Model Railroader October 2015

A craftsman’s O scale showcaseby Lou SassiFilling a 24 x 24-foot space in the basement of his home, Tom Staton’s On3 (O scale, 3 foot gauge) Narragansett RR features scenes of 1950s New England that are layered with detail. Buildings have illuminated interiors and figures are thoughtfully arranged in realistic vignettes. The model railroad is freelanced, but that hasn’t stopped some people from insisting his fictional scenes existed in real life.Build a coal truck dumpby Ken KeyserMy HO scale Backwater Division is inspired by the Western Maryland Ry. Thomas Subdivision that ran between Thomas and Elkins, W.Va., circa 1949 to 1952. In addition to the large coal mines served by the WM, there were several smaller loading facilities where coal was brought trackside by truck. One such location was the Polino Ramp at Beaver Yard, which was east of Thomas. Follow along as I show you how I built my HO scale version of the Polino Ramp.Layout planning, one block at a timeby Tony KoesterDesigning a new model railroad on a blank sheet of paper or computer screen can be intimidating. But if we have scale drawings of all of the key parts of a layout – each town, yard, major industry, signature scene, and so on – all that remains is to arrange them in a logical order. The task is much more manageable, almost plug and play. In this article, the author shares the basics of prototypical Layout Design Elements. 40 years modeling one dayby Ron LaneWhile researching railroad folk music in the 1960s, I learned several songs memorialized accidents on the Chesapeake & Ohio RR. Searching for the facts behind the songs, I ran across the place-name Sewell in one stanza. I determined it’s a ghost town deep in West Virginia’s New River Gorge.The narrow gauge Mann’s Creek Ry. ran 9 miles “up the mountain” from Sewell to coal mines at Clifftop. It hauled coal for almost 70 years, from 1886 to 1955. In addition to a large beehive coke oven operation at Sewell, over 40,000 surrounding acres of virgin hardwood timber were logged from 1909 to 1929.Model a Trinity two-bay cement hopperby Karl BondAfter spotting some Trinity two-bay covered hoppers on his prototype railroad, the author kitbashed some of his own, starting with a three-bay Athearn car.Compact depot easy to modelby Harold W. RussellThe Lehigh Valley was a major coal hauler, carrying anthracite from Pennsylvania’s mines across northern New Jersey to wharves across the Hudson River from New York City. In the latter 1800s, it was in the midst of expansion, building new lines and acquiring existing ones that had routes it wanted. One of those expansions was in the form of the subsidiary Easton & Amboy RR. The E&A went through Bloomsbury, arriving after the CNJ, and built its line along the south side of town in 1875. Passenger service was important to the LV, and it soon built a wooden depot on the north side of its new main line. The author has drawn scale plans for scratchbuilding the depot, available as an online extra for registered users.