A "Perfect" Model Railroad

In "Model Railroad Planning 2002", Bernie Kempinski discussed the modeling of Chessapeake & Ohio Railway's (C&O) Brooke Avenue Yard in Norfolk, Virgina in HO and N scale. One of the outstanding features (in my opinion) of the N scale pike was that it included nearly the entire operation on a cleverly cut sheet of 4'x8' plywood (occupying a 8'x6' corner)! This yard was served by a car float and had no other rail connections. This combination of ships and trains is hard to beat!

A quick look at Bernie's design, reveals that this small layout includes all the features that distinguish great model railroads:
1) Interchange traffic (via the car float),
2) Staging (it is a yard after all),
3) Major Industries (there are over 30 places to "spot" rail cars),
4) Protype Inspiration (the C&O), and
5) a Unique Feature (the car float operation).

I am currently residing in Sri Lanka, which is certainly not a modelling Mecca -- in fact, I'm not aware of a single hobby shop that sells model railroading supplies (other than the "toy" variety) in the entire country. Therefore, if I'm to engage in model railroading, I must have nearly all the matials that I am unable to "manufacture" myself from overseas. Thus, this small layout, which includes so much operation in such a small space seemed ideal to me and provided the perfect opportunity to transition from armchair to operations and I've become hooked.

The intention of this blog is to record my thoughts and progress in designing, constructing, and operating the C&O's Brooke Avenue Yard in N scale.

Stay tuned.

Dave O.