For my layout, the major local quarry (Rock of Ages) owned and used a number of small steam locomotives. Some of these were tank engines, including a pair of 0-6-2s from Baldwin that were sold to the quarry by the Barre and Chelsea railway in 1948 and 1952.

The following two images are not mine, and are used without permission.

The Central Vermont Railway only had two RS-3s, and only had those for a couple of years before they were transferred to its sister the Grand Trunk.

I love the lines on the RS-3, and even though it's a bit of a squeeze in my timeline,  I had purchased one when I first started in the hobby in 2008. I installed my first sound decoder in it, and than proceeded to immediately plunge it to its death; off the layout and onto a concrete floor.

It's been a very productive couple of days. Once again, I've added a new post over at Motor City Rollercoaster, my blog about modeling a modern day version of the Detroit Terminal Railroad. In this installment, I take a detailed look at the relatively short but operationally challenging Highland Park Industrial Track.

I hope you enjoy it.

Rich

An update on my previous post on the little layout I'm building, (they really grow on you!) It's more proto-freelance now too. (Sorry abuot photos, my computer is on the fritz again and my android won't let me imbed them

I have a basic question on a building for construction of a layout.  It is a very basic and maybe simple question.  If a person was building an approximately 3000 SF building for a layout, is it better to have a building that is say 150 feet long and 20 feet wide or a building that is 75 feet long and 40 feet wide.  It would seem the only reason to have benchwork curving all over in a building is because the building is not long enough to have a long run.  It would seem to make sense to have as long a straight run as possible for operations, scenery, etc. 

Hey gang !

              I have posted the most resent progress on my construction of my Green Bay and Western on Youtube. Back in January I was involved in a auto accident which affected my mobility and my manual dexterity so I was not working that much on the layout.

 Construction is moving along and I will be working harder during the next couple of months to prepare for our November open house layout tour.

thanks Paul B

Latest update on the Virginia Southern:

Removed the upper frame and lighting for the entire layout and replaced with CFL bulbs. The choice was done to clean up the look above the layout, have smoother lighting across and to solve how to light over the transition areas between the decks.

I have also added a Facebook group for the VS: Virginia Southern Model Railroad

As fellow modelers your invited to shoot me a request to join or messages, all are welcome!

It has been quite some time since my last post, but my family and I are now settled in the Chicago area, and life is beginning to get back to normal. I just added a new post on my blog, Motor City Rollercoaster, which chronicles my planning and (eventual) construction of a proto-freelanced modern-day Detroit Terminal Railroad.  Please check it out, I hope you enjoy!

Rich

OK, so I now have about two weeks at home where I have several honey-do items as well as errands, but plenty of free time.  I have several projects I want to work on to keep my interest level up.  One of them is Monroe Models' Ellie's House kit.  This will be the farm house for my scene in the middle of the return loop in the area where I have the backdrop.  

     For those of you who know me, you know that for the last couple of years I have been debating on adding a top deck to my layout.  Well, the time has come to move on to the next step and I wanted to share the experience with all of my friends here on MRH.  For the last couple of weeks, I have been hard at work finishing up the research and sketching out a few track plans.  And I feel that a trip to my local home improvement store will be in the very near future.  But there is a twist to this project and I would love to hear your comments on thi