Model Railroad Hobbyist | December 2015 | #70 GETTING REAL column Mike Rose Remodeling the Layout, next chapter! | Getting more usable layout in the same footprint IT WAS RIGHT AFTER A SUCCESSFUL OP session in late March that I turned my thoughts to “what’s next” on my layout. Op sessions always stimulate creative thinking for me, and sometimes various thoughts from multiple threads coalesce into a minor “eureka” moment. I found myself standing in front of South Towanda, staring at my 25+ year old behemoth of an air conditioning air handler that looked over that entire aisle like a giant predator, hang- ing from the ceiling, with HO scale tracks timidly tip-toeing underneath, and these different threads started to converge. My first thought was “Boy, if I have to replace that air handler this June when I turn on the A-C, it’s going to be a massive job and create havoc with the layout.” It was also not lost on me that I’d be going through a lot, and paying a lot, to install the replacement handler right where I did not want it. That got me XX MODELING REAL RAILROADS AND WHAT THEY DO MRHMAG.COM • TABLE OF CONTENTS • INDEX