This railroad depicts the B&O’s Shenandoah Valley branch, circa 1949 running from Brunswick, Md. south through West Virginia terminating in Strasburg, Va at the Southern interchange. While there is plenty of action during a session, the layout is spread out through a large basement so the sensation of running on a quiet branch line is evident. John uses both steam and diesels in his operations. HO scale, wireless throttles, TT&TO. Crew of 10.

The CSX Downtown Spur is a twenty-by-twenty foot, HO scale switching layout based on its namesake in Miami, Florida as it was in 2007. The prototype is a 3.5 mile, stub ended branch splitting off of the CSX main near the airport and running eastward into the city. The line serves a number of food industries, scrap metal dealers, and warehouses. Lance also has two smaller layouts, one based on the Los Angeles Junction, and the other an N scale Brooklyn Harbor theme. Lance has room for only two operators, but he welcomes others to come during this time to see the layout and watch.

An HO Scale Model Railroad modeled in 1958. Slipping through the suburbs of Montgomery County Maryland in the early 1900’s the Georgetown Branch split from the Baltimore and Ohio Metropolitan Subdivision in Silver Spring Maryland and ended in Georgetown Washington D.C. The mainstay of the branch was freight service mostly building materials, lumber, steel, coal for home heating, and in Georgetown coal for the steam generating plant that heated congressional buildings in Washington D.C.

The Erie Lackawanna climbed steep grades both east and west out of Scranton, PA. This 28- by 34-foot HO Scale layout faithfully models the eastward climb to Pocono Summit and East Stroudsburg in July-August 1975, and nearly all trains require helpers to climb the grade. ProtoThrottles are used to control sound-equipped DCC locomotives, helping operators feel the struggle up the grade. Two eleven-track and one seven-track staging yards provide traffic. Two on-line yards and multiple on-line industries provide operating interest beyond the mainline action, and the Bloomsburg Branch provides a live interchange with the Reading Railroad plus additional industry. The layout is dispatched using ABS/Rule 251 on the mainline and timetable and train orders on the Branch. Turnouts are both commercial and handlaid, using code 83 rail for the mainline and code 70 in the yards and industrial areas. The layout is fully operational, and scenery is about 50% complete.

Rich Steinmann's Erie-Lackawanna Morris and Essex Division models the section from Madison on the east through Morristown, Morris Plains, Dover, Wharton, Port Morris to Blairstown, Netcong, and Phillipsburg on the west. “Chatham” staging to the East (beyond Madison) represents Hoboken and Croxton Yard. “Blairstown” staging to the West (beyond Port Morris) represents Scranton, Buffalo, and Chicago. The Sussex Branch ends at Sussex staging and the Old Main ends at Phillipsburg staging. At Morristown, you will find the Morristown and Erie Railroad. There are several other interchanges: with the CNJ (at Dover and Wharton), with the Wharton and Northern and Mount Hope Mineral at Wharton, and with the Rockaway Valley at Morristown. Main Jobs include a Dispatcher, an Operator, Port Morris Yardmaster, Assistant Yardmaster, the Wharton Drill (two-man crew), the Morristown and Erie (two-man crew), and seven other E-L locals. We also run four through freights, three long distance passenger trains, three local passenger trains, and several runs of the MU. Control is by Digitrax (simplex and duplex radio and tethered throttles). There is also capacity for 4 WiFi Throttles.

The layout recreates the Virginian in 1959 (no steam, last year of independent operation) between Norfolk and Roanoke (sadly, no electrics). The Robert Sprague design is located in a 13’ by 39’ basement room, with Digitrax controls (bring your favorite throttle or use one of mine). It is not ADA accessible. The operating scheme includes four jobs: the Suffolk and Alta Vista turns, the Suffolk Shifter, and the Through Freight. As a very new layout (first session was August 13, 2024), the operational scheme is in development, currently using a traditional car card system.

The Broken Timber Subdivision is a HO scale double deck layout representing a fictional Chessie line in mid-Maryland from somewhere around Hagerstown running east towards Baltimore. The layout room is just under 500 square feet (22’ x 22’ with a 7’ x 6’ intrusion), and the layout runs around the walls with a center peninsula connecting the 2 levels (a “no-lix”). There are 2 “nod-unders” at the room entry and at entry to the staging area. Staging consists of 7 stub ended tracks on each level, main line run is about 200’ and is single track with several passing sidings. There are 3 short branch lines, 1 active interchange, and 2 small yard. Era is 1980-1985, pre CSX and with cabooses. There is base scenery on the entire layout, most is what I call 85-90% finished with ballast, ground cover, roads, trees and buildings. Lots of the buildings are it bashed, and some are scratch built to closely represent prototype buildings. Many buildings have lights. Control is NCE DCC and Proto Throttles, engine consists have at least 1 sound equipped locomotive. The main line is signaled with B&O CPLs’, manually operated by a dispatcher. A 3:1 fast clock is used. Car cards are used for routing. A typical operating session runs 3 hours, includes several local switchers, a yard switcher, several coal drags (loads and empties) several mainline runs and a helper job (the center peninsula is a helper grade) and up to 3 passenger trains (one Amtrak and 2 commuter runs). There is also occasional PC/Conrail and N&W detour traffic. Aisles are generally 36” wide or greater, but do narrow to 24” in one area and in the staging/Monocacy Branch area. Operation is laid back, with emphasis on quality, not quantity. I have set the layout up for night time operations as well. The layout is in the basement, down a full flight of stairs, so I would consider it not handicap accessible.

The Wilson Creek Division represents late 50’s railroading in the hills of Eastern West Virginia. The railroad is proto-freelanced with settings suggested by locations in the general area. The B&O line is modeled around the town of Norton WV, with staging toward Grafton and Charleston, WV. West of Norton the line to Richwood WV branches off to the town of Cowen, with Richwood staging at the end of the branch. The Western Maryland and C&O connect at Norton, with their staging represented at Elkins and Durbin, WV. Operation features substantial industrial trackage and live interchange at Norton, as well as coal and industrial traffic along the branch, including a coal preparation plant and papermill at Cowen along with a connection with the NYC. Scenery is 95% complete. The railroad is a single deck, around the walls of a 15 x 22 foot room with a central peninsula and grade up the branch. It was rebuilt for operation and is now holding regular operating sessions. Car forwarding is by Car Cards and Way Bills with NCE radio controlled throttles as well as one Proto Throttle. Ninety Eight percent of the locomotive consists are equipped with sound decoders (mostly Sountraxx) and fine-tuned with Decoder Pro. Op sessions are held using a crew of 5 and utilize a fast clock set at 3:1. Access to the layout room is not handicap accessible and a duckunder needs to be negotiated to enter the room.