A New Beginning

This is my first blog about my new HO Scale Model Railroad. The layout will occupy a corner of my bedroom. As planned at the moment, it will be a 10 x 12 L-shaped switching layout. The hope for this blog will be to detail the construction of my new layout.

The picture about is of my current project. I am scratch building a modern grain elevator from sheets of styrene. An article about this structure is coming soon. There will also be an article about a team track I kitbashed for a friend's layout. Then we will begin the articles about Grace Hill.

I have named my layout Grace Hill. It is a fictional, medium-sized community in western Ontario on the mainline of the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo in 1985, only two years before the TH&B was absorbed into the Canadian Pacific Railroad. I decided on a fictional railroad because I want to design the industries around an operations. Since the entire layout is a single town, it is important that the layout is operational.

I have operated a number of railroads over the last decade and I have come to the conclusion that the model railroad really doesn’t come alive until that first operation session. Whether it is a single individual operating a small switching layout or a half-dozen people operating a large railroad empire. That is my primary goal. Operation.

In a future article I will discuss the planning of the layout and you will see that your operational plan is just as important as your track plan.

Speaking of which, let me first this first blog with a first draft of my new Grace Hill layout. This version 2.0 is not the final version, but it is almost there.



Welcome to Grace Hill, I hope you enjoy your experience.

Steve