4: GN RS3 #225 delights the rail fans as it passes
Broadview, Oregon
.
4
large room on the second floor which I intended to be a gardening
shop. There's a hill behind the garage that allowed me to put in a
ramped entrance for the gardening tractor and cart.
The growing season here in the North Country is very short so I
was looking forward to giving my tomato plants a head start under
grow lights, potting indoor plants for the house, having a work-
bench, a freezer chest, etc. There was lots of room up here so one
day I started drawing plans for a 4' x 8' layout I could put in one
corner of the shop. Then I thought, what if I extend the layout
along that back wall and … well, a year later, I had drawn plans for
a layout that would encompass the entire shop.
My wife is an artist and at the time she was painting in a small
bedroom, and one day she came to me and said that she needed a
bigger studio. And I said, "Aw, honey, no you don't."
And she said, "Then you don't need such a big train room." She
got her studio.
Gustav:
I don't see any
gardening tools or seed-
lings in the room. It's all
railroad and railroad-
related items.
Jim:
Right. The railroad
ultimately took over the
entire room.
Gustav:
I've read there
are two kinds of model-
ers. Those that plan their
layouts and those that
simply let them evolve.
Tony Koester is a plan-
ner, George Sellios is an
evolver. Both built world-
class layouts. Where do
you fall?
Jim:
Oh, I planned the
layout over the course
of about two years,
first drawing out scaled
plans on graph paper.
Then, when I was satisfied with what I had, I covered the floor
where the layout was going to be with a roll of butcher paper and
transferred the drawings to the paper using a grid pattern. That
approach worked out very well because it allowed me to con-
struct the L-girder bench work right over top of the butcher paper
and I could simply look down at the floor and see where all of my
turnouts would be. That kept me from placing joists where I knew
I'd have to install switch machines.
Gustav:
I've been underneath your layout. Everything appears
very well thought out.
5: GN RS1 1831 crossing the
Lost River trestle.
5
Jim Ferguson’s GN - 4
MRH-Oct 2013
