Finally! A new post

Finally, it’s time for the huge update I promised.

First off, my apologies for not having consistent updates, but to be quite honest, I was running out of new material and the local sports scene has really been keeping me busy. I hope out new project can produce at least four or five new posts. After that, we may be limited to one or two a month until we tackle another big project.

This new project came on the heals of our total makeover of the layout, but it’s something we’ve been talking about for quite a while.

It also came out of necessity as our track needed a massive cleaning. In order to take all the track off, we had to take all the scenery off, as well. It was at that point, Dave and I seriously started discussing the possibility of adding more lines and revamping our city and industrial areas.

The solution was to combine the buildings that made up Souva City and Adamsville on the Adamsville side.

We replaced Souva City with our truck stop, grain elevator and industrial area. Both Adamsville and the new side, which has yet to be named, were designed to have a less congested look, making it more pleasing to the eyes while allowing us to get to different areas in the layout much easier.

Today, I’ll give you a teaser with a few photos of the new layout under construction. I’m sorry for the quality of some of these shots. I was using a new camera and did not have the settings right. I have also provided just a couple of shots of the finished layout.

Next week, I’ll go into more detail about the new lines we added and why we did it.

In future updates, I’ll explain the new design of Adamsville, along with the material used to construct the roads and sidewalks. If you go back to past posts and compare, you’ll see a drastic difference.

Until next week.

Project Update

I anticipate the new drastic change to the D&P Railroad to be completed as soon as today. I will be taking plenty of photos, and may have a two or three part series explaining the changes beginning some time next week. I have provided just one teaser photo of the project as it nears completion.

Huge Update Coming...

It's been a while since my last post, but I promise in the next week or so, I will have a huge update on a new project Dave and I are working on. We are completely changing the layout of our railroad, and trying some new things we haven't done before. It may be at least another week until I'm able to provide an update.

Go West

When Dave and I were salvaging and cleaning what was left of my grandfather's model railroad, we discovered there were many items that had an Old West theme to them. In fact, there were enough to at least fill one half of one side of our layout.

During one of our early designs, we decided to do just that. The result was a pleasant surprise and even though our skills were pretty raw at the time, the design turned out very well.

Dave named the town Tuco, after a character from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. Tuco comes complete with a couple of saloons, a doctor's office, a general store, a gun shop, a dentist’s office, sheriff’s office, cemetery and saw mill.

Our goal in the future is to dedicate one whole side of our layout to an Old West theme. It's going to take some time before we collect enough items to do that. We are hoping to have enough in about two years.

Until then, I hope you enjoy the photos.

Going Hollywood

As you have noticed by now, the D&P Railroad has a lot of vehicles. Dave and I believe this helps with the realism of our layout. We just about every make of car you can think of, but I'll go into that in a future post.

Today, I want focus on five unique cars. They are cars that will take you back to some of your favorite movies. These cars are brought to us by Reel Rides.




Perhaps our favorite car is the 1981 Cadillac from the movie Casino. For those that have seen the movie, this is the car that saved Sam "Ace" Rothstein towards the end of the film. In this photo, you can see Ace getting into his car.





Another recognizable auto would be the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am featured in Smokey and The Bandit. You can see The Bandit following closely behind old Snowman now.




Next we have the 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX as featured in the classic Tommy Boy. Ours is in a little better shape than the one in the movie. It's the blue car.






Our next Reel Ride is one of my personal favorites. It's the 1970 Pontiac GTO the Judge from the film Dazed and Confused. You may remember this as the car Matthew McConaughey's character David Wooderson drives. He has one of the best lines ever in a movie. "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age." The the orange car driving down the street.


Sticking with Dazed and Confused, next up is the 1972 Chevy C10 Pickup Truck the seniors use to terrorize the freshmen.






We also have the 1958 356A Porsche Speedster Convertible featured in Top Gun, but we have so many Porsche's, it was difficult to find the right one. I think it's somewhere in Souva City. It's a lot like the one next to the Chevy truck, but it's black.

Dave and I are waiting for Reel Riders to come out with the best movie car ever, the De Lorean DMC-12 as featured in our favorite movie back to the Future.

Marty McFly: "Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?"
Dr. Emmett Brown: "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"

Trust me, if they come out with a 1:87 DeLorean, we'll be one of the first to have it.

Next week, we'll take at look back at the Old West layout we had early on. In the coming weeks, we'll feature all the different vehicles that make the D&P Railroad come to life. We'll also show you how to put more detail into a layout. That and much more will be coming in the next few weeks.

The Name Game

My grandfather was a family man and when it came to his model railroad, he believed including others to make the experience better for them. He was known for naming buildings and other things after people, past and present.

Dave and I decided we would carry on that tradition. Out of the many things we salvaged from my grandfather's pieces, only two were named. There was of course the Adamsville sign and the Ruth Adams Airport, which we renamed the Ruth Adams Memorial Airport.

Most of the named items in our current layout reside in Adamsville, where the people make their homes. When we recreated Adamsville, Dave and I modeled it after a town you may find in the Thumb. We have a nice main street, with plenty of businesses and action going.

Since Adamsville is where many of the surviving buildings from the Lack of Money & Sufferin' Railroad (that was the name of my grandfather's railroad) are located, it has an "older" feeling too it, but that's fine - it's what separates Adamsville from Souva City.

The signature piece in Adamsville is the James W. Adams Memorial Field. This was the creation that Dave and Steve put a few days into. When they began it, I wasn't sure what it would look like, but it surpassed all expectations. As I mentioned last week, we finally have a team playing there.

The newest addition to Adamsville is Ray's Campground - named after my father-in-law Ray Chumbler who passed away earlier this month. Last week, my mother-in-law Donna had a chance to see it and was very surprised and happy that we made it.





Going West out of Adamsville, there is a Pabst Blue Ribbon refinery. It doesn't have a name, but it means something to Dave and I since this was something my grandfather actually created it.

The factory was just an ordinary factory, but he slapped a few Pabst decals on - and it's a cool refinery.

There are plenty of places to eat and drink in Adamsville as we have a KFC, Baskin Robbins and a 7-11. The 7-11 is owned and operated by my good friend Chris Ogryski. Also, you’ll see the Eagles’ Club, the Adamsville Fire Dept. and Joe’s Diner, which may be some of the oldest items currently on display.







Finally, there is a Shell Gas Refinery located near the trackside area in Adamsville. It doesn't have a name, but is one of the most prominent features of Adamsville. It began with an oil drum we salvaged and we purchased the rest.

The other side of our layout is called Souva City. It's named after my best friend Steve Souva and his dad Bob, who did all the wood work. Again, without their help, we would have been lost.

It's also named Souva City because Steve put together and painted many of the buildings from a city kit we purchased. Souva City has a lot of features of its own as it had a theatre, Ace Hardware, Barber Shop and Sof's Saloon - and that's just the downtown area.

Sof's Saloon is painted specific colors, they are the colors of the Detroit Tigers.


Also in Souva City are Dave's Dinner while Pat's Place (named after my dad), which are two passenger cars Dave repainted. Pat's Place is painted with the actual paints we saved. Green and orange were the colors of his railroad. Our colors are red, black and silver.


Edna's Eatery is the newest addition to Souva City; it's named after my mom.

The industrial area, including the switch yard are all part of the Peter Karle Sr. Industrial Park, named after my other grandfather of whom I shared the same birthday with.

That's all for now, enjoy the photo. Next week, the D&P Railroad goes Hollywood.

The New Project 5 - Changes

Model railroading is all about improving and tweaking your layout. Dave and I knew once we started the new layout, things would be changing quickly. However, we couldn't have predicted how quickly.

It's been a little over a month since the new project was declared finished. Dave and I both thought we were going to take it easy after that and just enjoy running the train. That was until we discovered Junction Valley Railroad. JVR is everything we've been looking for from a train shop. It has all the buildings, scenery, people, cars, engines and detailed pieces we've been looking for. Did I mention it's cheaper than any shop we've previously been too?

In the past month alone, Dave and I have been to JVR three times.

The biggest and most important change I want to talk about first is the addition of Ray's Campground. As you all know, my father-in-law Ray Chumbler recently passed away. Shortly after his passing, Dave came up with the idea of a way to honor his memory. Since Ray was an outdoors’ man and loved to camp, we decided we would create a campground with his name attached to it. Most of the campground items were purchased from JVR.

Sticking with the name theme, we have added Edna's Eatery, named after my mom and we have officially added Ogryski's 7-11.


You'll also notice that a team finally showed up to play at James W. Adams Memorial Field. They're just having a practice, but we're hoping to have enough players for a full game.





Also, I have provided a full view of our truck stop. It's still one of the coolest features we have as it lets us display a good number of our many trucks.

In the Peter Karle Industrial Park, Dave has put the finishing touches around the factory he built. There are more fork-lifts, pallets, boxes, cars, people and a nice fence to box in the factory. I think it turned out real well.









In the Park, we have added a memorial monument. It's hard to see, but it's actually a Vietnam Memorial. There are also some more benches and sitting people in the park.





When I went through the initial photos, I noticed I didn't have very good shots of a couple of our churches. The big church in Souva City features a wedding scene while the one in Adamsville has a hearse, which should make Rick happy.


In the city shot of Adamsville, you'll noticed that the buildings on the right side are all pushed back off the street to create more space and let the area flow a little better. Also, behind Ruth Adams Memorial Airport, there is a nice build up of brush. The same can be seen under the Adamsville sign.


I hope you enjoy the photos.

Coming next week, we'll play the name game as I will begin a two-part series on everything that is named after someone. We'll start with Adamsville and conclude with Souva City. After that, the D&P Railroad will go Hollywood.