The Layout

THE currently existing completed trackage of the NORMANED RAILROAD provides for multi-train operation on three levels by means of the following:

      In addition, a fourth track level displays the TTCo. Trolley Museum, while a fifth level is home to the “Old Salt” mine with a model representation of the unique Brooks Ave. yard depot of the Rochester & Southern Division of the Genesee & Wyoming RR Co., along with “Saltersville Siding,” where the old folks sit and wait for the passenger trains of a different time and place. These are both static displays or dioramas, but the arrangement is changed from time-to-time, and both levels have track carrying trains off into “tunnels to nowhere” (or to anywhere, depending upon the magic of one's imagination).

      Although there are provisions for eight separate operators (or engineers), the entire model railroad or any of its parts may be operated from the Main Control panel by setting interlocking electrical switches for the desired control routing.

Our first grandson, Danny Kennison (at age three), discovers the train whistle button on the model railroad's auxiliary control panel -- placed intentionally at “child height.”

      Play value also was kept in mind in designing the present NORMANED RR Layout, with controls for most automatic and remote control operating accessories being placed where younger model railroaders can reach them.

      One of the featured attractions of the NORMANED is the Giant Trestle which spans the “Great Gorge” to connect Central City to the main line. This bridge was constructed by the railroad's president (that's me) entirely from scratch using prototype illustrations and scrap lumber. It contains more than 250 individual pieces of wood, 7½ pounds of nails, three pints of wood glue, and required 3½ pints of flat black paint to finish; it will support the combined weight of four 200-pound men. This trestle is 432 scale feet long and rises 148 scale feet above the floor of the gorge.

      “Tunnel Mountain,” which rises behind Central City overlooking the great gorge to the highest point on the layout, is another creation of the NORMANED's “Norm,” who both designed and constructed it - and then made it work. The mountain made it possible to model a railroad tunnel and two highway tunnels, two shafts of the Noma (coal) mine, a point-to-point tourist trolley line from Central City to the mountain's peak, and a coal supply company which provides also a servicing stop for hungry and thirsty steam locomotives. The proprietor considers this project to be a companion to the Giant Trestle, and the centerpiece of the model railroad.

      The freelanced five-stall roundhouse (unusual on O-Scale home layouts) also was scratch-built by the president using scrap materials; plans were developed from old railroad photographs (pun intended), and some of the “products” used in its construction might be “unseemly” enough to cause proper young girls to blush - or others to laugh. The Arlington Hotel at Panthorne, the “Old Salt” Mining Company building, and all of the control panels also were designed and hand-made by the elder Mr. Wright (although considerable assistance from others was necessary at times to get the electrical wiring correct).

      A highly visible and distinctive miniature farm near the railroad line into Bridgeport is the work of our middle child and daughter, Nita. She perhaps tells its story best in her own words:

      And her farm it is. Visitors who take a close look are all but amazed at the amount of detailing this scene has - inside and outside the buildings, and in the thoughtful use of the relatively small “acreage” provided for her use when she built her farm. She has also taken charge of maintaining the farm herself, and there is usually very little that needs “fixin'” at Nita's farm!

       Many of those who examine the layout (on and off the farm), are able to discover the Hobo “Jungle” with its lighted campfire . . . or the operating road-crossing gate . . . the partially hidden auto mechanic . . . the “old salt” - both the person and the real thing . . . the nude bathing beauties . . . “Sam, the Semaphore Man” . . . the Dalmatian doing his thing for the fire hydrant . . . the one-armed motorist . . . “Little Boy Blue” . . . the television cameraman . . . the deer hunter - and a beautiful buck and doe together beyond his sight . . . a lonely clergyman . . . the schoolmaster . . . a manhole (or two) in the street . . . the fire chief . . . the haunted house (and maybe even a ghost or two) . . . two removable bridges (and a drawbridge which stops train traffic) . . . the English gentleman . . . the Old Antique Shop . . . a boy “gone fishin'” with his grandpa . . . a native American Indian in full warbonnet ready to protect his maiden with the pale face (and other parts) from all comers . . . a child's swing (there could even be two) . . . a motorcycle cop in hiding . . . a couple kissing in the gazebo . . . and lots of other surprises . . . .

A careful look at this picture will reveal two hoboes waiting near their campfire in a “jungle” below the tracks. Can you find them? (Maybe they already hopped into a boxcar of a slow-moving freight train while you were off-line).