Bill Schopf's Baltimore & Lehigh RR: Layout Tour

Welcome to our first layout tour! I was invited to visit Bill Schopf's Baltimore & Lehigh RR. This is a gorgeous layout located in Bill's attic room and modeling a fictitious Anthracite coal hauling railroad in the late 1940's. Below are details on the layout, as described by Bill himself:

Baltimore and Lehigh ... a hard-scrabble small anthracite road trying desperately to survive the decline of the anthracite coal industry.
Period: Generally post World War II ... late 1940s to 1952 ... specifically mid-October 1948
Concept: Fictional, freelanced layout set in eastern Pa. anthracite country east of Pottsville, south of Wilkes Barre, north of Reading. It interchanges with the Reading RR to the south at Reading, PA, the Lehigh Valley to the north at Wilkes Barre, PA and the PRR to the west at Pottsville, PA. The Baltimore and Lehigh, LV, Reading and PRR share trackage rights. Trackage rights on the Reading RR extend to Shippensburg, PA where the Reading interchanges with the Western Maryland. The Baltimore and Lehigh and WM share trackage rights from Shippensburg to Baltimore. Thus, power from the B&O, WM, PRR, RDG and LV often appear on the layout as well as occasional power from nearby anthracite roads such as CNJ, D&H and Erie.

Layout as it now exists as has been a major work in progress for last ten years. The first structures were built in late 1970s; most of the structures now on the layout have been built in the last 5 years.

Operating sessions: Works best with 4 crews --- 2 road crews, one crew for the large Diamond yard and one for the Sinking Creek coal branch. Space limitations in the room make more than 4 crews not manageable.

Operational design: Layout was built primarily with scenery and buildings in mind as a detailed locale for trains to run through. Operations were an afterthought until about 30 months ago, but luckily the railroad was built largely as a switching layout with 2 large yards, one medium-sized stub-ended yard and two smaller stub-ended yards. Simply put, it is a large switching layout with interchanges.

A more practical, usable staging to represent Reading and Wilkes Barre is now under serious planning and planned renovation.

Many thanks to Bill for his invitation and outstanding tour and hospitality! It was a true pleasure to visit Bill's layout. I was even lucky enough to be invited back for a future operating session!

We hope to be able to bring more local NW Pennsylvania layout tours to you in the future.

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