Like most men his age, Bob started as a kid with pre-war tin-plate Lionel "O" guage trains. After many years of disuse, Bob sold his entire collection and left his memories of trains behind.

In 1998 Shari, Bob's wife, who casually learned of his youthful interest in trains, made the  mistake of buying a starter set of Life-Like HO guage trains for about $50.

Bob is reluctant to admit how much he has spent since, and his wife is smart enough not to ask.

His layout started out rather timidly, in that he began construction based on the concepts from when he was a kid. The latest things like roadbed, scenery, and the miracle of Digitrax, were unknown to him when he started construction.

Plywood and 2x4's were all he knew. There weren't even any magazines back then. But, Bob joined PWMRC in 1999, where he learned very quickly, (and expensively)
that there is more to model railroading than just laying track and running trains.

 Are you SURE you want to do that?


Now the layout is always in some state of flux. Adding roadbed, installing the latest state-of-the-art feature from Digitrax, and finally, 
with much encouragement from club members, adding some scenery...as you will see.
Ohhhh...Pretty Lights Robert's particular interest in model railroading is electronics. In this photo, the RF&P passenger train is waiting in the east yard for the yardmaster to throw switch 7 to enter the main line. Currently the main is showing GREEN and the west yard is RED. OK, so momentum took him past the light. Its only a photo.

Apparently there are delays on the line.
One of the unique features of Bob's layout is the creative use of electronics to produce prototypical results. For example, the lighting for this part of the layout there are four tracks visible. The one nearest to the edge of the layout is the west yard siding, then next is the inner main line, the next is the east yard siding, and the one closest to the wall, and behind the RF&P is the outer main line.

The current light configuration is showing clear traffic on the inner main line. The 3 two-light "D" type signals indicate track availability, while the 2 two-light ground dwarfs indicate switch position. The creativity came in producing the wiring to show the proper track availability for every combination of the two yard switches.   

Engineers.....watch those lights or you are in for a surprise....

This part of the yard will be undergoing major renovation when the Atlas snap controllers are replaced with Tortoise SloMo turnout controllers.

Robert's is the only club layout that is TOTALLY DCC. There are no manual controls for anything. All turnouts are controlled from the Digitrax throttles using DS54's.

This makes for some very tense moments for op sessions on his layout. You learn the intricacies of DCC very quickly....or we will soon be calling the NTSB about a train wreck
 Not to sound like Andy Rooney, but did you even notice how doors seem to get in the way of turning an entire basement room into a layout?

Bob solved that problem with a bridge that you can either duck under, or remove entirely, for clear room access. Now you see it.....

 That Darn door is in the way.
It is sitting on the left ......now you don't.
Now most of us are already well versed at crawling under layouts... to fix broken wires, install a new feature, or just figure out why that turnout won't throw, or where the intermittent short is.

We have no problem at all giving up free access to closets to have that mega-layout. See what we mean? I can crawl under that........ Really!.......  No problem!

Closet? We don't need no steeinking closet.
The wife will not bend But wives, on the other hand won't tolerate that kind of inconvenience.
OK, so maybe, one day, some time in the next century, the Roto-Rooter man will need to get his monster machine in that particular closet.
Here is one way to solve the problem.
Piano hinges work wonders.
 Ah, yes...scenery...we almost forgot.

You really can't tell much from this shot of the northwest corner of the room, but the sections north of the pull-out bridge and back to the north end of the west wall yard (did you follow all that?) are his first attempts at scenery...if you don't consider the dwarf lights and signals...scenery.

 Whoopie 2 whole inches...

The goal here was to add a little verticality to an otherwise veeeeeerrrrrry flat layout
2 inches = 13 feet in 1:1

I love Tortoise.

This end used the standard left and right turnouts with a wye.....

 There is no real color for contrast yet, but as you can see, we are getting vertical. The two main lines split to share a common siding, which rises about two inches. Hey, I did not say it was Mt. Everest. Two inches is still vertical.....

The inner main is normally going away from you in this shot, and the outer main is coming at you out of the tunnel.

And if you were wondering, yes, these turnouts and wye are driven by Tortiose controllers and we have done some very creative wiring to prevent polarity reversals on the shared siding. The Wye turnout changes the track polarity with the throw.
...the other end is a bit more inventive.

The curved turnouts allowed the best use of the corner space. 

 Tricky Track
Makes me want to run barefoot Color comes a little slower.

I don't care what you say....

Grass is scenery, even if it is all you have to start. 
   

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