PC/Conrail at Fairborn Ohio

[bman]

After a little bit of room prep and much agonizing over a location I believe(fingers crossed) I have idea to run with for the layout. It's centered around Fairborn, OH where the ex-EL and NYC lines paralleled each other between Cold Springs just north of Enon, OH and Dayton to the south. The dimensions are roughly an "L" 14' by 7.5 ft. I did leave out the passing siding and an industry as there is some selective compression going on for sure. I choose this location mainly so I could run EL and PC in the 70's with the Southern and L&N run through trains that ran to Buckeye Yard in Columbus. Of course CR had those as well, add the DT&I trains from 1978, then Grand Trunk in the 80's. Sometime around 1990-91 the EL was taken up and utilizing the NYC track only. The industries in Fairborn also closed during the 1980's it seems. The switching should keep me busy between just sitting back watching trains circuit the layout. What you don't see will be a 6 track staging yard that will be behind some sort of view block between the access pit and curve around to meet the other end making a circular layout for a come and go effect. I've been w/o home layout for 4 years now thanks to a move. I do have the club layout and the trains shows we do at least. Hopefully peer pressure from this group will keep my motivation alive. Working on the room and the framework has been taxing on my poor 'ole body. Here's a link to the CR ZTS map of the area and a crude track plan using the Atlas software.
https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/cr/cr-z30-06m.gif

[John]

Awesome .. I lived not too far from there when I was 18    -- one of my favorite railfan spots was right outside of Wright Pat just before you get into town .. The cement plant has been defunct for a long time . not sure if it's even there anymore

[Dave V]

I was stationed at Wright-Patt 2000-2002. Even ran the Air Force Marathon in 2000. This is all very familiar! My wife and I used to do our long runs between Beavercreek and Xenia on the PRR rail trail.

[bman]

Awesome .. I lived not too far from there when I was 18    -- one of my favorite railfan spots was right outside of Wright Pat just before you get into town .. The cement plant has been defunct for a long time . not sure if it's even there anymore

The silos and part of the offices are still there. It's now called Calamityville and is part of a 50 acre site owned by Wright State. From their website it states, "Calamityville is a training, testing, and research venue where military and civilian emergency first responders hone their skills while building relationships." I've driven around Fairborn a bit after train shows in Dayton on the way back to Columbus a few times.

[bman]

just a quick update. Have gotten the benchwork up and am working on getting the plywood and foam top attached. It's a bit of a slow process we've been travelling, purging, and physical limitations limit how much i get done in a week. I'll post pics when it's all together it's chaos down there at the moment. I didn't want ya'll to think I abandoned you.

[bman]

so between my other hobbies, working on our club layout/projects, family trips, and not being as physically "awesome" as I once was, I've finally gotten around to purchasing and getting all the needed foam down for the layout. It's been a slow process but with colder temps on their way I should be able to get track down and running sooner than later.

[bman]

Starting to transfer the plan from paper to foam. A couple of things to work out yet. I was able to fall into a couple of Walthers building kits to use as starting points for Southwest Portland Cement and the Armstrong Elevator. One of our LHS's took in a big collection and in it I was able to purchase the following unopened kits. The ADM elevator kit and the add on silo's along with a Red Wing Milling. The idea is to use the silos for SWPC and then the main elevator structure as the basis for the Armstrong elevator. The Red Wing Milling is similar in appearance to the SWPC building that is attached to the silos from what I can see via street view on Google Earth. I hope to have trains moving by Thanksgiving. Then I can work on a solution to hiding the access hole that will be approx 2'x2' that I hope to never have to use. Ducking under the layout isn't my specialty.