Layout Pictures

Other Layout & Modular Set-up Pictures

Layout by Robert Smaus

Before

During

It's a work in progress and it's going to be a lot smaller. But I've managed to fit most of my favorite buildings on it's 4 (at its very widest) by 14 foot top. I saved one section of my old layout, with lots of paving and sidewalks and space for the structures, and carefully packed it for moving (top photos). Then I built trapazoidal benchwork and made the top roughly boomerang shaped. A river or Arroyo divides the layout into two parts, so I could use some bridges. I had to redo the far left side of the part I saved since it formerly disappeared into a tunnel as it continued around the layout but now dies out in some tunnel-like loading docks. (at right), one of which is modeled after the Mission Furniture Co. in downtown LA.

After

I brought a piece of Los Angeles with me when we moved to Washington state. I saved a section of downtown LA, so I could preserve the streets, sidewalks and foundations. I packed the buildings separately and protected the piece I had cut out (to see how, click here). I had to redo all of the track work since there is no saving old ballasted track and I redid one corner completely with new buildings. At the other end I turned the mighty Los Angeles River into a mostly dry arroyo. Still to come is a rural section on the other side of the bridge, where I can use a lot of the other buildings I brought along, including an SP station and the lemon packing plant.

Details

I moved my great uncle's sheet metal shop (above, right) from downtown San Francisco to downtown Los Angeles, right near City Hall in fact, and just behind it is Mission Furniture's loading dock. The covered dock belongs to a food warehouse. I also moved Dayton Ave. Tower (at right) from near the LA River to near the arroyo. Two bridges will span it. The SW-1 is moving a war emergency caboose, which is just about to be. Interestingly, the city also moved the cast concrete tower to a new location, as impossible as that might sound.

"Never the same layout twice"

Calgary Free-Mo organizes an annual setup in the hockey arena in the town of Big Valley, Alberta, where Free-Mo-ites from all over western Canada bring their modules for a weekend of running trains. Modules vary from finely polished prototype scenes, to bare wood 'under construction' plywood prairies. Setup is Friday; breakdown is Sunday evening; in between, trains can be run 24 hours a day. This is an opportunity for the 100-car drags as well as the short way freights to run long (for model railroads) distances; and for train enthusiasts to meet, talk, argue, eat, drink, and have fun. As a bonus, the local preserved railway runs a steam excursion trip from the local town of Stettler to see the setup.

2010-01