Eurospoor pt 2

DB mentions a couple of outstanding layouts:

First up is Kayreuth, a Euro-outline model from England, manned by a couple of guys whose accents reminded me of the Two Ronnies for no real reason.

I really liked this exhibition layout because the two operators always had "stuff" going on

Above you might see the tram at bottom-left, which runs around in circles doing its own thing, and provides an element of interest, on top of the trains passing on the mainline across the bridge

There's also a commuter line (like the J'ville line) with a 4 unit EMU that comes from behind the backscene and up on the tracks under the red train in the pic, and heads to the main station at right. Again, its an automated number too, providing more movement between mainline jobs. The bridge disguises a module join - not just the baseboard join but issues of mating up working caternary wires.

At the right end there is a station. A freight heads right and an ICE train prepares to head left. The foreground tracks are where the "J'ville" train docks and departs from. Those two red locos sitting on a train at the platform are dummies, to provide more interest. 

Aha, so this is why there is so much variety on the mainline - a comprehensive staging hard is a surprise behind the backscene - a 7 track yard for each direction. The commuter unit docks on the left tracks, it can be seen heading underneath that brown hopper train which is snaking around the back.

The layout is two big modules (but note, they're kinked, rather than straight), with two curved end sections. With the top off, we see the curves and points are tight, but things run well (albeit a minor adjustment being made here!).

All in all, a really ideal exhibition layout.



One of the few US layouts was L-shaped City Limits

This seemed to have three or four operators, who were just fiddling cars about various industries and handing them off to one another. Here a pair of switchers bring some cars around that the operator a left has just dropped off

 The middle operator is moving stuff around with this Alco

 And an operator further along has this pair of GEs to shuffle around stuff with

 At the far end an Amtrak SD was shuffling things around at a passenger station

That description I've written sounds boring as I re-read it, but trust me, it was surprisingly effective - again there were always four trains on the go at once, and the urban scenery was spectacular with details everywhere.

There were two more layouts I really liked. I'll mention them in the next exciting episode