Garden State Model Railway Club, Inc. - New Layout Construction

Building The New Layout

After the 1991 Annual Show, the Old Layout was demolished. That took 3 months to accomplish. The present layout was started in April of 1992. We are still trying to dig up photos from the mid 90s. New pictures of continuing progress in the new century can be found at the very bottom.

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This is where it all began. Blake layed out the west end of the Hidden Yard. The mainline in the background does not exist yet.

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The new six track Hidden Yard is completely visible. Most of this track was salvaged from the old layout. Note the bus wires between the tracks.

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The reverse curve of the Hidden Yard. Bob must have been checking clearances with his 85 foot Amtrak superliners!

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The layout at this point had to make a jog around the chimney. Track 5 was the last to be installed. Note the complete lack of risers, etc. for the mainline.

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Construction proceeded east to the River Scene with the completion of the throat. In the lower right hand corner, note the legs of the tripod. Also visible, to the right of the throat, is a long ruler with a pencil sticking out. It was made from two yardsticks, and had many pivot holes drilled in it for various radii. This contraption was used to lay out all the curves on the Garden State Northern. Doug is standing on a curved piece of plywood that later supported the track at the end of the second peninsula between Perry and Norristown.

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At this time, only about ten feet of mainline was completed into what would become the River Scene.

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Looking the other way down the future River Scene. The second and third peninsulas did not even exist. Note the backdrop from the Old Layout.

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A view of the end of the future location of the fourth peninsula. Blake's table saw was scary to operate, but it always had sharp blades from Precision!

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The very beginnings of the fourth peninsula. Tom is leveling an Lgirder while Skip is plumbing the legs.

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We return to the front door and look into the pit. This was the only part of the mainline in existence going west. In the foreground, you can see the crossover has been installed. Left to right are Tim, ?, Blake, and Doug.

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We begin this second batch of photos from 1992 with a shot of the third peninsula. As you can see, the mainline is complete on the left side. The NYS&W yard in Butler, New Jersey was to be modeled here. This is now Middletown. Note the luan roadbed where the mainline splits in two, current to this day. If you look closely, you can see the pencil centerlines for the east main.

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Back at the front door, we see that the benchwork for the second peninsula is complete. This was the last peninsula constructed. There is no roadbed for the track yet. Bob and Tom are over in Butler discussing trackwork. Note in the foreground on the left is what is to become our famous High Bridge. In front of the column is the east main bypass.

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Our first panel controlled only the six hidden yard tracks. This is all we had for the first show in 1992! The entire mainline was one huge block.

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Later that year, from inside the pit, we see that not only has the mainline been completed in the first peninsula, but the roadbed for Albatross Yard has been started. Some of the throat trackage is in place. Due to problems of recycled switches and design constraints, this would later be modified to a new design based on a John Armstrong trackplan. There is no sign of the steam facility on top of the west throat of the now "hidden" yard!

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Our first picture from 1993 takes us back to the pit. Two road cabs ran the entire railroad. The panel that holds the four meters has now been incorporated into our present main panel.

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Future site of the diesel servicing facility. This massive power supply was salvaged from the old railroad. Today it only powers the twin coil switch machines in both the hidden and albatross yards.

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This is what the bridge scene looked like before our landmark bridge was built.

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A GSN caboose travels across the future site of the bridge.

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It took members Tim and Jim about 4 months to build the bridge. Note that the bridge section in the foreground has been bevel cut. A Micro-Engineering bridge kit was modified to fit a 34 inch radius.

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Work has begun in earnest on the eastern throat of Albatross Yard. The original design incorporated a 3-way switch. All these switches were recycled from the old layout, and proved to be unsatisfactory. Albatross Yard was re-designed with new switches and finally finished in November of 1994.

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This is how Albatross Yard looked when it was only plywood. The mainline has been complete through here since August, 1992. The "golden spike" was driven by Blake and Bob in the far left hand corner of this picture, near where the present Norristown Junction tower is today. Pete, as always, has made excellent progress with his backdrop painting.

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Future site of Doug Tower. Note the installation of backdrop supports. The entire mainline used code 100 flex track. There were two 14 gauge buss wires that paralleled each track. Every other rail joint was connected to the buss by a thin feeder wire. In this manner every 6 foot section of track was electrically connected to the buss. The remaining rail joints were NOT soldered to allow for expansion and contraction.

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The first set of crossovers at Bob Tower were made up from recycled #8 shinohara turnouts salvaged from the Old Layout. They were so bad that they caused Bob to take temporary leave of his senses. In about 6 weeks, he hand-laid the existing crossovers at home and then installed them on the layout.

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Another look at the River Scene and its backdrop. Pete has painted some of his three dimensional trees. The River Scene was the only part of the railroad that had scenery during the 1992 show. Several visitors stuck their heads in the door and left as soon as they saw all the plywood!

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The last picture of this batch takes us to the River Scene, which had no river yet. Pete has painted distant mountains on the backdrop. The red rocks were later repainted with a more realistic color.

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In February of 2002, this new benchwork was installed as part of our Albatross Extension Project. This will give our yard two new stub-ended tracks, to be completed in March.

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In 2001, we tore out our old workbenches to make room for a storage yard, bookshelves, and a locomotive repair facility. In late March 2002, the white board was pulled away from the wall so that the track could pass behind it en route to this new development. All of the benchwork for the storage yard is complete as of April 1. You can see where the throat will be in this photo. The bookshelves go in front of the storage yard. The repair facility will go on top of both!

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Looking the other way toward the aforementioned scene, you can see the lower lead for the yard and the upper lead for the repair facility.

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In late 2002, homasote was installed on top of the plywood. In early 2003, all of this trackage was installed.

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In May 2003, Bob aligns the piano wire while Gerry very carefully screws the Tortoise machines into position. The control panel was completed just prior to the 2003 Open House.

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The Garden State Northern interchanges with the Otter Creek and Perry shortline. Otter Creek is equipped with a wye, but Perry has no place to turn a locomotive. Thus in May 2003, Ed and Gerry took on the project of reconstructing the end of our second aisle to install this turntable at Perry.

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The new Perry turntable is for all intents and purposes complete in this June 3, 2003 photo!

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Another major project was underway in the late spring of 2003. Led by Bob Savino, Norristown Junction was completely rebuilt! The reason for this project was twofold. For one, the branchline benchwork was in very poor shape. In this photo, you can see the brand new benchwork making its way around the backdrop. Second, when the Norristown industrial scene was connected to the old River Junction, a lot of trackage became redundant. You can see in this photo some of the track templates used to lay out the entirely new junction. The bridge in the background will not be used but is there to show the concept of the fictitious railroad that crosses the GSN at the diamonds in the foreground. The track swinging to the right will form a wye with the GSN mainline, allowing more flexibility when routing freight up the branchline.

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This photo really shows what the final track plan will look like. You can see the redundant trackwork. The switch off of the mainline just in front of the crossover split into two tracks and headed up the branch. You can make out the bare plywood to the left of Walter's mockup station. The two Norristown yard tracks connected and then also headed up the branch. To eliminate this excessive trackage, the two yard tracks are going to swing to approximately where the two track templates are! The mainline switch is going to be reversed as shown and an REA track will be installed at the new station. Note the red pins in the top left corner holding down the track that will form the wye discussed in the above photo.

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With the trackwork completed by Bob and Rob Savino and all of the tools put away, one can much better understand the new track plan. Note that Walter has completed his two story angled station structure. Another view of the new junction can be seen on the Norristown page of our Virtual Layout Tour!

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Walter is at it again! He has completed electrification of Crystal Lake, and with the branchline trackage completed, he will soon be continuing electrification of the entire shortline.

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The Garden State Northern was in need of a car shop adjacent to Albatross Yard to service cars. As of late June 2005, this enormous building is in place, the tracks are connected, and the roof is off for interior detail work.

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This tunnel between DOUG Tower and Middletown was in need of a facelift. Chris tackled the project and has a considerable portion of the work completed in late June 2005.

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A new passenger station was erected just east of the BOB Tower interlocking and so it was decided to lay a station track for REA service. Since the entire interlocking was handlaid in 1994, Bob decided to hand lay this switch. So far just the ties are in place.

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The new switch is completed in early July 2005. Soon after the rest of the station track was handlaid and a tortoise motor was installed.

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The Middletown Mining Company's coal mine in Middletown was closed in early 2005 and a power plant is under construction at the site. Thus, the Otter Creek & Perry shortline was extended north of Otter Creek to tap the new mines that will feed that power plant. In July 2005, the roadbed is in place and trackwork is underway at the mine. If you scroll up roughly a dozen photos, you can see the total absence of the benchwork on which this right-of-way exists.

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This reverse angle photo shows the mine tipple. The tracks will pass beneath the structure and swing across those two fans on the left. There will also be a small yard here to store hopper cars. The large white spot in the left foreground will be made into a lake.

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El constructed these mountains at home and brought them to the Club on April 15, 2007 to install along the backdrop behind Albatross Yard.

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He sets the glue in place behind the mainline.

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El carefully reaches across Albatross Yard to install the second of the three mountain sections.

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The Club decided the layout needed a facelift for its 50th Anniversary and decided to repaint all of the fascia. Here El rolls one of the last sections by the High Bridge on July 1, 2007.

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Ed Fred works hard to clean the plexiglass which had to be removed prior to painting.

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Jack and Walter reinstall a clean piece of plexiglass at Perry.

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