One Short Bus Trip To Cincinnati = A Tour Of 5 Great Layouts!

Fellow model railroaders in the Cincinnati, Ohio area plan to open up their layouts for HIGHBALL TO INDY 2016, on Tuesday, July 5th. Each of these impressive layouts has been featured in popular publications . . . such as monthly issues of Model Railroader magazine or in their annual Great Model Railroads or Model Railroad Planning issues.  Others have been featured in the Walthers catalog, issues of Rail Model Journal, the NMRA calendar, or the PBS TV series Tracks Ahead.  This trip is a "must do" event!  Layout descriptions of the 5 sites are included below.

Gerry's Deep Water District Of The Virginian Railroad (left) – This stunning HO scale layout is huge, fully scenicked and built for realistic operations in the 1959 era, including trackage and interchanges with the NYC, V&O, N&W and C&O railways. The Virginian & Ohio (V&O) portion was built by W. Allen McClelland, MMR and he frequently coordinates its operations. This layout has many staging yards (most hidden), custom painted backdrops, fantastic crew lounge, nifty dispatcher office in a replica station, computerized dispatching and signaling and fascia mounted video cameras to view hidden staging areas. Control is via Digitrax DCC and signaling utilizes Gerry's Signals by Spreadsheet software. Feature articles appeared Model Railroader's annual publications: 2005 Model Railroad Planning and 2014 Great Model Railroads. 

John Burchnall's The Eastern Loggers (at right) – This highly detailed fully scenicked HO / HOn3 layout depicts logging in central Pennsylvania during the early 1920's. This group's 10' x 20' portable sectional layout packs in many interesting logging related industries, emphasizing realistic scenery, structures, rolling stock and theme. The track, structures and scenery are all scratchbuilt, while the layout infrastructure is built using many novel techniques, including pioneering foamboard layout construction and recent lighting valance/shadow box system using PVC panels. The layout was awarded Best of Show at the 1992 NMRA National Convention in Columbus, Ohio. Feature articles appeared in the 1998 Great Model Railroads and September 2004 NMRA Scale Rails. Other photos appeared in the 2000 NMRA Calendar (May) and the 2014 HO Scale Walther's catalog. 

Bob Lawson's Southern Railway (left) – This huge, incredibly well-detailed HO scale layout portrays the Southern Railway circa 1945-1951 from Somerset and Danville, Kentucky north to Cincinnati, Ohio. The pike includes many beautiful and award winning structures and dioramas, with deep mountain scenes, long trains, extensive use of rubber rocks, multiple water features, towns, industries, yards and locomotive facilities. Dioramas from Bob's dismantled layout in Danville, KY are incorporated in this current masterpiece. Bob's modeling was featured in the 2008 Great Model Railroads issue, plus the August 2014 Model Railroader, 2014 Great Model Railroads calendar, and 2014 HO Scale Walther's catalog. 

Curt LaRue's Pennsylvania RR Panhandle Division (shown below) – This large, nicely scenicked HO scale pike depicts the Panhandle Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad during the 1946 to 1954 period in western PA, northern WV and eastern OH. Includes broad radius double track mainline, a photogenic branchline serving 2 exquisitely crafted coal mines, heavy steam and diesel locomotives, transfer operations, industries, long trains, detailed freight and passenger cars and precision scratchbuilt heavy duty bridges, including a 6 real foot long main span at Steubenville, OH. Utilizes Lenz DCC. Visitors need to navigate one raised duckunder on the layout. The layout was featured in February 2005 Rail Model Journal and 2011 Great Model Railroads publications. 

Jerry Strangarity's Reading RR + Northern Schuylkill & Hillsdale District (shown at right) – This beautiful 1930's era HO scale layout features exquisitely scratchbuilt and weathered structures and scenery portraying both city and rural areas traversed by the Reading Railroad in southeast Pennsylvania. The first room features a long large city industrial area with wonderful blending of structures, tracks and streets. The second room features more rural scenes, including an award winning scratchbuilt roundhouse complex, plus dairy, small town area, coal mine and related industries. An added expansion area may be underway by convention time. The layout was featured in 2003 Great Model Railroads, a Fall 2005 TV episode of Tracks Ahead (on PBS), and in the November 2010 Model Railroader. 

 

 

 

 

This tour is scheduled for July 5, 2016, from

7:00 AM - 6:00 PM. Lunch is included in the fee.