4x8 Layout


S

skillman

Member
This layout existed from about 87 to 97. I don't remember the exact dates now. It was destroyed in a breakin and much of my collection stolen. I recovered some of the loco's but I don't really miss the large steam or other models that were taken or destroyed. I do kind of miss this layout. It was built as a teaching aid for a club that used to meet at my place once a week. It had a few bugs that needed to be fixed but I was never willing to tear it up far enough to fix them. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!!!!!
I found these pictures and thought I'd post them here.

P1030296.jpg


P1030294.jpg


P1030293.jpg


P1030292.jpg


P1030291.jpg


P1030290.jpg


P1030289.jpg


P1030288.jpg


P1030267.jpg


P1030266.jpg


Hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed it.

Steve
 
Good looking scenes for a 4x8, do you have an overall shot?
Sorry to hear of your troubles, we all face that possibilty I suppose...
 
Wow, it DOES look great! Too bad someone broke in and destroyed it. Reminds me of the time someone broke into the O scale layout at Union NJ, of the NYSME, in the late 1960's early 1970's.

The burglars didn't steal anything, and even went so far as to insure that no damage was done to the trains, even moving several off the visible layout into tunnels to get them out of harms way. They then took what is believed to be shovels and tear out a lot of trackwork, especially in yard throats and such. They also damaged a lot of buildings and scenery.

I saw this in a RMC mag at the time.
 
The quality of these pictures are not as good as the originals. They are digital photo's of the original pictures. The originals were taken with the layout outside on a sunny day. The neat thing about photo's is that you only see what I want you to.
Yes I do have a couple of pictures of the whole layout from high enough to see what it looks like. It's earlier in the history of the layout so not so far along. I'll try to get them posted.
I really don't lament the theft anymore other than the layout. I think everyone suffers loss at some time and the loss of "things" is really not as tragic as the loss of friends or family. My daughter was about 12 at the time and I'll always remember her comforting me and telling me "that's OK Dad, we'll build another one". That was worth more than anything I lost.

Steve
 
I like how the power poles had foot pegs on them. you don't see that anymore as they climb poles with spikes these days. Can you recall who made the power poles with the foot pegs like that?
 
I made the power poles Ted. I used HO spikes and dowels for the poles with someones crossbars with insulators on the tops. At first I strung all the wires too. It was hard to get the right droop in the wires and they were always in the way and hanging up on things. I got rid of these pretty quick. It really looked neat and dated the layout. It seems everything is underground today.

Steve
 
I said that I'd post a picture of the entire layout.

P1030297.jpg


P1030298.jpg


I'm sorry that these are the only ones I have. The other side is the yard and engine facility. There is a diagonal backdrop that divides the layout. There was switching on both sides and loop operation around the outside. Three operators could run trains at the same time. For a small layout it had a number of neat features.

Steve
 
I'm shocked that buglers would bother with a train layout other than to smash it simply for the sake of smashing something. They must have just stole stuff for just to stealing something, otherwise the common thug could not be bothered with it, preferring to grab things of more perceived value like jewelry and electronics.

It's not the lose of "things" that would bother me, it is the destruction of something I'd have labored over to create and also the violation of my home.
 
Dameon said:
I'm shocked that buglers would bother with a train layout other than to smash it simply for the sake of smashing something. They must have just stole stuff for just to stealing something, otherwise the common thug could not be bothered with it, preferring to grab things of more perceived value like jewelry and electronics.

It's not the lose of "things" that would bother me, it is the destruction of something I'd have labored over to create and also the violation of my home.
Click to expand...

My thoughts as well, although, I would lament the loss of locos etc because I tend to buy what appeals to me easthetically. Love city and town scenes as they tend to be full of the "details" of life.

Unfortunately in all our societies there are those who, if they can't have it themselves, don't want you to have it either.
 
that is horrible about the thugs breaking into your house and smashing up your layout!!!

The way i feel is if someone wants to break into my house and steal things then so be it, but if they touch my layout they better hope i dont find them because if they slip up i have a 9mm waiting for them :)

Anyway, great looking layout you had, this should be inspiration to build a bigger better layout. The layout you had looks really awesome, very impressive for a 4x8. to bad you dont have more pictures, would love to see more pictures
 
Until I started haunting this forum a couple of weeks ago, I had pretty well droped out of model railroading. There's a lot of inspiration on here and I think there's a couple of layouts that are going to be built. They won't be big layouts as I believe that a small complete layout is more satisfying to me than a large incomplete layout. I tend to like a modular style layout that can have new scenes and themes added at any time. I'm also going to finaly do an On30 layout. 1/4 inch is much better for my old eyes than HO anymore. 51 years ago when I first started going to my Uncle's place for meetings of the Olympia Model Engineers, I was exposed to O scale and I have been infatuated with it ever since.

Steve
 
That work really fire me up if someone broke into my railroad. I have worried about this since I am stuck using the garage but have ensured security is linked in. Sorry to hear as the layout looked pretty neat and I'm sure was time consuming
 
One thing I learned from all this is that it's just stuff. It can all be replaced. I had a friend/fellow railroader who's house burned. Now that was a tragedy!

Steve
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top