I finally learned how to post a video on youtube and post it on here. My 726 and my prewar 1666 are running on the layout. My mom is helping me with the scenery. I hope it will be featured in CTT mag when it is all finished. We will fill in those holes in the table with a city and a lake on the other end someday, so figuring out how to do that will be a challenge. I will post more videos of its progress sometime in the future. I don’t know what I am going to name my layout yet, any ideas?
Nice video and the layout looks nice too. who did the benchwork? seeing as moms helping how about a tribute to your mom and include yourself. call it the M&SRR [aka] Mother&Son RailRoad . you have a great start and has alot of potential for scenery hope you show us more as you add more scenery. you may want to add some sidings for switching cars for the industries. enjoy!
Hey, I like that name!!! Thanks for your kind comments, yes it has alot of potential for scenery, and I can’t wait to work on it some more with her. I plan to put plenty of mountionous scenery on it plateaus and a river too. Ronnie, my mom’s boyfriend built the trestle bridge and the benchwork, not bad for his first attempt huh?? The layout is very quiet also. It uses 3/4 inch foam insulation board on top of 1/4 inch particle board that is on top of 1 by 4 frame with holes drilled in them to run wires through. I thought about adding a small two stall engine house with two sidings on the right corner of the layout, and then a lake to cover up the hole in the far end close to the garage door and a city in the hole towards the front of the table.
Sweet, Berk. [tup] A garage layout. Nice and square with lots of room for running scenery. And cutouts for access. Ventilation (garage door) when you get carried away with the steamers and their smoke or just want to enjoy the weather AND the trains. [:D] I have been following your posts and didn’t realize how far along you have come with your layout. Good stuff.
Up my way, especially with our weather, if I were to suggest to the wife using the garage for my trains, you would be reading my obituary somewhere. Is your garage attached to the house? It appears so.
You guys in the warmer climates don’t know what a pain in the neck it is to clean off the cars from all of the ice and the snow if they are left out, almost a daily routine in winter. The Summerheat and Winter cold in the unheated garage would do me in. Plus the snowblower, shovels, salt, and ice melt have to have a home close to the (snow) action outside.
Each Fall the little critters (field mice) like to migrate into the garage to nest for the winter without making reservations. And when it gets really cold, they hide near the door into the family room and try to relocate into the house. I could picture them munching on the layout and wiring. They propogate so fast that it is a continuous battle to keep them at bay. How do you contend with these issues?
I like your inner loop where in some sections it runs parallel to the outside loop and in other areas it is running in the opposite direction. It almost appears that the inner loop has more track footage. For me, your setup breaks up the visual action quite well. Glad to see you got the smoke unit working again (Berk was i
Nicely done, young man. [tup] I like how the trackwork flows. Train watching on this pike is fun. That bridge looks top notch. As for names, perhaps Berkshire Junction or Berkshire Midland…
You have a real good looking layout there. I like Fifedog’s idea for a name. “BerkShire Junction”. That would be way-cool… Congrats on your mom to for surrendering the garage for the layout!!! It always makes it more fun when 2 people are involved in the hobby. I am still in the beginning of building my layout, so I share your enthusiam… for wanting to get it “done”. But ahh… thats the wonderful thing about this hobby a layout is never “done”. Have you thought about adding another level? You also mentioned something about a lake…maybe have a stream running from the top level with a waterfall feeding the lake. You can use a little pump (used for outdoor fountains) to pump the water from the lake to feed the stream in the upper level. But that may be to much (real water and eletricity) not a good mix! But you could always use that fake water that Woodland Scenics makes. Forming the waterfall and the stream. I dunno just ideas I am thinking about incorporating into mine. But the main things is have fun and unleash your imagination!!!
Nice job on the layout. [bow] I enjoyed watching the video of the grand steamers running, I could see some of my prewar items running on it. [;)] I’m looking for a way to expand the ovals that I have my trains running on without adding sidings and switches. Keep up the good work and keep us posted.
Oh, and if we get to vote on a name, I vote for Berkshire Junction.
Sweet, Berk. A garage layout. Nice and square with lots of room for running scenery. And cutouts for access. Ventilation (garage door) when you get carried away with the steamers and their smoke or just want to enjoy the weather AND the trains. I have been following your posts and didn’t realize how far along you have come with your layout. Good stuff.
Up my way, especially with our weather, if I were to suggest to the wife using the garage for my trains, you would be reading my obituary somewhere. Is your garage attached to the house? It appears so.
You guys in the warmer climates don’t know what a pain in the neck it is to clean off the cars from all of the ice and the snow if they are left out, almost a daily routine in winter. The Summerheat and Winter cold in the unheated garage would do me in. Plus the snowblower, shovels, salt, and ice melt have to have a home close to the (snow) action outside.
Each Fall the little critters (field mice) like to migrate into the garage to nest for the winter without making reservations. And when it gets really cold, they hide near the door into the family room and try to relocate into the house. I could picture them munching on the layout and wiring. They propogate so fast that it is a continuous battle to keep them at bay. How do you contend with these issues?
I like your inner loop where in some sections it runs parallel to the outside loop and in other areas it is running in the opposite direction. It almost appears that the inner loop has more track footage.
I like the name!! I have also thought of Iron Horse Railway, Steamy Clouds Junction, Smoky Shadows Railway, any name that has something to do with steam locomotives. I will be intalling red blinking LED lights on the bridge sometime in the future to let the airplanes at night know where not to crash!! And thanks for all your kind comments!
Very nice! Thank you for sharing. Once the weather warms up, I pretty much stop playing with trains. However, if I had a layout in the garage, it would be nice to run trains during a nice summer evening. I am envious.
The real water idea was something I thought of doing on my first layout in the garage. But then I thought about the water and electricity relationship. I have seen something like that on an O guage layout at Bryson City, NC. There was a real waterfall and a real river and at the top of the water fall there was a Grist Mill that was powered by water and the water wheel actually moved under the flow of the water!!! I would love to have a river and water fall somewhere on the layout too. Maybe coming out of a cave and have a distillery next door that uses the water just like the Jack Danials distillery does, or maybe have an illegal moonshine still there instead!!
Don’t feel too bad. The weather down here gets really hot and humid too, and I pretty much stop playing with trains alot through most of the summer also. I do have an electric fan that helps alittle though. The layouts you guys have are extremely nice too!! My layout has a long ways to go but that will be the fun of it!!
I think I would like to add a second level of track in the future. Maybe another figure 8? I got plenty of 0-42 curves for christmas so I might as well use 'em.
Please keep the videos coming. I really like the track plan, and everything about your layout seems to fit very well. It looks like the fighting with the 726 paid off![swg]
[^] “You guys in the warmer climates don’t know what a pain in the neck it is to clean off the cars from all of the ice and the snow if they are left out, almost a daily routine in winter.”
Jack, why do you think we moved away from all that!! I can relate used to live in minnesota now reside in the sunbelt !
A garage layout. Nice and square with lots of room for running scenery. And cutouts for access. Ventilation (garage door) when you get carried away with the steamers and their smoke or just want to enjoy the weather AND the trains. 
I have been following your posts and didn’t realize how far along you have come with your layout. Good stuff.