Peter's Model Railroading | Articles | Layouts | Layout #7
Final Photos

These were the final photos I took of the layout before dismantling it. This overview shot shows about 65% of the layout (most of the right-hand side, all of the center section, and a small part of the left-hand side).

This shows the left-side of the layout.

This is the center section.

And this is the right-hand side.

The next set of photos show the layout from the right-hand side to the left-hand side in a more close-up viewpoint. I was happy with the background painting. The street looked nice, but it was not flat. The barber shop is a keeper. The crossing gates are nice, but they will definitely need to be lit up and animated if they are used again in a future layout.

The next section shows the background building, the team track platform, and the factory. All three were a success and I am keeping them.

This was just a beautiful scene. I am very happy with how this turned out, and I love these big trees. The structures and the trees were all preserved.

We then cross the right-hand side bridge. The bridge was built to prototype standards and it held up just fine, being made out of styrene. I will be recovering it and the abutments. The view through the trees is priceless.

The artificially-induced S curve on the layout was the scenic highlight in my opinion. It made for wonderful photography opportunities, and just watching the trains move in and out of view. The telephone/telegraph poles and wires add a lot to this scene. They were difficult to make and occasionally needed difficult-to-reach repair work, but the overall effect was neat. I do need to find some black wire, though.

The left-hand side of the center section looks quite impressive with the large amount of different materials and textures added over the years.

This photo was used as a cover photo for the July 2018 NASG's The Dispatch magazine. While this curve was too tight for my RS-1, it didn't look too bad, because you only see it from the inside angle. The rusted-out car body was a find on eBay from many years ago. The 3-inch extension on the trestle bridge was a neat solution to a practical problem.

The award-winning structure was a fun project. The lumber yard was still an in-progress project at the time of this layout's demolition. I had built the foundation for the main shop.

This is an overview shot of the left-hand side. The RS-1 on the right pretty much permanently lived here to help with switching duties. You can see the foundation of the lumber yard shop. I was very happy with the first building (lower left corner) and the animated gate. The animation was a challenge to figure out and debug, but it worked flawlessly anytime I would run it. It always brought a smile to people's faces when they saw it. It also added a bit to the operational aspect of the layout.

All of the lights are on, and the engines are getting ready to switch the O'Brien spur (the gate is already open).

The last implementation of the layout's extension really captured its essential purpose, which was to be a lead track to the turnout that was near the end of the track at this end of the layout (you can see the turnout's position indicator LED).

The next set of photos are of the actual demolition. The sections of the layout were disconnected from each other, as intended by the original design, and then moved into the garage for salvaging of items that I wanted to keep, before their final trip to the landfill.

One last view of the back of one of these sections.

To make it easy to move them, I removed the backdrop/overhead lighting system from the actual layout base module. Here you can see what the back side of the section that was on the right-hand side of the layout.

Next, I did the same thing to the left-hand side's end section.

This then freed up the 2-foot section on the left-hand side.

That left just the two center sections. These were difficult to remove, because there was just 1/4" inch of play between the two of them and the room's walls. This was further complicated by the fact that I poured the creek across the two sections, so I had to first cut the scenery apart.

The square footage of the layout itself was only 32sqft, or a single 4' x 8' sheet. That is evident in this photo where I put the module bases on my workbench in the garage. The small 2-foot section didn't fit and the workbench.