The thread about favorite MR Staffer got me thinking. Of all the very fine layouts MR has featured over the years which is your favorite?
Mine would have to be Eric Boorman’s Utah Belt.
-George
I like the Argentine layout featured last month.
A couple years ago, Tony Koester did a 1 x 7 switching layout in Model Railroad Planning, I really liked.
Iain Rices’s, Gary, Indiana layout from Mid-sized an Manageable Track Plans–although I wish he would have called it something else.
The V&O comes to mind as it was one of my first inspirations in the first MRs and MRCs I started purchasing in 1970. Also obviously the G&D with its many inovations - I actually knew and read about it while it still existed. BUT my very favorite has to be the Jerome & Southwestern. It demonstrates the wonderful scenery and operations that can be put into a 4x8, and on a budget at that.
Crooked Mountain Lines of Bob Hegge. Almost made me switch to traction.
Enjoy
Paul
Over say the past 20 years, I’d go with Art Fahie’s N-scale Niagara & Pearl Creek. It includes a wide selection of well executed differing scenes, ranging from highly complex urban areas to rolling seacoast hills.
If we go back more than 20 years, then there are several contenders.
CNJ831
Some of my favourite layouts throughout the years:
- Gorre & Daphetid, John Allen (HO)
- Franklin & South Manchester, George Sellios (HO)
- Cumberland Valley, Bill and Wayne Reid (N)
- Sunset Valley, Bruce Chubb (HO)
including it’s new incarnation Sunset Valley Oregon System.
Another one I liked very much is the Southern Pacific con otros by Ron Kuykendall. It has been featured a number of times starting in the 70’s. It was again featured in a recent Great Model RR’s but by that time rebuilt in a much smaller version.
The Jerome & Southwestern was a great project, I have a copy of that book and find myself reading it often. I also liked his mini-project Tascosa & Calico in HOn3.
Frank
Chuck Hitchcock’s Argentine Division of the ATSF.
It’s a real shame he dismantled it in favor of his new project.
Favorites:
- Another vote for Iain Rice’s “Steeltown U.S.A.” (From Mid-sized & Managable Track Plans) - It has continuous running AND plently of switching. I agree with Chip. I’d pretend it was somewhere else.
- Cliff Power’s Mississippi, Alabama & Gulf (From Great Model Railroads 2007, pg. 84-93) - Not so much the layout itself but Cliff’s beatiful detail work.
Tom
mine would have to be Franklin and south manchester by george sellious in the dec. 2006 issue.
When I “archive” my issues of MR, I cut out all the articles that I expect will have some use in the future, staple those together and put them in a plastic sleeve in a binder. Everything else, including most of the layout photo tour articles (not the layout construction articles), goes to recycling. Most of those layout tours fall into the “you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all” category. A few of the exceptions that I have kept in my archive are: Jack Burgess’ Yosemite Valley, Lance Mindheim’s HO Monon, Bill Ven der Meer’s Sweetwater & Orient (ATSF), Perry Amicangelo’s C&NW, and Bob Madison’s Ninigret Cove/Dorrville Branch (NYNH&H). I guess I prefer the well-detailed smaller layouts with a unique theme to another massive, but boring, version of Horseshoe Curve or Tehachapi Loop.
Tom
I guess I would limit my ‘favorites’ to MR ‘Project’ layouts. The 'Communipaw & Portage Hill was a nice small railroad that could be ‘operated’. A few years later they did the ‘Pintada(sp) Central’ which could be expanded as the ‘core’ of a larger layout.
The last few project layouts has been ‘what can I build on a hollow door core’ or some variation of a basic 4 by 8. The last one with Kato Uni-Track and Woodland Scenics ‘grass mat’ scenery seemed to be pointing is to tinplate layouts where we started as kids.
I would like to see MR do a project railroad that could be expanded, and took the modeler through using medium to advanced construction methods. Something that would take 5-6 issues of the magazine to complete. The modeler does not ‘grow’ without a ‘challenge’ and will lose interest if just ‘assembling’ RTR parts is all there is to the hobby.
The club I belong to is building a 27’ by 27’ layout(double deck with staging). About 1/2 of the members have never built a layout, but are more than willing to learn about good track laying and wiring. One of them mentioned that he feels the dues are worth the ‘education’ he is getting before he starts on his own layout! Before he started laying flex track, he thought that was ‘advanced’ stuff and he would stick Bachmann EZ Track for a home layout…
Jim
Of the MR Project layouts, my favorites are:
- Portage Hill & Communipaw (I’d like to see MR re-run the entire series or make it available in PDF since a lot of it was in Model Trains, not Model Railroader.)
- Sierra Pintada
- Jerome and Southwestern
- Tidewater Central (Dec '56 and Jan '57). A 4x6 that didn’t try to be more than what it was, decent scenery and landscape plan.
- Turtle Creek Central
Note that all of my favorite project layouts except Tidewater Central were expanded during the course of the series. Sierra Pintada was not expected to be used as built as a stand-alone.
Of the personal layouts, favorites are:
- John Allen’s Gorre & Daphitid. Despite the hoopla and debate about over-the-top weathering and detailing, the G&D had a real theme and story, and was operated that way. Everybody involved appeared to have fun, too.
- Chuck Yungkurth’s Bellefonte & Snowshoe. An early minimalist approach to a one-person operating layout by the designer of the famous Gum Stump & Snowshoe.
- Bullfrog Logging Co (1964?). An excellent small shelf layout.
- Ben King’s Timber (I forget the rest of the name). Really showed benefits of progressive construction along with documenting layout progress.
- Whit Tower’s Alturas & Lone Pine. Whit’s writing was as great as his layout, because from it I was able to understand why he did what he did.
- Roy Don’s Victoria Northern. A real Class I point-to-point model railroad that was operated as such.
- Hayden and Frary’s HOn30 Carabasset and Dead River.
Looking over my favorites list, I see several common aspects as to why these layouts come to mind:
- the write-ups emphasized the fun rather than worrying too much if everything was just so. Model Railroader of the '60s w
[#ditto]
Here is the link to the MA&G
http://magnoliaroute.com/magnolia%20route.htm
Also this one was in the artical on basements;
Jim Brewer: Norfolk and Western Railroad
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rdaniels2/layout1.htm
Rensselaer Model Railroad
http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/
Here is three I like…but there are more…!!!
Love Cliff Powers layout it is stunning.
My other favourites would be Eric Brooman’s various Utah Belt’s and Pelle Soeberg’s modern UP layout.
My all time favorite layout article was “The Fundy Northern Expands”, the July 1986 cover story. Written by that all round great fellow Bob Boudreau! [:D]
Whoa! Didn’t see that coming! [(-D]
-George
Hmmm, me thinks that might not be a totally objective answer [;)]
Oh yeah, Isn’t that the one with Equinox in it? From April or May of 1972 issue as I recall?
That also reminds me of a series of modules that were done about a year later. I can’t remember the name of the series but they inspired me with how much could be done in a tiny space. That reminds me - What happened to the magazine index that used to be at the top of every page - Bergie BRING IT BACK!
Bob Hayden’s Carbassest & Dead River
Turtle Creek Central
V&O
Utah Belt are just a few
My first issue of MR. September 2004, has my favorite layout so far. It’s the one I turn to again and again for inspiration as I begin to build my layout.
Jacques Thuot’s HOTrak Northern Timber Company RR module.
I don’t have much space - just 7’ x 11’ - and I find his 2 x 14’ modules have a lot of railroad for the size.
Rob Carignan
Portland, Maine