2010 MD-DE-NJ-PA Open House

[John]

www.modelrailroadopenhouse.com

[Philip H]

lots of interesting stuff in there . . .

[Blazeman]

Elkins Park is quite a reach for most of the members here, but getting there to see Ted McLean's layout I would say is worth the effort.

Simply as finely scenicked a layout as there is and being N, makes it doubly good. Usually has a new area done each year, so it isn't the same old same old.

His layout depicts the Sandpatch area. He has a large area to work with and takes advantage of both that fact and modelling in N to "make it work."

[conrail98]

Elkins Park is quite a reach for most of the members here, but getting there to see Ted McLean's layout I would say is worth the effort.

Simply as finely scenicked a layout as there is and being N, makes it doubly good. Usually has a new area done each year, so it isn't the same old same old.

His layout depicts the Sandpatch area. He has a large area to work with and takes advantage of both that fact and modelling in N to "make it work."

I second Ted's layout. I saw it for the first time last year and was simply amazed by it. It really is the ultimate railfan layout, since Sandpatch didn't have a whole lot of industries on it. Here's a link to my pics of it during last year's layout tours. I know he was working on one of the peninsulas for this year so I'm looking forward to seeing his progress.

http://picasaweb.google.com/philduba/TedMcLeanSCSXSandpatch?feat=directlink

There are others on the list I haven't seen yet and plan to get to up here around Philly and definitely want to get to all the N-scale ones again,

Phil

[Ian MacMillan]

I wish I had the time to get to some of these layouts....But would be really nice is other than a schedule, a listing of layouts all on one page, maybe with a photo of the layout or link to their website so I can see them in advance so I know what ones I want to go to.

On our Tour de Chooch layout tour here in Nov, there are several layouts that I would not have wasted my time (one was a bare 4x8 sheet of plywood with unitrack glued to it) with if I had known in advance since I had to drive some good distances. A MD-DE-NJ-PA trip would definitely be one of those where I would want to see something in advance!

[conrail98]

Ian, that's been a very common complaint with the site. That's why I liked what the MER did for their just completed convention. It was a simple paragraph and usually one picture describing the size and concept of the layout in addition to the location and directions. It let me pick and chose which ones I wanted to go to, although I think they all were pretty nice layouts,

Phil

[GaryHinshaw]

Here's a link to my pics of it during last year's layout tours. I know he was working on one of the peninsulas for this year so I'm looking forward to seeing his progress.

http://picasaweb.google.com/philduba/TedMcLeanSCSXSandpatch?feat=directlink

Thanks for posting this.  A very well executed layout; I found most of these scenes to be instantly recognizable.

Has this layout ever been featured in the press?  It should be.

-gfh

[conrail98]

Gary, not that I know of. I had never heard or seen the layout before the open house last year, which was only the second year I had known of the list of open houses from that site,

Phil

[Blazeman]

I've been visiting Ted's place for five years now and it befuddles me that his work has had no exposure. I believe he may have been on the layout tour when the NMRA was in town a couple years ago.

Someone aspiring to get a byline in one of the mags should gear up and talk with Ted. He's an easy guy to talk to and I doubt he's fearful of notiriety.

Per Phil's comment, the layout is all about running trains. No industries along the right of way to serve. Ted has said he likes to watch trains run through his scenery and he certainly has that down cold. His staging areas are quite large, so he has a variety of trains he can watch. He even does a "turn back the clock" train that is a manifest of early N equipment.

Only operation I've seen him do is helper service.

Now for the fussy ones, his track is code 80, DC, and Atlas turnouts.

[Philip H]

Sounds a lot like Todd Treaster's approach.  And that layout is pretty grand for trainwatching too.

[wm3798]

Very nice WM vignettes in there.  I'm glad to see he had the good sense to keep the rails in place even in the CSX era!
Lee

[conrail98]

I remember talking to him and he actually wanted to do transition era over the line, but lack of B&O applicable steam engines put a damper on that effort. I also remember him telling me that a friend of his was going to do the West End in N-scale, or at least a portion of it. I can't recall who he said or what phase of layout building/planning it was in,

Phil

[DKS]

If anyone in the area is interested in seeing the Z Scale James River Branch layout, it will be shown at Rick Spano's during his open house, November 20 & 21.

http://jamesriverbranch.net/