It's been a few days short of a year that I ceased being a member of the HO scale fraternity and undertook the challenges of modeling in N scale. Progress has been slow, but the time has come to share with you what I've managed to accomplish thus far.

The main reason for the big switch in scales came about when we moved into our present house four years ago. I had an odd-shaped area to work with and when all the items (or most) from the "honey-do" list were crossed off, I set about designing my new HO scale layout. But the area just wasn't working for me and progress was at a standstill while I filled copious amounts of graph paper and fast-food restaurant napkins with endless doodles. I never considered changing scales, but one day I was going through some older issues of Model Railroader and I came across the series of articles by the late Gordie Odegard chronicling his construction of the N scale Clinchfield layout.

Now here was layout that would be ideal for my space, and to make a somewhat long story short, all of my HO scale equipment found new homes all across North America via the magic of Ebay. I used the financial resources from the auctions and purchased some N scale trains. I even got as far as constructing some benchwork to fit the trackplan, but at some point I became disenchanted with the notion of having to duck under the layout to gain access to the interior of the 6 x 14 foot space. Those of you who are familar the design will know what I mean.

But I did like the fact that you couldn't see the whole layout from any given point, and how it was seperated into distinct scenes. So I kept researching the Clinchfield and my folder got even fatter with doodles and data. One day I was at my local hobby shop ( and I DO mean local. I can walk to it.) and I was thumbing through some books looking to be hit between the eyes with some fortuitous inspiration, when I came upon a track plan book by Bernie Kempinski. In it was a plan for a Western Maryland setting, designed for N scale no less. The light bulb went off, and faster than you can say "Bob's your uncle," I had all the motivation I needed.

Out came the drafting tools and templates (I'm old school when it comes to layout design, no CAD for me thank you), I tweaked the original plan to fit my space and Thomas, West Virginia became Shelbiana, Kentucky and I had the setting for my modern day CSX version of an Appalachian mountain railroad. The layout is designed for future expansion, and some day I hope to push on to other locales. Other "layout design elements" I want to include are such signature scenes as Elkhorn City, the Pool Point tunnel and bridge, a branch line representing the Fremont Branch, a Norfolk Southern interchange at St.Paul, the Copper Creek Viaduct and eventually a city/industrial area based upon Kingsport, Tn.

But all that is for some time in the future. For now, I'm working on an 8 x 11 foot section in a 120 square foot section at one end of the basement. This will be Shelby Yard. Most of the yard will be on a curve, a la the prototype. A branch line will wind it's way around the layout for operationl interest and switching possibilities. No train will pass through the scene more than once.

I've included some photos that show the layout to its current level of completion. Hopefully it won't take a year till the next update!