Layout Modifications on the NEB&W

The last time Allen Keller visited the New England, Berkshire and Western model railroad was in 1987 when about 40% of the layout was completed. He speaks in this video with Mike Barenys, the Club President. About 90% of the layout is done now. Many say that the last 10% is the hardest because there are always little modifications to make here and there. There are scenes on the layout that are partially finished at the moment and some that weren’t even started in 1987.

Sometimes the club will finish a scene but then find new information about, for example if a certain building is not historically accurate. They will go back and fix this building. For the most part all the track work is laid down apart from minor modifications. Mike is interested in the 1950’s because it’s a very important era for the area of the railroad. It was the height of the industrial age, it is also an important period for modeling because it is when steam started going out of faze and diesel came in. The club likes this era because they can model both steam and diesel at the same time.

All the members must find places to work as the layout takes up the whole space. They use an approach called the Alice and Wonderland Tea Party – if someone needs to work in a certain work area they lift up their board from the workbench and move it to a module. About six or seven years prior to this video they decided they wanted to use the historical names on the layout such as the Troy’s Red Light District. Previously they were using fictional names to model realistic places. Originally the layout was just loosely based on real locations.