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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