When I learned of his passing I pulled that old issue out (yes, I still have it and a replacement copy as well) and decided that I was going to finally build this layout and do it in On30. What I found out in later years is that this layout is based on a switching puzzle on a model railroad called the Sagatukett River RR at the end of the line in a small town called Equinox (I found it in a Kalmbach book; "Track Planning Ideas from Model Railroader: 58 Track Plans from Past Issues). John built it fairly close but lengthened the tail tracks on the wye to hold an engine and a caboose as well as an extra siding.
I traced the original plan (because I also have a very dog eared copy of that book) and then enlarged it to my favorite scale of 1/8th of an inch equal to 1". I roughed it in and made some notes. Then I pulled out some On30 freight cars, my small Porters (0-4-0 and 0-4-2) and the Mogul (2-6-0). Made some measurements and determined that I could probably build it in about the same amount of space. I'm going to try and stay true to the original so the tail tracks will only hold an engine which will require 12" to handle the Mogul. If I stick to cars that are at least 20' long then that isn't quite long enough to hold a Porter and a freight car at the same time, keeping true to the original design. I'm not sure about the extra spur yet.
That brings the total number of, potential, layouts to 3; Warehouse Row on the D&RGW set in the 60s, the C&N featuring the town of Salina at the turn of the century, and the Equinox layout (likely to be renamed and it will let me give it a nice puny name).
Here it is in all its hand drawn glory. I'll do something a bit more to scale when I replenish my supply of graph paper.
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