Bob Hartle          Clarion Low-grade Secondary 

SCALE:                    HO                                                                

SIZE:                        75' by 25'

PROTOTYPE:         Based on Conrail                                        

PERIOD:                  1975 - 1985

LOCALE:                DuBois to East Brady PA, w/ extensions to Driftwood, Kittaninning/Ford City

STYLE:                   Multi-level, point to point, with 6 live interchanges and 5 multi-track staging yards.

HEIGHT:                 32" to 60"                                                     

LENGTH:                1,000' single track main, plus sidings, (2,100')

BENCHWORK:      L-Girder, Open grid, flat areas for yards.

ROADBED:            7/16" OSB wafer board with Homasote and cork.

TRACK:                 Code 100 flex.  All switches are hand thrown.

RADIUS:               24" or greater on main, 22" industrial.       

GRADE:                5%  Brookville interchange, 4% branches, 2% main

SCENERY:             Combination of plaster and foam, trees from weeds and Polyfiber fill.

BACKDROP:       Painted 1/8 Masonite  or plasterboard to the ceiling

CONTROL:           Digitrax with Radio, IR and walkaround memory throttles

COMMENTS:      This layout was designed in 1999 with DCC walk around control in mind.  View blocks were installed to isolate the operators from each other.  Kadee couplers are hand uncoupled with sticks, with the use of magnets. 

OPERATIONS:     Informal operations had been run as early as October of 2001.  As more of the layout came online, the operations became more intense.  January 2002 saw the mainline complete around the room.  Car movement used the Modified Pin System:  colored thumb tacks with the pin removed and poster putty to hold the pin to the car.  Base color indicates the town and center dot or stripe indicates the industry.  Dispatch is by radio from a remote computer location.

PICTURES:         http://i80modelrailroads.home.comcast.net/cls/cls.html