This Saturday 9-21-24 from 10-3 the Roanoke Valley Model Railroaders will have an open house. We are located in the basement of the Virginia Museum of Transportation. We have 7 operating layouts for you to see.
Last week my family visited Busch Gardens:
Scott Smith
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New Haven Railroad Alco PA A-A #0767/#0770 (MTH 20-21889-1 and 20-21890-1, PS3) is a custom run by forum sponsor MrMuffin’s Trains – shown with New Haven Alco DL-109 #0719 on my 12’-by-8’ layout.
As a New Haven fan, I thank MrMuffin for making these models. The colors and MTH Alco diesel engine sounds are terrific. At first, I bought just one model, #0767. After it arrived, I ordered #0770 to make an A-A set.
MELGAR
@MELGAR posted:New Haven Railroad Alco PA A-A #0767/#0770 (MTH 20-21889-1 and 20-21890-1, PS3) is a custom run by forum sponsor MrMuffin’s Trains – shown with New Haven Alco DL109 #0719 on my 12’-by-8’ layout. The MTH Alco diesel engine sounds are terrific.
MELGAR
Absolutely gorgeous engines, Mel!
Peter
This week, I’m running on the northern reaches of the Harlem Division…….
The Rutland Milk (which is where I got my You Tube channel name, RutlandMilk), is an overnight milk run from Vermont that the Central brought into Manhattan from after the Civil War, lasting till the late 40s/early 50s.
In the late steam era, it was powered by Pacifics and in North White Plains made the change to electrics (when the milk-processing plants where on the east side of Manhattan and then diesels when they switched to the west side).
I do not think the 4-6-6Ts ever pulled them……..but heck, I’m in charge of the Harlem Division on my layout….and, they will today!
Also running, is a local freight powered by an S2 diesel.
Have a great and safe weekend, folks!
Peter
I am in the process of constructing the last section of my layout, which is the town of Mapleton, Pennsylvania. It’s not exactly what I’d call a glamorous town, but here are some images. It’s actually being built on a sheet of 2 inch thick pink foam in my workshop as with so many scenes of my layout, and I will drop it into the layout when it is completed.
Here is a small stream that flows through the town. I built it separately. It must’ve had a flooding problem and it looks like they stabilized the sides with gabion rock walls . Gabions are wire cages filled with rock. I built them out of small pieces of screening repair material. There is also a picture of the real stream:
That’s it for this week. Enjoy!
Neal, your talents for observation and realistic re-creation are amazing. You have done it countless times and still continue to do so. I tip my hat.
A 2023 Christmas layout memory 
Showing the last section not yet addressed here. A "plateau" (5'x7') housing models of family members' houses that I made. here is a picture of it:
Last week started with closeups of my son's house. Today will be closeups of my Daughter's house (front left in picture). Yes they have a pool.
Her actual house
Thanks Scott for getting us rolling for this fine weekend! Here are my photos of the fun kind.
Power at the ready ... L-R ... Western Maryland Railway, Pennsylvania Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio. and Norfolk and Western all stand ready to go in Lower Patsburg.
Western Maryland H7 Consolidation basques in a sunlit siding. Hogger Buford Jenkins stands to the front side of the locomotive as his eagle eyes give the running gear a critical glance over. Brakeman Custer Hanky leans on a pole and feels grateful to be outside that hot cab. Fireman Boyd Harkin is sweating it up as he sits in the cab watching the gauges. 
A B&O GP 9, with bell clanging, slowly exits East Tunnel as it is about to stop with a commuter train in tow.
@MELGAR posted:New Haven Railroad Alco PA A-A #0767/#0770 (MTH 20-21889-1 and 20-21890-1, PS3) is a custom run by forum sponsor MrMuffin’s Trains – shown with New Haven Alco DL-109 #0719 on my 12’-by-8’ layout.
As a New Haven fan, I thank MrMuffin for making these models. The colors and MTH Alco diesel engine sounds are terrific. At first, I bought just one model, #0767. After it arrived, I ordered #0770 to make an A-A set.
MELGAR
Mel are both the PAs powered? If so did you need to rewire motors so that one starts in forward and the other in reverse?
Neal the gabion walls look fantastic. From the picture of the actual stream I would say the gabions were installed to stabilize the banks of the stream because of the proximity of the road and buildings pictured not due to flooding.
The Pennsy had 425 K4s engines, built between 1914 and 1928. They were delivered with the 70-P-70 tender with 10 lugging a much larger coast to coast tender 1939 to 1949. While 5 of them received streamlining starting in 1936, 1 full and 4 partial, all the streamlining was removed around 1950 to allow better access to the engines during maintenance. Here is my Lionel K4s with the post WWII mods.
Dreyfuss in a different color and road.
New to me, but certainly not new. Prewar Walthers Polydrive locomotive. At least the drive is prewar, not sure on the rest. It's been modified for outside 3rd rail operation, but I plan on converting it back to 2 rail DC.
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