Brian Eiland's
Central Midland Railroad
December 30, 2007

     Despite a cold rainy Sunday December 30th, several dozen hearty souls ventured out to Bethesda to see what could be the last hurrah for Brian Eiland's Central Midland Railroad.  Recently married, Brian is planning to move to his new bride's homeland of Thailand in the near future, and the fate of the CM is still up in the air.  It could be sold in total or in part, or perhaps at auction, or perhaps transported to Thailand.  Brian will make that final determination this Spring upon his return from an impending trip "outbound" later in January.  Details will be in the Flyer and on the home page as they become available.  The layout was constructed in three sections for ease of breakdown for removal or relocation.

     The L shaped 12 x 10 foot HO layout is a reverse image of a John Armstrong design in the Atlas Layout book of track plans (Plan #HO-29).  Brian has however extensively modified the original plan with additions such as a container yard and hidden staging area, a roundhouse and fully operating turntable large enough to handle a Big Boy, an expanded capacity freight yard from six tracks to eight, a new underground loop feeding several new industries to add operational interest, the relocation of the diesel facilities, and the replacement of much of the sectional track with  nickel-silver flex-track and many of the brass turnouts with nickel silver ones.  The entire track has been weathered and the ties stained, but not yet ballasted as Brian strives to obtain smooth, trouble-free (read: no derailments) operation.  Much of the main line has been double tracked, and a double wye has been added that allows for the reversing of long trains.  The twin mainlines allow Brian to continuously run  trains while he concentrates on industrial switching or working the yard, container or engine facilities.


     While there is a high degree of scenery and detail, Brian envisioned the layout to contain four scenic "zones;" in addition to the roundhouse/turntable zone, there would be a mountain zone, a cityscape, and rolling foothills.  A lot of varied scenery compacted in a small area, but it actually seems to work with the transition breaks between the vignettes.

     The Central Midland is controlled by Atlas block system cab controllers and is powered by four MDC 6200 Sound & Power" throttles.  Three control mainline operations and yard and engine house areas, and one powers the turntable.  Turnouts are powered by capacitor discharge units and thrown in the desired direction by toggle switches mounted on a layout diagram in     These are activated when all turnouts in a zone are set and a "zone button" is pressed.



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