Jim’s been back in touch with his modular HO layout:
“Hello Alastair
From across the big pond, my name is Jim Volmer Sr, in Buffalo NY.
It has been a long time since my last post, but have experienced a lot of medical and family issues to deal with.
I am in the beginning stage of moving to a new home, hopefully with in a next few month’s so my layout is in total disarray, with packing all of the trains, buildings, electronic equipment and supplies etc…getting ready for the move.
I really did not have the chance to complete what I started, but that will change once I am in my new location.
So I thought that I would share some information on the Model Railroad Club I belong to. The name of our club is Western New York Trainmasters.
We are currently housed in one of our member’s basements, still looking for a permanent location. The club did have a location, but it ended quite unceremonious, that layout was destroyed and the club moved to where we are currently. We have a total of six members and are looking for new members all the time.
The railroad is called the Buffalo Erie and Niagara, a modular HO layout that is approximately 26 feet long with two 38 inch wide sections ( one in the front and one in the rear of the layout ), with industries, sidings, turntable, round house, and staging yard.
Two continuous loops around the entire layout allow trains to travel East and West at the same time. The train that travels West will be used to deliver products to the various destinations. The delivery destinations are: Buffalo Grain ( a Grain mill that once was in our area ), Buffalo Salvage Yard, McKinley Printing Plant, Crescent Manufacturing ( a company that builds small appliances), Jamestown Container ( a paper and cardboard distributor ), and Buffalo Industries ( for dry and cold storage ).
During our operating sessions, the dispatcher will assign a train to the engineer and conductor, for delivery of rolling stock to the various industries. As the West Bound train travels it route, the dispatcher will notify the engineer that the turnout for the industry lead track is thrown and cleared for entry. Once the train has entered the industry lead, the dispatcher must reset the turnout. It is then up to the train crew to deliver the different rolling stock to their proper destinations in a timely manner, utilizing a Card System.
Each Card has the name of the rolling stock, its identification number, what is contained in the rolling stock, and its destination. On the facial of the outside front modular, is a set of Card Holders, with the name of each industry on them. It is up to the conductor to make sure the correct card is in the correct Card Holder. After the cars are unloaded, the train crew collects the various rolling stock, with the card associated with it, and the train is then sent back to the staging area.
The rear modular area of the layout is mostly empty at this point, with only operating tracks and one turnout.
There are plans in the works to add more turnouts and operations around the walls to a second larger staging area. We are in the planning stage of placing a river, with a railroad bridge crossing over it, a mountain and tunnel for the train to pass through.
There are currently a total of fourteen turnouts. Ten of them are controlled with Tortoise Switch Machines and NCE programmable controllers, connected to the Digitrax system. Four turnouts are manually controlled. The one turnout that leads to and from the staging yard, has an automatic stop feature to it. The train cannot pass through the turnout until it is activated. Sometime in the future all of the turnouts will be set this way.
There are plans in the works, to have an automatic block control system, dwarf lights for all of the turnouts, a automatic grade crossing signal controller. Currently the grade crossing signals are controlled by a switch.
I have included some pictures of the modular HO layout for all to view. Hope you enjoy.
Jim Sr”
Buffalo Salvage yard
Buffalo Grain
East bound freight
Jim’s post reminded me of Scott’s modular layout:
Now on to Dangerous Dave:
“Hi Al,
just aa short running session video I took yesterday using my phone, it was forecast for rain, so thought I would check out the layout after all the hot weather, glad to say all ran OK, it amazes me the quality of the footage as all taken on my iPhone, thought you may be could use it as a stocking filler as they say.
Regards
Dave”
Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
A huge thank you to Jim for sharing his modular HO. Looks like they are having fun and making a wonderful layout too.
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if today is the day you get bored of being bored and start laying track, the Beginner’s Guide is here.
Best
Al
PS Latest ebay cheat sheet is here.
PPS More HO scale train layouts here if that’s your thing.
