The final HO gauge railroad I designed for myself came the closest to being built, and sadly that isn't saying much.
I consistently scaled back my idea HO layouts. As we made frequent moves at the time there was no point in designing a large layout, though I did. Once it started to become obvious that until we had a firm housing situation dreams of having my own Gorre & Daphetid (let alone Malcolm Furlowe's San Juan Central), my layout designs began to shrink, as did their associated scenery.
No mountains, no canyons, no sweeping vistas.
It was going to have to be simple.
In 1989, I designed a simple 4' x 6' layout with hopes that, wherever we ended up, I'd finally be able to build it. I chose Florida as the theme, as I had recently studied up on the Florida East Coast Railroad.
My line was to be a predecessor to an abandoned line that ran through my home town.
This railroad was the Jacksonville, Mayport, and Pablo Beach. It was a three foot narrow gauge that ran from close to downtown Jacksonville (or the city limits at that time) to Mayport village.
It was a financial disaster.
The railroad lacked proper grades, and the tracks followed the shape of the land. Even though Florida, and Duval County, are relatively flat, the landscape is shaped by ancient sand dunes, so there is a slight undulation. The locomotives that the J,M&PB used were lightweight and lacked the traction necessary (the railroad was derided as the "Jump, Men, & Push"). Main traffic was primarily passenger, apparently, and there just wasn't enough people riding.
It was soon abandoned and scrapped, though there are still vestiges of it in the layout of some of the streets through Arlington, and along the Wonderwood Expressway that runs from East Arlington to Mayport, which follows almost exactly the old right of way.
My line was going to be standard gauge and would connect with the Pablo Beach Branch of the Florida East Coast at Mayport. In this way, there would be a literal loop of railroads from Jacksonville to the Beaches.
My railroad, the Arlington, Mayport, and Pablo Beach, would use second hand FEC and Atlantic Coast Line locomotives, and would be a mix of passenger and freight.
That was the backstory.
My layout, though, was going to be small, and even though I longed to have a fleet of engines that simply wasn't practical. At best, the layout would have two, maybe three.
The section of the A,M&PB I was going to represent was the Cosmo Division, south and west of the Ft. Caroline area of Duval County, in an area known as Cosmo. The nearest large town would be the fishing village of Fulton, now buried under middle class neighborhoods. To the east, heading towards Mayport, there was Idlewild, also long gone. My layout would be a simple loop, though. It would just be enough to run a train.
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| A recreation of the A,M&PB track plan |
I did allow for possible expansion, though. Two spurs were added, not so much for where they would exactly be, but to remind me that this was just to be a tiny seed from which the railroad could grow.
Over the next few months I worked out how much it would costs, and began making plans for building it. Since it was small and simple, moving it wouldn't be a challenge.
By spring of 1991, however, it was clear it wasn't going to happen. We were never going to have the space.
I switched to garden railroads and stuck the track plan in my copy of "Model Railroading With John Allen". I gave my remaining HO away and moved on. There would be track plans for others, but for me, it simply wasn't in the cards.
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