My Layout
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Like most model railroaders, I have had several model train layouts over the years, from the first Marx wind-up oval under the Christmas tree to the pleasure and pride of getting my own "real model railroad" using Varney plastic train cars obtained by sending in KIX cereal box tops with 25 cents and then building my own Mantua "Big-Six" from a kit. That layout was alway "unfininshed" -- I didn't even have enough track to make a complete loop, but it was a "real HO gauge model railroad" and it was mine and I was proud of it. Presently, I have a layout which has completely taken over a now vacated bedroom of the house, which is still an unfinished layout but, which never-the-less affords a great deal of enjoyment.
My current layout is basically a double track very wide radius curve mainline circling aound the sides of that bedroom on a series of modules that are connected together ( more or less permanently now) to form a sort of shelf layout that circles the bedroom. There is a "duck-under" where you enter the bedroom (it really is no longer a bedroom - I suppose I should call it the "train room"). The "duck-under" consists of a removeable section about a foot wide that is modeled to represent the Chicago Northwestern railroad's turn-bridge across the Mississippi River at Winona, Minnesota about 1950 or so. Considerably foreshortened of course, but that's part of the challenge of model railroading -- to get two miles of track modeled in 6 feet !!!
I've managed to collect a great deal more rolling stock (model train cars) that I can ever use and I suppose I should use the consignment area of this web-site to try to start to whittle down the inventory I have accumilated over the years. I even dabbled in N-scale for awhile and may decide to go back to that eventually, so in any case, I will sooner-or-later be wanting to get rid of quite a bit of really nice model train stuff.
The modules around the train room are each constructed as sort of dioramas of specifica locations in and around Winona that give the layout its character.
The Milwaukee road part is reaslized in the Milwaukee Road depot that still exists in Winona looking pretty much as it did in the earlier era. That depot is a classic for its architectual style and quite representative of the high class and quality that the Milwaukee Road put into all of its undertakings from its structures to its very high-quality and unique Hiawatha passenger trains of the era.
The Chicago Northwester part of my layout is characterized not only by the Mississppi River turn bridge, but also by a greatly truncated engine facility and includes some representations of landmark items in that area in Winona such as the Archer Danials Midland grain silos and also includes a truncated downtown street so typical of some of the early midwestern rivertowns, ie: brick building architecture that was (and is) so prevalent in Winona then and is still today in many towns along the Mississippi yet today.
The Chicago Burlington and Quincy (The Burlington) is includes as only a small depot that originally existed on the Wisconsin side of the river, where the Burlington Zephyr made its brief passenger stops each day. Most of my rolling strock is from the Milwaukee Road, but I had to break down and purchase one of the few models of the 3-car Zephys train (it was too expensive and I hardly ever get to run it - it doesn't look right going slowly around my layout - it needs to be dashing full speed across the countryside with its distictive whistle clearing the grade crossings). I expect I will have that model up on consignment sooner-or-later too.