A&O 2.0 open house

Nice pictures,

Thank you for posting.

Andre.

Great photos Rick.  Always a pleasure to see how quickly A&O 2.0 is coming together. You have some very talented individuals working on this layout and Bob's innovation just blows me away....a true craftsman.

Butch

First class operation from what I see in the excellent photos.  Great to see such a grand effort. Few can make this happen, all I can say is "wow".

Bob

Great photos...a bunch of fine craftsmanship out there.

Rick,  It truly was a great Saturday morning.  Can't wait for the next open house.

ChipR

They did a nice job with the track. But I have a question, As far as I see they use code 100 rail, that's mean 3/32 and is equal to 4.5 inch real, that is not too skinny for those big engines?

Maybe am I wrong.

I will appreciate any information.

Andre.

Nice.  I find it interesting that somebody in CO models the Appalachians.

Very nice pics and a very nice railroad. Thank for the heads up.

Andre,

Code 100 rail in O Scale, the King of Scales, is about 70 lbs per yard.  Code 83, in O Scale, is about 57 lbs per yard and works well with On3 or P:48 flanges.  The A&O's track looks great.

ChipR

Thank you!

I agree that look great BTW.

AG.

There are a bunch of great construction photos in this link.  Really a masterpiece of hand laying.

Thanks for that link Chris! Clearly this is a railroad well conceived, well staffed, well funded and extremely well executed. Lots of seasoned expertise at work to accomplish this level of model railroading. I thoroughly enjoy seeing these construction photos since so much of what goes into a successful railroad is hidden later on.

It is unusual for a model RR this large to be all hand laid track. Most of the time some flex track eventually gets used, but these guys stayed on point with unyielding enthusiasm...I'm impressed to say the least.

As far as the use of code 100 rail, I am a proponent of lighter rail use as I feel it adds an illusion of greater realism even if it is technically undersized for mainline railroading.

Top shelf stuff!

Bob

Very nice stuff. Thanks for posting it.

You're welcome Bob, I have loved following their progress.

The A&O mainline uses code 125, but so far little of that has been laid. Most of the areas shown in the tour and construction photos are yards and industries, all code 100. The smaller rail visually fools the eye and makes a scene appear somewhat larger.

Commercial flex track is not used for two primary reasons: cost, and David really enjoys hand-laying rail.

Commercial turnouts are not used for many reasons, including cost (there will be about 220 total.) David works quickly and has been known to build a turnout in-place in about an hour. He customizes each to whatever shape gives the smoothest flow (most are curved) while packing a lot more operation into a limited space, all without the need for steep frog angles. Years ago, after the first two turnouts were laid, I asked David to measure the frogs. They turned out to be #13 and #11.

So what happened with the previous layout?

I remember  (still have) the MRR magazine from 2006 where appear his layout.

Andre.

A&O 2.0 is in a new and bigger basement. There is a beautiful home above it.

Structures, rail and rolling stock were salvaged from the old layout.

 WWWWWWWWWWOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

Hump yard! Coal dumper! I'll be studying for awhile. Maybe if I keep staring at the pics, I'll get better at building a layout? Why can't I live closer to guys like that!