I appreciate what you accomplished in a small space, and I appreciate your comment about getting a little bored. I'm struggling to get started with anything on the 8'x18"+cassette that I have. I keep trying to cram in too much so want to find a scene that really speaks to me and simplify if I can. Glad you've got some track again. I really liked your FarmRail layout.
Less is more, trust me. If you try to cram in everything then you’ll be overwhelmed and uninspired. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same as the prototype, it only needs to capture the essence of it. Do it right and no one will tell the difference.
So ironic! I started with SR in June of ‘79 at Linwood, NC, and this is my favorite era! When I retired in 2020, it was a far different animal! A cool feature to model from this era would be one of Southern’s “doorless wonders”, 40’ boxcars near the end of their lives that had the doors removed (or just fell off!) and still had friction bearing trucks. They were loaded with agricultural limestone piled in each end, none in the middle. They were usually spotted at team tracks with a loading ramp for unloading. Great job!
That’s super cool! I’ve always been curious about to branch line that ran over to Albermarle. I have a friend who is a retired engineer from the Central of Georgia and he also suggested doorless boxcars for lime. I may have to try doing a couple!
@@alexbogaski That branch line is the “Yadkin Branch”, named for the original Yadkin RR that Southern got control of many years ago. At one time, it ran all the way to Norwood. The city of Norwood at one time provided a steam engine servicing facility to the three railroads that served the town, Yadkin, Winston-Salem Southbound Ry & Norfolk Southern (old). It’s been a couple decades since I’ve been there, but there’s a farm supply or something beside the old NS ( now AC&W) where the WSS interchange track meets the NS. In the gravel beside that building, the rim of the old turntable was visible in several places! That was the location of the old engine terminal. No idea if it’s still visible today. The Tallassee Railroad (from Halls Ferry Jct. to Badin via Whitney) was another line that Southern leased off of Alcoa in the late 1800’s, and added a bunch of traffic to the Yadkin. Sou. Leased it from Halls Ferry Jct. to Whitney, and from Whitney (WSSB Ry) to Badin it was operated jointly by SR & WSSB. Each of them operating it 6 months at a time. Yadkin Brick was located between HFJ & Whitney, and contributed frequent carloads until they closed a number of years back. NS terminated the lease in 2006 after a legal battle with Alcoa. And as far as Whitney history, the original dam for Badin, a massive cut stone structure, is located just downstream of the long WSS bridge over the river, but is underwater (not by much!) except during drawdowns. The stone for this structure was cut and shaped in the Granite Quarry, NC area, and shipped on the Yadkin RR to the construction site. Ok, I’ll stop!
You should watch Boomer Diorama. A former film studio effects artist. Lots of great information on his channel and an awesome layout. He has a lot of videos going back several years, all of which are well worth watching. He scratch builds everything and gives advice on how to do it realistically and make the buildings last forever.
Great layout video update. The layout and scenery looks fantastic. You make the best of the time and space you have. You only learn and improve by doing, and small layouts allow you to do that. No one knows what the future will bring, so enjoy today and have fun building a layout no matter what size it is.-Tom
You have one of THE most stunningly simple shelf layouts that I've seen on UA-cam, and you've done so with only two turnouts, and in a rural setting, and those modeled trees in front of the photo backdrop of trees looks like a forest that goes on for miles. So, as I am struggling thru the planning stages of my first layout - a HO shelf layout in a small bedroom - your rural farming / cottage industry theme is really inspiring, and gives me a lot to think about. Thank-you.
John Armstrong suggested, that Suggestive Ommission was the next step beyond Selective Compression. No matter the size of your layout, the thing is that you are enjoying the hobby! It's better to have a little bit of something, than all of nothing. It may not check all the boxes, however you can enjoy what you have! Such a cute lite lady! 11:23
I grew up in Liberty, NC along the old Atlantic and Yadkin line that ran toward Sanford. You've captured the flavor of the Southern in the early 80s very well. I've considered doing something similar myself.
As a Brit who models American Railroads and your take on a smaller layout and how you fit it all in. I can take away so many ideas and how to do it plus the American way railways are run. Great video especially the back story to justify your layout. Thank you for sharing.
First time viewer but absolutely love this! Hearing you talk about balancing the hobby with family life made me feel fortunate about being a 20-something with no responsibilities, but at the same time I think the fact you have a loving family makes you even more fortunate than me. Awesome job with the scenery, feels realistic that the railroad would just pair all those industries on one track to save money on building individual spurs. The road crossing looks lovely and convincing. I believe what you were trying to say with the look of the house and the pre built structures offered is that they feel too "whimsical", like they're too happy and feel more in place with the Boomer era of the 50s where it's all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. The house you used feels perfectly in place as a small shack hidden in the Southern East coast woods. Great layout! Great use of track planning! Great use of rolling stock and great presentation overall! You've got a subscriber.
When I saw the photo for the video, my first thought was North Carolina. I like your selection of buildings and how much space you have between them. Thanks for explaining how you did the backdrop, shelving, etc.
Your work reminds me of the intense detail of lance Mindheims layout! You deserve to have a bigger layout: preferably that whole room 😂😂! Oh I feel you on the time that goes into having a full time job and raising kids . So eager to see this grow. Your yet another model railroader raising the bar really high 😅😅. Made it seem like I was there at that grade crossing
Living in Fayetteville and passing through Aberdeen on my way to Southern Pines, I can see some familiarity of rural NC in your layout. I'm inspired to build a similar layout to make use of my limited free space and time.
You're right about prebuilt buildings being "too cutesy." I once was at a model railroad seminar where the presenter showed pictures of three HO scale outhouses, and then asked us which one was the plastic kit. (His point was that he was trying to show us how to make plastic look like real wood.) I noticed at once that one of the outhouses had a moon-shaped cutout, and realized that that is exactly the sort of "cutesy" detail that plastic kit manufacturers can't resist. I was right!
Nice layout! Your scenicking has worked out very well; it's visually authentic, especially the lone house on a country road. Your overall premise, a low-traffic spur with a couple of industries, does present a variety of switching opportunities in a limited space. Even though possibilities are limited, some operations are better than no operations. Thanks for sharing this video. One additional thought: this small layout offers the possibility of future expansion or incorporation into a larger project, should time and space permit. Your kids are going to go off to college before you know it.
Very nice , an nice to see you posting again , so glad you have thoughts of the farmrail still playing a part in future endeavors , look forward to that. Thanks for sharing and congratulations to your family on the birth of your daughter. Till the next time take care .
Love the Cat Mountain Car! David Barrow’s Domino Benchwork is what I’ve been doing. I bought Allen Keller’s VHS tapes on EBay in 2023 in order to get Volume 17, David Barrow’s layout tour. I had the tape years ago, but loaned it out and it never got returned. The guy said it got passed around and he didn’t know who ended up with it. I guess someone from a club has it from over 30 years ago.
Great little layout that makes sense. I also like seeing a small layout with a rural southern theme. My N scale layout is 1970s industrial New England, but the HO switching layout I'm planning is looking to be a southeast or south-central road in a rural setting like this. Great job!
Took a long time before we saw some action ! But the switching layout is great. If you love slow moving switching action in a fabulous setting, this is the place to be !
Hi, I'm just starting my shelf layout and this is perfect just what I was looking for as my run around was just to big for my small home, I started collecting Southern HO and few other's a while ago and as a Brit I really had no idea about American Railways , I think I was just hooked on the Southern colour scheme and how well your Loco's run, if you don't mind I have couple of questions, what's a team track' and what if any other road names would have rubbed shoulders with Southern rail back in the day, I'm going for the 50's 60's era give or take, 40ft box cars and GP and RS locos , great layout and thanks for sharing this , Gavin
Very nice. One thing you could do is to pull it out from the wall and add a loop (fold down if need be) to create some come and go staging or continuous running for breaking in or just watching trains run.
Add a couple of vertical curves (dips and drops) in the rail. The trick is to make sure that the I shape stays straight up and down .Too many people let the rail slightly roll over while dipping, this will only lead to constant derailments.
Could you tell me a lot of the ground materials you used? Some of the most realistic colors I've seen. Very subtle and realistic. I'm talking about the gravel, soil, clay colors etc. Thanks
hehe..."its not a perfect room..." honestly said i would be happy to have a room like that... then i had a place where i could start building my switching layout project.... ;)
I see a lot of good ideas here. By chance do you have a model # for that shelf unit? I have not found it yet on Ikea. Thanks so much. PS: I really like your vegetation. While some of it may be a llttle too green, overall, it looks real. So many layouts look like golf courses, or lawns. Yours looks "right".
@@johnkelley4874 it’s made out of Masonite that I picked up at Lowe’s. I don’t recall the paint color specifically, but I always look for something close to the Behr “wild rice” color that Lance Mindheim recommends.
We loaded hopper cars on the l and n we could hold 7 cars on our sitting we moved the car while loading with a stiger panther tractor if it was in the fields we used a farmall m tractor . Had to uncouple with the m it would handle 3 hoppers .and we even pulled one at a time with a ford f250 pick up truck .we would off load fertilizer to
Very nice layout, love the rural look. Great work. 👍
Looks awesome! You’ve packed a lot of great stuff into a small area. The backdrop add a very nice touch!
I appreciate what you accomplished in a small space, and I appreciate your comment about getting a little bored. I'm struggling to get started with anything on the 8'x18"+cassette that I have. I keep trying to cram in too much so want to find a scene that really speaks to me and simplify if I can.
Glad you've got some track again. I really liked your FarmRail layout.
Less is more, trust me. If you try to cram in everything then you’ll be overwhelmed and uninspired. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same as the prototype, it only needs to capture the essence of it. Do it right and no one will tell the difference.
So ironic! I started with SR in June of ‘79 at Linwood, NC, and this is my favorite era! When I retired in 2020, it was a far different animal! A cool feature to model from this era would be one of Southern’s “doorless wonders”, 40’ boxcars near the end of their lives that had the doors removed (or just fell off!) and still had friction bearing trucks. They were loaded with agricultural limestone piled in each end, none in the middle. They were usually spotted at team tracks with a loading ramp for unloading. Great job!
That’s super cool! I’ve always been curious about to branch line that ran over to Albermarle. I have a friend who is a retired engineer from the Central of Georgia and he also suggested doorless boxcars for lime. I may have to try doing a couple!
@@alexbogaski That branch line is the “Yadkin Branch”, named for the original Yadkin RR that Southern got control of many years ago. At one time, it ran all the way to Norwood. The city of Norwood at one time provided a steam engine servicing facility to the three railroads that served the town, Yadkin, Winston-Salem Southbound Ry & Norfolk Southern (old). It’s been a couple decades since I’ve been there, but there’s a farm supply or something beside the old NS ( now AC&W) where the WSS interchange track meets the NS. In the gravel beside that building, the rim of the old turntable was visible in several places! That was the location of the old engine terminal. No idea if it’s still visible today. The Tallassee Railroad (from Halls Ferry Jct. to Badin via Whitney) was another line that Southern leased off of Alcoa in the late 1800’s, and added a bunch of traffic to the Yadkin. Sou. Leased it from Halls Ferry Jct. to Whitney, and from Whitney (WSSB Ry) to Badin it was operated jointly by SR & WSSB. Each of them operating it 6 months at a time. Yadkin Brick was located between HFJ & Whitney, and contributed frequent carloads until they closed a number of years back. NS terminated the lease in 2006 after a legal battle with Alcoa. And as far as Whitney history, the original dam for Badin, a massive cut stone structure, is located just downstream of the long WSS bridge over the river, but is underwater (not by much!) except during drawdowns. The stone for this structure was cut and shaped in the Granite Quarry, NC area, and shipped on the Yadkin RR to the construction site. Ok, I’ll stop!
"Just run the damn trains!" - Good advice.
Glad you’re back, Red Dirt !
You should watch Boomer Diorama. A former film studio effects artist. Lots of great information on his channel and an awesome layout. He has a lot of videos going back several years, all of which are well worth watching. He scratch builds everything and gives advice on how to do it realistically and make the buildings last forever.
Boomer is awesome. Don't know of any other modeler like him. His skills are beyond reality.
Very nicely done. Yes nobody is perfect, therefore no layout is perfect.
Great layout video update. The layout and scenery looks fantastic. You make the best of the time and space you have. You only learn and improve by doing, and small layouts allow you to do that. No one knows what the future will bring, so enjoy today and have fun building a layout no matter what size it is.-Tom
Thanks for watching, Tom, and thanks for all your input on this project and others!
You have one of THE most stunningly simple shelf layouts that I've seen on UA-cam, and you've done so with only two turnouts, and in a rural setting, and those modeled trees in front of the photo backdrop of trees looks like a forest that goes on for miles.
So, as I am struggling thru the planning stages of my first layout - a HO shelf layout in a small bedroom - your rural farming / cottage industry theme is really inspiring, and gives me a lot to think about. Thank-you.
But BEAUTIFUL layout... great realism....NICE green growth feel. I really like how you did your grasses. Top Notch !
Too funny, I was just watching your videos yesterday. New layout is looks great, cheers! 👍
It’s incredible what you can do in such a small space with HO scale. Gorgeous layout.
Excellent video! Love this little layout.
John Armstrong suggested, that Suggestive Ommission was the next step beyond Selective Compression.
No matter the size of your layout, the thing is that you are enjoying the hobby! It's better to have a little bit of something, than all of nothing. It may not check all the boxes, however you can enjoy what you have!
Such a cute lite lady! 11:23
I grew up in Liberty, NC along the old Atlantic and Yadkin line that ran toward Sanford. You've captured the flavor of the Southern in the early 80s very well. I've considered doing something similar myself.
Good to see you back.👍
Axis and Allies and Monopoly. My guy is keeping it old school with his boardgames 😄 Great little layout!
As a Brit who models American Railroads and your take on a smaller layout and how you fit it all in. I can take away so many ideas and how to do it plus the American way railways are run. Great video especially the back story to justify your layout. Thank you for sharing.
First time viewer but absolutely love this! Hearing you talk about balancing the hobby with family life made me feel fortunate about being a 20-something with no responsibilities, but at the same time I think the fact you have a loving family makes you even more fortunate than me.
Awesome job with the scenery, feels realistic that the railroad would just pair all those industries on one track to save money on building individual spurs. The road crossing looks lovely and convincing. I believe what you were trying to say with the look of the house and the pre built structures offered is that they feel too "whimsical", like they're too happy and feel more in place with the Boomer era of the 50s where it's all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. The house you used feels perfectly in place as a small shack hidden in the Southern East coast woods.
Great layout! Great use of track planning! Great use of rolling stock and great presentation overall! You've got a subscriber.
When I saw the photo for the video, my first thought was North Carolina. I like your selection of buildings and how much space you have between them. Thanks for explaining how you did the backdrop, shelving, etc.
Your work reminds me of the intense detail of lance Mindheims layout! You deserve to have a bigger layout: preferably that whole room 😂😂! Oh I feel you on the time that goes into having a full time job and raising kids . So eager to see this grow. Your yet another model railroader raising the bar really high 😅😅. Made it seem like I was there at that grade crossing
Living in Fayetteville and passing through Aberdeen on my way to Southern Pines, I can see some familiarity of rural NC in your layout.
I'm inspired to build a similar layout to make use of my limited free space and time.
You're right about prebuilt buildings being "too cutesy." I once was at a model railroad seminar where the presenter showed pictures of three HO scale outhouses, and then asked us which one was the plastic kit. (His point was that he was trying to show us how to make plastic look like real wood.) I noticed at once that one of the outhouses had a moon-shaped cutout, and realized that that is exactly the sort of "cutesy" detail that plastic kit manufacturers can't resist. I was right!
Really cool that you share a hobby room with your wife. Best wishes from Rock Hill SC - Bill.
Nice layout! Your scenicking has worked out very well; it's visually authentic, especially the lone house on a country road.
Your overall premise, a low-traffic spur with a couple of industries, does present a variety of switching opportunities in a limited space.
Even though possibilities are limited, some operations are better than no operations.
Thanks for sharing this video.
One additional thought: this small layout offers the possibility of future expansion or incorporation into a larger project, should time and space permit. Your kids are going to go off to college before you know it.
Very nice , an nice to see you posting again , so glad you have thoughts of the farmrail still playing a part in future endeavors , look forward to that. Thanks for sharing and congratulations to your family on the birth of your daughter. Till the next time take care .
Looks awesome 🎯🎯 🚂🔥🔥🔥🔥
Handsome layout! Look forward to when you have a larger space and more time.
Glad to see you back!
Love the Cat Mountain Car! David Barrow’s Domino Benchwork is what I’ve been doing.
I bought Allen Keller’s VHS tapes on EBay in 2023 in order to get Volume 17, David Barrow’s layout tour.
I had the tape years ago, but loaned it out and it never got returned. The guy said it got passed around and he didn’t know who ended up with it. I guess someone from a club has it from over 30 years ago.
Very, very nice--- great work!!
Great to see you post a video again!
Great video.
Looks great, thanks for sharing the update.
You have a VERY NICE looking layout!!!!! Well done!!!!
Great little layout that makes sense. I also like seeing a small layout with a rural southern theme. My N scale layout is 1970s industrial New England, but the HO switching layout I'm planning is looking to be a southeast or south-central road in a rural setting like this. Great job!
Congrats on your new addition. Nice layout, thanks for the cool video!
Very impressive and the scenery is excellent. Proto throttle too? Very cool
Took a long time before we saw some action ! But the switching layout is great. If you love slow moving switching action in a fabulous setting, this is the place to be !
Excellent Work !!
You got a very well detailed layout. looks great.
Hi, I'm just starting my shelf layout and this is perfect just what I was looking for as my run around was just to big for my small home, I started collecting Southern HO and few other's a while ago and as a Brit I really had no idea about American Railways , I think I was just hooked on the Southern colour scheme and how well your Loco's run, if you don't mind I have couple of questions, what's a team track' and what if any other road names would have rubbed shoulders with Southern rail back in the day, I'm going for the 50's 60's era give or take, 40ft box cars and GP and RS locos , great layout and thanks for sharing this , Gavin
That is really sharp. I have N scale layout and often run 70s Southern Railway freights and passenger trains. I have subbed.
Excellent result. I can smell the Garden City, Ga. Kaiser Chemical plant. One thing that is missing - where's the kudzu??? 🤔
Lee brick in Sanford NC used to load in 50' boxcars for NS but the industry was switched by A&W (Atlantic and Western) until 2018..
That's one of the industries I used as inspiration!
@@alexbogaski I'm also planning on using the industry on my future Cape Fear Terminal layout too.
Very nice. One thing you could do is to pull it out from the wall and add a loop (fold down if need be) to create some come and go staging or continuous running for breaking in or just watching trains run.
Great layout! New subscriber!
Perfect use of a small space With a growing family it would be difficult to have a larger layout and do it justice.
Add a couple of vertical curves (dips and drops) in the rail. The trick is to make sure that the I shape stays straight up and down .Too many people let the rail slightly roll over while dipping, this will only lead to constant derailments.
Could you tell me a lot of the ground materials you used? Some of the most realistic colors I've seen. Very subtle and realistic. I'm talking about the gravel, soil, clay colors etc. Thanks
Hi Alex - Love this layout, was curious of your three smaller shelf layouts you’ve built over the years which has been the most fun to operate?
hehe..."its not a perfect room..." honestly said i would be happy to have a room like that... then i had a place where i could start building my switching layout project.... ;)
How did you do those book shelves, like cut them down to size? Great video love to see you back always loved the farm rail layout
I see a lot of good ideas here. By chance do you have a model # for that shelf unit? I have not found it yet on Ikea. Thanks so much.
PS: I really like your vegetation. While some of it may be a llttle too green, overall, it looks real. So many layouts look like golf courses, or lawns. Yours looks "right".
Nevermind. I went back to the East Penn video and you showed in it that it was IVAR by IKEA. Nice stuff.
Nice! What has Rob’s lead time in weathering been lately?
You’d have to ask him but last time I had some stuff weathered it took a few months. He’s quite popular!
What brand and color is your facia board around the layout? Looks fantastic 😊
@@johnkelley4874 it’s made out of Masonite that I picked up at Lowe’s. I don’t recall the paint color specifically, but I always look for something close to the Behr “wild rice” color that Lance Mindheim recommends.
Can you show us your 2 turnout track plan for the layout?
Beautiful layout.. I'm curious about that controller though. Is it a self built project?
Who makes the switch stands?
Rapido
Where did you get your overhead lights?
Home Depot!
@@alexbogaski ok thanks
Rj Corman anywhere possibly
We loaded hopper cars on the l and n we could hold 7 cars on our sitting we moved the car while loading with a stiger panther tractor if it was in the fields we used a farmall m tractor . Had to uncouple with the m it would handle 3 hoppers .and we even pulled one at a time with a ford f250 pick up truck .we would off load fertilizer to
Trains run 5mins towards the end of the video 😐
小さい女の子の存在感だけで、全ての意味が無効だね
世界から、争いの火種を消すのも作るのも、彼女たちなんだという事が、良くわかったよ
You talk way too much.!!!😮
@@richardhendrickson if you don’t like the video, just move on. Have some manners.