Room prep started in August 2019, after deciding the current house was going to be the home of the layout.

Wife insists that the garage door must remain functional and household storage, including refrigeration, must remain or be improved. The electrical panel, furnace and water heater to all remain in current location.

Room mostly cleared (that took some planning). I had eight light fixtures and 6 additional outlets installed and the garage door opener moved to a side mount. Like this:

Hello friends,

It's been awhile between updates, but I've been making slow progress on my Erie Western / Chicago & Indiana circa 1979.

More details and pics to follow...

This blog will document the layout in my garage...

My hope is this turns into a prototypical based model inspired by a Burlington Northern Branch Line in Eastern Washington. The Burlington Northern line extended north from Spokane Wa / Hillyard to Kettle Falls Wa and beyond into Canada. The model will be HO scale (~1:87) in a 21x18 foot garage with significant other constrains. Target era is the early 70s.

Expect slow and irregular progress.

Thanks for reading, more to come...

I was starting to think about modeling a (partially) prototype-inspired Santa Fe 1950's M.O.W. consist using older '70's equipment (aka Athearn, AHM, Tyco, etc), starting with what I have on hand.  

This photo appears to be older than the period I want to model, judging by the paint scheme of the crane.  However it gives me a general idea of where I'm going.

Thank You to my (first) 300 subscribers.

I'm venturing into new territory now with an attempt at some scenery, my first try at any sort of serious scenery.  I'm building a photo diorama to shoot some models on as well as to test some scenery techniques.  I wanted to try and capture a northern Canadian Shield view along a boggy body of water with a photo backdrop behind that I could change out to switch up the view a bit.  

The crew was working hard today laying the approach to the lift-up bridge section.  
 

‘Joe