Neil's layout will also be on the Piedmont Pilgrimage,

the afternoon of November 11th.  See the website piedmont-div.org for directions.  Neil, why don't you tell everybody about how you decided to revamp for better operations and completely rebuilt the entire layout?  It makes for a wonderful story!

    Paul

Looks to me like that is

Looks to me like that is handlaid track

Yes Hand Layed Track

Wow how long did it take him

Wow how long did it take him to lay all that track

History lesson

Thank you Arthur for the cool video. The original Diamond River wad started approx 8 years ago. After completing the main line and the majority of the Industries and sidings I came across the JRAG Operations group. After a handfull of operating sessions and some valuable critiques from the group members I decided that the master plan I had devised had some serious flaws. Narrow isles inadequate yard space confusing and insufficient staging. The plan had to be improved. Over a few months I devised a completely new layout that filled my 28x28 operating space and made the statement to the group that "life is too short to work on something that I just ain't happy with". So out came the metaphorical chain saw and down it came. The new Diamond River Railroad has an average 30˝ isle. 23 staging tracks with 16 of them set up for continuous running. A large yard that works for model operations and several large industries. I decided that once again I would handlay my track but with the exception of staging and the main line. I used atlas code 83 for both of these but did handlay in place all the turnouts. I recently made an adjustment to one of the branch lines and used ME code 70 flex track there. The rebuild has taken about 4 years I believe but has slowed down quite a bit recently due to a new job working as a conductor for the NS. Hopefully that has given some overview of the. Railroad. Please if you are in Atlanta next month come out and support the Piedmont pilgrimage it is a good opportunity to see some very nice layouts. The DRV will also be on tour and operating for the 2013 national convention if you plan to attend that.

Thanks for the Rest Of the Story

Neil that is great information for the operations world.  I too learned the very basic rules to have operating layout as you described.  I went to Hograils, in Bella Vista, AK just as I started mine and all I can say is Thank you to that group. 

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