Looking forward to it.  Looks great to me.

I am a loop runner also. I have one really long loop that I run trains on. I like to keep my speed down to what it should be. I think the experience is similar to standing by the right of way of a full size railroad and watching trains pass by. I do a lot of that with my hometown railroad, which is CSX.

It was Bill Bramlage that coined the phrase “Loop Runner.” Some of my best friends are Loop Runners.  😉

Rich Melvin posted:

It was Bill Bramlage that coined the phrase “Loop Runner.” Some of my best friends are Loop Runners.  😉

Mine too.  I’m gonna go out on a limb a say that the vast majority (somewhere around 95%) of all model railroaders are loopers.  Sure many have sidings serving every imaginable business but the bulk of the trains sooner or later revisit their point of origin.  And... there ain’t anything wrong with that. 

I am re-posting my track plan HERE as it was deleted from my original post because it had a link attached to it.

I would consider myself a looper also... (with sidings) 

I'm a looper that is a nut for good scenics. 

I've been a looper since 1954, only the loops are bigger now. 

The current mantra that point-to-point is more realistic suffers from a fatal flaw:  it is only realistic if the prototype is at most .5 miles long (that's about how long a mainline lucky people can fit, much less for most people, especially in the larger scales).

If you like switching between industries that are next door to one another, that's fine.  But if you want trains to run any distance at all, loops are unavoidable.

SantaFeJim posted:

I am having a layout built by PMD (Progressive Model Design) of Romeoville, Illinois which is about 25 miles from my house. I had been in contact with PMD for 7 month before the actual build started. They were in the final stages of a HO layout for a client on the west coast and I needed that project to wrap up before they could start mine. That was fine, as I got to view that layout with 95% of the scenery in place. Seeing this helped me make up my mind that PMD was right for me. 

No more 3 rail in Indiana?

BobbyD posted:

SantaFeJim posted:

I am having a layout built by PMD Progressive Model Design) of Romeoville, Illinois which is about 25 miles from my house. I had been in contact with PMD for 7 month before the actual build started. They were in the final stages of a HO layout for a client on the west coast and I needed that project to wrap up before they could start mine. That was fine, as I got to view that layout with 95% of the scenery in place. Seeing this helped me make up my mind that PMD was right for me. 

 

There's nothing wrong with being a loop runner. We've been loop running at AGHR for over two decades.

I loop, make no apologies for it either.

Ditto here....

Which is better than being a bit "Loopy"...

The latest issue of Model Railroader magazine has a contributing editor's article about 'Operations'.   Well, it's the local obsession with this...."Operations"...that encouraged my decision to bid adieu to HO.   The encouraging article shares a photo....with smiling operators...of a classic 'cornfield meet'.   No smiles over such things locally...  

So, since I couldn't get a grip on it, and the echoing mantra of "Model Railroading is Fun!" was yet whispering from off my right shoulder, I declared: "I'm a LOOPER!.....and proud of it!"  Libation in the left hand, throttle in the right....all's well.  O3R.....Fun!  Loops and all.

Congratulations Jim on the upcoming looper layout!!  I will look forward to seeing some photographs of the layout when the time comes.

KD, I saw that article in the latest MR magazine.  I skipped reading it.  I read MR from the late '60s until 2012 when I discovered OGR and O gauge 3-rail and I let my MR subscription expire.  I never could get into switching layouts, and following prototypes to the T.  I did reply to a cheapo 1-year subscription offer to MR last year, but am going to let it expire.  Skipping the above mentioned article tells you why.

Just wanted to post another picture from my early visits to PMD.  

I will be having a good size passenger station as one on the main scenes on my layout.  It will serve the complete 12-car EL Capitan set that Walther's released about five years ago.  I also have a complete Super Chief set which will stop on the other side of the platform.

Seeing the great detail in and around this fine passenger station made my decision to go with PMD a lot easier.  For that reason I call this one the money shot.  

That is a great looking scene, Jim!

I am looper with interconnecting  main line loops and reverse loops, which most of you already know from the many short videos I've posted during the past 2 years.  I also have 8 sidings. Arnold

Yes, I'm a loopy looper. 

Tom 

A few more pictures while I was browsing the PMD facility.

The Passenger station from another angle.

The platforms:

Yard Tower: