Middle Eastern Region of the NMRA Convention

Here are some photos of two of the three modular layouts on display at the convention hotel.

Below is a very well done O Scale layout.  Rail is handlaid and is code 100 which is pretty small for O Scale.

 

The following photos are of a rather large HO layout.  And yes two of these photos are of a castle.  I have never seen a castle on a layout and it is very detailed and well done.  In keeping with that theme the next two photos are a country village in England and one of the trains running was a British prototype I believe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modeling Baltimore Transit - Sparrows Point - Bethlehem Steel - Bay Shore Park - Penn Station - Western Maryland Railway - Pennsylvania Railroad

Baltimore Transit Route 26 crossing Bear Creek into Sparrows Point and Bethlehem Steel Plant.

As a young boy I would visit my aunt and uncle who lived in the Bethlehem Steel company town at Sparrows Point a suburb of Baltimore, Maryland.  To travel back and forth to Baltimore we generally used the streetcar and route 26.  My uncle worked in the mill at the "Point".   I loved to ride the older Baltimore cars rather than the new PCC cars like we had at my home in Washington, DC.  I also loved to walk the two blocks to the chain link fence surrounding the giant blast furnaces.  One thing I never visited was Bay Shore Park as it was gone by the time I was seven.

"Other East Baltimore lines were sideshows to the main event: the heavy blue-collar No. 26 Sparrows Point line serving the big Bethlehem Steel mill and shipyard complex at "The Point" and it's bedroom communities of Dundalk and Turners Station.  The mill was first developed in the remote southeastern corner of Baltimore's harbor in the later 1880s.  In the mill's early days, workers either lived in the company town of Sparrows Point or rode to work on Pennsylvania Railroad local trains.  The streetcar line across the flatlands and the wide Bear Creek estuary was completed in 1903; three years later it was extended beyond to Fort Howard and the Bay Shore Park."(Baltimore Streetcars-the Postwar Years by Herbert H. Harwood)

The Streetcar line ran under the roller coaster at Bay Shore Park.  This John Miller designed coaster was built by Philadelphia Toboggan Company in 1920.  The coaster ran until the park's closing in 1947,

CTC information. Below are two links to a nice explanation of how CTC will work on my layout.

Kansas City Subdivision CTC Demo

Kansas City Subdivision CTC Demo part 2

Please note that this guys' design does not include the Code Button.  It would be below the levers and must be pressed to cause the signals and turnouts to change provided that the change is not prohibited by track conditions.

See below my design.  The code button is the lowest switch on the board.

Photos of Layout Tour sponsered by Mainline Hobby of Blue Ridge Summit, PA on 9/21/2013

Western Maryland Railway - Blue Ridge Div.  Brian Wolfe

I was only able to visit three of the many layout sites that were available on Saturday and on Sunday. 

This HO layout represents the Western Maryland Railway from Hagerstown, MD to York, PA in September 1970.  It occupies a 30 x 45 basement, with a crew lounge, workshop, and dispatcher's office.

 

Waynecastle Central - Waynesboro Model Railroad Club.

This club has a large HO layout on the first floor, an N scale, a two rail O Scale, and a three rail O Gauge layouts on the second floor.  Something for everyone.  Generally open to the public at Christmas.

HO Under Renovation

 N Scale

O Scale (2 rail) & O Gauge (3 rail)

The O Gauge layout features operational signals both three color and PRR position light signals.

Note Green Signal

Note Red Signal

 

 Note PRR Stop signal

National Pike & Western Railroad - Dwight Sprecer

An HO layout based on the Western Maryland, Baltimore & Ohio, and the Norfolk & Western. This 470 sq. ft. layout features a 15 stall roundhouse, a shop area, and an Intermodal Facility.