by Tom Johnson/photos by the author
A question I often get from my model railroad friends is, “Are you finished with your layout?” The beauty of a small shelf layout is that it’s easy to update over time. The basic structure was completed in under a year, but for the past five years I’ve continued refining scenes and adding detail. I’ve swapped out buildings for better ones or moved them to new spots, and I’ve even made a few small track adjustments. The compact footprint makes it simple to experiment and incorporate new ideas. So, no, my layout is never really finished.
I have always been a minimalist with my layout designs over the years, keeping them narrow and the track design simple. My model railroading philosophy developed back in 1984 when I was building my first shelf layout, the freelanced Logansport & Indiana Northern (featured in the November 1985 Railroad Model Craftsman).
Since retirement and relocating, I started a new railroad. My freelanced Cass County Railroad operates several spurs in and around Logansport, Ind., in 1985. All spurs are former Pennsylvania Railroad track slated for abandonment after Conrail took control from Penn Central in 1976. The Cass County Railroad also operates branches that run north to Lucerne, northeast to Mexico, and south to Clymers, Ind., but these are not modeled. Instead, I am modeling a freelanced area inside the town of Logansport that serves three grain elevators, a fertilizer facility, a team track, and other spots for boxcars loaded with bagged fertilizer, seed, and feed. The operation is purposely simple, and allows me to focus on developing convincing, realistic scenes.
As I mentioned, the initial layout construction was finished fairly quickly, which allowed me to get up and running right away. Since my layout was featured in the October 2022 issue, it has gone through some of these changes just over the past several months. I changed the far right shelf by removing Farmers Feed & Grain to a new corner location, and Farmers Feed & Supply was removed completely. I also opened up the area for a new interchange and also more scenery by having more negative space. I’m even experimenting with adding a new short line operator into the mix! Let’s look at some of these ideas.
Evolving Track Plan
The original track plan for the Cass County Railroad was drawn up by Rob Chant about five years ago (see Drawing 1). While a good design, you can see how crowded the right-side shelf was with two elevators. The interchange and staging track is located on the center shelf near the backdrop.
As an intermediate step, you can see where I moved Farmers Feed & Grain to the top right corner (Drawing 2). Having the structure located there helps fill an empty corner and puts the focus instead on the elevator complex. I also added a new permanent drop-in section and new interchange. Notice how this side really opened up with negative space. The old abandoned Texaco gas station was added on Maple Street to add some visual interest.
Drawing 3 shows the layout as it currently is. Master Mix Feeds was added at the end of the original right-side shelf. The duck-under turn with more scenery was added along with staging along the bottom of the plan. The old interchange at the duck-under is now a lead to a scrap yard that is modeled “off the layout.” I used photos and some piles of scrap from Coastmans Scenic Products to show this. Adding scrap gondolas also helps break up the monotony of covered hoppers and boxcars.
ABOVE: Farmers Feed & Grain in its new location (Photo 4).
Changing Scenes
Photo 4 shows new location for Farmers Feed & Grain. I added a couple of conveyor legs to the roof top. This is the old location that was opened up and now includes mostly fields of tall grass, weeds, brush, and trees. I added a place for crews to go on-duty by making an office from a retired caboose taken off its trucks and set on the ground (Photo 5). A few drums of oil and some spare ties complete the scene.
ABOVE: Caboose converted into crew quarters (Photo 5).
I later decided to add a small abandoned Texaco gas station at Maple Street (Photo 6). Unfortunately this scene is typical of small towns where many small businesses like these closed in the face of the economic recession of the early 1980s and increased competition from larger chains…
ABOVE: Abandoned Texaco gas station (Photo 6)
