TROLLEYVILLE TRIPLE TREAT
It's Not Traction, but Harold Shelton's Layout is Spectacular Nonetheless
George Huckaby -
When the Sahuaru show was completed, we were invited to the home of Harold and Anne Shelton to see his home layout. Harold is a long time member of the Sahuaro Central Heritage Preservation Society Inc., which sponsors the winter (February), spring (May) and fall (October) Everything Railroad Swap Meets each year. Harold lives in Northwest Phoenix and is originally from Palestine, Texas. His wife, Anne, is originally from Columbus, Ohio. They have been married 47 years and have been living in Phoenix since 1952. Harold also has a great interest in antique cars and owns at least two, one of which both the author and his wide was treated to a ride around Phoenix a few years back..
After viewing this layout, we can not understand how this layout had not been featured in Model Railroader. Although there is no traction on this layout (even a doodlebug is not present) the detail on the layout is so extensive that it had to be reported to you. The layout is in his family room, which is 15” by 22” and it fills all but a 36” wide aisle to pass through the room. It consists of 1100 feet of hand laid track on hand cut ties, with four spikes per tie with no rail joiners. The layout can run D.C. or DCC and he has a magnificent sound system to complete the effect. Harold started this layout in July 1975 and continues to work on it. He has 30 locomotives and 300 pieces of rolling stock. Most of the locomotives are brass and most of the rolling stock are from the craftsman wood and metal kits such as Ambroid, Athearn Metal (Menzies), Sunshine and Westerfield. I did spot a plastic car here and there. There are at least a dozen Fine Scale Miniatures structures on the layout along with another dozen that had been scratchbuilt. Several were kit-bashed from Revell and Magnuson and there was one Campbell structure. The roundhouse is an S.S. Limited kit, although somewhat modified. Harold even casts some of his own structures from Hydrocal and carved most of his retaining walls with dental instruments obtained from a friend.
The attractive feature of this layout is the minute detail, which Harold has placed into each scene. In the left photo below, Harold is shown in the center of his railroad empire. In the right photo, there is an egg in the frying pan of the fisherman. More pictures are provided on page 2.
So if you get to any of the Sahuaro Central meets next year and you happen to meet Ha
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TrainQuest Hobbies, Sahuaru Central Swap Meet, and a Spectacular Home Layout
George Huckaby -
During October, Trolleyville had the opportunity to visit a new hobby shop, the Sahuaro Central Swap Meet and a really terrific HO scale layout.
The new hobby shop is Trainquest, located at 14161 Elsworth in Moreno Valley, CA 800-777-2258. This store is just down the road apiece from Long’s Model Railroad Supply, well known to most model railroaders. We told you in September that we had unexpectedly run into Jim Bromar at the National Train Show in San Jose with the Trainquest store and reminded you that Jim was the creator of Long’s Model Railroad Supply. Jim has saved most of you model railroaders countless dollars since 1988 when he carved out a few aisles in the Moreno Valley Long’s Drug Store. Now he is carving again, only a new store and controlled by him. Remember the address and phone number. When you visit Moreno Valley, please visit Trainquest. Trolleyville did and we had a great time. Jim gave us quite a welcome and we have provided a view of his new 2000 sq. ft store.
One of his associates, John "Doc" Creighton (shown in photo), is the real trolley connection. John is a retired streetcar motorman from both Buffalo, New York before World War II and St. Petersburg, Florida after the war. While he was operating in Buffalo, he operated their Kuhlman Peter Witt cars along with the famous "Nearside" cars, which were also used in Philadelphia (1500 cars), Chicago (125 cars) and Lincoln, Nebraska. The Nearside Car was so called, as it was the first production streetcar car designed to stop and take passengers before crossing an intersection, on the "nearside" corner versus the "farside" corner. The cars were built between 1911 and 1914 and lasted until 1955 in Philadelphia.
Then we headed to Phoenix for the Sahuaro Central Fall Winter Swap Meet. This time the Phoenix public got to see traction operating from overhead wires as one of the Southern California Traction Clubs 25 modules was operating. This 32” by 36” module contains a loop that can operate as a stand-alone display. It contains five turnouts and three crossings. During the show, the public could see models of Pacific Electric “Blimp” 418, Pacific Electric “Portland” Twelve 1252, Sacramento Northern Combine 132, Indiana Railroad RPO 377, Toronto Transportation Commission Peter Witt 2581 and Boston Elevated Railway Center Entrance Car 6270 all take their runs on the module.
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