You are building two model railroads?
“Really!” you say….
“You haven’t built one yet, and now two…..sure you are.”
Yes, I am and have some progress pictures to prove it. More importantly is why I’m building two model railroads at once? If you want the short version: layout size, and the story behind each layout.
My two Cameo layouts are small, with both being around 12 feet or less in length and less than 24 inches in depth. Together, they are similar in size to some hobbyist model railroads. Like most modelers, my space is somewhat of a challenge in that it is a straight wall. The good news is that the length of the available space is 32 feet and the width can be about 26 inches. Roughly the same square footage as two 4×8 sheets of plywood.
Certainly there are many modelers who will say why not build just one model railroad. I would, if there was just one railroad that interested me. However, that is not the case with me. As most readers to this blog will know, my prototype interests are very broad, but my operation style is the constant. Slow speed operations, switching industries or making up trains at some off the beaten track narrow gauge terminal is more to my liking. Smaller, mostly freelanced, one scene switching layouts is where my interest truly rests. Each of my Cameo layouts has a storyline, a freelanced story. Or as the blog says a Model Railroad Imagineering. Without further ado….the two.
Corbett, Colorado, circa 1930s-1950s. Mixed train daily except Sundays on the Copper City and Northern in Sn3
Otto Mears has always fascinated me. His story is an interesting one and wanted to build a layout influenced by one of his many railroad projects. One of the first books that I checked out of the then brand new Rosedale, Maryland library in the late 1970s was Mallory Hope Ferrell’s Silver San Juan. The story of the Rio Grande Southern fascinates me as much today as it did those many years ago. Even more interesting are the little mining railroads he built or bought that all originated in Silverton, Colorado. My time period is much later than those initial Mineral deposit discoveries of the late 1890s. Like the Rio Grande Southern, my little Copper City and Northern is making ends meet. I will spend some more time about the CC&N, and it’s connecting railroad, the Colorado and San Juan Southern in future blog post. The trackplan, after much scribbling and broken pencil points is based on the Silverton Northern’s Animas Forks terminal.
Sedgwick, Maine, circa 1910s-1920s. Hancock County Narrow Gauge in Sn2.
The Carrabasset and Dead River Ry, versions one and two were influential model railroads to me. The original version exposed me to the Maine 2 foot railroads and also to many friends modeling the Maine Two footers in both On2 and Sn2. However, it is Cundy’s Harbor from version two of the C&DR that really caught my eye many years ago when a small article, “An Hour at Cundy’s Harbor”, was published in the June 1992 Model Railroader magazine. I liked the idea of a small terminal along coastal Maine, and it was different from the long trestles of the Wiscasset waterfront of the WW&F.
Several years ago, I completed an on-line Pre industrial furniture making apprenticeship sponsored by Mortise and Tenon Magazine. After Covid, they invited apprentices to a Fall weekend get together. I stayed at a small campground outside of the town of Sedgwick Maine. Every morning I would drive across the causeway and small bridge over the Benjamin River and thought this would be a nice scene for a model railroad! So I adapted the Cundy’s Harbor plan to an earlier era ( think turntable) and running along a river. More to come on future blog posts.
“Let’s Build Two”, by H. Mathews April 2024
Model Railroad Imagineerings 