Bill Hopping's Madison Central

Mark.......sorry I cannot be more specific. I'm not at home and I don't have access to my OGR magazine stash, CD archive or VHS tapes.

OGR did a large feature article on his RR somewhere between 1987-91, I think....

I also believe there is some video featuring the layout.......may memory is telling me that there is some video of the layout on the F3 Train Station video.......but I may hallucinatiing.......I haven't thought about it or seen it for a long time.

Maybe someone has a better memory.......I can check this weekend when I get home.

Peter

That was an awfully nice layout.  I believe it was written up in "Classic Toy Trains" many years ago.  I'll have to see if I can find which issue.

Sadly, I have no pictures with me here in Canada.  There may be some stashed away at my Dad's place in NJ along with some old programs and postcards.

We went almost every winter in the '80's.  Good, good times....

Brian

Here is the video I found of his layout running ALL the postwar F3"s!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UQzTTda1pE

I remember seeing it in CTT a long time back. I always liked the Skyline building kits and he had a number of them on his layout. Brought back a lot on Christmas memories seeing those buildings.

Jerry

I was digging through my collection of CTT today and I found the layout. The layout is in the Fall of 1989 Issue.

Fred Rominski has that NJ DOT passenger set. HE built it when Fred worked at Millburn Train & hobby. He got it back after the demise of Bill.

Mark, thanks for finding that issue.  I was unable to.

Whippany - great postcards.  Make for fun nostalgic viewing.

Some more Madison Central photos to see.  A few of them date from the January 5, 1990 "30th Anniversary Show".  To cut the ceremonial ribbon, OGR forum member Samtrak's lovely wife Cathy appeared as the Lackawanna Railroad's legendary Phoebe Snow to do the honors.  Cathy again donned her white gown and hat as a favor to Bill after he saw her as Phoebe during an event at the Whippany Railway Museum two months prior.

The remaining images show the late-January 1990 afternoon I brought several of my own engines over to Bill's home to run on his layout.  NYS&W, Morristown & Erie,  and Reading locos all had the rare honor of operating over this fabled model railroad.  A year and a half later, Bill was gone, and soon the Madison Central would be but a memory.

Sorry these did not come out better.  Attachments are easier to read.  What you see are  pages from the show program in 1972.  I believe the photographs are from the Star Ledger which must have done an article on the layout.

Mr. Hopping's approach of prototypical modeling of the area's railroads was most refreshing.

I still remember exactly where I was when I learned of his passing. My wife and I were aboard our Northeast Corridor train commuting from Metropark to New York when I read about it in the paper. I was stunned.

God bless him. He left us with quite a legacy. Considering all our fellow enthusiasts who have passed before us, there must one heck of a model railroad waiting for us in the afterlife. 

Bob 

Fabulous pictures!

Peter

AWESOME!!!!

THANK YOU!

I like that kitbashed EL 2500 series GP35...very creative!

Bob

There was always just a little nostalgic magic as you walked down the stairs at Bill's open Houses, he had the Lanterns lit and other "homey" touches.

And, ... yup, a select few still call Kathy ... "Phoebe". Oh by the way we have an all white cat (among others), her name of course is "Phoebe".

But for those folks that know the family, it's no surprise, we're "all railroad, all the time". Both of my sons used to go over to the Madison Central when they were young, they' both professional railroaders today. Also, my daughter now lives in Madison.

We all have the memories.  Thanks Steve for posting the pix, I'll have to show Kathy the thread.

SAM

I brought my kids there every January for quite a few years. He put on a 90 minute show, daytime, nighttime and back to daytime according to a timetable using a fast clock. I can hear him now, "The Powhattan Arrow crosses over the center of town."

He had a 773 Hudson custom painted for the Lackawanna Railroad.