Hey all!

I appreciated the comments of fellow MRH readers on my past blog entries. Your comments and suggestions have already had a dramatic impact on my layout for the better. Thanks to everyone! So I thought I'd give you a recent update.

One of the hurdles I was facing was coming  up with a good name for my layout. Thanks to the suggestions of Joe Atkinson, I've now got something better than "N&W Coal Hauling layout" which was the title on my last blogs. I'm now operating as the "N&W Pokey District, Sup 1 3/4". The N&W Pokey District is self explanatory. Since I originally intended my layout to be on the West Virginia/Kentucky border, that just seemed like a given. Though my trackplan is freelanced, I called my yard area Bluefield. So it just seemed natural that my layout would be located somewhere on the south end of the Pokey District. I don't know if the N&W ever had sub-section numbers, but I chose to use something like that in my layout name. The number "one" suggested itself since I'm at one end of the Pokey District. The 3/4's was an inspiration from the Harry Potter movies. You may remember the Hogwarts Express? That train left from platform 9 3/4. A magical platform between the real life platforms of 9 & 10. Since my trackplan has no basis in real life, I didn't want my name giving the impression to other modelers that it was based on the actual prototype. Thus sub-section 1 3/4 fit the bill perfectly! I don't know if my layout will turn out to be magical or not, but I do hope it will have a magical effect on those who see it in real life!

I was hoping that I would be able to complete all my track work prior to installing scenery. Unfortunately, because Atlas code 83 flex track is not readily available at this point, my plans were changed. So scenery construction got underway. I had hoped the mountains on my layout would make it really feel like you are in West Virginia coal country. I'll let you decide from the pictures if you think that goal is being realized. Here are some pictures of the mountains that are going up.

Those moutains made out of pink foam are mountains that need to be moveable for various access reasons. The big pink mountain in the corner needs to be removable so I can access our house circuit box in the wood cabinet. The low line of pink foam hills has a removeable crest to access a branchline staging track hidden in the mountain.

You might notice that in the last picture, there is a sheet of upainted masonite back drop going up. Originally I hadn't intended to put a back drop up for various reasons, but the suggestions of other MRH readers got me to reconsider that choice. Am I glad they did. Even without the backdrop painted, it already feels like the scene has much more depth! 

I plan on covering these mountains with Joe Fugate's "hardshell" recipe. Have never used that before, but Joe spoke so highly of it in his scenery video's I thought I'd give it a try. Some of these mountains seem a little to "flexy" to me right now. I'm wondering if I need more wood supports under them. But I think once I get the hardshell on things will stiffen up just fine.

Paul Krentz

N&W Pokey District, Sub 1 3/4