Hollyberry Farm TCA Tour

Hey Rocky, I'll be up there tomorrow.  I'll take some pics and post them tomorrow night.

As planned, I drove up to Hollyberry Farm on a beautiful Sunday morning here in eastern PA to see Caryl Pettijohn's Standard Gauge "wonderland"... and oh was it worth the ride!   

 

I didn't haul my regular camera gear with me, 'cause I really just wanted to enjoy the moment and not feel like I was working.  But after awhile, I couldn't help but reach for my iPhone and grab a few quick snapshots.  My apologies, in advance, for the low-quality iPhone images... but they're more than enough to jog my memory of a fabulous visit to my first Standard Gauge layout of this magnitude.  If you ever have the chance to visit, you'll DEFINITELY be impressed.  This is how Standard Gauge is meant to be enjoyed!!!  Whimsical tinplate charm at its best. 

 

Here's a sampling of 15 iPhone images... 

 

The vignette in the photo below is actually a replica of Caryl's property, including the main house w/pond and the barn which houses the layout.

 

 

A Dorfan steamer in magnificent condition!!!

 

An aerial shot of one side of this amazing layout.  Those of you who may have seen Caryl's layout featured in Tinplate Trains in Action (Vol 4) will note that the new mountain towards the back center of the photo makes a wonderful addition to the layout. 

 

An entire 60-foot stretch of trackage constitutes an impressive freight yard, to say the least.

 

A red coal drag works it's way through the yard... which despite the huge number of cars never looked crowded at all.

 

At the far end of the yard is a 5-section roundhouse:

 

Lots of Standard Gauge accessories along with coordinating classic automobiles abound throughout the layout -- giving the layout a distinctive period "look and feel".

 

Back-to-back Hellgate Bridges make impressive spans even for Standard Gauge trains.  Lots of custom bridges can be found on the layout as well and are equally impressive.

 

Look out, railfans!  Don't get too close to the tracks as this freight train headed up by a steamer just straight out of the Ives Shops goes to work.

 

And a Blue Comet 400E steamer leads a 4-car passenger train to make very good time on the mountain.

 

Seems another Lionel Lines freight train is moving along at a good clip as well.

 

The Blue Comet is catching up on a Stephen Gerard passenger train that's also making good time.  In the background, you can see the floor-to-ceiling display case that runs nearly the entire length of one side of the layout.

 

The Blue Comet and Stephen Gerard trains on the other side of the mountain, with another look at the wall of trains in the not-to-distant background.

 

Up close and personal with another passenger train as it makes its way along tracks that parallel the huge freight yard on the layout.

 

The wide-shot below is actually one of the first views you'll see of this Standard Gauge wonderland, and it features an impressive collection of Department-56 houses.

 

Wow... just wow!!!   

 

Also want to take a moment to thank Caryl for making his magnificent layout available as part of the Sunday TCA itinerary of open-house activities in addition to the formal layout tour of Hollyberry Farm earlier in the week.  Many, MANY thanks!!! 

 

David

Great pics!

Thank you for posting them.

 

Peter

Excellent!!!!!!

Beautiful layout!  I like the looks of the Gargraves trackage.

We were not able to attend the convention.  However, my boys love standard gauge.  Do these folks live in Bucks County?  if there is an appropriate way to contact them without being rude or intrusive, I would love to bring the kids at some point when we visit my folks who live in Buckingham.

Whew!! Fantastic layout.

After a fun filled week of TCA convention activities, my wife and I were able to visit

Caryl Pettijohn's wonderful standard gauge yesterday. Mr. Pettijohn, and his wife could not have been more gracious. We enjoyed seeing the layout and wonderful collection that we had only viewed previously on video. It was a real treat to see multiple and very long standard gauge trains running on many levels. We are looking forward to a return visit.

 

Eric Hofberg

TCA, LCCA 

David -

 

It was great to meet a fellow OGR member!  Great shots, mine did not come out nearly as good.  I did get some good video.  I love the way the mountain is blurred behind the Blue Comet.  This was truly an amazing layout!

 

James, it was a pleasure meeting you as well.  We have a great community of folks here, and it's always a pleasure meeting forum members in person. 

 

Aside from store demo layouts, this was the first serious Standard Gauge layout I had the pleasure of visiting.  So I was pretty awestruck to say the least.  I had seen this layout in one of the Tinplate-In-Action videos last year, but "in-person" takes things to a completely new experience.

 

BTW, the Blue Comet shot with the blurred mountain background was done by panning the camera to match the speed of the train while capturing the image.  It took a few attempts to get a decent shot -- especially since the iPhone really doesn't have the kinds of manual controls I'm accustomed to using with my "real" camera gear.  But in a pinch, the iPhone sure came in handy! 

 

David

 

 

 

I liked the look as well, and I plan to use Gargraves on my new Standard Gauge layout as well... although I may use the rigid sectional track rather than the flex track.  The sectional track (w/plastic ties) has large enough radii for my needs -- which are larger than what is currently being offered in the more traditional tubular track radii.

 

There was a discussion here on the forum at some point that the lower profile Standard Gauge Gargraves rail height might cause some minor wheel flange imprint on the ties... but I saw no evidence of this on Caryl's layout -- and he was running quite a variety of vintage equipment with no detrimental effects on the ties.  So this may just have been some folklore... or perhaps only occurs when select locomotives/rolling stock are used.

 

David

Just a beautiful layout!

 

--Greg

Wonderful layout.  I am soooo... envious!

 

Bob