The Present Layout.

Alas, the layout described in the following pages is no more! Like many others, it was torn out as part of a career related move. The good news is that I'm back in New England, so when I'm ready to build again, I need only look outside for inspiration. Meanwhile, my railroad time (what there is of it) is split between my Dad's 'S' Gauge CNJ and an HOn30 module. Expect a new standard gauge New England railroad to be started soon after a new house is picked out and other "details" of life that interfere with railroading are ironed out. In the meanwhile, I'm updating these pages with some new pictures and an additional page from my Dad's page. Hope you enjoy.

Pieter

My current layout is a simple, single-track loop around the walls of a nine-foot by eleven-foot spare bedroom. One end of the loop forms a junction with a double track main line, which itself runs to two track staging areas on each end. A diagram of the track layout will appear here as soon as available. I run occasional operating sessions for two to five people, running three trains sequentially with two crew members per train. This is the early 1950�s New Haven operating scheme with train designations based on the New Haven Berkshire division (NX 11 and 12) for thru freight service and a local turn.

The railroad is intended to represent a section of a southern New England branch line or secondary route � the previously mentioned Berkshire line or the New Haven�s former Norwich and Worcester lines or the Central Vermont Southern Division come to mind. The route is not fixed in a specific geography since the intent is to "map" the trackage to a variety of lines such as those mentioned above, or a part of the old Rutland or Green Mountain or a branch of the D&H. The period represented by the scenery is basically 1952, but plans are to run equipment from 1946 to the present (in discrete groups � no steam with 3rd generation diesels), with the possibility of occasional 1920�s or earlier sessions in the future. The idea came from articles about the Midwest Modeler�s club layout which serves as a variety of real and fictional railroads; including 1940�s Pennsy to 1980�s Burlington Northern.

Other sources of model inspiration include the NEB&W at Rensselaer, Robert Smaus' beautiful craftsmanship on his small layout, Tim Swan�s Monon layout as presented in the April 1985 RMC (not to mention Lance Mindheim's Monon layout in MR in Dec. 96 ), and Dave Penny's�small SP layout in 1/87 finescale presented in the May 1994 RMC. Other sources will be mentioned in the context of specific sections. The track plan is my own; and definitely leaves room for improvement. Each side of the layout is loosely based on a prototype scene familiar to me. The actual scenes are in different areas of Connecticut and could not possibly be directly connected by a single rail line. This is not a big problem, except that it does confuse people who are familiar with the actual locations.

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