Steve Skodzinsky's Monson Village Module

Steve Skodzinsky has graciously allowed me to post pictures he took of his Monson Village module currently being built.

Here are some of Steve's remarks about it:

"The module is 16 inches wide by 96" long. When I was in the planning stages I soon realized that if I was going to use #6 switches, it pretty much follows that the module will be about 8 feet long to accommodate everything. If you used #4 switches you could probably shorten it to 72 to 80 inches or so. In any case, using #6 switches has allowed for very smooth trouble free operation and nice shallow approaches. They can handle just about anything you might ever want to run on a 2 foot empire. "

"I opted for code 55 rail and I purchased #6 switches from LITco. On the advice of Gary Kohler, all but one of the switches are conventional. The switch that leads into the engine house is the one that is the stub. As I have found, it is more work to setup the stub switch. It demands accuracy in placement more than anything. All of the switches are controlled with Blue-Point machines, these have turned out to be very reliable and work great. All of my track is hand laid, I used PC ties about every 6 inches or so to establish gauge and sugarpine and birch-plywood wood ties were used in between. I brush painted all of the ties with Tamiya XF-57 buff paint to approximate the color of the cedar ties that the 2 footers used."

Steve has done a nice weathering job onthe Stevens Creek wood shed.

This will turn out to be a nice module and a good portrayal of the Monson Railroad's station and facilities in Monson, Maine in the early 2oth century. I look forward to seeing the progress and will post pictures here.