Inspired by layout construction

Coming back from Prairie Rail I was definitely motivated to work on the layout. While visiting Steve and Cinthia Priest, I snuck some construction photos for ideas. I've done this in the past, I supposed I should go back thru Lightroom and grab all the benchwork photos and study them. In the mean time, here are some closeups of what will surely be one of the finest layouts in the country.

Stephen and his crew have very tidy benchwork and wiring. You can see the LED lighting he has chosen to use.

Here is some more of the benchwork without the facia. This appears to be a very good method of turnback blob construction.

Stephen adds signs everywhere something needs to be done so that when crew members arrive, they know exactly where the projects are.

I'm not sure how much I like having the wiring in the front. On one hand it is accessible and on the other, it is in the way.

Some Central Valley bridges roughed in.

Another smaller, bridge with a pier or abutment on either side.

A nice deck bridge with a shallower drop in the benchwork.

Another one. This bridge screams Santa Fe to me.

Now that's what we're talking about. 

CMRI circuits neatly wired along side NCE.

Prairie Rail 2016

I was lucky enough to get another invite to Prairie Rail this year and jumped on the chance to operate in one of my favorite places. Dean Ferris and I traveled together. We started the weekend by having lunch at Union Station, which is a fantastic building. I didn't think to look for bullet holes.

I operated on Mike Borkon's fantastic Union Pacific Wyoming Division layout. Mike models the UP mainline thru southern Wyoming around Green River in the late steam era. His space is amazing and he really captures the feel of Wyoming. I had the west yard job.

Saturday morning I went over to Kevin Leyerle's Katy in Oklahoma layout and was the yard master. Keven has done a fantastic job and his railroad ran great. It was amazing how much detail he has in his scenes even though he hasn't really started scenery yet.

That afternoon I was off to Joe Kasper's to run his giant n-scale BN Kansas City yard. So many cars to switch into dozens of tracks. What a blast. Joe's layout is really something to see.

The last session of the weened Sunday morning was Eric Goodman's Santa Fe Emporia Subdivision in 1995. As you might guess, I took the yard master job completing a perfect weekend. It is always fun seeing big modern cars and big modern trains on a model railroad, although 1995 was 21years ago, is it really modern?

A special treat was a visit to Steve and Cinthia Priest's publishing empire for an early look at the Priest family's new AT&SF St. Louis Division. Wow! I think Dean's expression says it all.