Featured Layouts - Fall 2012

Here's another great operations based layout from designer Byron Henderson. In this hollow core door (36” X 80”) Howard Terminal plan, a single switching lead serves both interchange tracks and the main terminal area. The end of the lead is obscured by the large gas holder, backdrops and structures.  His priorities were to try to reflect the prototype track arrangement, especially the running track through the warehouse and the tracks out onto the pier. The scrap yard is also featured prominently, since it would be an important focus for operations. Multiple quayside tracks on the other side of the layout provide welcome switching challenge. “Sure spots” requiring deliveries to specific doors or wharfside positions add to the interest. The overall track arrangement is mostly “oneway”: cars pulled from either the SP or WP stub-end interchange are then shoved into the various industry or yard tracks. A runaround isn’t really necessary. This plan is sure to keep you hopping for some time.

Bruno Pigozzo provided the scenery and operations layers for this plan. Oct. 2012.

just passing through	stopping at scales at Porter Metal	switching quayside at Howard Terminal

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The Buckingham Great Central - Rev. PB Denny

The Rev. Peter Bond Denny constructed several versions of the Buckingham Great Central railway in his lifetime. This plan captures the look and feel of the fictitious branch to the GC main line as it may have looked on 1907. His various models are detailed and precise to a remarkable degree. The railway was operated by a timetable and Mr. Denny created a unique 6 track turntable fiddle yard to turn the cars and make them ready for the next day's operation. With his wonderful modelling skills and attention to the smallest details in every scene, he certainly achieved his goal of creating a three dimensional picture the Great Central early in the last century.

This layout was featured in the January 2009 issue of Railway Modeller and it is used with permission. Please visit their web site at http://www.pecopublications.co.uk/railway-modeller.html

Buckingham Grand Central Station
Grandborough Junction

Featured Layouts - Summer 2012

Lance Mindheim is owner of The Shelf Layouts Company, a custom model railroad building and design firm. He speaks nationally at a variety of prototype modeling conferences and is author of numerous articles for the model railroad press. An engineering graduate of Purdue University, he is a strong believer in the value of simplicity when it comes to model railroad design. Visit his website at www.shelflayouts.com

We are pleased to feature Lance’s East Rail layout plan which, though compact, contains a lot of challenging but realistic operations to enjoy. With limited mainline track to use, it will be a real chore moving out loads and re-spotting cars along this stretch of the layout.

Lance has given us permission to use some of his layout plans from his web site.  We have collected them together and placed them in a folder which you can locate on your Layout chooser under Featured Layouts\Lance Mindheim Layout Plans.  We have added the track work, the Operations scheme and some representative cars on each plan. 

Scenic artwork on the East Rail is by Chris Pedersen.  Over time we will be featuring more layouts and cars from Chris.  Trackwork and Ops details on the Mindheim plans were added by Bruno Pigozzo.

You will find more information on East Rail at Lance’s web site here: http://www.lancemindheim.com/EastRailGallery.htm

Featured Layouts - Fall/Winter 2011-2

Switching at Grimsby Industrial Park

Grimsby - Immingham is one of England’s premier and busiest seaports.  It handles thousands of railcars of goods and more thousands of tank car loads of oil, petrol and chemicals each year. This layout shows off what can be accomplished with our Scenery toolkit, the “Grow roadbed / Add ties” capabilities and finally the new Export Image – Merge Background routine. Our resident, train guards man [conductor], Bruno Pigozzo, also added a full set of operations to this attractive plan..  We look forward to adding more British and European content in the coming months.

Featured Layouts - Summer 2011

Steve Davis' KCS 3rd Subdivision

Steve Davis is a relative newcomer to TrainPlayer but he is an active model railroader as well as a software programmer who has developed several scenarios for MS Train Simulator.  Steve gaves us the go ahead to adapt his two level track plan of the KCS' Third Subdivision for use in TrainPlayer.  We have added a scenery treatment and the full Operations package to Steve's plan for all to enjoy.  The railroad theme is largely based on moving natural resources - grain, lime, coal, ore and lumber to on-line and largely off layout customers.  As you can see from the photos below, Steve has been hard at work building his layout in a mammoth 40 foot x 60 foot workshop.  You can follow Steve's progress by viewing his work at - http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii28/TTownTrainfan/KCS%203rd%20Sub%20Model%20RR/

We have placed both levels of the KCS 3rd Sub in the Featured Layouts folder and both are linked to each other.  Remember your Operations activities are currently limited to each level.  Enjoy!!

Fort Smith Steel                                                                    Waldron

St Clair Lime Works                                                                      Sallisaw Yard

Featured Layouts - Spring 2011

The Byron Henderson Collection

Byron Henderson has created dozens of custom model railroad track plans for his clients since beginning formal layout design consulting in 2004.  Byron's work features realistic operating plans for layouts large and small, and in a variety of model scales. Byron's work is regularly featured in the pages of Model Railroader, Model Railroad Planning and on line on the e-zine Model Railroad Hobbyist.  Byron is also an active enthusiast, focused on the Bay Area railroads, including the Southern Pacific, Western Pacific, and Santa Fe. He's currently building an N scale layout featuring rail-marine freight terminal operations in the 1950s.

To access Byron's plans, look in your web layout chooser under Featured Layouts\ Byron Henderson Layout Plans:

Scenery has been provided for several of the layouts by our resident artist, Bruno Pigozzo.  Samples:

Featured Layout - Winter 2011

 We are pleased to feature a detailed layout by a long time friend of TrainPlayer - Wolfgang Dudler.  Wolfgang is now a retired mathematics teacher and still an avid model railroader.  He is one of the driving forces behind the FREMO [Freundeskreises Europäischer Modellbahner] movement in Germany and has provided many of his beautifully detailed modules for all major FREMO shows over the past decade.  Wolfgang also is a big advocate of prototypcial operations whether it is on his FREMO modules or his home layout the Westport Terminal RR. It's a modern day shortline. In Wolfgang's history of the railroad, he states that the WT bought trackage over routes that the CN, BN and others had given up as unprofitable. But under WT operation they have returned profitability!

To learn more about Wolfgang, his layout and FREMO, visit his web site at http://www.westportterminal.de/wt.html  -- there you will find a wealth of details regarding daily operations, customizing railcars, kit-bashing and weathering structures for your home layout, and links to the FREMO organization.

On your Web Layout chooser for Featured Layouts, you will find a copy of Wolfgang's Westport Terminal RR. This plan is ops-ready, with stations, industries and appropriate rail cars.  Enjoy!

Featured Layout - Fall 2010

Byron Henderson's  NYC Scioto Valley DivisionByron Henderson's  NYC Scioto Valley Division

We are pleased to feature a wonderful layout by Byron Henderson this quarter.  Byron is a custom model railroad layout designer from San Jose,CA..and he is also a member of the Layout Design SIG and Operations SIG, and is a past editor of the LDSIG’s LayoutDesign Journal. Byron is a semi regular contributor to the Model Railroad Hobbyist e-zine and runs his own layout design business

The back story for this layout is that Byron's client wanted a major port, a steel mill, some coal mining, and was willing to go to multiple decks to achieve all of that in a roughly 200 square foot space.. The outcome was a multi-level layout where the NYC is imagined to connect from Portsmouth to Columbus, Ohio through Scioto Furnace, to Lucasville, and Piketon.  One of the trademarks of this layout, as it is with all of Byron's designs, is some great operations action. Many different types of freight trains and operating roles may be supported on the layout: local and yard crews
working out of Portsmouth Yard, through trains (many making pickups and set-outs), dedicated haulers between Portsmouth and Scioto
Furnace, and the in-plant steel mill railroad. The N&W and PRR trains also need crews to work local industries and perform interchange switching. There’s also a decent amount of passenger train operation, head end and express switching, and sleeper setouts and pick-ups possible.We have provided typical cars for each layer of Byron's layout, and all stations and industry sites are marked out to assist in operating the Scioto Valley as well.

For more details on this fascinating layout, check the September-October issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist at [http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/ ] and to get a deeper appreciation of what services Byron Henderson offers, please visit his web site at http://www.layoutvision.com/

Featured Layout - Summer 2010

Vince Lee's Erie RR - 28th Street Terminal, New York City  in the 1950s

Vince Lee has packed a lot of model railroading into his Erie RR 28^th Street Terminal layout which is built on a hollow core door and an extension board. This vest pocket yard is set in the early 1950s so both steam tank engines and early diesels are at home here. It consists of two multi tenant Freight Houses, a small yard that has a capacity of 80- 40 foot boxcars and, for good measure, a car float for all important interchange service. Shunting cars to the correct warehouse door will require both skill and careful planning.. Operations centre around the arrival and departure of the car float and things can get really hectic in a hurry. You can read all the background details about Vince’s excellent layout in the July Railroad Model Craftsman magazine.  Vince also displays his interest in photographing prototypical railroads on his web site http://www.east westrails.com/

You will find Erie Railroad 28^th Street Terminal on your WEB chooser under Layouts\Featured Layouts.

A little box electric engine shunts cars in these busy warehouse scenes.

Used with permission.

Featured Layout - Spring 2010

John Marlor's Canadian Pacific - Revelstoke Division in 1937

John Marlor chose to model the the Canadian Pacific Railway's Revelstoke Division - Mountain Subdivision from
Kamloops to Field, British Columbia in the year 1937, when steam had reached its zenith. More specifically, he chose to model the climbs west from Revelstoke up to and over the Eagle Pass in the Monashee Mountains, and the climb east from Revelstoke up the Illecillewaet River Valley to the Connaught Tunnel and Rogers Pass. In addition, he modelled the Arrowhead Branch Line south from Revelstoke to Arrowhead on Upper Arrow Lake.

Featured Layout - March 2010

This layout is a fairly accurate depiction of the trackage in and around Toledo Union Station in Toledo, Ohio in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The operation on this layout focuses mainly on passenger trains but there is one large industry along the Maumee River that gets a fair share of action - The Kuhlman Materials Corporation. This construction supply company with a large bulk materials facility generates traffic for both rail and water shippers. The principal railroads that ran through Toledo Ohio were the New York Central, Baltimore and Ohio, Nickel Plate and Wabash. All provided passenger service with the New York Central having the most daily trains

This layout was our Third Prize Winner in our recent Layout Design Contest.  Well Done Jim!

Featured Layout - February 2010

Peter's layout is a fantasy plan, based on a real train station on a minor local railway the ”Hjørring-Hørby Privatbane” , HHP, that was opened on November 8. 1913, and sadly closed again, due to competition from truck and bus traffic, in March 1953. The station itself forms the visible part of Peter's module and he has used hidden staging to simulate traffic that is "en route" to its destination.  The layout should lend itself well to anyone who enjoys scripting their operations.  Peter has shown some remarkable detail including the railway ties and people standing on the station platforms.  As well Peter has included a custom car set with his plan to better reflect the steam engines, passenger and freight cars that would have passed through his village. Included is a little 7 ton diesel affectionately known locally as the "broom closet".  The car collections should automatically download for you when you download this layout.  Or, you can download it separately from your Web Cartype chooser under Standard\2000 Saesing Station

.  Well Done Peter!

Featured Layout - January 2010

The CNW at Appleton Wisconsin  1950 -

This layout was adapted from The St. Clair South Western by John Armstrong in his 1963 book “Track Planning For Realistic Operation.” It represents a segment of the C&NW’s trackage from Milwaukee to Green Bay that runs from Appleton Junction northward through Appleton and Kaukauna. At Appleton Junction there is a connection to the line that runs southeast to the towns of Brillion and Manitowoc and northwest to New London. Both northbound and southbound trains departing Appleton enter tunnels through a hilly area just beyond Appleton Junction. The tracks under the hills are a staging area for Green Bay and Milwaukee.  The layout will keep operators busy handling car ferry traffic, passenger through traffic and the local "sand" job to the gravel pit.

This layout was our First Prize winner in recent our Layout Design Contest. Congratulations Jim!

A long time fan of mainline operations, Brad Smith developed his Bristol Ferry Terminal railroad to emphasize his newest passion - switching.  In its 18 inch by 96 inch frame, he has packed a typical, busy New England industrial area, a car ferry and an interchange point with a major railroad.  A grade separation and careful planning of roads and buildings gives his layout a very realistic feel.  Brad even has a small passenger operation cleverly built-in as well by hiding a Rail Diesel Car in the tunnel on the right side.  Brad sent us the photo below to show his completed module.

Brad's Bristol Ferry Terminal was featured in the November, 2009 issue of Model Railroader.  Well done Brad!

And below is our interpretation of Brad's layout using images from the Scenery Toolkit library. 

After downloading this layout from your Layout Chooser, be sure to activate the Station feature which will provide the names of all of the industries served on this railroad.  And just like Brad, you're ready for operations now!

Featured Layout - Nov 09