On July 2, 1982 at app 1300 hrs I started assembling L-Girders for my benchwork. I spent considerable time reading the Lynn Westcott book and was ready to go. My layout is 26X46 and the benchwoork went very smooth. I used good wood and put a 5/8 inch plywood top covered with Homosote that was glued and screwed. I am doing this as a nostalgic post and do not want to compare what others use. I used all tinplate track as I am a toy train guy.
Early switches were Lionel replaced by Gargraves and finally Ross. I started out to model the PRR main line that I knew growing up as a kid. We all know how that goes astray. When I started we had no MTH, K-Line, good Lionel or GGD. Williams was the hot ticket and is still tops in my book. I started buying Williams engines from a young kid at York. That young kids name was Mike Wolf. My first train to run was Christmas Eve 1982 and it was the Welz Metroliner.
Over the years I started to meet other people who share my interest. After things started taking place, OGR had a man named Barry Lewis who did product reviews and needed a test layout. That went on for some time. In the 90's, Lionel wanted a layout with Lionel track to test out this new thing they called TMCC. I got to see and use it about a year before it was released. In later years I got to do the same with DCS before it was released. MTH spent a lot of time on my layout and I was able to prove that DCS works with buss wired layouts. Druing that testing was when I found (only by luck) the lightbulb fix to improve signal. I still have that same set of test wires with the same bulb and want to present it to Barry Broskowitz this York for all his DCS work. All the testing on TMCC and DCS was published in OGR as feature articles.
My layout has been in OGR (runs 120 and 135), Classic, the Switcher, Crossing Gate, Lion Roars and several newspaper articles. I have hosted several convention tours and have made a great many friends. We have several train nights and it is common to have Mike Wolf, Rich Foster, Charles Ro and Mike Reagan present. I value my fellow train connections and try to share the layout with everyone. About 12 years ago I installed live catenary after some careful designing. It has performed one hundred percent perfectly.
I hope that both myself and the layout can go on for a few more years. Anyone who is in the area is always welcome and I look back at some of the great friends I have made. Thank you everyone.
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It has been a pleasure meeting you and Dotty.
