Expo 2013 Layout Tour No. 4

Vic Roman's NYC Hudson Division

Vic's layout was open for this years Model Railroad Expo. For Don and I it was just too far for us to take in during the Sunday layout tour. Don Janes contacted Vic and asked if we could stop by earlier in the week. On Tuesday evening we stopped in for a nice tour of the Hudson Division. I should note that this layout was featured in the March 2012 issue of Model Railroader. Vic was a great host explaining many of the features included on the layout. Things like the engine water scoop is modeled well including all the features found on such an operation of the NYC. Vic has built many impressive structures. My favourite is the Albany, NY station. I seem to learn something at each layout I visit. Two mental notes I came away with are as follows. Vic starts painting his structures black first, then works back to the finished colouring. Buildings such as the  stone and concrete station and also the coal docks look really great done this way. Don mentioned this is a technique theater set crews use. Don works on theater sets in Sarnia on a regular basis. The second note is when one does not have room for a building one wishes to add...just build a small ledge out from the layout to house it. Vic's example works really well....I hope the photos I took gives you a good feel of what the Hudson Division is all about...George Dutka

Don and Vic discuss the city scene which is very impressive.

One of the many large structures in the Albany area.

An overall view of the area just right of the station.

This is a really great version of the Albany station.

The platform is very well done including lighting. In fact almost every scene has lighting included.

I added this photo of Vic's NYC baggage car as I really liked the looks of the weathering of this car. When asked, Vic noted that by mistake he added way to much weathering so he decided to just wiped it off. Well the after effect from cleaning up his mistake is really nice.

A close up look at the Albany platform. Note the station colouring. It began as a black structure with lighter colours added.

Vic had this larger structure that was to be included in this scene. Since it turned out that not enough room was available, he built a shelf that is supported by an underside brace.

The water pans that are used to scoop up water into the engines tenders has been modelled really well.

For the water pick up a pumping and heating station is required. Vic also included this feature on his layout.