Current Layout by Terry Stone

Layout Name:

"Portable Layout #2"

Layout Status:

active

Track Type:

Layout Space:

33" x 42"

Layout Style:

Micro Layout

Track Manufacturer:

S-Helper Service

Rail Size:

code 139

Min. Radius:

15"

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 Terry's next layout, which, while not necessarily a true micro layout, the influence of his love for tiny layouts is undeniable. This one was built specifically to take to the annual Spring S Spree and made several appearances there and at other train shows. It uses S-Helper Service flextrack and a single SHS switch sunk into the 2"-thick extruded styrofoam layout base. Curve radius is 15 inches and the entire layout is under three by four feet. The track was half buried in weeds and a little ballast to give it a backwoods look. This is the "town" end of this layout with a single siding and a few buildings.

This view shows the other end of the layout. The theme of this layout was obviously logging. 22-foot long skeleton log cars were resin cast from patterns and molds of Terry's own making. There is also a Bachmann On30 box car modified with a weathered-gray paint job and S-Helper Service trucks and couplers to haul tools. Terry also scratchbuilt a shorty water car, also using SHS trucks and couplers. Motive power was all by Putt Trains and included the four wheel diesel Critter, the 2-6-0 Mogul steamer, and the 2-4-4T Suburban which probably was never used in anything but commuter service in the real world.

A closer look at the area being logged. A (too small) hill with exposed rock toward the back was carved from scrap extruded styrofoam. The low-maintenance track of the logging line are crossed by a gravel road with only a single timber on each side of the rails to hold back the gravel for the flange ways. The trucks are modified Hartoy trucks, and the logs are made from short lengths of dowels, scribed lengthwise to add bark and then painted gray, brown, or a combination of both. The tree stumps were cast-resin made by a late friend of Terry's.

This photo shows the shorty water car for the logging layout. It consists of a flat car with a tank mounted to it. The tank itself was found in a junk box Terry had bought and is off of a broken American Flyer track cleaning car. The flat car is scratchbuilt of strip wood and scribed balsa sheet and uses S-Helper Service trucks and couplers. Everything is weathered to look right for a logging outfit.

This is the small logging town on a hot, sleepy day as seen from the shade of the trees. Nobody is moving quickly as the hot gravel of the crude street crunches under foot. A train rumbles by in the distance as logging boss Elwood Suggins waits in a Ford Model T company pickup truck. Nearer our viewpoint a group of truck drivers discuss the area's roads by the Flatulene Fuels tanker. A clerk outside the warehouse admires Elwood's new green and black '32 Ford coupe with the then new flathead V-8 engine. All of the buildings use the cast-resin walls for which Terry made the molds, with some new ones being made just for this layout. The old cars are reworked Matchbox and Hot Wheels with the hot-rod "features" removed. Trucks are modified Hartoy ones. Figures are Fun & Games.