Touring Tom Harris’s Lakeside Lines

We begin the tour of Tom Harris’s Lakeside Lines model railroad layout by entering North Franklin yard from Frost Tunnel. This is a train of empty hoppers. SD 45-2 Number 4491 eases by the North Franklin station, followed by two SD 40-2s. This half of North Franklin is called East Yard and contains arrival and departure tracks. This yard even has storage tracks.

Continuing through the yard, train 103 passes the engine facility and the caboose track. Harrisonburg Turn is leaving the yard. Some notorious rail fans have parked on the service road. Number 4491 leads to hoppers under the local street grid. This is the beginning of the West Yard.

On this side of North Franklin these pulpwood cars will be classified and made ready for blocking by the East Yard Group. Here the west end crew is working. Train 103 has to slow and stop for a signal. Now with a clear board, train 103 eases out.

Upon leaving West Yard, number 4491 crosses the north fork of the Potomac River. This train will work up behind Shield Gray, then it will pass over its current locations via High Bridge and Inner Bluff Tunnel. Bridge 203.5 gets the train over this part of the Potomac River. This is Heinz Hill Road. This spot is known as Dan’s Rock Cut. Cigna 158-A protects the approach to High Bridge. High Bridge leads into Bluff Tunnel and staging for Fairmont, West Virginia.

Watch more from Allen Keller’s Great Model Railroads series in the Model Railroad Academy archives.