The Past Few Weekends I've Seen Some Great Layouts...Part I

Running a little behind on postingAbout the layout tours I've been on. This is gonna be a big post. I've heard that this is one of the only areas in the country to do a Holiday Layout Tours thingie. I don't know if it's true - But if it is - You owe it to yourself to get out and see some of these! I've been amazed. The weekend before last I was bemoaning the fact there hadn't been any Nscale to see. Well, now I've seen some "N" the past couple of weekends. And I took tons of pictures too. Of course one of the good things about digital is you can "delete" those awful shots before you have "prints". The original photos were taken with 3M setting on my camera so they are pretty big. 1280 X 960 seems about average. I apologize in advance to dialup users. That said, let's see some layouts! By the way there are more pictures on my flickr account. I've organized some sets by layout. If you like what you see, click the link I'll post with the specific layout. ____________________________________________________________________ So let's start with Saturday November 5th. First stop was Bob Werre's S Scale UP, CNW, SOO and Milwaukee franchise. S scale is HUGE!! Layout has about 250 feet of doubleloop mainline with 5 small yards and a large one as well. Features are: Mostly hand laid turnouts, Code 100 and 126 flextrack, DCC control, Sound in many units, Dozens of scratch built, kit, and kitbashed structures. The detail level on this layout is amazing. So many little scenes. Bob says the layout is about 80 percent scenicked. Looked higher to me. The man, in my opinion is an artist in the true sense of the word! My pictures do not do this layout justice...If you get a chance to see this layout - RUN don't walk! 10 Photos of this layout on Flickr ____________________________________________________________________ Next stop: Bob Barnette's River City Union Terminal Railroad. This HO scale pike takes up one side of a two car garage. Represents a midwestern gateway terminal (St. Louis) and line extending Southwest. Missouri Kansas and Texas, Texas and Pacific, and MOPAC equipment. Built with a Helix and lower level allowing point to point operations. Features: 6 track passenger terminal A coach yard, mail, express with team tracks and freight houses Control is DCC by Digitrax. Scenery is 60 percent complete. 13 Photos of this layout on Flickr. ____________________________________________________________________ Next Stop - The Houston N'Crowd Located on the second story of Papa Ben's Train Store the N'Crowd is in the process of building a new double decked layout in the clubroom. They had a few modules setup (including an O Scale layout!) in the room next to the club room and were running trains via DCC. Still have the famous "N to the Future" cars from the 2003 N Scale National Convention collectors cars available. Guests can run a train on the Modules they have setup. 19 Photos of the N'Crowd available on Flickr. Note: The club is not ADA accessible. ___________________________________________________________________ Last Stop for Saturday - Gordon Bliss' The Santa Fe / All The Way Railroad I was getting kind of tired after my last stop at the N'Crowd's clubhouse. I asked one of the members that was there if it was worth the trip to Crosby to see this railroad. All he said was, "Gordon's? Oh yeah...It's worth the trip." Gordon is apparently a very active member of the N'Crowd gang. So off I went to the east side of town. Gordon's Santa Fe empire takes up the space of a two car garage and then some. This is one huge Model Railroad. The pike has a 20' x 30' main room, with a 8' x 13' side room (for dispatching and staging yards). This N scale double deck layout will feature operations on the SANTA FE from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1953. Gordon is very friendly guy and most knowledgeable. He should be...I think I heard him say he had been modeling since he was nine or ten years old! Features: Both freight and passenger yards in Kansas City are modeled. 2 double track helixes. Blue foam 85% installed. The wiring for detection is almost completed. Control is Digitrax radio DCC. Gordon's railroad is an example of what can be done given enough space! Very impressive. This is one large N Scale railroad. The photos I took definately cannot do justice to this pike! Kind of off the beaten track, but if you get a chance to tour this one, do yourself a favor...GO! As the man says, You'll be glad you did. 21 photos of "The Santa Fe / All the Way" available on flickr.