Maine and Western

Gordon and Jeanne welcome you to our railroad, The Maine and Western. It is a New England themed railroad inspired by the St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain/Lamoille County/Lamoille Valley RR and the Portland and Ogdensburg ... Maine Central RR, Mountain Division. Crawford Notch is highlighted with the Mt. Willard section house, Willie Brook bridge, The Girders and Gateway scenes. The setting is Autumn with all the beautiful subdued color in the mountains.

The Maine and Western is operated under joint management with the Boston and Maine and Maine Central railroads so a variety of motive power and trains. You may occasionally also see Grand Trunk (Canadian National) as they exercise trackage rights going to Portland.

Operations is laid back having fun but keeping prototype practices in mind as well. I'm not a stickler for rules so when you mess up... not the end of the world. We have a laugh and learn. The Regular trains on the Timetable are all passenger so easy to remember. All others are operated as Extras.

Trains are short and slow because of grades and twisting track through the mountains sometimes requiring helpers to make it through. The run between towns is long enough for conductors to read train orders, train manifest and plan moves ahead. The towns are not complicated to switch just time consuming.

The railroad is pretty much low tech... notice the track plan... essentially a convoluted loop operated as a point to point. The yard is a fiddle yard (Fiddleburg/ St. Almond) and staging is storage drawers. We operate in dark territory so no signals but rely on T.T.T.O.

I don't have a regular crew so everyone is a new hire on this railroad... makes life interesting.

Layout Owner

Gordon Spalty

Location

Rochester, NY

Scale

HO

Layout Size

35 ft x 13 ft

Mainline Size

134 ft

Era

Transition era

Crew Complement

1 - 4

Completion

Track: 100%
Scenery: 95%
Electrical: 90%

Control System

NCE - Radio

Communications System

Verbal. FRS in the future.

Dispatching Method

Timetable and Train Order

Car Forwarding

JMRI

Fast Clock

4:1

Pets

None