Current Layout by Jerry Holmes

It's Autumn 1952 as Chesapeake & Ohio E8 #4024 crests the summit of Alleghany mountain at Alleghany, VA. This train is the westbound "Sportsman", one of C&O's premier passenger trains, which runs daily from Washington to Cincinnati. The motive power and passenger cars are from American Models. The vehicles are from M2 (Castline, Inc.), and the figures from Arttista. The steam locomotive on the turntable in the distance, is a brass C&O 2-6-6-6 class H-8, from River Raisin Models. The brick "A" cabin (as control towers were called by the C&O) was scratch-built by Bernard Kempinski, owner of Alkem Scale Models. The track is Shinohara code 100 flextrack, and the turnouts include Shinohara, Old Pullman, Tomalco, and Markway. All track is mounted on 1/4" Homabed over 3/4" plywood sub-roadbed. The track ballast is a natural product from Arizona Rock & Mineral. The sky-blue back-drop is painted on the sheetrock walls. There are a few thousand trees on the layout, mostly hand-made using natural materials for the tree forms. These include Oak Leaf Hydrangea and Nandina from the back yard, and Super Tree forms from Scenic Express. These forms were finished with ground foam of various fall colors, and then individually planted on the layout. Jerry's photo appeared on the inside cover of the November 2022 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman as part of the NASG's promotional ad campaign.

(copyright © Jerry Holmes; used by permission)