Here are some shots of my new layout. My wife bought a new Rebel camera and I thought it might be time to learn how to use it. The layout has been under construction for about a year and a half. Work started on the helix last November and the whole lower deck has been completed since then as well.
There are a few photos of the whole room and a tour following a train around the completed portion of the layout. By completed we are talking benchwork here. The hidden staging track is more than 300’ including a double tracked two section helix…I would post more photos in the thread but then the thread would take forever to download so I’m posting links instead. Click on the thumbnail to get the medium sized picture and then again click on the medium sized pic to get the full sized version. Use the arrows at the top of the window to scroll through the pictures.
Here is a teaser:
One more::
Unfortunately after I set this up I discovered that Rail images wont let me link you to the middle of the album. So… go to this link and scroll down to picture 16 (Fourth row last photo). The room photos and explanations start there. The tour starts at photo 22:
Things are pretty rough and there is still a ton of stuff to do, but at least I have a loop and can run trains. Thought it might be fun to show what I have been working on for the last year and a half or so.
wow what a ton of work you’ve done so far . fantastic !
a year and a half to get that far … makes me think not having a huge basement is a good thing for me [:)]
You are right about this. The room here is 13’ X 21’. About March I had one of those moments of clarity where I realised it would be years and years before I wass even close to done. I know that is kind of obvious but at that point I was glad the room wasn’t any bigger.
BLI. I have two and they are great. The sound is quite good and they pull and run very well. The only drawback is disabled BEMF and it appeaars BLI is going to fix that soon.
Guy, it looks great to me.
I know what you mean about filling up a room, or not doing it. My room is just about the size of yours and I guess my benchwork would take up about half of it at this point. I was thinking about using the other half when I said to myself… “are you NUTs! This is the first layout you’ve ever done and you’re 62 years old and probably will never finish what you have!”
I have to slap myself back to reality every now and then.
But, it’s going to be nice seeing yours now that you have that Canon Rebel firing!
Jarrell
The camera is great. I took these photos on totally automatic settings It makes me a better photographer than I actually am. I did create a little problem for myself however, because my old computer (windows 98) that I use for surfing and goofing off on the web can’t handle even 2meg photos. I had to compress all of these in my wife’s computer (windows 2002 XP) and then burn a cd to load them on my old computer to eventually post them here. Sounds like a good reason to buy a new computer!!
It’s true about the newer digital cameras. My shots now are so crisp and clear, it’s awesome.
Nice layout shots - looks like you’re having a blast.
Having grown up in Southern California, spending many weekends in the central valley, and now living on the coast of CA, I am dying to see your layout in a couple years from now!
You know I agonized over whether I wanted to name the line after something so creepy. I suppose for those who are not familiar with the title origin, it comes from a Twilight Zone episode wherein the main character keeps falling asleep on the commuter train on his way back from his hectic job in the city. In the dreams he finds himself in a peaceful, small town called Willoughby. People are nice and the pace of life is slow. The conductor keeps walking through the train calling, “Next stop Willoughby”. Finally he gets off at the stop and in reality ends up jumping off the train at speed. The name on the door of the hearse that takes him away is Willoughby Bros. Funeral home.
My brother convinced me it was a good name and I suppose everyone’s railroad is a little bit of an attempt to escape the pressures of daily life…
I grew up in Modesto. Too late for steam, but the town always had lots of trains. Three railroads ran through town: SP, Santa Fe and the Western Pacific…four if you count the local short line the Modesto & Empire traction company. I remember summer nights hearing the distant rumble of the diesels flying through town on the main…I thought it would be cool to model the valley.
I am in Santa Cruz if you want to see the layout progress sometime…E mail me.
FYI: Actually Willoughby is named after a real-life suburb on the east side of Cleveland, OH. I believe it’s where Rod Serling either grew up or lived for a portion of his life.
Willoughby is a beautiful little suburb with some quaint Victorian houses scattered around town. The Cleveland, Euclid, and Painesville interurban used to run and be based there. The power house and station are still in the middle of town and the buildings are being used for other businesses. There’s also a terrific LHS on the outskirt of town, that I just discovered a month and a half ago on my way to the batting cages.
Despite the association with the referenced Twilight Zone episode, I don’t consider Willoughby to be either a creepy name or place. [:)]
Thanks for the info. At least now I can have another image of the Willoughby line. Actually while I got the idea from the Twilght Zone episode, I really just like the way the name sounds…I went through hundreds naming my old layout and came up with three I liked: Gaylor Mountain Lines, Willoughby LIne and Mariposa Taraction Company. On the old layout all three lines interchanged with each other . I had decal sets made with all three names on them (its good to have a friend with an ALPS printer)… On the new layout decided to go with Willoughby line…
I need to apologize to everyone about the size of the photos on the site and in this thread. I carefully reduced them all to 150 kb and then when I resized them in photo shop to smaller image sizes it blew up the file sizes to 300+ Kb. I completely missed this and just caught it now. I will go back and fix this in the next few days,
BTW: no hearses are planned for the Willoughby LIne but maybe an old foothills graveyard…
Guy you are the man
i like the crossing on a curve, neat work and the helix, it will be very impresive when it’s done, it’s pretty impresive now, kind of like a work of art.
I have added the link to my fav list and will be back[bow][tup][bow]
I’ve discovered that in my case it helps to NOT bring myself back to reality. If I did, I’d realize the gigantic albatross I’m building will never get close to finished!
[OUCH! That got way to close to realistic thinking!] [:o)]
GUY boy-o-boy you have an railroad that will last for an life time[bow]The work so far is looking real good[^][:D]
Jarrell
How are you doing on your layout?Here are a couple of pictures of my SLOW progress
I’ve three new engines comming soon so rolling stock is compleate(for now)
JIM
I like to think of the Willoughby ending as a passage into an alternate reality for the poor guy. Sure, he ended up as a corpse in 20th century Connecticut, but at the same time he became a citizen of Willoughby, leaving behind the shrewish wife and overbearing boss, the alcoholism and deadlines of his “real life.” In a way, that’s what many of us are doing when we model a bygone era on our layouts, isn’t it? It’s an escape from terrorism, global warming and telemarketing that we all need from time to time.
Thanks for noticing the crossing. Thought I’d just knock that out in a couple of hours…Took all me day and was so much fun to remember how to wire it and the reversing loop late at night. Kept getting the beeeeep that my booster makes when it shorts…Came back the next morning solved it in two minutes…No more wiring puzzles late at night…First loco ran through at slow speed fine, high speed test the loco caught on the crossover at stopped dead from full speed, parts went flying off of it . Very dramatic, out came the dremel and of course a speed limit reccomendation as well…
