In the late 90’s, I became fascinated with the variety and quality of 3-rail equipment being made and I began to acquire things for a future retirement layout. In 2000, Nancy’s parents’ house in Winter Park, Florida passed to her and the possibility of retirement was growing. I retired in 2001 and in 2002 we began a renovation designed to give me space to build a permanent layout. The general plan was to raze the car porte (spelled such on the original house drawings) and build a garage with a room over it for the trains. A complete kitchen renovation was a part of the deal.

The architect was given the mandate to maximize the space for the trains. However, Nancy did not approve of the exterior aesthetics of the first design and the resulting change took about 100 sq ft out of the equation and ended my thoughts of O-72 curves; the Big Boy will stay on the wall with the Veranda. The new layout is the Brewer Avenue and Pacific RR. Again, the design criteria will emphasize operations and be kid-friendly. I guess this qualifies as “toy rail.”

I have a space of about 20 x 20. I have some additional space at the head of the stairs which will be where the main (Winter Park) yards will be. I will have walk-around on most of two sides.

I have done several paper designs and have laid track out to see how the design will work.

Here are some of the details:

Three main ovals (single direction operation).
Exchange between ovals
A stretch of double mains on the two lower ovals.
Alternate routes on each oval
Two yards.
Atlas 21st Century track and switches
Switch motors from Z-stuff
Mostly O-54 curves with some O-72 sections
One pair of O-72/O-54 curved switches
Four postwar ZW’s for power
TMCC (5 CAB units)
Four switch control boards (no CC for switches)
Perimeter controls for operating accessories

The main theme remains UP (the “Pacific” in “Brewer Avenue and Pacific”). Mixed freight consists with the ability to make TTUX, ore car, and tank unit trains. Coal and log operations will be key. Passenger operations will be UP, Great Northern, Sante Fe, Atlantic Coast, Seaboard, Florida East Coast, Southern and New Jersey Transit (I worked for 12 years in NJ and the great people there gave me a NJ transit passenger set as a gift).

A Lionel UP GP-9 provides diesel freight power. A UP Dash-9 waits in the wings (to see if I can get it to retain power across multiple switches. Steam power from a TMCC-equipped MTH RailKing Challenger (in gray and I have the K-Line passenger cars to match this color scheme), a Lionel Mohawk with a custom UP paint job (masquerading as a Mountain type, I guess), and a K-Line B-6 0-6-0 with UP markings for yard work.

Operating accessories are 97 coal tower, 164 log loader, a magnetic gantry crane, MI-Jack crane, culvert loader and unloader, backshop, barrel loader, oil derrick, pumping station, and pipelines (for lots of bubble action), and the ever popular milk and cattle cars. I have a Hellgate bridge and a Bascule bridge (but have not figured out the place for the latter one yet).

Additional stuff to follow as construction progresses!