| Patapsco Valley Railroad |
Patapsco Valley Railroad History
Childhood years
- I started my model railroading during the Lionel MPC area. I received a boys starter set with a blue
steam engine when I was 3 years old. This train was brought out on special occasions until I was old
enough to setup a layout and play unsupervised. My layout consisted of Lionel O-27 track and with
two manual switches. Most of the time I played with the cars moving it around without the engine. I
also received a second set, but it ran only DC instead of AC.
- My family moved to a new area and I setup my second layout. I was much older and setup two 4x8
boards on top of an unused ping pong table. I received another modern engine diesel set from a
train show and now had two engines to run on AC. For this layout, I wired lights for my building, built
roads, and had electric switches. As I entered my teenage years, my participation with trains slowed
down due to my involvement in personal computers. My layout was mothballed, so I could spend
time running an Dial up Bulletin Board System running on an 8-bit Atari. During my high school
years, trains were brought out to run around the tree.
The rebirth of Model Railroading
- In December 2001, I decided unpack my trains and set them up for the holidays. My oldest son was
almost 2 years old and my other son was 4 months old. I picked up new 0-27 track from a hobby store
in the mall and used my existing transformer. I surprised at how interesting my son was in watching
the trains. After the holidays, the Christmas decorations and my trains were packed up. Then my
wife asked me to see if we could set them up in the basement on a full time bases
- My son was delighted!! I first setup the layout on the floor on top of a 4x8 plywood and picked up a
new Lionel passenger train and freight train set. The freight train had Lionel Train sounds, which is
the first time I heard noise on model trains. The trains I had as a child did not even have whistle/horn
sounds. I was amazed as the realism of the sound. For the next several months, I arranged the track
in multiple configurations. Both of my sons started using the basement for their toys as well, so I
realized it was too risky leaving the trains on the floor.
The Prototype for Patapasco Valley Railroad
- During the Spring of 2001 the prototype was built on 2 4X8 OSB plywood supported on Metal saw
horses attached to the plywood. I did not have the tools for bench work and this was a quickest way
to get the layout up. The layout was on 29 inches tall allowing my kids to see the trains, and it was
strong enough for me to talk on The layout was in a corner of the basement where the bump out of
the family room existed. At first, I worked with the O-31 track and setting up the layout in various track
configurations. At this time I did not know anyone else in the hobby and my hobby store only
specialized in sets for the holidays. As a child I always wanted to run multiple trains on the same
track without complex wiring. After researching on the web, I found several O-gauge manufactures
made trains, rolling stock, accessories. - I found Purkey's Toy trains in Sykesville and saw a demo of DCS and was amazed with the DCS
features and the realistic sounds. The prototype layout track was gradually upgraded to use the MTH
realtrax. I like the built in road bed and at that time I did not want to ballast my layout. I knew if I
used ballast, my kids would have figured out how to scatter it around the house. This layout had two
loops and the middle loop used the elevated trestles from Real-Trax to raise up to a mountain top and
then come back down. TMCC and DCS were installed on the layout and I could finally run two trains
on one track. I was amazed at the selection available for O-gauge compared to what was available
when I was a kid. Soon the layout was running out of space and it did not have room to grow. I
wanted to use 072 radius for the bigger engines and realized I need to move the layout to another
location in the basement
Patapsco Valley Railroad 2003
- In the Spring of 2003 layout was moved to the center of the back side of the basement. At this point,
I had a lot more information available which gave me ideas for building the layout. I started reading
magazines the O Gauge Railroad and Classic Toy Trains magazines, and I also found the following
local hobby shops: Catoctin Mountain Trains, Engine House Hobbies and Purkeys Toy Trains. All
these hobby shops were helpful in giving me ideas for the layout and they introduced me to the TCA.
The initial size was 8x20 and it has a main line with O-72 real Trax with a passing siding on each
side. A yard was created in the front siding with five switches. Two of them had the engine house
and the other three were for the cars. The front siding was converted to a yard lead and it gave me
room for switching actions. The main town was in the back side of the layout on the back siding.
The town had a station that serves both the main and second lines. A second line starts at the station,
climbs up to a second level to a remote town, and then descends back down and passes under a
bridge and tunnel back to the main town. A trolley line using Scale Trax was put around the main
block of the town. In the fall of 2003, the layout was painted, scenery added, started laying road
around the town. - During Christmas of 2003, I added two 4x8 to each side of the town. The kids went to sleep on
Christmas eve and on Christmas day they saw the layout operating with more space. This was not
there main Christmas gift, but they got a kick out of it being expanded and running within on day. The
expansion allowed me to put a small town on side of the layout and to expand the existing town to fit
the car wash.
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