History of My Layout
Nearly fourteen months ago, the latter
part of May, my wife and I previewed items to be auctioned off later that day as part of
an estate sale. Several boxes containing HO trains, track, power packs, turnouts and
assembled and unassembled structures caught my eye outside in the yard. Now mind you, I
did not say anything to my wife that she might have understood as "Bid On
These." Later that day she returned to the auction and I didn’t see her again
until I went looking for her. It was past 8:00 p.m. Luckily I drove a van, for there she
was, accumulating those boxes plus other items she had successfully bid on.
The inventory list when I finished counting included at least a dozen locomotives, all
diesels, more than half of them being of the Santa Fe railroad. So there I was, with
all this equipment in the hallway for what seemed like weeks. Of course I thanked her for
thinking of me as she always does, but what was I to do? I needed to show my
appreciation for all this so I began to outline a plan of action. I made up my mind
that I was to begin working on a layout which would make use of all I had at my disposal.
The first trip to the lumber yard, actually H&E in Lancaster cost us $144. If I was to
do this, I was going to do it in a good way.
The first 4x8 I used was 3/8" thick. Now I'm thinking it
should've been 3/4". I built the frame using 1X4's. The legs were of the
same size angled at 45 degrees and bolted with 5/16"x2" bolts and staggered at
the corners. Cross braces are mounted with nails. The first plans I had drawn
resembled the layout Henry and I built in 1977 except for the fact that now I had a lot
more track and turnouts. This first table was to have four turnouts and a 30 degrees
crossing. The only problem here was that I had jillian swithes but they were all
manual. I had read about under the table switch machines but I didn't care for the
idea. The costs began to rise rapidly. I was not aware of what one had to pay
for remote switches. Laying track was not easy. One thing in my favor was that
I had all the time in the world. I was following directions in a model railroad
magazine suggesting I use glue when mounting cork. Several times I had to relocate
track for errors in measurements or changes due to EO's. You just don't use
glue. I found it simple enough driving a spike to hold the cork in place.
I had planned right from the
beginning to include an airport on my
layout. So now I need to build a table suitable for a maintenance hanger and to
provide the needed space for parallel runways, taxi strip, and parking area. With
scraps of plywood, I came up with an addition that measured 7' x 3'. Now my table
resembled an "L." The airport would be built on the west side. The
room in which my layout would be built is 33 feet long and 12 feet 8 inches wide.
There was plenty of room for growth.
The layout soon began to take shape. I had all I needed to keep me busy for months. But I was excited about this project and 16 hours of work a day soon became routine. By the third week of July I had built a mountain with the help of my wife. I had never worked with plaster cloth before so I needed a little help. That help came from "The Train Room," a hobby shop located in the back room of a barber shop in Old Town in Tehachapi. Both barber shop and Train Room are owned and operated by two very nice people, Klaus and Inge. The Train Room is equipped with a television in which, at the time, they happened to be playing a "how to" tape on landscaping and scenery. It was this instructional tape that motivated me to begin work on that mountain.
New Friends and Classic Locomotives
Things were going just fine, I
was working day and night doing work on the layout by day and building kits at
night. Until one day, I read a flier that was being circulated in Bakersfield.
There was to be a swap meet at a local shopping mall parking lot sponsered by the model
railroad club. By this time I had caught the bug, even attending a club meeting here
in Tehachapi. Well, being excited and all, I drove to Bakersfield. Fate - how
it works. Being there for not more than an hour changed my entire outlook on
the hobby of model railroads. First, I met one nice person by the name of Ken, who
had a table with a few things that looked interesting. We introduced ourselves to
each other, I bought a few items which are now displayed on my layout and I walked away,
letting him know I'd be back. He'd offered me a chair to sit and chat about the
hobby as I had a lot of questions to ask. Unlike other hobbyists, he gave me the
impression that he was really interested in what I needed to know. Ken, as I later
found, is a perfectionist when it comes to detailing a locomotive or repairing a
car.
Secondly, I walked over to a small group of men near a dark pickup truck. There, on
a table, were several boxes containing shiny Concor passenger cars and other items.
But on one side I spotted two long yellow and blue boxes that looked familiar to me.
They turned out to be AHM locomotives. Original boxes, original paperwork. I
had seen these type of boxes at the Lancaster hobby store back in 1977 when Henry and I
were shopping for trains for his layout. That day, we walked out with two Rivarossi
locomotives, the Southern Pacific and the 0-8-0 yard goat. What this man in
Bakersfield was selling were the Hudson "Blue
Goose" and the USRA 2-8-8-2 Mallet.
The were both in almost mint condition.
He was selling these for a
friend in San Bernardino. He was asking $50 each. That's about all I had left
in my pocket, and I wanted both. I chose the Mallet. Went back to Ken and
showed him what I had just bought and asked him what I should do with it. He
replied, "Keep it in the box." The box was dated 1972.
I jumped in the van and just about flew home for more cash. When I got home, I told my wife my story and she said, "Let's go get the other one." We then just about flew back to Bakersfield twice as fast in her car hoping to get there in time before someone else bought the "Goose." Too late, it was a hot day and the swap meet had disbanded. I didn't give up. Through the efforts of the railroad club and a man who traced this person down for me, I bought the "Goose." It wasn't all I bought, he parted with half a dozen diesels (beautifully detailed by a friend in San Francisco) plus a custom built carrying case.
That day I was introduced to the highest quality in the model industry. That hooked me. I went on to purchase the Rivarossi "Big Boy" and their special edition American Orient Express. Both of which I ordered through The Train Room.
As for Ken? We visited a couple of times, and I bought a few
really well detailed cars from him. But what I enjoy most today are two of his
upgraded Proto 2000 E-8's he sold me. They are by far the smoothest running engines
I own.
One thing I learned from Ken is the need to generate revenue to support the railroad. Up until that time I was focused on filling the table with buildings and planes.
Hence, the addition of yet another 4x8. My goal switched to filling this new area with revenue producing factories. This time I used a sheet of plywood 3/4" thick. Not only did I need this additional thickness to support the tremendous weight of cement plants and pickle factories, breweries, power plants, servicing facilities for locomotives, and coal bunkers, but also to prevent the tabletop from vibrating and bouncing up and down evey time I drove a spike into it. I also decided to use something new I hadn't seen before, flexible roadbed. It's easy to use, trains might run quieter, but remote turnouts will not work unless you lift them slightly with some object to allow the rails to move freely from side to side when energized or trim off a small area away from the roadbed.
Click on the thumbnail to see the full version of my updated layout sketch
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