Yesterday, I once again had the opportunity to attend a model railroad operating session (or as my friend Vet likes to call it, “Transportation Simulation”) at Bob Davis’ home, on his INCREDIBLE HO Scale Pennsylvania Railroad layout. The opportunity to run trains on his world-class layout is something I really appreciate, and something I have dreamed of doing since I was about 12 years old, when I would intently study the Model Railroader magazines my great uncle had given me repeatedly until the covers were falling off.

It’s difficult to capture the size and beauty of his layout in photos or video. However, this video follows a coal train around the entire layout, starting as it descends from the branch line that is above his staging tracks, picks up a string of coal hopper cars from the coal branch, winds its way through the mountains and over a switchback that takes the train 2 loops to ascend/descend, and finally through town and into the yard.

There are a couple of shots I’m not happy with, and I while I took a handheld camera stabilizer with me, I forgot the quick-connect plate to actually mount the camera on it – so I shot this all handheld, sometimes walking backward at the same time. Excuses aside, I’m pretty happy with it and hope you enjoy it.

A special thanks to Bob for opening his home and his layout to us.