Red House Yard is my interpretation of the American scene based on what I’ve seen on the exhibition circuit, videos, films and of course television! (I’m still looking for a cowboy and an Indian to place on the layout!)
The layout is set in the late 50’s in the transition period from steam to diesel so I can run both. The location is meant to be on the East Coast simply because the first loco I obtained was a Boston and Maine S3 diesel at a local swap meet. I have restricted subsequent acquisitions to reflect this theme. I have some Baltimore and Ohio, Maine Central, Western Maryland, Pennsylvania and B & M locos some of which I bought with DCC on board and others that were analogue and I converted them myself. Several of them have sound as well and an increasing number have “keep alives” fitted as well.
Control is by NCE Powercab which I have found reasonably easy to use; though I don’t think I use more than a quarter of its potential features being slightly “challenged” when it comes to higher technology! However I am simply happy to see my trains run smoothly, hoot, whistle and blow steam from the drain cocks occasionally.
The track I chose for the layout was Peco’s code 83 system. The track is laid on two layers of 3/16th cork sheet. This allows for easier “burying” of Kadee’s undertrack uncoupling magnets. Carving out a rectangle in cork is a lot easier than having to dig into the plywood baseboard top. A couple of small bushes or some other scenic items are then used to mark where the magnet is. Hands-free uncoupling was a feature I really wanted to include on my layout. For the most part the system works and the stock uncouples nicely.
I recently altered the sector plate fiddle yard to a turntable type. This reduces the amount of handling of stock needed.
My buildings are a mixture of kit-built, kit-bashed and scratchbuilt, -the latter designed by me in what I think is an “American” style. The location of Red House Yard is meant to be in the less “salubrious” part of town near the docks. The landscape is mainly coarse scrub with a few small bushes and all sorts of bits and pieces scattered around to suggest dereliction. However despite this the area still has plenty of businesses that need servicing regularly with box cars full of “who knows what”!
Some of the businesses use names from the transfer sheets supplied with the kits but I have made up a few of my own to add some variety eg Bates Hotel (with showers in every room), Trump’s Drug Store, McCarthy’s Pest Control and the Station Garage run by a certain A Capone!
The layout is approx 17’6” x 2’ 0” and has recently been shown at the 2023 Leigh Model Railway Exhibition and is due to appear at the 2024 exhibition of the L & Y DCC group in Burnley.
Red House Yard is available for exhibitions. For further information, please contact us at our email address and we will get in touch.
