The Average & Eastern Railroad

Since we are heading east and making the focus of the layout more generic it was felt that a change of name was warranted. The four tracks represent about two and one half miles of mainline belonging to the railroad d'jour. As part of our "genericization" we decided the mainline would pass through a small town called Average. The town is the headquarters of the Average & Eastern Railroad, a short line with a few miles of track. There's a small interchange yard, a station/office and facilities to service the locomotives. The motive power includes some second hand steam and one diesel. There's also a number of local industries.

From Average the line runs east through hills and valleys to serve several small towns. At the hamlet of Sometown there are several small industries including a rock crusher. From Sometown the line curves into the village of Common with it's switchback sidings. Further east lies Stock, little more than a grain elevator and a few houses.

There's a Portland cement plant a short way out of Stock. A set of bridges and a trestle carry the A&E over a loop in a class 1 mainline.

The line terminates at Quotidian (a real word, believe it or not). Here there is a connection with the Quotidian Stone & Lumber Company. As it's name implies, the company owns a quarry, a lumber mill and several acres of forest land. The company owns a single locomotive, a venerable Shay built in the 1930's.

I realize that using the remnants of the Allegheny Eastern to represent the class 1 is probably overkill. This connection is usually simulated by a short section of track running nowhere. I've always disliked that sort of arrangement. It seemed to me that the Class 1 should have more presence and actually function. Granted I could have used a short loop but because the layout is big enough I chose to go overboard.

The Average & Eastern Railroad

The Class 1 operation is basically round d' round with four trains running at any given time. As I mentioned above there is literally two and a half scale miles of four track high iron. Basically it serves as a backdrop for the real show. The short line will be where all the action is. Just haven't figured out all the various details yet. I hoping this post will draw some feedback.

Regards,
Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad