On July 16, Funtrak joined Jim Heidt at his home in Clockville NY for a model railroad operating session. Jim’s railroad follows a freelanced route from Pennsylvania through New York State to the St. Lawrence area. Jim’s railroad is dictated by a timetable that helps maintain a smooth operation around the layout. Aiding is a dispatch station and several station agents at key locations around the layout. While passenger trains bring its patrons around to various highly detailed locations around the layout, coal, ore, mixed freight and interchange traffic bring commodities to and from several key cities and towns. Jim’s layout featured finely crafted scenes, well maintained track, smooth operating engines and rolling stock and a well crafted plan for operation. Additionally, Jim and his operators were hospitable to the many guests that joined them for the operating sessions. The priveldge to operation on a fine layout provides not only enjoyment to the operators but also helps provide ideas and insights for their own modeling and operating schemes. Photos from Jims layout are below.

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