Welcome to The Hart's Creek Line RR

Due to a fairly recent move, I had to completely disassemble my layout. I did, however, save all the hard work by saving all the structures and a lot of scenery. I will be building a nwe - bigger - better layout at our new house but it will be at least late summer 2005 before I get it going. Actually, I never was really satisfied with how traffic flowed on the old layout and I'm studying it more before I start the new layout.
I plan to include exact, or at least nearly exact, replicas of The Cass Scenic Railroad in West Virginia, the Main Street of Barboursville, West Virginia and Hawks Nest State Park in West Virginia. If space permits, I'll put a section of Huntington, West Virginia in it too. I'll have to wait to see exactly how much of the basement area I can use for the layout.
Until then, I will leave the information on my old layout and I hope to add pictures I have of full-scale units in the C&O Berkshire area.

10/3/2001

A later view looking toward the East end of the layout. I have started adding littleBuildings but some will not stay in their current locations. I have the general layout of the town on the hilltop planned and I'm searching for the just-right biuldings now. --->

<-- Here is a view looking toward the East end of the layout. I have started adding little pieces of scenery as I go along just to keep it from looking strictly like a construction site. The CTC panel is located in the North-East corner (left on picture).

12/23/2001

Construction on the town begins. I am modeling my town
after Barboursville, WV. While not an exact replica,
I have captured the look & feel of the town in the 50's.
Main Street is taking shape.
9/25/2002

Taylor's Barber Shop and the Grocery store have detailed interiors
5/25/2003

Street lights add a good look.
11/15/2002

2/17/2003

Looking up toward the town.
12/4/2002

Barboursville fills out.
4/4/2003

The Walking Beam Steam Engine I built from scratch.
This is an operational engine. The tank is heated with propane.
7/14/1993

6/22/2003

South toward the portal.
9/5/2002

Coming around the West side of the hill..
6/22/2003

Looking along the East front-edge of the layout.
12/19/2001

6/22/2003

The North-East end of the layout.
12/19/2001

My C&O BL2 passing by.
5/5/2002

The Country House
12/13/2002

Dead end street.
The Country house was moved to the west side.
5/2/2003

My Nickel Plate Rd. passing by.
6/6/2003

Now with a gas station & 3 houses under construction.
6/21/2003

Looking due South from the East end.
12/19/2001

9/25/2002

More trees.
11/15/2002

10/3/2001

Here is a view looking toward the South end of the layout. I am working on the detail of how to enclose the tracks into a mountain side yet allow easy accessibility. This will also be my access to the under-table hidden storage area. I have modified the original Atlas turnout mechanisms to under-table devices (notice turnout in picture center).

12/23/2001

I added a second track along the East side here and along the upper area of the South end (straight ahead in the pic) to better facilitate running capabilities. The backdrops add a great feel to the layout already.

I'm still undecided what to do here but it WILL come to me.
6/21/2003

Here is a view looking toward the West end of the layout. I will be running mostly Chessapeake & Ohio stock like the C&O BL-2 in this picture. However, I have several other names such as Pere Marquette, NY Central, Cass Scenic RR and more. The hill in this area will be a long time in work as I have decided to integrate the Cass Scenic RR into my layout here.

10/3/2001

Looking up the rise on the West end of the layout.
12/19/2001

11/13/2002

Country Store against the hill.
5/5/2002

The Country Store was moved to the East side
The Country House is here now along with 2 others.
6/21/2003

Tommy's Tree House. My 6 yr. old son
(member of the He Man Woman Haters Club)
insisted on the "No Girls" sign.
2/25/2003

I'm starting to develop the West side slowly.
6/19/2003

The 'Bare' Hunter.
Is that his gun on the end of the log closest to the bear?
5/19/2003

The Hunter.
4/11/2003

Here is my Central Train Control (CTC) panel. I am using 5 position - two pole rotary switches to select CAB control, DPDT micro switches to set forward direction, and simple SPST-NO momentary switches for remote turnout switching. I use diodes when multiple CTC switches must connect to a given turnout. 10/3/2001

I'll try to keep a current picture of the whole layout here..
6/2003