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Video On30 Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes
Lou,
Nice job. The scenery and the sounds are great. I find only one drawback to On30, and that is the use of HO couplers at HO height. I was going to do something in this scale/gauge and went so far as to change the couplers to On3 and relocate them to a proper height. The nice thing about getting the couplers to the right height was the dummy coupler on the engine pilot was to scale both in size and height. It would have been nice if Bachmann had put the couplers at least at the right height; would have save a lot of carving off the HO draft gear.
The scenery and structures on that layout are outrageous, good job Lou.
Beautiful, amazing scenery, love that the train was running slow, not “full speed ahead”. But, as amazing as the layout is, that was one boring video.
Irony is that “proper” coupler height for Maine two foot On2 is lower than HO KD height commonly used in RTR On30. KD type HO couplers are almost dead on size wise for 1/48 scale Maine couplers.
Lou’s layout is a good one that checks off a lot of model railroading boxes. He has used his available space well. Unlike may On30 modelers he used larger radius curves that make the O scale equipment look good.
Bill Uffelman
Ocean View DE
Absolutly fantastic layout-as an On30 guy modeling the WW&F RY in his basement, you have me wanting to rip out the whole works and start over again. I’m so glad Model Railroader is starting to include stories about my much beloved end of this hobby. I love the fact that while I’ll never have the room to build a representation of a 50+ coal car drag on the Reading Railroad or a 50+ boxcar consist on the Pennsylvania Railroad, I can surely run a realistic 5 freight cars and a combine pulled by a wonderful little Forney just like they did on the Maine 2-Footers. Lou is an inspiration to all of us in this “little” world, and the reason I ordered my copy of the new 2015 planning issue last weeek. John J. Tumolo, III Pricetown, PA
I expected it to be a good layout based on Lou’s reputation and the photos I’d seen…but I wasn’t prepared for it to be that good! Lou’s SR&RL really, really looks like Maine scenically. Can’t wait to see the feature in MRP 2015.
Incredible. The time-era seems about ruight and the structures are superb. As an S scale modeler, the charm of the size is very tempting…
This a great layout and a terrific video. Not too short, not too long. It leaves you wanting to see even more. I for one never noticed the heights of the couplers. My own On2 1/2 trains couple just fine with their existing couplers, so I would not be tempted to change. Those Bachman trains are super real. Their superb sound fidelity always leaves me with a craving to see smoke blasting out of those locomotive stacks. Actually, the sound is so good that I can almost imagine smoke pouring out of the stacks.
Lest you consider me not a “rivet counter”, I do have one suggestion which is that the Texaco sign along the right of way should read "…Trust your car to the man WHO wears the star,"not, “…THAT wears a star.” By the way, that slogan was coined in 1962 - Texaco introduced the “You Can Trust Your Car To The Man Who Wears The Star” campaign. Both Fire Chief and Sky Chief gasolines were promoted as “Climate Controlled” since various blends of both gasolines were distributed to Texaco stations in various parts of the country.
Please keep on trackin’, Lou, and thank you for the video. --Tom
Ian Maynard, Toronto, Ontario.
Excellent video! EVERYTHING looks excellent! Love the scenery! Congratulations on a really SUPERB operating layout! Don’t know how you guys continually succeed in creating such superb layouts, this one is perhaps the best!
Thankyou.
Ian
I loved riding the rails on this layout video. Especially enjoyed the slow change in seasons, picking up on the subtle patches of ice on the ground. Loved detail given to model-T era vehicles at trackside, too.
Beautiful layout and the details are so impressive. My hat’s off to you for such stellar work – and I’m sure it took a lot of work to make it look as good as it does. Thanks for sharing the video with us.
Lou Sassi did an excellent job, very realistic. Thans for sharing!
I was a little sad to learn that you tore down your amazing ho layout, but life goes on. Glad to see you came roaring back with a different scale. Good for you! And thank you for sharing your modeling efforts. This is simply an amazing layout. Enjoy your retirement.
Bill here in very cold north jersey
Beautiful modeling shown off with a well-staged & shot video. The only thing missing is “MOAR !”…Thanks, Lou !
Narrow gauge RRs, real and model, have always been one of my top interests. Lou has a truly fantastic layout.
The layout was excellent, but the fact that the locomotive chuffs were not synchronized with the driver quartering was very distracting for me. There were about three chuffs for every rotation of the drivers when there should have been four.
Excellant layout Lou, very well detailed. I am O scale and very impressed.
I think it is a work of art! Well done
Very nice On30 layout.