A few months ago, a friend built me a mini table top layout board that is hollow in the middle with a removable bottom to access wiring and such. Originally for Lionel prewar OO gauge, that plan never happend and the layout just sat. But the traction bug has bitten and I have aquired several brass cars and dug out my poles I bought a few years ago when I considered doing traction before.
The idea is a layout that fits in the back of my Jeep Liberty and can be handled by just myself without to much risk to the trolley overhead. Its very lightweight and I will keep it that way, buildings will mostly be removable to keep the weight down, since I am modeling northern Indiana scenery, its mostly flat, also helping keep the weight down.
I removed the toy train style grass carpet from the table top, laid out the Atlas “snap” track with 15" radius curves(no issues for traction, it can go much much tighter than 15"). The poles are mostly set in place on the main loop. Still working out how I want do the carbarn still. Wont be any overhead trolley wire just yet, need to do basic track ballest and building placement before adding the overhead wire to the poles. So the cars run off the 2 rails for power right now. So far I have 4 ex Sacremento Northern cars that will be painted for my proto freelance traction company. Then I have 3 Chicago Aurora & Elgin cars and 2 Chicago North Shore cars. They will be in their respective paint schemes as I like both of those lines as well. Most are Suydam brass imports with 2 from S. Soho and one from MTM imports. I hope to have the layout done enough to run at the fall train shows this year. Here is how the layout looks as of tonight.
