Littleton

[Boss Boomer]

Littleton is a small suburban town outside of Howell. It was all country and farm land and several business started out there because of relatively cheap property values and room for growth. And...because their businesses were a little bit hazardous and they wanted to minimize their risks.

In this picture is Boyle's Oil and Gas. Old Man Boyle was a sharp cookie and he figured out early that the new-fangled automobiles and trucks were gonna be the future of transportation, so he used his money to start up as a gasoline and heating oil distributor. Now he receives car-loads of petroleum products on a regular basis. He has two tracks for the rail traffic he generates and several buildings for various needs.



The last business on my lay-out is Michigan Chemical Corporation, shortened to MichiChemCorp. This business is a little "ill-defined." I wanted a place to route my chemical tankers, but I had some covered hopper cars, also, that needed a place to tie up. I figure MichiChemCorp is involved with plastics. It receives chemicals used in the making of plastics and ships plastic resins and pellets in boxcars and covered hoppers. That way, I can still sorta/kinda not feel too bad if I use a steamer to drop tankers at this business since plastics really got started before WW 2, but really didn't take off as an industry until after WW 2. Hence, I could use it for the Steam and Steam/Diesel transition period and nobody could fault me "too badly" for my decision.

That was then and this is now--nowadays, I couldn't care less if somebody faulted my logic on my railroad since it IS "my railroad." As Owner/President/General Manager/Road Superintendent and Senior Engineer and Conductor, () I can pretty much do what I want!

Ya know?

Now, to finish off the tour, if ya look carefully at the end of the track, you see it ends abruptly. For some reason, I failed to take a picture of the Atlas Curved Cord Truss bridge and two Pony Truss bridges that spanned the walk-in to my operating aisleway. That bridge combination spanned from the edge of Littleton across the St. Mary's River to re-connect at the left edge of Hendrickson Junction, near the County Co-op and then I would have a continuous circle of track! Don't ask me why I never took that picture--I musta been having a "senior moment" even way back then!

The guys in my club at the time seemed to enjoy coming to my house to operate. As I mentioned, we worked by a Switch list that listed all the business sidings and all the cars on the lay-out. Below the lay-out was my storage shelving for the extra cars. Between operating crews, I would take some cars off and put other cars on at Hendrickson Junction, and spend just a very few minutes making up another switching list and turn it over to the next crew to run!

It was a good time, although it lasted only too briefly. I want so much to re-create those days even if there is only me to "run trains." I have waaay more equipment to run, including passenger equipment to run commuters in between freights, and of course, I've learned much more about train operations over the years! I could maybe fix some of my mistakes, but then I'm sure I'd make new ones! Still, that's what it's all about for me...running trains, having fun and learning "stuff."

I hope you've enjoyed reading and seeing my former lay-out. I know there wasn't too much about individual cars or locomotives, but that will change in the near future I'm hoping. Ya might tell that I didn't go too much into building or detailing much, only partially constructed kits and mock-ups. I'd like to do more construction and detail work on the next Howell & Marquette Northern. Operating was fun, but the details add soooo much to the overall appearance, it becomes easier to "lose yourself" in the play of the trains!

Thank you all, and comments are appreciated!

Boss Boomer

[Trainman1965]

Boss you got to get a new one started. But the old one was cool thanks for showing it to us.

[TallDude]

Boss,

Thanks for posting the pics and descriptions of the old layout! It definitely looks like you put some serious effort into the planning and operation of that layout. I too, would have enjoyed coming over for an operating session, looks like there were a bunch of industries to be served!

[Boss Boomer]

Thanks, guys! Yup, I surely DO need to get the next lay-out going. I've spent a long time thinking and planning, but things always seem to hold up the building phase. This time, it was another hospital vist during the holidays--heart acting up again.

Even though my previous lay-out was relatively small, it could be challenging and time-consuming to "do things right." It could take two guys working together at least a half hour to make a full run over the four cities of the lay-out and do the pick-ups and set-outs. If they wanted to "stretch time," they could add a little more run time between cities by just running laps around the table top. I didn't have a fast clock then, but I intend to get and use a fast clock on the next lay-out so that should make things even better yet!

[GS4]

Hi Boss Boomer,

I'm new to the site, but like what I've seen so far. Interesting posts that you,ve put out and some nice pics too. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Cheers, Simon

[Boss Boomer]

Thank you kindly, Simon, and welcome aboard! Saw your pix in the Photography thread and enjoyed you playing with digital! Neat work!