Peter's Model Railroading | My Library | Magazine Categories
Layouts Articles

"Don't touch the track or the trolley wire"

The author reflects on finding a layout where the owner used live 115-volts overhead wire for running its large-scale models.

10 Railroads 1 Layout Part 1

This layout is very, very large. It covers a 2,600 square foot area, and consists of FOUR decks. It is so large that it can accommodate 30 operators in an operating session. Many people have helped Bruce and his wife build this layout. Includes the track plan of the main level.

10 Railroads 1 Layout Part 2

This installment of Bruce's large layout covers operations. Included are the operational schematic, discussions about selecting an era for the railroad, building a fleet, the various jobs available, both CTC's, running "day and night", and DCC.

2 Layouts in 1

HO-scale modules that attach to a smaller home layout as well as to a large club layout. Includes a side bar on how the modules are transported.

A Layout You Can Carry With You

The author built a layout in a suit case.

Aberfoyle Jct: One Layout, Two Railways

The layout started as a 32' by 32' layout built by two couples. Eventually a new space was found for the current 83' by 32' space. All but the hidden track is hand-laid. The photos are beautiful, including the night scene which reveals the interior detailing done to the structures.

Allegheny Summer

This large 22 x 24 feet layout models West Virginia in the summer of 1947. The article includes photos and the trackplan (which is quite interesting). A small sidebar is included about how the author scratchbuilt his large roundhouse.

Alturas & Lone Pine RR

This 25-year old layout is built into a five-car garage and models the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

American Dream in Germany

The Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg Germany has been working hard on their American layout extension of their large exhibit. This article highlights some features of this freelanced layout.

An Expanding Narrow Gauge Empire

The Cascade County Narrow Gauge layout measures 26 x 31 feet, is set in the late 1920s to early 1930s. Includes information on how the owner found information about his prototype railroad.

Ann Arbor Memories

This large layout (33' x 29') is rich in operations and allows for many close-up shots of Arnt Gerritsen's model railroad.

Arvern Bay Terminal RR

Boats, ship building facility

Assault on the Alleghenies

Aurora's Model Railroad Magnate

This is a large layout fitting in a 18' by 50' building built by Dr. Gordon Fessler. The layout was started in 1979.

BC Rail from North Vancouver to Squamish in HO Scale

A double-deck, two-track helix layout. Scratchbuilt bridge photos, other model photos.

Big-city Railroading in a Small Apartment Room

A small shelf layout can still make big-city railroading possible. Shows the author's arrangement to allow the layout and the workbench to co-exist in the same small room. Includes a sidebar on how to make switching between DC and DCC on the layout a breeze.

BNSF Fall River Subdivision

Bob Frankrone's Louisville Southern Lines

A fictitious railroad resulting from the merger of the L&N, Soo Line, and Southern railroads. Very nice roundhouse and turntable setup.

Bob Smith's HO Douglas Central

A couple of close-up photos of this layout.

Build the N-scale Appalachian Central

Complete article from benchwork to wiring.

Central Montana

Photos and a description of the author's layout. No track plan.

Citibank Station: 1990

In 1986 Citibank wanted to create a "Christmas present to New York" in their 5-story atrium. Clarke Dunham was hired to build it. The huge triangular layout features two loops of HO-scale trains, and one each of S-scale and 3-rail O-scale.

Coal Train Operations

Coal mine, company town, coal drags, modeling hoppers, and references.

Colorful New England Club Layout

A large around-the-wall and peninsula design.

Creech Brothers Logging Company

Animation, water in warf, a side bar on a car brake for a siding.

Desert Railroading on the Santa Fe

Point-to-point with large hidden staging that serves as continues loop running also.

Dining Table Layout

The author describes how he built a dining room table that has a layout built into it, modeled after a prototype scene.

Fred Oster's HOn3 Denver & Rio Grande Third Division

Photos, and track plan.

From Plan to Reality

This 30 x 40 foot layout models the Reading Co. in Pennsylvania between 1952 and 1957. It features stacking staging at either end of the layout in a peninsula area.

G-scale On The Move

A group of people who create G-scale portable modules.

Gilpin & Blackhawk

A 33.5 by 13.5 foot layout by Glen Brazelton features high trestle bridges, large mountains, and nice structures. The layout was constructed by club members.

Gopher State Fallen Flags

This 7' x 22' layout includes both the C&NW and the Milwaukee railroads. One depot served both rails.

Gorre & Daphetid in a French Mirror

The layout is an N-scale version of John Allen's first table layout. The size is 24" by 40".

Granger Railroading - 1906

Features the author's Puye & Phui RR which is a free-lanced prototype layout set in the Upper Mississippi River Valley in 1906. The layout is an around-the-walls type with a center peninsula. Articles includes a track plan and many close-up photos.

Harrytown, Santa Alicia & Santa Elena

Building a small pre-1900s practice layout before building a large layout.

Hooked On British Rails

The layout models the London, Midland & Scottish (LMS) railway which serves the West Midlands. OO-scale is 1:76, but the wheels fit on HO-scale track. Photos and a track plan of the 15' x 21' layout accompany the article.

Horsehoe Curver in the 1950's

Modeling the Pennsylvania horseshoe curve. Includes history of the curve.

IC's Springfield Division: An Alternate Reality

This police officer's layout provides a great stress reliever. The article is mainly a narrative of operations on this layout. The article has many close-up photos, but no detailed information about the layout itself.

Jeffrey White's Z Scale UP Layout

Two people in two states built a 10' x 20' Z-scale layout together that is an example showing that operations, realistic scenery, and craftsmanship can be applied to this small scale. Includes lots of close-up photos and a trackplan.

Jim Rollwage's Union Pacific

Keeping Track of History

The 8 by 25 foot permanent display of an O-scale layout in the Los Altos History Museum helps visitors to view the past of the local area. Includes a track plan and many photos.

Ken Davis' Great Northland Ry.

Ken has been working on the same layout for 30 years. It measures 16 by 22 feet.

L&N Cumberland Valley Division

A 32" by 80" hollow door was the foundation for this beautiful layout. The layout integrates the author's found memories from when he was young.

Midwest Mod-U-Trak HO Scale Railroad

This is a club layout that integrated portability with prototype modeling. The concept came from NTrak modules. Each member of the club builds his or her own 6-foot module. Detailed diagrams are included to define the standard used by the club.

Modeling 1950 Southern Style

Allen Keller personal layout.

Modeling a Secret Prototype

It was a challenge for Chris White to build his 11' x 13' layout modeling the Russian prototype. The layout is small. A sidebar is included discussing the "joy of terminal operation".

Modeling Georgia in the 1940's

A simple, but nice double-mainline layout measuring 5' by 12'.

Modeling the "Ma & Pa"

An 8' by 22' shelf layout set in 1946. Includes history about the Maryland and Pennsylvania railroad. The author covers how he built the layout and how it is operated.

Modeling Western Mountain Railroad Operations

A large layout in moderate space. The scenery reaches floor to ceiling. A huge helix dominates the space representing logging industry.

Modern Rocky Mountain Railroading - Colorado Style

The "Colorado & Eastern RR" is a 15' x 14' N-scale layout that features long mainlines set in the modern era.

Moving a Reefer Block on the Silver Palace Line

A layout that fills an entire room, except for access holes.

Mud Bay & Southern Part III

Photos and description of the author's layout. The layout features a very nice car ferry, a log dumper, a large lumber company, and other industries.

Narrow Gauge Through the San Juan Mountains

28 x 38 free-lanced mountain railroad set in New Mexico and Colorado. Has a sidebar on painting backdrops that are slightly out of focus to keep attention on the 3D models.

New Badger Creek Lumber Co.

Lots of model photos.

Oxenhope: A Traveling Protofour Layout

This layout is built to the English scale that is slightly larger than HO. It features the modeling work of John Moore. Although now owned by one of his regular operators, John worked on this layout for almost 30 years. He showed it whenever possible.

P.J. Mattson's Raccoon Valley Railroad

This large, double-deck layout covers over 42 feet by more than 20 feet. There is a lot of traffic on this layout. Includes many photos and a trackplan.

Pekin Pellston & Peoria RR

Pennsylvania, Allegheny & Western RR

11' x 14' U-shaped layout features nice mountainous scenery and a curved trestle bridge.

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines

A two-level layout in a 12' x 16' area. Close-up photos of various industries.

Port of Los Angeles Project Railroad Part 1

This 30" by 6-foot module seems to relay the busy L.A. port in a modern-day setting. The busy trackwork allows plenty of switching. It is designed to fit most HO-scale modular layout standards. The author built it on a movable cart for easy transport. Many construction photos are included, as are a trackplan and completed layout photos. There is a sidebar on the author's checklist of the do's and don't's of layout design

Progress Report on the Franklin & South Manchester

Completion of South Manchester is covered in this article. Trackplan and many (large) layout photos accompany the article.

Publisher's Musings

The author visited layous in the Dallas, Texas area for future TrainMasters TV episodes, and shares information about the 6 layouts they visited.

Railroading with Marklin

This layout features Marklin trains of European descent. The author started building the layout in 1977. It includes overhead catenary, and typical European scenery.

Ralph Pirtle's Ozark Valley Lines

This is an O-scale traction line layout in a bedroom measuring 15' by 10'. Color and black-n-white photos of this beautiful layout accompany the article.

Redesigning for Better Operation

The first time this layout, the Great Western RR, was featured in this magazine was in October 1992. This follow-up article talks about all the changes the author made to his layout based on lessons he has learned since then.

Remembering the Louie

The Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad's Thirteenth Sub. A point-to-point layout with four railroads.

Revisiting The Cooncreek & Tumbleweed Springs

Photos and description of a remodeled section of the layout.

Right from the Start

The author described how he used the various modeling and design books out there to build his own 16 by 27 foot layout. He didn't start out with that size, though. Includes photos and a track plan of his layout, which is set between 1970 and 1990 in St. Louis County, Missouri.

RMC Rides the "Peavine"

Photos of an unknown layout that models the Norfolk & Western Railway.

Rocky Mountain Narrow Gauge

Ken models the Colorado rockies in the 1930s in his 15'x19' layout.

Rocky Ridge

The author has built yet another portable module. This one is entitled "Rocky Ridge" and measures 2' by 5'. The article includes photos and a track plan of the module.

Rugged Yet Semi-portable HO Pike

A 4' x 7' layout that is "kid-proof". This layout includes just about everything a steam era pike should have, including a turntable, tunnels, and plenty of switching.

San Diego's Model Railroad Museum

This article describes the club's 10th anniversary visit. The club has three scales, HO, N, and O. Photos of the beautiful vistas in this museum can be found in the article. All the issues a typical museum has to deal with are discussed.

Santa Fe All the Way

Diaphragms on passenger cars. Free-lanced, 1940-1960.

Santa Fe in the Southern Great Plains

A point-to-point shelf layout modeling the Oklahoma Texas border during the post-WWII era.

Sectional Way to a Great Shelf Layout

The Chicago & North Western of 1959 comes to life on the HO scale Morton Division. This is an L-shaped layout composed of 18- and 24-inch wide modules. It has interchanges and two staging areas.

Sharing the Gorre & Daphetid

Two photos of John Allen's layout. Tony reflects on memories of John.

South-Central Ontario, 1958

Model Engineers Society layout of modules. The articles has many photos and module diagrams.

Steam Whistles and Drumbeats: The Kootenay River Railfair and Pow-Wow

This article makes a good argument for true free-lancing. The author and his sons are building dioramas that will be placed in a real-world boxcar.

Steel City N Gauge Model Railway Club

An office basement layout that was open for the NMRA National Convention in Toronto in July 2003. Article includes a handful of photos.

Steve Frey's HO Milwaukee Road

A 12' by 13' island layout with one peninsula along a wall (connected to his Dad's layout), this young man describes how he started and built this layout.

The Carolina & Western RR

The author describes how he changed from HO to O-scale, even though he was firmly rooted in HO. The new layout measures 13.5' by 36'.

The Disney World Monorail in S

The author found and bought the Disney World Monorail trainset and some add-on components. A comparison shot to an AF passenger seems to indicate the monorail may very well fit within either an S- or an O-scale layout.

The Great Northern in N Scale

Scenery dominates this professional artist's rendition of the Montana Rockies in a 11' by 13' room. The photos and the topic of the photos are amazing.

The HO Scale Galilee & Golan Heights RR

A 5 x 9 foot ping pong table was converted into a layout that went to Israel.

The HO-scale Windsor Railroad

This freelance layout measures 23' by 27' feet and is supposed to represent the New Jersey and New York area. The article includes a track plan of this M-shaped layout, as well as a number of close-up photos.

The Idaho Eastern

The Jasper & Keystone RR

The layout features a single mainline with grades of 2.5 to 3 percent. The layout was started as a modified version of Plan 48 in Linn Westcott's book"101 Track Plans".

The Locust Grove & Western RR Revisited

An interesting story of how a club moved around, and then was able to set up in a museum Winter 2005. Covers lots of lessons learned. Nice photos of the modules.

The Markham Railroad Modellers Club

A large club layout built in 1,500 square foot of space overlooking Toronto's CNR.

The Modern South Penn

This 12 by 24-foot layout models portions of what might have been the future version of a the South Penn RR (which was never completed). This line ran between Harrisburg and Pittsburg, PA. The author's version assumes the line was built and later became part of Conrail via all the of PRR mergers. Includes trackplan, layout photos, area map, and schematic trackplan.

The Mojave Western System

This former professional railroader started constructing this layout in 1957 as a branch to his ATSF prototype layout. However, he discovered that he preferred free-lance modeling, and so the branch became the main layout's focus. The layout is entirely double-decked, except for a peninsula.

The N-scale Grand Road

Two-level, small bedroom layout with impressive control panels, representing western Colorado in modern times.

The New Jersey & Western RR

Description and photos of this 25 x 36 foot layout set in the early to mid 1950s. No track plan.

The Onyx Division

Close-up photos of the three of the 14 modules that make up the authors' layout.

The Pennsy in Britain

A Proto:87 switching layout, named Federal Street.

The Pleasures of Micro Layouts

This article discusses the concept of micro layouts (small two-feet square layouts). It has many photos of example layouts. It discusses how to transfer trains using sector plates, transfer tables, or train cassettes. The author has been building and designing these layouts for over 40 years.

The Quabbin Shore & Hampden Ry.

This layout models a short line in a New England setting. The initial simple linear layout grew to a 15 by 28 foot layout. The trackplan and many layout photos are included.

The Recycled RR

Building a 4' by 6' layout for Christmas, made up entirely of items found in garage sales, rummage bins, and train shows. Half of the fun is in fixing up old things to make them work again.

The Rio Grande's Hart Lake Division

This bedroom-sized layout packs a lot of railroading at 10' x 12'. Article includes trackplan (island-style) and layout photos. The whole family works on the layout.

The Salt City Express

Freelanced layout based on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Horseshoe Curve line.

The Shawanga Valley

A T-shaped layout that started off as an around-the-wall shelf layout with the later addition of a duckunder (the author regrets doing that). The article has black&white and colored photos of the layout.

The South Penn RR

This 22' by 24' layout models the South Penn railroad (which was proposed but never completed in the real world). Included are the track plan, layout photos, and modeled area map and elevation.

The Sun Belt Ry.

The author describes his experience from switching from O to HO to N, and finally settling on Z-scale. He covers some of the problems he had with early Z-scale equipment, but claims to really enjoy it now.

The V & O Story 4

This installment covers the room preparation, benchwork, lighting, roadbed, trackwork, electrical work, and the CTC control system.

The Virtual Gilpin

Using software to create a complete layout in whatever scale you desire on your computer. The article has many screenshots, describes the software the author used, and has some prototype photos of the real Gilpin Tramway.

The Virtual Gilpin Part II

In this installment of the series on how to build a virtual model railroad the author dives more into how to create this world. Includes a side bar on the Gilpin Tram wreck of 1897.

The Weber Valley RR

Pronounced "weeber", this layout represents a short line set in northern Utah's Wasatch Mountains. This is a teenager's layout, who "tricked" his dad into doing some of of the not-so-fun work. Her mother painted most of the backdrop, which looks to be fantastic work. The layout is shaped like a lower-case "e", and fills a room of almost 12' by 12'. Color photos show off the excellent scenery and backdrop work.

The West Side Lumber Co.

In this is a 10' x 10' layout set in the late 1950s, the author attempted to capture the feel of a set of specific scenes of Tuolumne, California. In addition to covering the construction of the layout, he also talks about how all the structures had to be scratchbuilt, which locomotives he uses, and how he built the scenery. Included are lots of photos of the layout, and a track plan.

The York Haven RR Co.

This layout acts as a fictional bridge route between the New York Central and New Haven railroads, and runs from Silvernails, NY to Hagerstown, MD. It is set between 1940 and 1953. The layout started out at 36" above the floor, but was raised later to 47" by the owner's operating crew. The layout forms a triangle and measures 25' by 35'. The scenery and weathering is very realistic.

Three Ways to Gilpin

This large article covers three layouts and lots of prototype information and photos about Colorado's two-foot Gilpin tramway. One layout is in 1/2" scale, another in Sn2, and the last one in HOn30.

Thundering Water and Belching Steam

1950s on Bill Emond's Whiskey River Division.

To the Mines for Silver

1900s railroading in Idaho comes alive in the HO Pacific & Idaho Northern. This is a 12' x 15' bedroom-size layout that goes around the walls, with a peninsula added, and a lower level that has a return loop into an adjacent closet. The scenery is beautiful with the railroad crossing the snaking river several times. There is a sidebar on how to model mountain streams.

Troy on the NEB&W

Two Scales Two Continents

This layout is mainly a 16 by 20-foot HO-scale layout featuring both American and European styles. It includes N-scale railroading to provide forced perspective.

Updating the PRR Northeast Division

The author updates us on the improvements he has made to his layout (his last article was in the March 2001 issue of RMC). Includes close-up photos of his new, detailed scenes.

Urban Railroading in a Gulf Coast Port

This is an industrial layout in a 12' x 13' room. The layout includes a port peninsula.

Vic Butterworth's N Scale Railroad

This U-shaped layout placed inside of a ten-foot square building area features beautiful scenery. The Enport, Rogue River & Thataway has all scratchbuilt structures.

Visiting the Sheridan & Bruce Lake Rwy.

G-shaped layout with small storage tracks behind the layout wall. Nice weathering.

Visiting the Spring Creek Valley Rwy.

The layout fits in a 12' by 35' room. According to Jim Ellis, the owner, it represents a bridge route between Niagara Falls and Toronto. This layout was started in 1964.

Visiting Tom Combs' Cascade Pacific

Photos accompany this article about how the owner's layout has changed, thanks to the help of friends.

Welcome to Oakville

A large, three level layout set in the modern times.

Wisconsin's Bits 'n Pieces Railroad

The Wisconsin’s Bits 'n Pieces Railroad is a modular layout club formed in the 1990s. Their HO-scale and N-scale layouts are traditional modular layouts, but each side of the rectangular shapes features a different season (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer). Their original layouts were sold in 2009, and the second version of the layouts are now taken to shows. The large article includes many photos of both versions of both layouts, as well as diagrams showing the photos' locations.

Yosemite Valley

Despite some glitches, careful planning paid off in a highly satisfying HO layout.