This photo was taken of the far right of the
layout, and the right side of downtown. Pine Valley was a small
town with a Mayberry sort of feel. Around 1979 The middle area of the
town was cut out with a saber saw and lifted up approximately
one inch. This allowed for some terrain on the original 4'x8'
layout. Operation "Town Lift" was a tedious operation since the town had
already been established and scenicked for years. I had to place
several 2"x4"s under the layout to keep the town from falling
through the hole during the cutting process. The mountain seen
in the background was actually a volcano built for a science
project. I simply used it as a background element.
The photo to the right is a close up of the lumber yard.
Wow is that out of focus with virtually no depth of field.
Hopefully some of my photography skills have further "developed" since then.
The photo to the left was taken of the left side of town.
The one below is a close up of the burned out building
created with coal chips and miscellaneous leftover kit parts.
Although the locomotives and rolling stock were an
incredibly mixed bunch of things, I certainly started
learning that there is a difference in the quality of
detail and performance of the various equipment
manufacturers. With my low budget as a school kid, I
ended up gravitating toward Athearn as my brand for
railroad equipment. My local hobby shop, Stan's United
Paints and Model Trains, of Paducah, Kentucky, had a
great owner and a great exchange program. Stan allowed
me to trade three "toy" train cars for one new Athearn
car. Then I just had to purchase and install the new
Kadee couplers to have a new higher quality, and better
performing train car.
The photo on the right is a close up of my Maintenance
of Way area. Notice the two fellows relaxing on the flatcar
during a break between maintenance projects.
The River and Mountain Area
The river and mountain area was added
when I was ready to expand and try some more complex
scenery. The river was a sheet of 1/16" plexiglass on
plywood that was painted to give a sense of depth. I
scratchbuilt the bascule bridge, the sailboat, and the
barge with its push boat. Also the white building on
the far right was scratchbuilt and made to look like it
was in the process of being repainted.
Most all of the ballast used on the layout was actual
crushed up limestone that my Mom used in her many
botanical endeavors as lime fertilizer. Also the red
gravel roads were created using silica sand used for
casting iron. The beach was also complete with
sunbathers and a snack bar.
The photo to the above left is a close up of the area just
behind the intermodal dock. This scene was created
with many natural rocks and dirt. The trees were
created with Woodland Scenics' foliage netting over
twig armatures. The tall field grass was created by
painting a few pieces of the old carpet that covered
the floor of my train room. The bull is a runaway
from the stockyard across the tracks under the bluff.
The old beat up station wagon is a vintage Matchbox
vehicle that was only weathered by severe playing.
I think it had been lost in a sandbox for a year. I
honestly did not weather it.
The image to the right and the one below focus on the
mountain area. Some of the scenes I incorporated into
this area are; timbering the mountain, a coal mine, a
complete sawmill sprawling over the lower hill, a
cattle farm, and a small pond fed by a stream coming
down the moutain side.
Some items of note in the mountain area are; the scratchbuilt items which
include the log flume, the log crane at the top of the
flume, a curved trestle (under the water tower), and
one of the log cars. Most of the trees on
the lower land were created from actual pine tree
branches gleaned from an old dead Christmas tree then
covered in foliage netting. The large tree in the left
foreground includes a treehouse with little wooden
boards nailed on the trunk to make the ladder.
The "L-Loop Division" Addition
This portion was added in 1981 when I
had more knowledge of layout planning. This area was
primarly designed to give me a return loop, a wye,
some rolling stock storage, several switching
scenarios, and the beginning of a double track
mainline for future expansions. This was my first
usage of open grid benchwork instead of the
"lowercase L girder" (2"x4"s sitting on saw horses with
a plywood decking).
This portion of the layout was never completed. All
of the trackwork was operational and it had been tied
into the previous layout, but the scenery was never
taken past the terrain building stage.
I had planned to develop a nice wharf area, a
passenger siding on the bottom track of the schematic,
a small factory siding, and a residential area up on
the platform in the upper middle of the above left photo.
The Last Chapter of the Pine Valley Railroad (a tribute)
Harbored away for hours at a time, I
would work away on this sizable project. Sometimes my
family would not even know I was home. An intercom
became a neccessity. I owe many of my skills,
talents, and interests to this layout and the hobby
of model railroading. I also gained much of my
confidence and self esteem through imagining a project,
planning it, and then seeing it through to fruition.
My parents were supportive of my interest in the hobby,
and I know I owe much of my creativity and the desire
to build projects to them.
Even though my Pine Valley Railroad does not exist
anymore, the things I learned from it will continue to
be honed and adapted to new projects, and hopefully to
another larger layout in my own home someday. It has
actually been great to write this article. The layout
reminds me of the many seasons of my school years.
Digging up these old photographs and putting this
together has been like visiting and old friend for a
warm evening of "remember when we used to..."
conversation.
Thank you God, for my old friend, the Pine Valley Railroad.
