The layout is set in northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana. The top level is the Burlington Route from Sheridan, WY to the connection with the Northern Pacific mainline on the Yellowstone River at Huntley, MT and is mostly rural, open spaces. The lower level is where the Burlington has trackage rights over the Northern Pacific from Huntley to the city of Billings the large yard at Laurel.

Major industries served by the railroads in 1967 are coal mines, sugar beet factories, oil refineries, a meat packing plant, steel fabrication, flour mills, grain elevators and agriculture.

Construction began in January 2015 and about 2/3 of the track has been laid. The layout is housed in a 85' x 15' 1895 Texas and Pacific section house moved down the tracks from Roanoke. This is the second layout to be built in the section house.

Chinook Lines is a freelance railroad built upon the demise of Milwaukee Road's Lines West abandonment in 1980. The property in Washington was turned over to the state. Washington wished to keep the railroad industry competitive and vied for an operator.

Chinook Lines was born through former employees, local business and banking and won the bid, operating the former Milwaukee lines from Seattle to Spokane, Portland and British Columbia.

Growth further presented itself through acquisitions of other shortlines within Washington's borders and a merger with BC Hydro in British Columbia, opening a direct line of interchange with BC Rail. Further negotiations also developed with Union Pacific allowing trackage right trains of UP and CP.

While the Milwaukee always claimed Lines West was a loosing enterprise, Chinook Lines has grown it to be a prosperous super regional railroad by focusing on it's employees and business relationships.

The layout is a representation of the former Milwaukee mainline from Cle Elum, WA to Ellensburg, WA. In our version of history, the city of Ellensburg was able to reclaim the land the mainline occupied for spirit of growth and expansion of the local university. This was facilitated by Washington DOT building a cutoff to join the BNSF's paralleling Stampede Pass at what is now Woldale Junction. Chinook now occupies the former Northern Pacific yard in Ellensburg, yet, still contending with BNSF traffic. The line splits off again south of town, at Holmes Junction before turning back east and joining the former Milwaukee mainline towards the small farming town of Kittitas, WA.

(Layout is located in the Burleson/Alvarado area, south of Fort Worth. Roughly 2 miles from I-35W)

The WF Div FW&D is a point to point layout representing the FW&D between Ft Worth and Wichita Falls. All towns between these points a represented on the layout, albeit some are represented by name only. The layout has 11 switching locations with a total of 51 industries. 6 operators stay busy performing the duties of: Wichita Falls Yard Master, Bowie switcher, and 4 road operators. The layout is 98% sceniced. 

The Sierra Lines is an amalgamation of the Sierra Division of the Southern Pacific Lines (SP), the Virginia and Truckee River Railroad (V&T), and the Lodestone, Sierra, and Incline Village Railroad (LSI), the Western Pacific Railroad (WP), and the Sierra Central Railroad (SC), all put together and operated under the auspices of the infamous Dr. Arthur Smith, as you all know. The Texas version of The Sierra Lines all takes place within the city limits of Sacramento, modeled to represent exactly as it would have been on April 1, 1954, given that the long expected “big one” (earthquake) and two eruptions of the Toiyabe volcano had previously occurred. Rebuilding of much infrastructure of parts of the city is still in process, and many areas have no traffic lights, no sewer systems, and no water lines.

With a 30 year history, TNMRC is the largest DFW area permanent layout. The club is located in a business park at 11999 Plano Road, #154, Dallas TX 75243. It contains a 1760 SqFt HO layout running both DC and DCC, and a smaller DCC N scale layout. Thursdays evenings are popular for members to run trains and socialize. Tuesday evenings the club has TNMRC-RAILOPS sessions for prototype industry switching. And of course the club is available 24/7 for all members.

TNMRC has over 80 members making it one of the largest model train clubs in Texas. The club is known for exceptional track work, maintenance, operations, and has 100% complete scenery.
The layout allows extremely long trains (over 200 cars) which is a favorite site for visitors of our many open houses. We are accepting new members and have a reduced dues option for folks living over 100 miles away who have frequent trips to the area.
 

ACCESS NOTE: We are not currently ADA accessible, as there is a 6 inch step up at the door (no ramp yet).
Some Jobs require duck-under (using optional stools to make it much easier), typically by the conductor.

Potomac Valley lines is based on the prototype of the railroads along the banks of the Potomac River in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. Railroads represented are the Baltimore and Ohio, the Western Maryland and the Pennsylvania RR. The railroad is set in the 1959 steam to diesel transition era prior to the Chessie system merger. The Eastern end of the Railroad is the Staging yard in Brunswick, Maryland. Trains bound for Baltimore, MD or Washington, D.C. end up here. The Western end of the railroad is the staging yard in Cumberland, Md. where B&O trains can be headed for Pittsburg, PA or any points west. There is a large yard at CUMBO, WV where many cars are interchanged between the B&O and PRR. There is also an interchange at Cherry Run, W.Va. with the WMRR. The branch line to the famous old resort town of Berkeley Springs, WV is modeled and has industry switching, the sand mine for Pa. Glass & Sand is also modeled. The PRR interchanges with CUMBO yard and switches most industries in Martinsburg, WV.

Towns modeled:
B&O RR: Brunswick, MD (East Staging), Martinsburg, WV, CUMBO, WV, Greenspring, WV, Hancock, MD, Berkeley Springs, WV, Paw Paw, WV, Cherry Run, WV, Cumberland, MD (West Staging)
WMRR: Cherry Run, WV, Big Pool, MD, Williamsport, MD
PRR: (Hagerstown, MD (staging), CUMBO yard, Martinsburg, WV

Specs: Benchwork: L-beam, Style: Folded dogbone, Roadbed: ½" plywood with cork, Track: Peco code 100 track, 26"r min, Turnouts: Peco Medium min. ,Grade: 2.25 max. Height: 45" to 53", Mainline run: 152'

Layout Status: Main line is finished, Branch line and sand plant at Berkeley Springs are finished, interchange to WMRR is finished but WMRR industries are under construction. CUMBO yard is finished. PRR interchange is finished and industries on the PRR is under construction and about ½ done. No ballast has been applied, only a few structures are in place and no scenery has been done. Turnout control for staging ladders is electric and automatic, but all other turnout are still manual.

The Oregon Joint Line is a joint NP/GN mainline through the mountains and canyons of eastern Oregon connecting the Pacific Northwest with California. The layout, which is set in 1969 just prior to the BN merger, has plenty of pool power from the connecting California roads (WP, SP, and ATSF). Most heavy trains (freights are typically 22-28 cars long) receive helpers for the shove up the 2.2% grade to the summit at Snowline. A forest products shortline, the "Oregon & Northeastern", switches the Hines Lumber pulp/plywood complex and makes log runs out to Canyon Reload. The major terminal area has three yards (NP, GN, and the O&NE) with plenty of transfer/interchange activity and industrial switching.

The layout depicts the Erie, Buffalo Subdivision, from Buffalo (NY) to Salamanca (NY). The original Erie went from Dunkirk (south of Buffalo) on Lake Erie to Port Jarvis (NY) with a B&O interchange in Salamanca and an interchange with the Buffalo Pittsburg Line in Dayton (NY). After acquiring the B&P, Dayton still served as an Erie/Erie interchange and also the only tunnel on the Erie. The railroad represents heavy coal hauling to the steel mills of Lackawanna (NY) which were served by the South Buffalo RR and general freight and light passenger service for interchange with the primary east/west route of the Erie at Salamanca (staging). There is also a short line private RR (Conception and Viridity meaning beginning and always green) that interchanges to provide hardwood and limestone out of the Appalachian foothills of southern New York. 5 Operators: Yardmaster, Hostler/local service Engineer, road Engineer, Switcher/Short line operator and steel mill operations.

The railroad is a double track mainline (NYC) with a freelanced branch line (IRR) for local switching.
Construction began in February 2020 in a two car carage. Today (August 2024) the bench work is
complete and the branch line is operational. Scenery is complete on about 1/3 of the branch line.

The double track mainline is laid. There is a 14 track staging yard and DeWitt yard, a 14 track
classification yard handling east-west traffic from Selkirk Yard, near Albany, NY, to Frontier Yard in
Buffalo, NY. There will be an industrial area supporting a large car parts manufacturing plant, and heavy
automobile traffic will be seen between Detroit and eastern markets.
NOTE: DeWitt yard, located just east of Syracuse, NY, was the largest freight yard in the NYC system.
Today it is part of CSX.

Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) layout set in and around Waco, TX in the spring of 1987. Layout is a double deck with helix, fully signaled with ABS, and operates with JMRI. Layout is approximately 12x23 feet with a peninsula and 2 levels.

The Rocky Mountain Central (HO) and the Colorado Pacific (HOn3) are based on the D&RGW and the Colorado Southern in the mid 50s. Steam is still the primary motive power (most with sound). The layout features two large yards, a dual gauge interchange, logging operations, mountains that extend to the floor, laser etched control panels, and a unique benchwork design that allows easy access to under layout work.

The Chicago and North Western Iowa division in the Belle Plain area is the focus of this 15' x 35' foot railroad. Branch lines of the Milwaukee road and the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are also represented.

Layout is a John Armstrong design heavily modified by adding more towns and switching and was featured in Model Railroad Planning. Many structures are still in the mockup stage. A great deal of recent effort has gone into making the railroad ready for operation.

Control is RailCommand with car routing by car cards and waybills.

Lloyd is a consummate craftsman well known for his detailed models and articles in the hobby press. He is also a C&NW authority and has authored four Volumes for Morning Sun Books on the Chicago and North Western in color as well as over 30 magazine articles.

Jobs include the Cedar Rapids and Iowa city yard and road Engineer; Wausau yard plus Plymouth Patrol; New Ulm turn out of Belle Plaine Engineer; Columbus Engineer out of Belle Plaine; and the Belle Plaine Yardmaster building and breaking down the above trains for main line set out and pickup at Belle Plaine industries.

Layout is upstairs in the house, located in a cul-de-sac, enter at the front door. Park anywhere on the street, without blocking a fire hydrant!

My railroad depicts a little tiny part of the great big Milwaukee Road, during its last weeks in operation in the Pacific Northwest,  which I call the Lynden Spur, Milwaukee Road Washington Division, circa 1976-80.

It is an HO scale shelf railroad, approximately 2' X 19' with a small staging yard. Faithful in track plan to the prototype, and about 70% in scale size to the prototype, the railroad contains only six turnouts--as the prototype did. Nine customers are served, and there's two team tracks as well. Primary traffic is feed and fertilizer inbound, and frozen fruit (strawberries and raspberries) and powdered milk outbound.

Historically, the St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt) went into receivership in the late 1880's as the Texas and St. Louis (T&SL). When it emerged from bankruptcy, the company rebranded itself as the St. Louis Southwestern Railroad. At one time it was also the second longest narrow-gauge railroad in the United States and stretched from East St. Louis, Missouri to Gatesville, Texas, all narrow gauge. My railroad models the premise that the government would not allow the railroad to abandon service on some narrow-gauge routes, and therefore, narrow gauge steam could be found into the diesel transition era in mid America and East Texas. 

The T&SL is a 39' X 19' HO/HOn3 layout which models the Cotton Belt in East Texas in 1958. Motive power is primarily first-generation diesels with an occasional steam engine making an appearance. The layout currently allows for 4-6 operators with a dispatcher. All trains run extra with the exception of passenger service and the Blue Streak Merchandise. Construction on the layout began in March of 2019. Scenery is roughly 75% complete at this time. The pike uses JMRI for dispatching and car inventory. Currently the narrow gauge is not in service pending additional expansion which should be completed by the end of 2022. There is a 10-track staging yard that represents Texarkana and points north. Trains arrive and depart Tyler yard where they are broken down and reassembled for departure.

The MCIS St. Clair Subdivision is a 13'x12' double deck shelf style HO scale layout. Representing the eastern end of this modern Michigan regional, the "Clair" sees a variety of daily trains including manifest, local, and unit.  Constructed in 2011 the layout is now 60% sceniced and fully operational. Utilizing two staging yards, a 3.5 turn helix, and on-layout classification yard the layout hosts a lot of railroading in a small space that will keep crews busy around the clock. 

The PRR Laurel Valley Secondary (2 rail O scale, ¼ inch / ft.) represents the 45 miles from Pitcairn Yard in East Pittsburgh to Moss Lake and Bowest Yard at Connellsville, PA in October 1957. This heavy industrial RR has 31 industries in four industrial districts. The PRR Snow Hill branch line serves the town of Laurel Springs and the large 3 track Penna. Coal and Coke Co. mine #42 at Snow Hill. Industrial districts, Moss Lake, Earlton, East Pittsburgh and Post Oak have 63 car spots.

On display: My 20 car military train with 17 flatcars with 28 vehicles, my 18 car reconditioned RBB&B circus train built circa 1960’s, a 3 track icing facility servicing 21 reefer cars and an award winning double track deck truss bridge. Authentic Pennsylvania RR station sign, PRR interlocking tower signs, a Truc-Train trailer logo disc, PRR wood box phone, RR lanterns, prints and stuff.

The Dakota Northern is a Burlington Northern subsidiary inspired by the Great Northern line between Grand Forks and Minot, North Dakota. Focus of the layout is Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. In addition to the BN, The Soo Line also has operating rights in the area. Local switchers contend with heavy movements of agricultural traffic on the main line, particularly grain moving to Duluth and the Twin Cities. Era is 1975. Built for operation, the Dakota Northern is 12 x 13.5 feet. Scratch built structures are a favorite part of the hobby to Olaf and many structures in and around his hometown of Devil’s Lake are represented.

12' x 13.5' with an 2' x 8' extension

Welcome to another country and also another continent! Namibia is situated between South Africa, Botswana and Angola (touching a bit of Zambia) and the Atlantic ocean to the west. The TransNamib is the semi state railroad company, and we model it in N scale as the TxNamib. All modern equipment, modeling yesterday with only room for the western and northern parts of the railroad from Walvisbaai, the port city; Windhoek, the capital (with continued service to South Africa into staging); and Otavi, Grootfontein and eventually Tsumeb in the north. 9 mm is "narrow" enough and like in any 2nd world country, we use any equipment we can get our hands on that works!

Come have fun in this sparsely populated country, moving rail cars from the ocean to the city or north and all the way back on another day! Scenery is scarce, just like water in Namibia. You are welcome to take photos, but publishing them on the internet is not allowed.

Based on the CB&Q Fox River branch from the Eola yard (staging) in Aurora, Illinois to Streator, Illinois. The layout is set in October of 1954 and is based on prototypical operations. The other railroads that the CB&Q crosses are active and modeled including the CRI&P, Wabash, GM&O, Illinois Midland, and ATSF. Silica Sand is the primary commodity and reason for the railroads existence. Two large glass factories and a large fertilizer factory keep traffic moving along with the usual granger road commodities of corn/soybeans/coal/oil/lumber. This layout is all switching with eight jobs.

It is in the 1950's and the U.S. economy is booming.  Railroads are working hard to move freight across the country. Passengers are continuing to travel by train as in the World War II period.  Due to the heavy rail traffic, the railroads have had to supplement new diesel power with steam locomotives. Coal is cheap and so is oil, thus both types of energy are fueling steam. 

The weather in the central part of the country has made rail traffic congested. The Mississippi and Missouri Rivers are over flood stage.  The Mississippi can only be crossed at St. Louis and, thus, all east west movement is through the St. Louis Gateway, whether from Chicago or south to New Orleans. 

The Missouri River at Kansas City is the only crossing in Missouri and so northern and southern movements west of St. Louis must route through Kansas City.

A completely fictional HO scale layout inspired by years of living near railroads, with creative influence from model railroading experiences, including insights from Eric…

Spanning a modest 10’x19’ space, the layout features a variety of industries, many reflecting my professional background in food and heavy manufacturing. It is fully CTC signaled and includes three towns and one city, complete with street running. The layout’s signature challenge is a steep 3% grade known as Incline Run, which requires speed-matched DPU’s on the rear of all ascending trains. A spacious 6-foot-wide main aisle adds to the fun, offering ample room for movement and camaraderie.

Era and Equipment: Set in the late 20th century, the layout operates EMD units, including GP and SD locomotives. All non-revenue equipment, such as engines and cabooses, are custom-painted in the distinctive Utah Belt livery with sound and full lighting packages. The revenue fleet consists of a diverse mix of cars from various railroads and lease companies, providing operational flexibility and enhanced service options for the industries served.

Mission: My goal is to inspire more professional modelers to dive into this rewarding hobby. While I am looking to expand the layout in a new space soon, its current size demonstrates that realistic, operationfocused modeling is achievable for anyone, even my friend Mark!!!