Test run to Clarksburg, West Virginia.

I have a friend who I fly with in his Cessna 172.  He said he wanted to do a mission.  I had one in mind.  Larry Linger does superb decoder installation videos on the YouTube.  Larry and I have worked together over the phone and by email for a while now and I wanted to meet him.  He is part of a model railroad club too.  What could be a better basis for a mission?

The Clarksburg Model Railroad Club is in the large basement of a commercial building in downtown Clarksburg, WV.  It houses a number of different scale layouts.  It starts wit a loop of Z Scale mixed in with s loop of American Flier, a pair of finished N Scale layouts, an O Scale layout on the build and two HO Scale layouts, one permanent and one for travel to shows.  Here are some pictures of the layouts.

Ben Dow and me in Ben's airplane enroute.

The Z Scale and the S Scale layouts at the club.

The N Scale pair of layouts at the club.

The above pictures are of the HO Scale permanent layout.

These last three pictures were taken of the mobile club layout.

Larry and I are between the club layout and his workshop.

The Man Cave.

Looking at the downstairs shop.  We decided we have a lot of tools in common but will need some more neat ones....

The master’s workbench in the upstairs shop!  I hear it includes a new “non-squeak” chair too or maybe I don’t hear….

The N Scale layout upstairs in the workshop.

This was a great visit and great start to a new series of visits!  I'm psyched to get the motorhome on the road again!  Thanks Ben and Larry!

Nick, glad to see the mission

Nick, glad to see the mission worked out. Nice to see you getting out and about. I'll bet you made much better time in the plane than the motor home and likely used less gas to cover the distance! I definitely recognize the jug on the hood of the truck!

Wow I am glad too see our

Wow I am glad too see our club layout on a model railroad forum.

Larry has taught me a lot on things along with Jim Farry and John

Carlisle. We have a good group of members and eager to teach 

new people. Stop by sometime and see us. Thanks for the great

pictures and article.

Big Mike

N8FWD

Stopped at a personal layout in Robesonia, PA today.

Tom Jacobs gave Angela Sutton and me the royal tour!  The Crossline represents the Reading in the 1970s.  It is seven years into the build and represents a monumental effort.  Tom has a Facebook page that has more information and good progress reports.  Enjoy a couple photos of the layout!

The layout is a layered mushroom.  This is ground level and staging.  The helix, where the dispatcher will sit, is on your left and the stairs up are to the left of the helix.

The two long wall are next and in order.  Signals, structures and scenery are the next major projects.

Here are some parts that are well along the way.

Angela masterfully guides a mixed freight through the full, well behaved layout and back into staging.  This and a very detailed tour by Tom made for a very pleasant visit to a very magnificent project!  Big Thank You to Tom for sharing his day and his Crossline!

These are great Nick

That Crossline looks like a club layout all by itself.

Speaking of motorhome touring, I have a Wanderlodge for sale.  It has room for a layout!

Last November 29, 2021, Sue and I stopped to visit Seth Gartner. Seth gave us the Royal tour of his layout. I took a couple pictures that you might be interested in looking at. Needless to say I was very impressed!!! I’d like to get back to an operating session when I’m in the area again! Thanks for the good times Seth!