Jim Knight’s My Dream Layout Continues
It all started when…
Fred Houska, long time modeler, started in HO Gauge, and had his layout published on Model Railroader (November 1978). He moved to a new house in 1997, an started a new layout but now in N Gauge. His objective was to run long trains, through interesting scenery, urban, country, mountains, bridges and lakes. He used narrow shelves (17 inches wide), and laid flex track on 3 levels. His new N Scale layout was published in the N Scale Magazine, in the Aug/Sep issue on 2009, under the name “My Dream Layout”. Fred, now more than 80 years old, has over the last few years been selling most of his N Scale collection. As a member of the MVNS (Mississippi Valley N Scalers), offered his layout to a fellow member family, on the condition that they take the complete layout out of his basement. The deconstruction began in February of 2019, and was moved to the basement of Jim & Crystal Knight, then rebuilt. The 24ft x 42ft point to point shelf layout was reconfigured to be a 14ft x 38ft two level layout, enlarged, and modified to enable the use of both DC & DCC trains over 4 continuous running loops, but keeping the general theme and philosophy of Fred’s original layout: running long train convoys and attractive scenery. Jim & Crystal hope to have members of their club be able to run trains and enjoy Fred’s layout, and continue his dream. 13 steps to access layout.