Current Layout by Terry Stone

Layout Name:

"Portable Layout #1"

Layout Status:

active

Track Type:

Layout Space:

4' x 6'

Layout Style:

Micro Layout

Track Manufacturer:

S-Helper Service

Rail Size:

code 139

Ruling Grade:

Notes:

Please note that Terry's computer crashed at one point and he lost all of his photos. The small images he had on his web site are all that were available.

This is the whole layout. At the far end, a Putt Trains Mogul hauls a short freight train made up of S-Helper Service cars and an American Models caboose. The large stone building is an O-scale grainery by MTH which has been modified for use in S-scale, painted and weathered. It is being used as a refrigeration plant to serve the small fleet of reefers. The trucks are Hartoy diecast. The building in the foreground, right, is a modified engine house. To its left is a pair of Walther's O-scale fuel tanks with a cast-resin office. The tank cars are S Scale America cars. On the far left are a couple of cast-resin structures and a cast-resin water column. Terry made 7 S-scale wall patterns and molds for those. The idea was to be able to "mix and match" these to make many different kinds of structures.

The Engine House was made from an O-scale MTH grainery building, greatly modified, painted and weathered. The locomotive is a Putt Trains 2-6-0 Mogul. Terry added the background, smoke, and steam using Paint Shop Pro.

The track on this layout is S-Helper Service sectional track with some of their flextrack at the end of some sidings so that Terry could get it "down in the weeds". This view shows the cast-resin buildings, all made from the 7 basic wall molds. Roofs were made of Plastruct roof sheets. The trucks are all Hartoy trucks, which Terry modified to make look far different from how they did originally. The cars are a Matchbox 1932 Ford coupe and a 1927 Ford pickup. These are "Hot Rods", which have been "de-tuned" by removing the headers and adding card stock hood sides, then repainting them in original early-Ford colors. Their "Mag" wheels were covered with discs of card stock and painted appropriately.

A road-side scene on the layout gives a better look at more modified diecast toy vehicles. Center is a Hartoy truck that has had its chassis extended and a second set of rear dual wheels added. A logging truck bed was scratch built for it as well, and of course it has been painted correctly with red cab, hood, and wheels, and black fenders. The car is a Hot Wheels "Deuce Roadster" that has had its hood mounted "blower" and headers coming out the side removed to "de-tune" the car. Card stock parts were bent to cover the hole in the top of the hood and side panels of the same material enclosed the sides of the hood. Once again, card stock "wheel covers" covered the "Mag" wheels and the car was painted a 1930s-correct brown with black fenders and running boards. Figures are from Fun & Games.

The ice plant complex made from a much modified MTH O-scale "Grainery" attached to an MTH "Warehouse". Any specifically O-scale doors were covered with Plastruct's sheet walls with S-scale doors mounted in them. Terry also added a special front entrance section. This operation serves two sidings with S-Helper Service refrigerator cars waiting. On the street side, Hartoy trucks and various modified diecast toy cars can be seen. Because Terry removes and packs all structures and other items for transport and storage, the trees are inexpensive pre-made ones from Life-Like with the trunks painted correctly and the bases covered with ground foam to match the layout's ground cover.

The local fuel dealer is a Flatulene distributor. Fuels and oil come in by rail in S Scale America tank cars that have been repainted and weathered. The distributor makes deliveries in a custom-painted Hartoy tank truck. This day, a local service station owner has arrived in his wrecker, a reworked Matchbox toy truck. The office is also one made out of his cast-resin walls, as are those in the background. The track the tank cars are on is S-Helper Service flextrack buried in ballast and weeds. Notice the smoke stained enginehouse beside the tank farm.

There is one railroad crossing on this layout and it is in the back. In this shot, a freshly-painted Putt Trains Mogul 2-6-0 is on a break-in run with a short train. Obviously this motorist is impatient as he's right up to the tracks! He's driving a Matchbox 1940 Pontiac Low Rider convertible which has been modified to represent a standard Pontiac. The chassis has been raised from it's lowered position and the padded custom top removed and an interior built, complete with Fun & Games driver. The crossbucks is an MTH accessories piece from a set and the crossing itself is made of a wood base with joint compound pavement. The steam from the engine's whistle and the background were digitally added by Terry.