Cartel Member: Ed Traxler

My layout is currently 2'x8'. I keep wanting to put it in quotes like .. "layout". Originally it was a pair of On30 modules I built to partner with other members in the Carolinas On30 Conspiracy Group. I've more or less retired them from that and have them semi-permanently mounted on my bedroom wall as my .. "layout". There. I'm happy now!

The focus is a 16 oven Coke Oven Bank with a siding along the warf. This is the On30 portion of the layout and operated by the Deep River RR - an aggregate company. When a mining operation folded in South America in the late 1800's the owners shipped the locos and railcars back to South Carolina/North Carolina to move aggregates, minerals, stone . and coke. That explains why around 1940 a 30 inch narrow gauge is still in operation. On a higher level is the On18 line that brings the coal to the coking operation. This whole operation is 'somewhere' in North Carolina near the Deep River Coal Field. Finally .. a bit of the standard gauge LC&NRR shows up - represented only by ties .. and perhaps some guys laying rail.

In the photo the colored bit is mostly finished .. with the blue structures still to be built. The little bit on the left .. that green rectangle is where a town will go .. someday.