# My Layout - First time poster



## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Hi all, 
Just found this form the other day. Glad to be here. My layout is a fictional one I made up this past Christmas as I got my little one his firs train set. It's exploded into a very big part of both of our lives and I do hope it stays that way. Needless to say the layout has grown as well. I will post the pic of it here first and then the history I made up for it. 










William ‘Hank’ Stark, a self-made millionaire in the oil, land, and stock market saw another opportunity to enhance his wealth in 1998. A lover of mountains, Hank got a board of investors together and ventured into the railroad industry in one of the most unlikely of places. Seeing a need for the lower area of Colorado, Hank aggressively sought the best deals and bartered to keep the long history of the railroads alive. He bought the town of Shaleford, Colorado and then began work on laying the rails that would serve his new railroad and repair facilities. During this time Hank also met with several of the CEO’s and Presidents of the long time rail industries and made some truly amazing deals; one in particular was with the Illinois Central line before the eventual buyout from Canadian National. During Hank’s early years his favorite place to spend the summer was in the Deep South in Mississippi with his Uncle, Mark Stillwater, a life-long railroad worker. Many days, both mornings and evenings Hank spent down at the Illinois Central Gulf repair yards in McComb, MS. This time spent love never died, and even after Hank’s uncle has passed his love for trains never stopped.
In 2000 Shaleford Rail was officially born and their first freight manifest was heading North to meet with the Union Pacific line in northern Colorado. News spread fast and many of Hank’s investor’s owned other business’s as well and seeing the potential in his new found venture many of Hank’s investors brought their own business’s or opened up new facilities to add to their wealthy businesses to the tall peaks of Shaleford, Colorado.
Within three years the line and repair facilities flourished beyond Hank’s meager expectations. A new diesel repair shop was built and a transfer table was installed. The car shops were Hank’s big money maker but soon the word spread about the well repaired and restored diesel engines his shops produced. 2005 showed another increase in revenue and expansion. A turntable and round house was also installed along with a multi-million dollar deal with General Electric.
A large plastics plant became part of Shaleford’s fold along with a refurbished shale rock supply plant. In 2014 Shaleford Rail will see its first true new engine. In partnership with General Electric Shaleford Rail will receive a General Electric AC4000, and what makes this new engine truly unique is that it will be the only engine in its small fleet to sport the Shaleford Rail logo, but rumor has it that a few more engines are possibly in the works to add to Shaleford's long roster list.










I do have a youtube channel and you can see some vids of my progress. I would start with update 5 if you are so inclined to watch the videos.
http://youtu.be/SID0PCfecgs

Anywho, thanks for looking and any comments are welcome. The layout is designed with the Anyrail Software. I do have to say it's the best money I've spent in the hobby so far. It is DCC and it uses the Bachman EZ-track along with some turn outs and flex track by Peco.

Thanks,
Bal


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Hello and welcome to the site.
Do a build thread here?
With maybe some still shots of the build?

Nice busy layout you have planned. :thumbsup:

Link your tube,


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

Welcome to the site.
Great story. Are you interested in expanding it? I've written a couple short stories and would be happy to help get your thoughts down on paper (or internet).

The layout looks like a great use of space and I agree with big_ed, please continue your build thread here. 

- Will


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Sure spoil. That was real quick, but any thoughts and ideas are welcome. Thanks the comments. I changed the bottom portion just a bit ill post a pic in a few. I'm on my iPad ATM. I figured that if I wanted to use some more modern power I better come up with something that incorporated them both. I've got the new athearn 44AC Gevo ordered so I'm excited to see how it runs compared to myBLI AC6000. That thing is a beast! If it goes well ill be getting two more of the new Gevos and have one repainted into the new logo. I've got a friend who is phenomenal at painting and detailing. He's got an undeclared BLI SD40-2 of mine that he's super detailing it up for in the good ole orange and white scheme along with another dummy SD40-2. 
I've made the crazy endeavor to try and collect the IC/ICG's entire fleet of SD40/SD40-2's. I'm off to a geat start so far. I'm using mostly dummy engines and not looking for power per say. But we will see.


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

Couple quick questions for you.

What was Shaleford, CO. before Hank bought it? Mining town? Ghost town?
What are some businesses that moved to Shalford after Hanks railroad investment?
Who does Hank repair locomotives for? His own railroad or for others?
Can you expand on the multi-million dollar deal with General Electric?


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Almost a ghost town, very seldom used ski resort. It's basically just a copy of Telluride, CO. I used the name Shaleford in my first novel, Pray. It's basically box canyon one way in one way out, hence the u shape for my layout.

Shaleford Plastics is the big one. It takes up most of the middle section of my layout. As you can se it has a few siding tracks and will probably have its on switching engine. Others are just small time stuff, a freight house for winter things, and a mountain supply warehouse for the surrounding areas I.e. hacking supplies, imagine the Walmart for mountain hiking and climbing supplies and paraphernalia. I though of putting a small rock quarry there for shale but I don't have the room for it.

He repairs for both. What is not labeled in the layout pic is the two Amtrak cars that serve as the diner and restaurant. They are just above the railroad museum staggered. The AC6000 main job is take people there and tour the town and then go on a excursion around the mountains and wind up at the restaurant. Kind of like a package deal you would pay for dinner included! 

Well, the thing with GE came about because my AC6000 pretty much fell in my lap for all of the postage to have it shipped to me. So i needed some reason to have it being there. Being green in the hobby and the real world of railroading I didn't know that the AC6000 was not the workhorse GE intended it to be and was wrought with problems. So I'm still thinking on 'that' multi million dollar deal and what all it entails. I've been thinking that the deal might include that any new GE model that comes out Shaleford Rail will be brought there first for testing and showcasing. Who knows, so I'm open for suggestions or input.


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

Nice looking layout, and cool background story too.

Care to throw up a few still shots?!


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

I will later on today. It's by no means finished though, but thanks for the comments.


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## broox (Apr 13, 2012)

either way its a pretty good layout i reckon :thumbsup:


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

Boy, you weren't kidding about having a lot of IC/ICG stuff!


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Here is the updated layout pic.


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Yeah, I grew up around the ICG, I live in McComb, MS and we had the largest car repair facility between New Orleans and Memphis, TN at one time. Sadly it's all gone now. But in the good ole days it wasn't anything to see 15-20 engines all the time in the yards doing work, etc, and we have a long South Yard that is still used to this day. A little over a mile long with 17 tracks. It's nice to go and see every now and again.


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

Love the box canyon idea. Genius. I may have to steal that idea.

I'll work with your story more tonight. It's really interesting how similar it is to what I came up with for my future railroad. Even picking a similar part of the country. (I went with Utah). 
I just want to make sure that I'm clear in that I am not creating your story. I'm simply taking what you offer me and putting everything together because I love writing, story telling and I feel like I'm writing a biography on your railroad.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Truly fantastic layout. :appl:

What a lot of operating fun you will have.

Love all of the switching opportunities.

Or you can just turn loose a train and sit back
with a toddy. 

Don


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Can't wait to see what you come up with spoil.

Yeah, there are lots of things to do on the layout, which I think with a little one around is always a good thing. Thanks for the compliments!


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Here is some basic shots of my ICG power and some arial shots of the layout. 3 more 5'x8' tables to go.
well, a little late but here is my IC/ICG power, and some other shots of my IC/ICG rolling stock. What's not pictured is a BLI SD40-2 that's getting painted and 7 more SD40-2's that's also getting a new orange and white paint job.


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

Wow! You got more IC rolling stock that the railroad has. 

What a nice long train you can put together with all of that. 

Fun.

Don


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

Did some changes to the layout...got my yard a little bigger because of it! =)


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## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

Too bad you couldnt maybe do some kind of lower level staging to move alot of your rolling stock of the main level, then you could maybe fit more industries. You have a whole lot of track crammed onto your layout, i think if you could balance out the track with some more scenery/industries it would flow better...

Im not sure if your trying to showcase all your rolling stock or what, their is a few modelers on here that have a ton of rolling stock, 

This is just my opinion, so dont take it the wrong way... Either way it turns out, good looking layout thus far.


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

I haven't forgotten about your story. Just been hard to find time to sit down when it's quiet and write your story.


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

No worries, spoils! I know how that is!


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

I'm working on the story now via my smartphone since I don't have access to a PC/laptop at the moment. 
Any updates on the build?


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

In 1998 William ‘Hank’ Stark, a self-made millionaire in the oil, land, and stock market saw another opportunity to enhance his wealth. Hank got a board of investors together and ventured into the railroad industry. 

During Hank’s early years his favorite place to spend the summer was in the Deep South in Mississippi with his Uncle, Mark Stillwater, a life-long railroad worker. Hank would spend many of his free days down at the Illinois Central Gulf repair yards in McComb, MS. with his uncle watching trains. 

Seeing a need for local rail service in the lower area of Colorado, Hank aggressively sought deals and bartered to keep the long history of short line railroads alive. He bought the town of Shaleford, Colorado, a very seldom used ski resort which was on the verge of becoming a ghost town. Shaleford is basically a box canyon with only one way in and one way out. Work then began laying the rails that would serve his new railroad and repair facilities. During this time Hank also met with several key players of long time rail industries in the area and made some truly amazing deals. 

In 2000, Shaleford Rail was officially born and their first freight manifest was heading North to meet with the Union Pacific line in northern Colorado. News spread of Hank’s investment and the growth of the new local economy which brought many new businesses to the area. Each brought new investment options for Hank and his railroad. This included doing outsourced engine and car repairs and a large plastics plant which was built along with a new shale rock supply plant. The plastics plant is such a large customer of Shaleford Rail that it has its own dedicated switcher. 

Within three years the line and repair facilities flourished beyond Hank’s meager expectations. A new diesel repair shop was built and a transfer table was installed. The car shops were Hank’s big money maker but soon the word spread about the well repaired and restored diesel engines his shops produced. 2005 showed another increase in revenue and expansion and a turntable and round house were installed. 

In 2014 Shaleford Rail will see its first true new engine. In partnership with General Electric Shaleford Rail will receive a General Electric AC6000. What makes this new engine unique is that it will be the only engine in its small fleet to sport the new Shaleford Rail logo. Rumor has it that a few more engines are possibly in the works to add to Shaleford's long roster list.

In addition to moving freight, Shaleford Rail also offers a passenger service. There are two ex-Amtrak cars that serve as a diner and restaurant for the small town. They are located near the only local railroad museum. Once acquired, the AC6000's main job will be to take people from surrounding towns to Shaleford for a tour of the town, a excursion around the mountains and finish at the restaurant for lunch or dinner. 
*
The outlook for this town and Shaleford Rail are promising. Every day Hank makes improvements in efficiency or in the value that Shaleford Rail offers its customers. Although Hank is secretive about future expansion plans, history suggests that Shaleford Rail will do many great things while Hank is at the controls.


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

Balrog21, please read over your story and tell me what you think. Please be bruttaly honest. Only way I can improve as a writer is to get feed back from many people.


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

I don't have time to read it but I will once I get to work in a bit. Not much happening on the railroad but some new stuff was added. =) Thanks for writing, I'll let you know in a little what I think of it!
Best,
B
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z7hpWO0CGk&feature=share&list=UUHt0AMIYW5JAFV_Ja1wiVPg


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

SPOIL9

I read your story and you got me hook line and sinker. :smilie_auslachen:

I thought I was reading an actual account of how the
man built a small railroad in Colorado. 

It was only after reading it, that it became obvious from
other postings in the thread that it is a
fictional history of a model railroad under construction.

Good creative writing. 

Don


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

I like Don, loved it. Flowed really smooth and took me out of the real world for a bit, the most enjoyable part of this is that it made me want to see and visit the railroad, which is hard to do in such a short piece of fiction. LOVE IT, Spoils, THANKS!
Bal


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## Zippy4 (Sep 25, 2013)

vvery nice layout


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

Thanks, guys. Glad you enjoyed it. 

Can't wait to see updates on the layout.


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## Balrog21 (Aug 21, 2013)

*Layout update!*

Big update and some changes to the layout. Hope everyone has a very MERRY Christmas!

If you are bored you can start with number 9 just work your way to 11, @Spoils..gonna have to rewrite some of that history now that I have incorporated an Intermodal Yard to the layout. =)

Enjoy and Best!
Bal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1JDFDOCY4w&feature=share&list=UUHt0AMIYW5JAFV_Ja1wiVPg&index=6


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## spoil9 (Dec 24, 2008)

Bal, watched your latest couple videos. Great job on that yard tower. Makes me want to include one in my future plans somehow. Cant wait to see more track for thos yards laid. 
Id be happy to add the latest changes to your story. Been laid up on the couch the past few days with some kind of stomach flu and Im starting to feel the boredom. No strength to do any modeling and only so much TV I can watch. 
Email me any ideas youd like to include and I'll start writing. My email is my screen name via yahoo.


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