Hi all,
I hope everyone is doing well. I wanted to share a new video I recently filmed of our layout after doing several updates this past year.
First and foremost, please note this is not the most realistic layout (far from it). This began as an attic floor layout back in 1996, and only included two engines and two train stations. Over the years, my father and I built tables, expanded the layout and incorporated new technology (discovered DCS for the first time while at a train store in Miami, and have been using it every since). As a result, we never really had an opportunity to fully plan this out from scratch. If so, we likely would have made some changes (most notably shifting from tubular track / Lionel switches, and incorporating larger turn radiuses).
I would say by the mid 2000s, we maxed out our space and really stopped working up there (outside of running the trains when we would have people over). Fast forward 15 or so years into 2020, and I've been back at my parents house for an extended period of time as I await my office/NYC to fully reopen.
With limited things to do outside of the house, I used this time to dust off the train layout!. Prior to the update, we had the MTH operational McDonald's and Mel's Diner side side in the heart of town. While these were exciting when they first came out (was blown away by the movement/sound when I was younger), over the years they felt more and more out of place. Therefore, I made it my first project to pull these out, and replace them with a park/basketball court, as well as the Woodland Scenics factory building (wish these were around 20 years ago). My next project was to incorporate static grass throughout the layout. Although time consuming, I'm thrilled with the results. However, I do wish this was also around years ago, as it would've been a lot easier to execute in the planning stages (using the static grass machine when bounded by ballast/track on one side and the end of the table on the other poses it challenges). Finally, I previously had a mountain incline for both tracks towards the end of the neighborhood. Although this worked at the time, I found this posed issues for some of the newer trains we picked up over the years. Therefore, I made the decision to tear it out, and nix the incline altogether (replaced with a removable mountain to close out the layout).
While I do not think anyone wants to commemorate 2020, I did want to purchase a new engine to commemorate the resurgence of the layout. For this, we decided to go with the MTH New Haven Alco PA Diesels. Once again, this layout is far from realistic. While we strive to have a 1940s / 1950s theme, we run engines from all eras (we are not very familiar with railroad history, but the first trains my dad purchased were Lionel Santa Fe and Great Northern diesels, so we stuck with those, and incorporated the New York Central and New Haven railroads since we live(d) in NY and CT. The Rio Grande which we have parked in the freight yard for this video, was our first TMCC engine we purchased after learning about that technology many Christmases ago. We are also thinking of adding a Chicago Northwestern diesel given my family's Chicago-ties.
Now that my parents are grandparents and I'm an uncle, we find ourselves spending more and more time up there since the kids really love it (the oldest, recently just saw Polar Express for the first time, and now everything is about trains).
Hope you enjoy the video, and Merry Christmas!
