LAYOUT PREMISE

This layout is patterned on a branch of the Western Maryland Railway's trackage referred to as the "Lurgan Line" and although it's not an accurate reproduction, it uses many actual place names.

The Lurgan Line extended from the "Hub City" of Hagerstown north through the Cumberland Valley to a junction with the Reading Railroad called Lurgan. This together with a southern junction to the Baltimore & Ohio at Cherry Run created a route from the central states to the northeast for a significant amount of freight. In the 1950's the WM banded together with a group of smaller roads to reach Chicago, the combination had so many abbreviation letters that it became known as "The Alphabet Route" and the Western Maryland adapted the slogan "Fast Freight Line" with "Alpha Jets".

The layout's lower part has a major yard at "Hagerstown" and hidden storage tracks for the "Cherry Run" junction. At the other end of the line (upper end) is a similar arrangement with hidden storage for Lurgan and a yard at Shippensburg, much exaggrated from the actual. In the middle at Chambersburg there is a junction with the Cumberland Valley Railroad (recreated from an earlier era) which services the Letterkenny Army Depot at more storage tracks. The layout also has major sidings at Paramount and Scotland, again somewhat exaggrated from reality.