My name is Doug, and I am building a layout again after a wait of 20 or so years. Life and expenses get in the way, you know? I live in Amherst, MA near the Norwottuck rail trail, which was the Central Massachusetts many decades ago. The whole area has a rich history in railroading so I decided to return the trail to rails and create the Norwottuck Railroad, a Northeastern branch of the PRR in Western MA, just South of New Salem running over the Central RR tracks. I am just learning DCC and building DCC++, scenery, and catching up on all the advances in two decades.
The layout is HO in a 13 x 13 ft room. Currently it wraps around two walls and a peninsula to form a G. I created the plan around a series of vignettes then found reasons to string them together. Each small area has its own purpose and look, each is a source and a destination for various materials. There are no classification yards, no staging tracks. Railroad memorabilia and photos festoon the walls. I try to create interesting scenes, for example the tie grabber on the wall has different work gloves fastened on either end to emulate two different people lifting it.
Hi Doug, Welcome. I applaud you returning Trails to Rails. I wish it would happen in reality. I also like your concept of a series of vignettes. It gives a flow through the country-side which describes much of New England railroading in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
