Royal Oak and Southern
Stan Knotts
Welcome to the
RO&S. It
has been in progress for about 17 years
but did not really have a lot of progress until I retired. It occupies a 17 x 25 foot
area and
represents a small local carrier with a narrow gauge subsidiary. The era is 1939 and the
locality is generally
western
My modeling
preferences are
prototype freelanced (which means to me that everything should be
reasonably
prototypical). I
lean towards an
industrial theme and thus you see many industries on the layout. This interest lead me to
create the Railroad
Industry Special Interest Group (RRI SIG) recognized 19 years ago by
the NMRA
(information on the SIG is in the lounge area).
I enjoy
building structures and have
numerous craftsman kits, scratch built structures and kitbashed
structures on
the layout. Many
industries are named
for friends and family. The layout is controlled by NCE DCC radio
control, with
most switches controlled by DCC stationary decoders (a work in progress
– all
switch control panels have been removed).
Turnout switch motors are either Tortoise or Switch
Masters. Many
engines have sound decoders with all to be sound equipped as time
permits. The lumber
drying area of the sawmill is a
lift-out to permit me to reach that area.
The are several
sound CD’s installed
under the layout including harbor sound, sawmill sound and logging area
sound. These CDs
are produced and sold
by Fantasonics Engineering. There
are
additional sounds to be installed and will be changing to solid state
players
called “Dream Players” so they can be selectively controlled by DCC
stationary
decoders. I have
also installed two
lighted and animated billboards by Miller Engineering with more to be
installed.
All structures
and scenery have been
built by me with a few exceptions where I have included mostly some
small
structures from my fathers Troll & Elfin railroad – mostly for
sentimental
sake.
The scenery has
been built using a
variety of methods, but predominantly uses a cardboard web covered by
red rosin
paper with hydrocal rock castings and Scupltamold scenery base. Scenic
materials are everything under the sun including real dirt and ground
leaves.
As you can see,
the layout is not
complete. Progress
continues somewhat
slowly since it is heavy on structures which take more time than
scenery. I will
probably never be “finished” as I tend
to replace or change items with improved or different ones. I like building and do not
spend much time
operating (or in my case running trains).
If I ever felt the layout was “finished” I would probably
tear it down
and build something different.
I prefer my
structures and equipment
to be weathered and frequently rusty.
This is also a work in progress and I have not yet tackled
weathering
the locos. I have
several model bench
areas and usually work on multiple projects simultaneously for variety.
In the lounge area is the
remnants
of an On2 modular layout most of which was dismantled and discarded as
I don’t
have time to do multiple model railroads.
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