My first HO layout has quite a history and a lot of miles on it. It started life in 1975 as one of the 4’x8’ track plans from Atlas’s Six HO Railroads book. This layout served as my introduction to HO models, having started modeling like so many others with my father’s Lionel trains. The HO layout came about due to my father’s being transferred to Libya in 1975. My rather extensive Lionel empire was deemed both too large and too valuable (in sentimental if not yet monetary terms) to transport across the oceans, so it was off to the local hobby shop. There we bought a bunch of snap track, some Athearn cars and locos, and a bunch of scenic stuff, loaded them in boxes, and shipped them off to North Africa. As a twelve year old, my modeling skills needed a lot of development, but I had a ball with the layout that developed. In 1978, my father was transferred to London, and the layout was packed up and followed. It took up residence in our new home there, an old English home in the town of Sunninghill (Berks) known as Lowood. (The house had been owned by a family by the name of Ferguson. He was a polo player chum of Prince Charles’, and he had a daughter named Sarah who would later become well known one day selling diet meal plans!) In order to ship the layout my father built a crate around it using local plywood which had once been the base of a friends Marklin layout. This plywood turned out to be made from Eucalyptus. Now, this is pretty dense stuff, second only to petrified wood! Once the layout arrived in the UK I had this beautiful 4’x8’ 300 pound sheet of plywood and a larger room, so I did what came naturally. The layout expanded to an "L" shape, and we burned out my father’s circular saw trying to cut that damn plywood!
In 1981, my father was again transferred, this time to New York. We bought a house in Connecticut and the layout followed. At the time I was starting my freshman year in college so two of my closest friends packed the layout up for me. They carefully wrapped all the small items in toilet paper, depleting the local stores supply at least twice and causing the owner to wonder aloud about their gastric health. One of these friends later would become my brother-in-law, and the family joke was that he did such a great job of packing my trains that I let him marry my sister! The layout had to be hoisted through a second floor window opening in order to get it into its new home. There, like any good model railroad, it expanded to fill the space available. A new freight yard/engine terminal and staging yard were added along with full night lighting effects and sound systems. The layout is still there today. It still provides a great deal of entertainment for both my daughters, my nephew and myself when we visit. In addition, the neighbors enjoy a yearly "train show" around Christmas time and at various parties throughout the year. Even though the design is very dated based on what I’m doing now, I can still get a blast out turning the lights down, the sound up, and just watching things run…
While living in England, I developed a love for British trains, particularly those of the Great Western Railway (GWR). There was something about dark green locos with brass trim running through the West Country of England that hit a chord for me. In 1991 I got married and moved into my wife’s two-room condo. Space for a layout was at a minimum, but through some careful negotiation I managed to secure a ten foot section of wall in the bedroom provided I built a set of bookshelves to hold my wives antique book collection. A 10’ x 18" N gauge layout was built on top of the bookshelves, completely enclosed diorama style. This layout was based on a real location, Bodmin (General) station in Cornwall. Unfortunately I quickly grew frustrated with the running qualities of the layout and it became more of a static diorama than and operating layout. I decided to switch to OO gauge and start over in the same space. Teesbury was born.
The new layout featured foam board construction, Peco fine scale (code 75) track and scratch built structures. Many of the techniques used on my O&W layout were tested here. This layout also still survives intact; today it provides the base for the town of Livingston Manor on the current layout. Yes, below the Manor yard is a fully detailed, operational British layout! Oh, the name? It’s named after my long-suffering wife, Theresa - her nickname is "T".
