Hello! My name is Mike and I’d like to welcome you to my channel, The Main Track. Here, I’m featuring progress on the construction and operation of my HO-scale model railroad layout. It recreates the Missouri-Kansas-Texas “Katy” Railroad’s Sedalia Subdivision in west-central Missouri as it appeared in the summer of 1987.
The Sedalia Subdivision was part of the M-K-T Railroad’s mainline between Parsons, Kansas, and Saint Louis, Missouri. Threading across western and central Missouri, the M-K-T passed through rolling prairies, farmland, and small towns. This segment had several online agriculture-related rail customers, such as feed mills, grain elevators, and fertilizer bulk plants.
The layout is a 20x10x20 U-shaped shelf-style setup. It features 50 feet of mainline with numerous spurs serving industrial customers. The layout currently features the Sedalia to Clinton, MO segment. Plans are to expand the layout in the near future to feature the run between Kansas and Clinton.
Mike you might include this video on your Mike Checks segments on TV. I m sure people have no idea that this hobby even exits. Brian DeSpain As always great camera work.
Hi, Brian! I would love to include this in a segment if I could. Any opportunity I find to talk about trains- I’m all for it! Haha. I appreciate you watching as always! -Mike
Hi! Yes, that was a pretty cool train. Unfortunately, they weren’t running it at the time I was filming the layout. I’m hoping to run into them again sometime in the future. I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for that train and include some footage! -Mike
That layout is GORGEOUS! Yeah, like a lot of guys I am a little jelly that the N-scaler can fit so much in but like you I am ham fisted old and blind and probably should stick with G scale, but HO is where my heart is. Great video I’m curious about the GP units that you were getting or have from scale Trains that you’re “patching up“ are you doing a video on those. That would be neat. Thanks for sharing this with us man What a great show!
Hello! Thanks- I appreciate you tuning in. Yes, I will certainly produce a video showing the patch-out of the Conrail units. The MKT has several ex-CR units it’s it kept in the blue scheme and slapped its reporting marks on them. They were a little rough looking, but it added some extra color! I’d love to have a G scale setup sometime. I’ve really enjoyed the garden railroads I’ve seen. Hopefully I have several more years left to enjoy HO! Ha.
Thanks for the tour, Mike! In 2001 my parents selected San Diego as our family gathered to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. One of the days was spent at Balboa Park and I was lucky enough to catch 'the crew' on a work day. While talking to one of the members I mentioned I was a member of a 'hometown club' in NorCal, and he immediately invited me "behind the rope" and gave me the world's BEST tour! He took me into 'member-only' areas, explained everything from Ops to MoW to running shows. His pride was obvious in his presentation; he never failed to explain detailed answers to my millions of questions, even let me run a Yard Job for a few minutes. I forgot what modeling expertise he specialized in, but it was obvious there's no lack of incredibly talented people at this club. While this club is staggeringly beautiful, I want to congratulate not just the LMMRRC and SDMRRC as a group, but the the whole hobby - which has such a welcoming spirit to first-time outsiders - because the next visit, you're considered a friend! Ken Patterson likes to call Model Railroading the World's Greatest Hobby - which it is BTW! But it's because of the people, not just the trains. I've made more life-long friends from train connections than everything else combined. As I enter my 18th year of battling terminal cancer, I can't say thank you enough to all the men and women that I now call friends... and to those new friends I'm waiting to meet. Red And Gray All The Way - I still go by 'The Ghost Of The SP!'
I was fortunate enough to go to Hamburg, Germany and visit the Miniature Wonderland (in German Miniature Wuderlund) display. It's the worlds largest model railroad display as well as the largest active airport model. Definitely worth the trip!
Hello! They definitely capture the feel of the real railroad. When I went to visit the prototype, I had to do some waiting around between trains- and the ones I saw were in no hurry. Good thing the weather was great that day…haha! -Mike
I was infected with the need for trains around 1953. Largest layout? That is mathematical. Model Railroads are art. Size? Get serious. The art of Model Railroading is in the eye of the creator(s). You can comment, discuss, value ... most importantly enjoy. But judge by size? Every time I see this layout I just want to spend days there. Thank you for the great video, and to all at the LMMRC, from conception to operation. Thank you.
Hello! I appreciate you stopping by to watch! I agree- I could easily spend more than a day taking everything in. I certainly would have come much earlier in the day had I known how great it would be. Four and a half hours wasn’t enough! Ha. It’ll give me something to look forward to on my next visit to San Diego. -Mike
Hello! Thanks for watching. Yep, this is a model train video. Are you referencing the music? I do have a quick intro tune for about 5 seconds off the top, and 5 seconds at the end. But, that totals about 10 seconds of the whole 15 minute video. Are there some other sounds you’re hearing? -Mike
The model has buildings that might have been present in 1950's but doe not stay in character since this rout was one of the great grades where Southern Pacific used Cab Forward 4-8-8-2 steam engines to pull the freights up the hill to Tehachapi. during the fifties and sixties is when the RR converted to diesel but the engines in this video are way beyond the size and power of the diesels used in that early time. In the 1960's, I was on a survey crew that surveyed the road through Caliente where the famous Caliente Loop makes a horseshoe turn. At about 11 min, 22 sec you can see a train passing through that curve. The curve is so tight that you can hear the wheels scrubbing on the rails and a fine dusting of steel flakes comes off every car going around that curve. Those buildings had to be from the early 50's because they were largely gone in the middle 60's. Today, the only building left is a private home and the U.S. Post Office.
I heard about that! It’ll be interesting to see those. I did this video a few years back when they got their original set. Do you know if these Tacoma Rail units been painted in AM colors yet? -Mike
I imagine it takes quite a while for a train to make it all the way around the layout. I asked one of the club members and he said it took “quite a while!” -Mike
Wow, nice layouts, but you weren't lucky at all. Lines featuring the SP, and not a single piece of SP power was run. I did like that SD24 run, though. But man.... no SP. That hurt a bit.
Yes, I was hoping to see a few more trains. Honestly, it was very like my trip to the prototype a few years ago- waiting for hours and only seeing a handful of trains! I like SP/SSW as well since I saw quite a bit of it in Missouri growing up. -Mike
This layout, the Modelbundesbahn in Germany, and Pendon in the UK, are some of the best display layouts for historical accuracy. What these teams create is an absolute labor of love.
Chances are good that the USPS (if that was the shipper) will have returned the old engines back to Walthers. If the address no longer exists, the return to the sender.
Hopefully so! I last spoke with Walthers several weeks after the snafu and they hadn’t received them as a return to sender just yet. Surely they’ve made their back to them by now! -Mike
The Tehachapi Pass layout is quite good, beautifully detailed and representative of California's hills. It's good because in modeling a specific line, it's not just tracks everywhere with toy trains racing around too fast. Certain scenes, like the loop and Caliente are very accurately modeled. It's one of the best if accuracy is important to you.
I appreciate that! The Katy was certainly a very colorful and unique railroad. It makes for a great modeling subject- but I’m obviously a little biased! Ha. Thanks for staying tuned as we make progress on the layout. -Mike
I remember the Museum layouts starting from my time living in Ssn Diego (1983-1992). Even purchased a bumper sticker that reads "You should see the trains in our basement," as a keepsake (still have it, never mounted on a car, during the subsequent 35+ years. Finally paid for a lifetime membership 10 years ago. I, sadly, havent been back down to San Diego since moving in 1992, but I proud of the work that the clubs have done over, now, couple of generations - in particular, the field trips that members made from San Diego to Tehachapi Pass to record the landforms and vegetation, and accurately re-create them in scale. Thanks for the video!!
Loved visiting this layout when we were in Balboa Park . The biggest oo guage layout I have seen is at Miniture Wunderland in Hamburgh Germany. Well done.
Hi, Charlie! Balboa Park is fantastic. I may be showing my bias when I say the model railroad museum is the best part! Haha. I’ve heard a few viewers mention the big layout in Germany. It sounds like a place I need to check out! -Mike
A bit more realism could be attained by stringing "telephone wires" on the telephone poles along with a few call boxes along the way. I realize that walkie-talkies are the standard way of communicating, but it helps to have back-up options in such a sparse and (in some ways) inhospitable terrain. I did that with my layout--and the local "citizens" appreciate the convenience thereof.
Whichever you need - today you need a ton of money to build a large size layout. The Engines and cars alone are extremely expensive - wire, lumber, electrical parts, track, scenery, etc are also very expensive. It is not a kids hobby anymore. My friend and myself started this hobby many years ago and pricings were high but as a teenager affordable. Now it is ridiculous in the prices it would take to build our same layouts. Good luck if you want to get into this hobby.
MiniaturWunderland in Hamburg, Germany, Europe: 1231 Züge, longest train: 14,51meter, 16kilometer railroads, almost 300.000 figures, more than 12.000 waggons. Half million LEDs. 150.000 trees.
Hi, Richard! I’ll have to search for some details about that one. I’ve always found Australian railroads to be pretty interesting- and similar in a lot of way to what we have here in the U.S. -Mike
Hello! Yes, they did an amazing job on this layout. I agree, it would be cool to see moving vehicles. That would add a new dimension to the hobby! -Mike
Calling the San Diego creation a "layout" just doesn't seem to give adequate credit. It's a "model railroad" in so many senses of the term, with prototypical operations complemented by extraordinary scenery that mirrors the route of the rails over Tehachapi.
Save your nickels and go to Hamburg, Germany. Their HO layout is second floor of warehouse including European highlights like Vatican, Berlin, london, etc. It is a business. Charge admission. Paid employees. Swiss mountains. About three hours to go thru.
Hi, Tom! That sounds pretty amazing. A lot of guys have mentioned that one. I’ve never been to Germany. Perhaps this gives me an extra reason to go someday! Haha. -Mike
Hello! That's correct. I'm looking forward to patching up some of the new Rapido Conrail GP38s coming out this summer. I'll be sure to post a video of that as well! -Mike
This vid is about Le mesa, not wonderland in Germany. Some folks just like to gab on. This is a wonderful layout. Brilliant model of a great bit of railroad.👍🏽
Hello! It's certainly a layout I could visit many more times. I've heard a few guys talking about the layout in Germany. I may just have to add that one to my to-do list as well! -Mike
I was a club member of SDSON for 28 years before I moved to the Midwest. And for almost the last five years ending in 2020, I used to be the daytime N-scale layout operator for San Diego Society of N-scale at The San Diego Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park. That Layout is a great one. It's 100 foot long by 28 feet wide, and it's all hand laid code track, and it's also all DCC controlled. It's a Fantastic layout to run on. I sure do miss it!
Hello! It must have been a lot of fun being a part of a great organization like that. I regretted not being able to spend more time looking at the N-scale, but plan on doing that next time. -Mike
@@MainTrack MainTrack, next time you’re at the San Diego Model Railroad Museum ask for a behind the scenes tour of any of the layouts. Most all modelers enjoy showing off their layouts. Contact the museum’s director for tours. And let them know, Tim formal member of SDSONS says hello. Enjoy the layouts!
