nycjeff layout

[nycjeff]

I've been working on my layout since 2007, it's a two level around the room shelf style with a center peninsula and a helix. My layout room is P shaped. It's 32 feet long and one end is 13 feet and the other is 18 feet. The lower level is 40 inches high and the upper is 60 inches high. I model the New York Central's Big Four line south of Cleveland on the lower level and a fictitious branch line on the upper level. My time period is the late 1940's.



Lower level engine service area with open roundhouse and turntable. Both are Walthers kits. The turntable is the 90 foot. Coaling tower is also Walthers. Both buildings along backdrop are kitbashed Walthers parts. Area is still a work in progress



More engine service area views. Sand facility is Walthers and service areas are Peco inspection kits and kitbashed platforms



My lower level staging area, with 6 track Eastbound yard with return loop and 3 track Westbound yard and return loop. Both return loops are the lower levels of my helix



Helix view. Interior of helix is open through upper level. Helix is single track on cork roadbed with 3 inch rise between levels. 7 turns gets me to the upper level



View looking down upper level peninsula. Building in foreground is a scratch-built version of Rural Post Office build thread by ACL1504.

That's it for now. More to come

[GPdemayo]

Looks great Jeff.....thanks  for posting and am looking forward to more posts on your layout. 

late 1940's and the NYC.....can't go wrong there.....

[PRR Modeler]

WOW, really nice looking layout Jeff.

[S&S RR]

Very nice Jeff. Thank you for posting here on the forum - I too look forward to your updates.

[postalkarl]

Hey Nycjeff:

Very nice keep the pic flowing.

Karl

[nycjeff]

This is a scratch-built burnt out barn next to the lower level main line. I used various stripwoods and balsa wood and painted it with a barn red craft paint. I then used pastel chalks for the burnt out look. I was pleased with the overall look



This is the exit area from my lower level East-bound staging. I was trying for a NYC state line tunnel look. I used carved foam and various craft paints and chalks



This is a Walthers highway overpass and sidewalk and street kit. It was my first bridge on the layout. There aren't a lot of bridges in rural central Ohio, mostly flat farm lands.



looking down the back wall of my layout room. Lower level is 16 inches deep and my 4 track main line is showing. The upper level is a 12 inch shelf. I used masonite for my fascia and backdrops. You can see my GML throttle and several DPDT switches mounted in the fascia. I use standard DC for my control with block switches. Switches with labels above them are for the upper level and those with labels below are for the lower level. I'm an old school kind of guy. I figure that I have close to a half mile of wiring in the layout.



This is another scratch-built barn. As you may guess, I like barns, which is a good thing as there are a lot of them on the farms in 1940's Ohio. Different sizes of stripwood and styrene corrugated for the roof.



A mini-city scene on a corner of the lower level. All styrene kits with a masonite road. That's it for now. Thanks for all the nice comments. More to come

[GPdemayo]

Hey Tom.....looks like you have a new fire starter buddy with Jeff on the forum. 

[nycjeff]

Hey Greg, I can assure you that no actual flamage was involved in the building of my burnt out barn. Only dark colored pastel chalk was used. Jeff

[postalkarl]

Hey Jeff:

Layout looks great. Love the old barn. We have lots & lots of them all around Pennsylvania.

Karl

[GPdemayo]

Hey Greg, I can assure you that no actual flamage was involved in the building of my burnt out barn. Only dark colored pastel chalk was used. Jeff

Understand your model Jeff, but Tom is a bit of a legend on the forum for his antics back on the old forum.....here is what I remember about the prank of the year.....any corrections to this narrative by others will be appreciated as details are a bit hazy.  
 
Tom was doing a build of one of JimmyD's kits, a station I think, and he posted a picture of if after it burst into flames. He claims that Slim put him up to this big hoax, but Slim was in total denial. JimmyD saw it late one evening and went into  total meltdown thinking the lawsuits would be flying.
 
The next day Tom posted pictures of what he had done.....he had made a duplicate of the station walls and set them on fire and posted the results, blaming Slims faulty lighting to be the culprit. JimmyD recovered and sent Tom this great award for the best forum hoax of the year. Maybe if we ask him nicely, he'll post some pictures of the burnt out building and the award.
 
It was a hilarious episode on the forum and the story just keeps getting better as the years pass. 

[ACL1504]

Jeff,

I was building a small station that Jimmy D. offered as a kit. Bill Satore, Slim, on the forum, offered a small LED lighting kit for the station. I partially built a second station and then set it on fire. I kept a spray water bottle handy to put out the fire after it burned the roof and some of the walls.

Slim, to this day, only smiles but never admitted to the fun. I did admit to setting it on fire and enjoyed all of the adventure. Jimmy panicked and forgot all about LEDs only burning out and not catching on fire. It was a great hoax. Jimmy appreciated the fact we pulled one over on him and he sent me the award shown below. After that, Jimmy changed my Forum name to Fire Starter and that lasted for several months and finally he gave me my ACL1504 back.

Hard to believe it has been ten years!

Tom

[PRR Modeler]

That's good clean fun there.

[GPdemayo]

I still can't believe it was 10 years ago  .....thanks for the photo Tom. 

[nycjeff]

Greg, Tom and all- That's a great story. I'm glad that my modest barn was able to spur memories of long ago. Jeff

[nycjeff]

To continue on with an introductory tour of my layout...



This is a view of the icing facility located on a siding off of the lower level west-bound main line. West-bound on my layout means that it is coming from the south. The main facility is a Walthers kit along with several additional platforms. The icing platform is 4 feet long with tracks on both sides. a train on my layout is usually the locomotive, caboose and about 12, 40 foot cars. This size train fits on my passing sidings and fills both tracks at this facility. The office building is also a walthers kit, the tank is by tichy and the building with the cooling towers is scratch-built. I forget where I got the cooling tower kits.



This picture is of the end of the freight and passenger coach yard on the center peninsula opposite the staging areas. he lower tracks lead to the engine servicing area and the track above the passenger coaches leads into the helix to the upper deck. partly visible at the lower left is the pull-out control panel for the peninsula yard and the engine service area. A power pack provides the power for this panel and these areas. The main lines on the lower level and the branch line on the upper level are powered by two GML walk-around throttles. I will provide more info about this system some time in the future.



This is a city scene at the end of the front wall leading onto the center peninsula. The rear track leads to the west-bound staging area and return loop. The lower level main line is two tracks, one east-bound and one west-bound. The upper level is a single track that leads onto the center peninsula and a return loop. There are about 90 feet of track to go around the lower level and the same on the upper level. The peninsula is about 25 feet long, so to go from the east-bound staging, around the room, to the helix and then around the upper level and center peninsula back down to the west-bound lower main and to the west-bound staging is about 400 feet of train running and takes about 20 minutes time. I took some pictures of my track plan and will include them in a future post.



This is an alexander scale models nyc freight house kit and a walthers water tower. The rear track leads to the helix, the middle to the peninsula yard and the front to the engine service area.



This is a view of the door into the train room which is in my basement. The upper level is a duck-under and the lower level is a swinging gate. That's it for now, more later