Michael’s been in touch with his U shaped layout HO scale:
“Hi Alistair,
I was seven when my father took me for a ride on the Penn RR as it made its way back to the railyard.
While he swept and cleaned the passenger cars, I got to sit with the engineer who let me blow the horn. Seventy-one years later I still love railroads and the sound of the horn or the whistle.
Though I started with Lionel 027 trains as a kid, I switched to HO when my sons were born. That was fifty years ago and the layout for the boys was, err, let’s just say not very good.
Fifteen years ago, shortly after my first grandson was born, I decided to take up the hobby more seriously. I scraped everything and started over.
With advice and diligence my second basement layout was considerably better; in fact, guests often commented it impressive. It was a horseshoe, 16 feet long with two 4×4 legs coming off the sides.
When I moved from Long Island, New York, to Flanders, New Jersey five years ago, I gave my precious away to a sailor on a US Navy cargo and ammo ship.
While at sea, he had contacted me when I made it known I’d be willing to give it away. We arranged for him and a fellow seaman to come to take it when their ship arrived at the port of Newark. They had to load it on to the ship for storage until it arrived in Virginia where he lived. He sent me a video of the layout being lifted onto the ship and it brought a tear to my eye.
Our new house doesn’t have a basement but, on the second floor there was an HVAC room that abutted a decent size storage area Three years ago I restructured the two areas into one decent sized room.
Then I began creating the “Flanders Valley RR”. I guess you could say I got lazy, because I began by ordering two Woodland Scenics Layout kits, Grand valley and River Pass.
I reconfigured the layouts into my imagining of a unique railroad I would call the Flanders Valley Railroad.
I created an “L” shaped layout: 12×4 with a 4×4 leg on one side. It was okay, but I wanted to be able to run four trains at once and it was happening. So, I added another 4×4 leg on the opposite side.
Thanks for the opportunity to tell my story, and hope it helps to appreciate how it’s turned out. I’m including a few photos and video.
Peace,
Michael (aka Doc)”
A big thanks to Michael for sharing his U shaped layout HO scale – please do leave a comment below, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one.
That’s all for today folks.
Please do keep ’em coming.
And if today is the big day where you stop dreaming, start planning and get going, 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.
Michael, well done on a never ending hobby…. I too am from Long Island… the Hamptons actually and my grandfather was a conductor on PRR….. Richard, now living in Arkansas…
Great job on the water nice layout .
The Critic
Doc,
Your railroad world is exactly what I see as the epitome of what our hobby is about. Slices of our world carefully placed in their (the HO universe) little one. Each scene carries itself and lends it’s own area to make mind stories and maybe return to our own real memories. Very well done and thanks for sharing.
John from Baltimore
Nicely done model railroad. I like your interesting and imaginative scenes on people doing various activities.
Stunning is right . A lot of great detail and craftsmanship. Really looks nice. The water is spot on , hard to achieve that . There’s fun in your scenes and activity everywhere , very well done .
WOW, WOW, WOW! Very impressing Doc. Love the detail with many individual groupings to give people a lot to look at and enjoy. You knocked it out of the park with the bee hives.
Lots of fun little scenes for the eye to feast on, Michael. I can see from the markups on your board you did some careful planning. Planning can yield superior results. I would bet your trains run smoothly too. Well done.
Rob
Nice Job Doc! The little vignettes of every day little people doing what we big people do is spot on including the golfers, beekeepers and the Lake and river scenes sure give pause to what we do every day. Enjoy your little H.O. world it does spark one’s imagination.
Doc
Very, very well done. Great water scenes, so many great themes around to keep interest high, and very easy to look at.
Would love to see trains in a video.
Big Al
Good one with my AM java. Be well & so much thanks.
Great job. Don’t think I’ve ever seen bee hives in a display before. The water looks good too. You’ve put a lot in that area and it looks great.
Nice. Lots of activity on this layout. People make the scenery come to life.
Jim AZ
Very nice layout Michael with a lot of nice scenery especially the lake and rivers. You should be proud of it, well done.
love the beekeepers hives. very nice set up.
Wow, just wow… I can spend hours at each scene…
Awesome job on the water. Very impressive and realistic!
Michael: Your story of a father and son visit to the PRR yard reminded me of Saturday afternoons with my Dad at the PRR yard in Long island City, seventy years ago. We would watch the freight trains being made up, passenger cars serviced. After that, a Lionel layout was fabricated and I was hooked. Great job on your layout, lots of good stuff, scenes and skill evident. Thanks for sharing.
John, LINY
I just have to say I was blown away by this layout, I’ve been modeling for years and am soooooooooooo jealous thank you so much
Great layout. Lots of detail and interest. Many unusual scenes to keep interest both for the builder and the visitor. However, once again scale has slipped. In many areas the rocks/boulders are way out of scale even allowing for areas that are natural and undeveloped. Still lovely layout.
A great layout and your scenery is superb. You mentioned a video. Please send that in sop I can see your railway “work.” Cheers Rossco, Adelaide, australia
nice