Running Trains on Todd Treaster's NYS&A

Remember all these recent postings about continuous running? Well, my little loop of track is small potatoes compared to the work of Todd Treaster, a model railroader living not that far from me in central Pennsylvania. Todd's is a layout built simply to run, and it was a joy to attend an open house at his fabulous and distinctly Pennsylvania-flavored model railroad.
I'd like to present a few photos and a little relation to my recent articles about continuous running. I'll discuss more about the entire experience of the open house in a future N-Depth column in the printed MRN. Based on publication deadlines and articles already submitted for this bi-monthly column, I expect it to run in the March 2010 issue.

Visiting Todd's layout was a wonderful and timely relaxation opportunity. I stopped on my way home from college, having been working for one solid evening on finishing an I.T. assignment the night before. With enough sleep and singing along to some good ol' jazz tunes in the car, (don't ask...) I made it to Todd's with a few trains packed as well. And it was worth it.
I let my PRR FP7 loose with a short commuter train, and what a difference. With broad, sweeping curves and scenery very reminiscent of central Pennsylvania, it was SUCH a joy to watch my train run. I had to wait a while between seeing it pass, though! The running length of Todd's mainline is very impressive, and there are plenty of great scenes along the tracks.
The scenery really captures Pennsylvania well. With a myriad of rivers, railroads, industries, and rocky, tree-covered ridges, the railroad scenery complimented my very Pennsylvanian train so well. I took many, many pictures of both my train and the layout itself. I've saved the best for the printed column, but you can see some of the better pictures here.
And finally, there's just the joy of seeing a train run... and run and run and run. If you take a picture of a train on Todd's layout and it's not blurred, then you must have either staged the shot or done something wrong! I certainly got my fix of continuous running for a while, or perhaps, it just increased my appetite. Whether I fall back on switching or a lot more of continuous running, what's certain is that seeing an excellent model railroad like Todd's has inspired me to do more with my own trains. So maybe there'll be more interesting stuff to read about here soon!

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor