A VERY ENJOYABLE AFTERNOON
Often
one of the fringe benefits of going to a Potomac Division home layout
tour is the opportunity to travel through hitherto unseen vistas, even
if they’re mostly local. The latest one, on November 15th, involved a
trip through rural southern Maryland on a bright, crisp, fall day, as
the leaves were nearing the end of their annual color show, to Bernie
Halloran’s home in Owings, MD, and his beautifully done free-lanced
model set in northern New Jersey and southern New York: The New York,
Kittaninny, and Western.
The NYK&W represents what I like to
call the “less is more” philosophy of modeling, putting less emphasis
on the trains themselves and more on re-creating the features of local
areas through which they run, not that the railroad doesn’t have ample
opportunities for operation; as the single track main line weaves
around a sizable room, there are multiple industries for dropping off
and picking up cars as well as several interchanges with the real
railroads that once served the area: The CNJ, the LH&HR, the
Susquehanna, and the NYO&W; there’s even a branch via Warwick NY to
the New Haven at Campbell Hall. The railroad operates on DCC using the
NCE system. The motive power is all first generation diesels, mostly
New York Central in “lightning stripe” decor, but in colors other than
the original black or gray; including one painted dark red, an example
of “poetic license” in model railroading.
Bernie’s takes a
somewhat different approach to the building of a model railroad as
well, in that he completely finishes each section as he moves along -
the bench work, the track, the ballast, applicable structures, trees,
ground cover, and finally the backdrop – all done before seriously
running trains on it (other than, I expect, for test purposes); this is
why the railroad is about two thirds completed, with areas where there
are no tracks yet or even bench work, but the two thirds that are
finished really looks great. At the end of one aisle there’s a sweeping
curve with a bridge around a replica of the Newark Reservoir and a
photo nearby of the prototype to confirm its authenticity. Further
along on that section is a cement plant with cement-dust covered
hoppers parked in it; actually, most of his freight cars are
appropriately weathered. In another section there’s a quarry with rock
dust covering the ground that’s realistic looking enough to get me
thinking that I should be wearing a respirator. Then there’s a kosher
meat packing company that features a rabbi having a quiet conversation
with the owner of the packing plant while a large group of cows in the
nearby pens are having their own much more audible conversation
utilizing a bovine soundtrack device. There’s even a model of the
museum that houses a collection of the famous fluorescing stones native
to the area along with some 1:1 samples of them. The layout room is
finished, with a tiled floor, a drop ceiling, and well-positioned
lighting over the railroad for maximum illumination. The whole project
has been five years in the making, a not unreasonable time frame when
you take into consideration the size of the layout and the meticulous
attention to detail that Bernie has put into it.
It was
a very gratifying experience to see what can be done by someone who has
the time, the talent, and the patience to build such an exceptional
model railroad, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it when he’s
finally completed it.
Bob Rosenberg