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Huge layout of older trains in Emlenton PA

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ChrisC
Hudson

Status: offline

Posted - December 22 2014 : 04:45:54 AM

Hello everyone, been awhile

I wanted to share this because I think for a lot of people on here who appreciate the older stuff it's pretty amazing. This is a layout located in a automotive service garage in Elderton PA (western side of Pennsylvania if you're trying to figure out generally where that is). Guy use to put up & tear down this whole thing every year. He said recently its become more permanent because setup & teardown were almost a month a piece. Whats really funny is how old fashion the layout is. At any given time I think there are enough loops to support eight trains I believe? All DC powered on a combo of brass, steel, and I believe nickle track in spots. Soak in some of the pictures I'll talk about it more down below.

First thing you see when you walk in.

Looking to the right.

On your left there is a nice little steel mill section. While a lot of the layout was done in a fanciful sort of way this section actually wasn't too bad at all.

If you move back to the right. There was the engine terminal. I've never seen anything like this. Most the locos are much older. Many have either served there time and worn through their gears, axles, or motors. Or a few were awaiting some time on the workbench in hopes of a crack at mainline service. Believe it or not the two stall structures with locomotives in them are based of prototypes that existed in the area years ago. Probably one of the few prototype things on the layout haha.

Looking across the tracks from the engine terminal. Just the sheer amount of buildings he has is staggering. Most railroads give a few buildings clustered together to represent a town. Not the case here the whole thing is packed deep with buildings. Really gives you a different feel when looking down on it.

As we continue moving to the right along the layout if you look up it gives you the idea of the vastness of the whole thing.

And finally along the backside things get a little more rural. He had some nice things back here like a trestle or two. I really liked the rock formations & the tree'd hillsides that loomed over the buildings below.

So we spoke with the owner for over a hour or so above just what it takes to run such a layout. And why it is the way it is. From a design standpoint its a tad impractical, I mean the stuff out in the middle of the layout I'm still not 100% sure out he put it out there. I laughed because on more than one occasion a train would stop/get stuck and he would say "Eh I'll get it later". I do believe he said one or two spots have access hatches but nothing major.

We asked him several questions about the locomotive "bone yard" he had and that was fascinating. He would buy cheap loco's at train shows for a few bucks and just run them. He would always have a few in reserve and they would spend time on the work bench getting their drives serviced before going on the layout for a long haul. He said it was always a issue since these trains would run for a few hours on end that you would see wear you wouldn't see otherwise. You name the manufacture and he would tell you the list of things that were usually prone to fail. His favorites are Athearn blue box. He said the prices on them of have come down dramatically, they can pull hard, and see to have the best endurance before kicking the bucket. There was a triple header of blue box FM trainsmasters running a massive 60-70 car trail around (you can see it in some of the pictures). He has a soft spot for old Marx engines and said he's had several go on to do really long stints on the layout. He said oddly enough on occasion he'll come across a old Life-like engine with the pancake drives that will really stick around. He also noticed some of those same life-like's don't seem to mind bad trackwork so he keeps them to the one track up on the mountain. He's had some friends with some more expensive stuff come down and run. He said some of them could hang for a few hours while others could not. He said a few MTH & BLI products have run there and have either had issues with the track or had a failure after awhile. That said, he told me if he can get a Rivarossi Big Boy for the right price he is going to run the wheels off it haha.

None of the engines or rolling stock have Kadee couplers. Everything is hook horn he said he's had far better luck with them for whatever reason. Recently a "serious" modeler came down and started giving him hell about the whole layout. I mean when you walk in it doesn't take a genius to figure out the layout is really more for just general looks and to make kids smile. But he said the serious guy ribbed him about how several of the vehicles were not to scale (lots of Hot Wheels and many slot cars). How few power feeders the layout had (each mainline has roughly two haha). The lack of kadee's and how it would be a improvement (I explained that already) and why he doesn't just buy better quality engines (again also explained). Pretty funny stuff. Overall the owner was really nice. Also had a lot of books with B&W photos of railroad history in the area. I could have looked over those books for hours he had a great collection.

So yea thought you guys would enjoy that!

Edited by - ChrisC on December 22 2014 08:39:02 AM

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