland Midland in Westminster

My wife and I were having dinner when we caught this pair of SD40-2s pulling a stone train just outside of the restaurant. 

Additions to the Roster

It has been a few months since my last post. We had the holidays and some health issues. But now that spring is in the air we can get back to trains and other fun activities. I have added a bunch of new rolling stock, in particular I found two Laurel Valley hoppers I have been looking for. These were a special run from my friend Lee Weldon and I missed out on them originally. I got a great deal on Ebay and hope to score the other road numbers at some point.

Operations on the NKP

Last night a group of us visited my friend Eric’s layout for an operating session. Here are a few shots and my new Fox Valley Chessie Engine.

CSX On The Hanover Sub

I need to cross the tracks to get to my new house.  I happen to catch this CSX just as it made the crossing. Enjoy!

N-Scale Convention highlights

I haven’t posted in a while because we have moved and I dismantled my layout. I hope to start designing a new one shortly. Here are a few highlights from this past year’s convention in Pittsburgh.

 

Windsor St. layout Open House

I have been slammed at work and haven’t had much time for trains as of late. What little time I have had I spent helping my friends with their layouts. To that end my friend Ed had a layout open house today. I was there for about an hour and despite the weather, it was well attended.

Here are a few shots I snapped at the event.

Post Holiday Update

Happy New Year everyone. It has been some time since my last update. Our Bantrak club has been busy at the Baltimore & Ohio Roundhouse museum. We set up a large N-Trak layout this year. The crowds  were  of a good size on the few days I managed to make it to the museum.  The layout has been there since December 17th., and we will be breaking down on the 2nd. I managed to run a few trains and wanted to share some video of a holiday gift from my wife running on the layout

. You can check it out on Youtube: https://youtu.be/1HA92hpDjZo