Layout Design A number of projects are underway or just being completed. Custom Design efforts have included: - Eastern-themed freelanced 30s-era multideck HO layout in a garage-sized space - A pair of 4-foot N scale T-Trak modules with a switching focus - Mid-sized HO scale layout which began as NP but has settled firmly into a Camas Prairie theme (this one's a twice-around with some interesting challenges) - and an HO around-the-room shelf layout with a port theme

I've also been contributing to an Operating Plan for a new large HO mountain-themed Class 1 layout and I presented a clinic on op session design at the NMRA Pacific Coast Region Convention in late April.   Click the image at right to download slides from the clinic. "Designing an Op Session" Clinic from PCR '04

If you have not been to the Model Rail Services website recently, you may want to check out a couple of new articles. Ever wonder why the 4X8 layout is so popular as a beginner's layout? Maybe it made sense once when saws were hand-powered and plywood was cheap, but the 4X8 takes up a lot of space for what it offers -- especially in HO. Click the image at left for a discussion of alternatives to the traditional 4X8 in the same footprint.     And never content to leave well enough alone, I'm also jousting at the windmill of Fast Clocks this month. Sure, a Fast Clock can make the running time on the layout and the prototype Timetable a closer match, but Fast Time also negatively affects the growing trend to "Fine Scale" operation. Read all about why I think more modelers should consider 1:1 time ... even in a TT&TO environment. Time does not compress, so you might find that your ops enjoyment expands with 1:1 clocks. Click the clock at left and ... relax.

In the press ... and in the garage! I just submitted the manuscript and graphics for a new article to be published in the commercial press next year. One of my designs from the LD/OpSIG Feb '04 meet design contest is also expected to be in the upcoming Layout Design Journal. I'm also pleased to have an article in the 2004 Model Railroad Planning. See them on newsstands near you! I hope to have one or two more articles accepted for the commercial press later this year.   Work on room preparation also continues for my own N-scale layout to share the garage with one of the family cars. In order to get something built and operating soon, I've chosen to build an interim proto-freelanced layout. In the longer term, I'm still looking toward a fairly accurate prototype future design ... but this somewhat "imagineered" layout will be good fun in the meantime. (I just know that I will not have time for the research and the building right now.)   Because of this change in focus, the new layout configuration has to go on the other side of my obstruction-laden garage, so I've had to shift things around a bit. But progress is being attempted! The proto-freelanced concept is focused on a joint WP/ATSF terminal railroad in the Oakland and Alameda areas in competition with the SP (similar to the real-life Alameda Belt Line and Oakland Terminal).   Era will be 1955 and the primary focus will be on yard and industry switching. Thanks to Atlas for delivering a key component of this interim scheme ... VO-1000 switchers with factory DCC! Both the WP and ATSF rostered these locos and although they weren't used in the Oakland area, similar Baldwin switchers were employed by the OTRy.   Why not just model the ABL and be done with it? .... ahh, but that would spoil the mystery. Watch for more in future newsletters and articles.   VO-1000 in WP livery from Atlas' site. Click the loco to visit the fine folks at Atlas.