The second layout on our tour was that of Gary Smith. I first met Gary back when I was a part of the Cherry Valley Club. He was visiting Fran Piefl and came to one of the club’s swap meets. He wanted to go down to Pemberton, NJ to see the PRR station.

I remember driving him the twenty or so miles from the club to Pemberton during the meet so he could measure and photograph the station because he wanted to model it. I had to go see Gary’s layout to see the model that came from those efforts. I wasn’t disappointed.

Gary’s layout is plan is simple, three loops one as a fly-over, but the quality of the build is excellent. Only a couple of the scenes are completed, but they are very nicely done and the layout ran flawlessly during the open-house.

Gary is a fine gentleman and a great host, when we arrived he was letting one of the visitors test a locomotive on the layout during the open house. And shortly after we arrived he placed his Overland Reading T-1 on the layout and let some of those beautifully super-detailed PRR brass locomotives take a break. The T-1 can be seen running behind Gary in the first photo.

We had the pleasure of visiting two layouts in the Cleveland area this year. The first was the Cleveland O Scale Model Railroad Club. They are housed in a cool looking building that almost looked like a freight house as we pulled up. They are a loose knit group that is more concerned with having fun and sharing the joys of model railroading than getting caught up in the BS of most clubs.

The railroad started out as a private railroad which they relocated to their location. They are in the process of expanding it to better utilize the available space in the building. The guys who were there that night were very friendly and are very passionate about the joy of operating their railroad.