The layout occupies an L-shaped finished basement room of about 20'x24'. The core of the layout was fabricated and installed in 2004 by Lance Mindheim (www.shelflayouts.com). John laid yard and other industrial trackage. Since the layout open house for the Division in 2006, numerous other cardboard mockup industrial structures have been added. The layout uses Atlas Code 83 flex track on cork roadbed over ¾" plywood subroadbed. Atlas No. 6 turnouts are used (plus 4 Walthers/Shinohara curved) with Tortoise machines. Minimum radius is 26," and the continuous-loop main line is about 120' long. Maximum grade is about 1.6%, and there are three passing sidings permitting ca. 15-20 car trains. There is an open 6-track staging yard. Temporary signs consisting of yellow cards on bamboo skewers identify trackage and industries. The basement floor is professionally epoxy coated. The layout is controlled with a CVP radio DCC system. Aisles are a bit tight in some places, and the duckunder is suboptimal, but, hey, you do what you have to. Also different since 2006 is the third and hopefully final trial installation of industrial trackage in the steel mill peninsula using Atlas Snap Track.
Scenery is in its infancy; we are having fun trying to improve upon and expedite various published "winter tree" construction techniques. Some of these trees should be on display. And new since last time is a masonite riverbed that now runs through part of the layout. Most of the signature structures are only represented by cardboard mockups. Industries represented include a blast furnace, byproducts coke plant, slag processing plant, open hearth steel plant, heavy forge, flour mill and textile mill, some but not all of which are based on prototypes on the line. John has been fortunate to be able to arrange to have laser kits produced of the actual B&O stations at St. Denis, Ilchester and Ellicott City. The kits were displayed on the layout. Ilchester has been built-up so far. Quite a few pieces of interesting steel mill rolling stock were on the layout or on display.
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