Cincinnati and Lake Erie RR: O-scale 2 rail, switching layout

Layout space/room: 14’4” by 8’8” rectangular room with a 3’2” entranceway in lower left corner.

I blame my conversion to O scale 2 rail on eBay, Atlas and my friend, Jack Keene.

I've spent a fair amount of time over the last week or so exploring OperationsPro to see if it will do what I want for the Office Park zone. The previous worked example done by David Haynes (pdf here) is a great resource and provides lots of foundational information. However, it only deals with a single industry spur and the cassette doubles as both staging and storage.

With all the pre-ops paperwork done, we got to run the railroad yesterday with a mix of old timers and first timers. Things ran really well, and we only had a few minor glitches - which created the Punch List of items to address for next time. More detail and pics here - hope you'll stop by!

Chris

The Valley Local

Hi all,

Scratchbuilding and kitbashing locos and rolling stock is one of my favourite aspects of the hobby, and On30 is a good scale for this.  As such, about a third of the rolling stock on my layout is scratchbuilt.  The most recent addition was a 16' logging flatcar.  This was built with the method I usually use for my scratchbuilt rolling stock.  I'd like to share this method here, in case someone else finds it useful.

A number of forum members asked for details on how this picure was created.  The model is an HO scale Athearn Genesis ES44AC, The intermodal cars and seacans are from Wathers, Athearn, and Kato.

I got bored and decided to build a new N scale layout ......reusing most of what I kept over the years.

Benchwork is built by ripping a sheet of 1/2" Birch plywood into 3" wide strips....the sheet I started with was purchased from a local lumber yard that sells quality wood, not the crap that Home Depot or Lowes sells.

The strips are then cut to length for what is needed for a given part..........frames are 2' x 8' with a 1' x 2' tapered section added on 1 end.

If you host regular operating sessions, one of the necessary evils is having to set up the operating session. And sometimes that can take as long (sometimes longer!) than the session itself. But just like cooking - where it often takes longer to prepare the meal than to eat it - if you enjoy the process of preparing a meal then that's just as much fun as the meal itself.

Anybody else feel this way? Ops set up: necessary evil, or added benefit?

The 30" gauge Grayhaven Tramway (GHT, though sometimes painted on locomotive tenders as GTH with a larger T so the G and H nestle under the top of the T) started out as one of several industrial shortlines that ran across the Faux Islands atoll.

Well, may have found that "perfect house" which combines the features of a nice vacation home including river view with practical needs such as being close to work.   Several things still have to fall in place before it's definite.