Jim Canter (far right) speaks to the crowd during the visit.
As I mentioned in my post about the 2011 O Scale National the Proto48 meeting became a Proto48 layout tour. The first Proto48 layout on the tour was Jim Canter’s “Nickel Plate & Plywood” railroad.
As Jim described the Proto48 “Nickel Plate & Plywood” railroad which has been under construction for ten years had recently had major changes made to it. Also the double track mainline had been spiked down in the last couple of weeks. Which I thought did speak very well of Jim’s Tie Strips which were used on the mainline. The layout is a classic design which seemed to be more for rail fanning trains run than operating.
The layout room is very large, larger then some of the clubs back here in the east. The benchwork was very solid and there were nice built-in display cabinets under the benchwork, That should look very nice when all the scenery is finished in that area. A nice crew lounge (where Jim is speaking above) was located in the middle of the room with the layout on the walls behind it.
The center of the room has the beginning of a nice city scene, an engine facility and a large yard. But what I observed while there, the yard might be to deep to comfortably work. On an empty section of yard I tried to reach in from the isle, I could only reach about half the tracks that the yard had, also the throat of the yard was positioned to be out of reach from the isle also. Maybe these are things that have yet to be addressed in the revisions of the layout.
The layout did have the mainline running, and Jim was a great host. Answering questions and trying to meet the needs of the visitors while having to tend to the issues of hosting an O scale National the next day.
The scene on the outside walls at the bottom of the stairs
Solid benchwork. Also you can see the Tie strips on the mainline.
The Engine Facility displaying a number of Jim’s models
The Yard scene in the middle of the room
Some of the models in the yard scene.
Another Pacific Limited NYC boxcar on the layout.