I have been working on my layout in American OO gauge since the early 1980s, originally in my parents house when I was a undergraduate in college with a portion dating back to high school!

In future posts I will describe more details about the layout but to start out I want to focus on two elements.

1. It is a working layout. I had a track work blitz a couple years ago and the track work is complete for this 6×12 layout. The layout is C shaped with a “bridge” across the open end of the C. It is a duck under but wide and pretty easy to manage. All the turnouts on the layout are relaid Mantua OO turnouts, including the one in the photo.

2. I run a variety of models. Almost every model visible in the photo I rebuilt. The caboose was a Lionel junker. The reefer is the older version of the Scale-Craft model, with the bronze details. The two gondolas and the covered hopper are Schorr brass imports from the 1950s. And the locomotive is rebuilt from an AHM SW-1, a model that is over scale for HO and a workhorse on the layout, a fairly easy conversion.