The Basin Terminal Railroad Company

[JWB]

When Carl Arendt started his micro layout site, I was doing an enormous amount of traveling for work, and I started to think about how you could have a layout in a hotel room, just fiddling around with the idea. I decided you didn't want the housekeeping staff happening on it, so it would need to be stored completely out of sight during the day, and that led me to measure the bureau drawers in hotels. I found that a common dimension in US hotels, at least, is 29 inches wide by whatever deep, so while thinking this through, I cut a piece of plywood 29 inches by 8 inches, and over some period of time fiddled with track arrangements in both N and HO.

 

But by then, even before 9/11, airline security was more and more intrusive, and they got all hinky over even an Accurail kit (that weight could be a knife, after all), so I dropped the idea, and my travel schedule went back to OK in any case. Then, my life much quieter, I started wondering about having a micro that you could take outside with a glass of wine, and more ideas from Carl's site started to percolate. I built a Box Street some years ago, but even that was a pretty big hassle to carry around, not to mention the rolling stock, so that was far too big. Then I thought some more about the 29 by 8 piece of plywood, and the result so far is below:

I didn't want to mess around with power boosters, extension cords, or whatever, so I just made up a Radio Shack project box with a DPDT switch and a push button connected to a 9 volt battery for control (DCC users need not apply). Normally I like electrical reliability with live frogs wired to switch machine contacts, but I had a leftover Atlas Snap Switch and a Caboose Industries ground throw, so I decided to use those for simplicity. I followed an idea from an MR project layout and put the ground throw at a decent distance from the switch, because I hate seeing those oversize throws all over the place.

 

I named it the Basin Terminal Railroad Company because I like the idea of a name longer than the railroad itself. It uses leased power wherever it can get it. The Carl Arendt idea was that a micro should do some sort of "work". In this case, the loco picks up a freight car from the fiddle track, which has a rerailer.

It then backs the freight car over a Kadee 308 magnet:

You then throw the switch and shove the car into the spot.

As you can see, the layout is ready for scenery. I envision bleak range-and-basin territory (hence the name) set in the Southwest. I'm not sure what the industry for the spot will be, but I'm leaning toward a team track-loading platform.

 

Not a biggie, but an amusement on a sunny afternoon with a glass of wine.

[rouse2037]

Great looking start to a nice small micro - look forward to more pics as you go along!

 

Roger

[F-UnitMad]

.....Not a biggie, but an amusement on a sunny afternoon with a glass of wine.

Drink something stronger and you'll have more track without any effort..!!

 

I take it this is HO?

[JWB]

Yes, HO.