Greater St. Louis Area
Model Railroad Layouts (A-B)
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Jim Agnew
Ajuga Flats
Jim has three separate G scale layouts, two inside
and one in the "wilds" of his backyard.
Indoors are a 20’x6’ dog bone featuring American
steam and diesel plus a 30’x3’ point to point
European prototype running under overhead wire. Outside
there is a 20’x38’ loop with several passing sidings
and spurs. The outdoor layout features Digitrax control
of motive power, Phoenix sound, and air pressure control
of the siding turnouts. Featured in the December 2000
issue of the NMRA Bulletin.
Jim Anderson
Eureka and Western
This freelance HO layout is set in the midwest and
has been under development for over eight years. The 50’x12’
layout represents a Class 1 railroad with trackage
rights for all of the railroads found in eastern
Missouri and western Illinois. Featured are a large coal
mine and an oil refinery, along with an engine servicing
area and large yard. A multi-track staging yard is
hidden from view under the layout. DCC is being
installed.
Len Applebaum
New Mexico Western Railway
The HO scale NMWRR is a freelance modern day railroad
based on the ATSF and SP prototypes. The railroad
operates from Amarillo, TX to Barstow, CA with mostly
bridge traffic for the ATSF and SP. The area modeled is
central and western New Mexico. There are numerous
intermodal and coal trains on this 30’x40’ linear
walkaround layout with a double track mainline. Motive
power is mostly late generation diesels with thirty
trains a day passing through the area. 30" minimum
radius with spiral easements on code 83 wood and
concrete ties. Digitrax DCC control.
Noel Baker
Santa Fe La Junta Sub
This 1,300 square foot HO railroad is one of the
larger single owner layouts around. The mainline is
point-to-point and double tracked with staging at both
ends. The era is the late 1930’s to the early 1950’s
so steam and diesel power is included. The locate is
Raton, New Mexico to La Junta, Colorado. Greg Gray did
the painted backdrop. Two large yard facilities are
planned with roundhouses, turntables as well as freight
and passenger yards. The model features more industrial
switching than the prototype.
Dave Bartz
Santa Fe
This 12’x32’ (with 7’x12’ staging yard) HO
layout depicts the Trinity Division of the Santa Fe
Railroad. Both steam, as well as diesels, are seen on
this 50's era empire. The double track main is protected
by operating 3-color signals, while operating dwarf
signals protect some 30 turnouts.
Bill Beilstein
This freelance 30’x18’ HO layout is set
inMissouri and Illinois, 1960-1970. See diesel (and some
steam) trains cover ground on this Midwestern layout
with some Union Pacific run-throughs. Digitrax DCC, UP
mainline, switching industrial branchline.
Big Bend Railroad Club
Ozark & Springfield
Built in the historic Webster Groves train station on
the Frisco mainline, this 18’x60’ O scale club
layout has a five scale mile mainline point to point
run, a stomping ground for Challengers, Big Boys, Y6Bs,
E8s, ABA F-unit lashups and impressive passenger
trainsets. The 40 members of the club, which has existed
since 1938, are proud of their rolling mountainous
scenery, a couple of really big bridges, and excellent
trackwork. The four mainlines are operated from controls
on an elevated platform above one end of the layout.
Scott Bimson
Alton and Southern
Prototype modeling of St. Louis and East St. Louis of
the 1970s-1980s is the setting of this 22’x34’ HO
railroad with many scratch and kit-bashed structures.
Digitrax DCC controls the over 1,000 feet of track
including a trip over the 25-foot long MacArthur Bridge.
Watch operations at Alton & Southern A&S hump
yard while other Midwestern railroads (UP, MP, CNW, MKT,
and others) arrive and depart the yard. Trains arrive
from a hidden staging yard. Approximately 20% of the
layout will be finished for the tour.
Ray Boismenue
Brittany Short Line
This G scale outdoor 17’x25’ layout features
three separate mains, bridges, and a large trestle.
Various steam and diesel powered trains will be seen
including locomotives and both sound and smoke. The BSL
has great buildings and beautiful plants.
Phil Bonzon
Buffalo Creek and Gauley -
Layout Photo Tour
Phil is a long-time B&O fan and recently became interested in the BC&G
through Deane Mellander's and Bob Kaplan's book "B&O Steam Finale Volume 1".
The original thought was that the BC&G would be an ideal short-line to
model with the B&O. As time passed, the BC&G and ERC&L became the more
dominant roads on the layout.
Through the use of the Intenet and topographical maps Phil developed an
HO layout plan that is 20' 7" x 15' 2". The time period is the late 1950s.
Steam and diesels were both in use on the B&O. The layout is currently under
construction, 300 feet of track has arrived and 50 of the 65 turnouts have
arrived (Shinohara turnouts are a little hard to obtain). The BC&G will
include Dundon (station, shops, company houses and store), Avoca wye, Sand Fork,
Cressmont (dairy), Swandale (sawmill, engine house, company store and houses)
and Widen (mine, tipple, power house, Widen bank, company store & houses).
The ERC&L will join the BC&G at the Avoca wye and will include the Lilly Fork.
The vertical separation between the two railroads will vary from 4" were they
cross to 7" at Swandale and 8" at Widen. At Widen the ERC&L track will be at
eye level.
The B&O starts and ends at Division City. It passes by Dundon and the Elk
River, enters a tunnel and continues on a lower level below the BC&G,
reemerging through tunnels into Division City. Its plan is a simple "L" shaped
oval with passing sidings and two reversing loops. The B&O is planned to expand
into another room where Kanawha City, with an industrial switching area, and
Strange Creek, with another coal mine and a paper mill, will be located. Also,
a wye is planned for the B&O tracks below Widen that will lead to B&O staging
tracks.
Phil's goal is to capture the character and surroundings of the ERC&L and
BC&G and bring them back alive through my layout. The layout will be a
never-ending project and hopefully, a constantly improving one.
Layout website.
Ralph Boyd
R&N Railroad
This beautiful HO layout represents a fictitious
small branchline in the late 1940’s near Thurmond,
West Verginia, and features the Nickel Plate Railroad
serving two major coal mines and a small marshalling
yard. Much of the exposed single track in the 13’x27’
room is hand-laid and features a 33" minimum
radius, two reverse loops and hand-made turnouts.
Scratchbuilt and commercial kit structures dot the rural
landscape backed by hand painted distant mountains with
stormy and clear skies with clouds so real you’ll
forget they are painted. A creek edges Mill Creek Mine
#2 and flows by a deserted mill. Digitrax DCC.
Eric Brooman
Utah Belt
 The new Utah Belt is an expanded
version of the original with a similar modern southwest
theme. Set in northern New Mexico, the 165’ mainline
runs through desert and mountain scenes. A linear
sound-the-walls design with a central peninsula is used.
The mainline connects two staging areas of six 20’
reverse loops stacked over each other. Intermodal, unit
coal trains and manifests pulled by modern EMD power
keep the rails polished on this intermountain bridge
route. The original Utah Belt was featured in many
issues of both Model Railroader and Railroad
Model Craftsman. Photo
by Eric Brooman.
Bob Buschart
CB&Q is the emphasis on this large 30’x26’ HO
railroad, although both the UP and Santa Fe make their
appearance. Multi-cab lash-ups and long trains are
frequent on this layout which features three yards, one
of them primarily for reefers. A coal mine, diesel
facility and other assorted industries are in evidence.
Mountains and 800’ of track provide a setting in which
trains can appear and disappear seemingly at will.
Hidden yards below the layout provide storage for
several trains.
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