







In the course of acquiring materials and exhibits for our museum, and hunting for a permanent home, we saw the initial concept take a modified form. My initial suggested design was for an around-the-walls layout, rather than the in-the-round concept that we finally settled on. The first plan would have allowed for a greater amount of track and more control over what the visitor saw. For example, we could have eliminated a lot of detail from the backs of structures, confident that they would never be seen. In the end the need for quick emergency exit and my father’s preference for a simpler structure won out.
We stopped acquiring antique cars after about the 8th car, when we realized that we needed to know how much room we would have in our museum before we could buy any more. This proved wise, as our car building would be slow in coming and smaller than some of our fantasies suggested.
We searched for locations all over the northern half of Maryland, in Union Bridge and Hagerstown, Mt. Airy and a few locations in Frederick. It took about two years longer than we expected to find a suitable location. We looked at old supermarkets, warehouses, gyms and car dealerships. Understanding that our concept was hardly a license to print money, we wanted something that would generate good memories for our visitors, but still make the business economically viable. Anyone who has searched for a viable commercial property can imagine the kind of places we were shown. Some had too many small rooms where we needed one or two large ones, others had safety issues. Beautiful buildings at low cost were located too far off the beaten path, others centrally located were too costly. It was an education in trade-offs and compromises, and the resulting discussions among us really clarified the aims of our project. A hint I would offer to other searchers: do not look at an old gym unless the price is really low or you plan to demolish. They are disgusting.
In retrospect it would have been best to find a final location first, then begin hiring, building and everything else. Much of the work done in the first 2 years ended up not being used due to changes in concept, room available on the final layout, or damage in transit. Clearer lines drawn between phases (location work, building the layout, acquiring cars) would have resulted from an earlier purchase. In some sense we are not to blame: the real-estate bubble was in full swing as we started the business, and only as owners realized that the go-go days were over for the forseeable future were we able to make progress in negotiations.
One of the locations looked at was the former home of the Frederick News-Post on Patrick St., near the popular restaurants and high-end antique stores that attract so many tourists; perfect for our museum. This building was originally a terminal for a trolley line, where the cars would stay after a long day of service. The big door the trolleys used has since been bricked over, but it still had a historical cachet that would have complemented our focus on old-time transportation. Unfortunately this building had been repurposed too well; full of small offices and hallways, it was too much work for us to restore this building to an open floor plan.
We visited the Patrick St. property in the morning, in the afternoon we walked two blocks over to an old antique mall on East St., next to the popular Shab Row shopping area. This turned out to be the ideal location for our layout: high ceilings, an open layout, plenty of fire exits. One building for the cars and the other for our trains, with parking between. We knew we had found the home of Roads and Rails.
Once we had signed the papers on our new location at 200 N East St. our focus changed abruptly from crafting model buildings to the real thing: preparing the old 1890 power plant for a new purpose. Away went the model glue and balsa wood and out came the sledgehammer, spackle and paint roller. Our backs and arms were sore and our clothes full of plaster dust. Exhaustion was the rule and most nights ended with an early bed. These months saw the layout in sections under plastic tarps for their protection, the cars continually pushed from one location to another to make way for scaffolding and dropcloths.
Initially the cars were kept in what is now the main train layout room, with the 4 x 8’ sections of scenery and track piled up in the building across the parking lot where we planned to house the cars. The reason for this: we had more refurbishing to do in the car warehouse, and more working garage doors on the larger train building. The cars would have been damaged by the work being done in their future home, and the layout sections were much easier to move around as needed. Eventually the whole front of the car building was re-sided and had new windows put in, along with fire escape doors. The train building had the garage doors removed as soon as the cars were safely out.
We discovered an unreported door in one of the closets that lead to the main layout room, and located our initial train control booth there. It provided a place to control trains but no window to see them, and the position was awful: right at the entrance end of the layout. This found door is now the one that leads from the main layout room to the Thomas layout; we tore out the old closet and the stairway above it.
The controls were thankfully moved later to their central position in the raised control and observation booth, and I’m proud to say that thanks to good wiring practices I was able to move the entire mass of control wiring in one workday!
One of the great challenges of building a permanent display like ours is protecting it from damage while still giving visitors the best possible view. Bill Gardner, our resident architect and webmaster, designed the glass partition that keeps very little from view while keeping little hands from playing with the cars and people. A CAD 3-d drawing was done of the entire layout, thus establishing the amount of metal and glass needed for the final product, and the measurements of each piece. The glass was cut and then delivered to us, then the metal was cut on a special saw and cleaned with mineral spirits and rags. This was one of the more onerous jobs that we had. The result is a crystal-clear partition that allows us to remove most of the glass panels for maintenance of the layout. Each piece averages about 50lbs in weight, and requires 2 persons using suction cups of great strength to slide the pane straight up and out of the metal channels.
Without the involvement of a trained person like Bill I think we would have had a more cumbersome and over-engineered solution. This kind of project requires understanding of design tools and construction materials beyond that of an average model railroader.
Power challenges are some of the greatest we face in running the display. Voltages vary, and our buildings and animations require both AC and DC. Voltage drops a little over long distances, and it is about 30 feet from the transformers to the layout. For example, 10v DC leaves the transformer and arrives at a lighted building at about 8v. 14v is just above 11.5v when it reaches its destination. We have over a mile of wire underneath the layout. Over time I have reduced the dependence on these auxiliary outputs on the transformers by using ‘wall-warts: AC adaptors available in various voltages online. These have to be plugged in at outlets located underneath the platform, which leads to another power challenge.
It is important to turn off everything at night to prevent fires and overconsumption of energy that could cut into our bottom line. To turn off power strips under the layout, I looked for a solution and thought I found it in the X-10 system.
The X-10 system was developed in Scotland in the early 1970s for home automation, and many readers will have experience with it. It can be used to turn on lights and appliances with a control that sends signals through the house wiring from a receiver that receives commands from a remote control. It is all pre-digital, quite leaky in signal and rewards clear, well-organized wiring, which is not the kind of wiring we have here at Roads and Rails!
Old buildings with many different owners tend to have layers of wiring, and an outlet in one room may have more to do electrically with a ceiling fan across the hallway than the next outlet a few feet away. Types of wire have changed over the years, along with insurance standards. The building was previously owned by a Master Electrician, who knew the standards but apparently chose his own path; a Salvador Dali of electrical work. In short, our building is a classic case of where not to use the X-10 system.
It turned out that, perhaps depending on solar flare activity, the ozone layer or the will of the gods I could turn off the layout, or often only part of it, requiring me to crawl underneath and to do it manually. I flipped this coin everyday. Only about one-third of the available outlets would work with X-10 boxes, so that drastically reduced the amount of lights and animations we could use. Eventually we had regular electric switches added to turn the outlets on and off, and removed most of the X-10 boxes. Those that remain are wired to motion detectors and have receivers directly attached, with no signals going through the power lines. In short, my X-10 idea was a flop.
When we began work, I ordered online about 2000 feet of solid, 18-gauge wire in 8 colors, paired light/dark and labeled with nylon ties. This is one decision I never regretted, and it still makes troubleshooting and maintenance easier than it would have been otherwise. I ordered 2000 more feet of wire not long afterwards. The rainbow umbilical cord that carries power under the floor and to the layout is quite thick now. The cord is attached to the underside of the layout with special nylon cable ties attached with screws. Clarity and organization are the key aims of our layout wiring. I often feel like Gary Sinise’s character in Apollo 13, scrambling for every volt and amp to keep the system going.
I’m also glad that I tacked as much of the wire to the structure of the layout before we put the landscape on, when the skeletal structure was still exposed and easy to get to. I have laid a lot of the wire laying on my back, rolling on a dolly, and it is much less arduous to do it standing up when possible.
Early track wiring was governed by the perceived need to transmit digital commands to MTH Digital Command System trains. This mean every 15 feet of the DCS track needed a power feed and to be isolated electrically from other sections. The digital signals would fade even when power was strong, so 12 gauge wire (very thick) was used for the main loop instead of the 18 gauge (thinner) wire used elsewhere. The 18 gauge wire would run the power, but lose the signal. We planned to use MTH’s record/playback feature to stop trains at stations and control other animation sequences.We stopped using the digital system well before opening day, as the conventional Lionel control served our needs better. After all, we run our layout in various loops for hours on end, without the kind of sophisticated operations one might find on a home layout.
The sectioned track did serve one very important purpose later on, when I discovered the need to give our trains a proper rest. During the first month of operation we kept the trains going all day long. Stupid as it seems now, we did not consider wear and tear would be such an immediate problem.
We listened to advice given by an old model train hand who visited us, and began using a lithium-based grease intended for automobiles. It turns out that the grease normally used in model trains vaporizes at a temperature easily reached by the gears after about 20 minutes or so. After that all contact is metal-on-metal and very damaging to the engines. Turning off the trains when we had no visitors helped quite a bit, as we had few visitors in the first three months, but we were still killing trains. We also put in automatic station stops on some loops, which cut power to sections of track, and motion detectors to turn on other loops when visitors came near. Our subway has both. These additions cut power use, mechanical wear, and provide additional visual interest. After all, real trains have to stop somewhere!
I am always on the hunt for cheap ways to achieve entertaining effects on our layout. Our police cars use blinking LEDs salvaged from children’s New Year’s Eve hats. All I had to do was ask for them at the end of the party and our gracious hostess (Hi Sanya!) kindly gave them to me. I had to saw off excess material from the circuit board and solder on connections
for permanent power, then glue them into the vehicles.
The slower flashing lights used in the Fire Department scene have a different history. I found a cheap circuit by buying a ‘blinkengurtel’ surplus from the East German police. This is an item worn by traffic policement which flashes lights on a belt to draw attention. It’s pretty crude electronically, but it works and was quite inexpensive.
I fell through the layout twice during its construction. The first time was at our warehouse location, when I stepped onto a hatch. Fortunately for me it didn’t give way until both legs were on top, ensuring that I slipped through the hatchway cleanly and directly onto the floor, both feet at the same time. Remember that the layout was 4 feet off the floor at this time, so it was quite a drop and my feet ached for a day or two afterwards.
The second time I fell through was less graceful but less blameworthy; A bolt had not been installed at a crucial joint near where the refinery now sits, and the section gave way like a four-legged table deprived of a leg. I could have scraped my neck and even cracked my skull, but the section dipped slowly and I was able to catch myself and get out without injury.