Current Layout by Bill Winans

Layout Name:

"Saint Louis Eastern and Pacific"

Layout Status:

active

Track Type:

S/Sn3

Layout Space:

20' x 20'

Layout Style:

Folded-8

Track Manufacturer:

handlaid, Tomalco flextrack, Shinohara turnouts

Rail Size:

code 100, 83, 70 (70 & 55 narrow-gauge)

Min. Turnout Frog:

#8 (main), #6 (yards, narrow-gauge)

Min. Radius:

54" (main), 36" (narrow-gauge)

Ruling Grade:

2.2% (main), 4% (narrow-gauge)

Track Height(s):

45" (main), 57" (upper), 36" (storage)

Mainline Track Length:

140' (main, double-tracked), 70' (narrow-gauge)

Completed:

benchwork: 100%; track: 100%, 95% (ng); scenery: 15%

Setting:

mid-eastern U.S.

Railroad(s) Modeled:

freelance

Control System:

Featured In:

The S Scale Resource, Apr 2017, pg 15

NASG Dispatch, Jan 2016, pg 11

Notes:

The standard-gauge line is called the Saint Louis Eastern and Pacific (SLE&P), and the narrow-gauge line is named Coal Creek Central (CCC). Visitors are welcome, with prior notification (no wheelchair access, second-floor). Bill was the western vice-president and then later the president of the NASG for a number of years.

Other Links:

A couple of photos of Bill's layout

Videos:

A long freight train being pulled by two steam engines showing off Bill's beautiful track work

Valley of the Sun S Gaugers visiting the layout

It is the summer of 1956 and the Tompkins local shifter behind engine #89 is placing cars at the Tompkins coal transfer. It is here where coal brought in by the narrow-gauge line is cleaned and sorted for loading into standard-gauge hoppers. Tompkins is a fictitious industry on Bill's free-lanced St. Louis, Eastern & Pacific Railroad (SLE&P) located in the eastern coal fields. Bill envisions the relationship between the SLE&P and the narrow-gauge Coal Creek Central (CCC) on his layout is much like the PRR and EBT. The single-gauge SLE&P track is largely Tomalco code 100 and smaller flextrack. Code 70 rail is used for the narrow-gauge Coal Creek Central. Dual-gauge track is hand-laid and is mostly code 100. There are at least 25 dual-gauge turnouts of one kind or another, all hand-laid by Bill, on the layout plus the dual-gauge symmetrical 4-rail at the turntable in Tompkins, the biggest town on the layout. Tompkins was named for Ken and Pat Tompkins who were Bill's surrogate parents while he was at Cornell. Ken had Keystone Loco Works, the local hobby shop, and later the manufacturing company of the same name which made many kinds of kits and detail parts in HO- and O-scale. The tipple complex is built from a combination of modified kits including a B.T.S. Cabin Creek Tipple, a Bachmann Coaling tower, Suydam corrugated metal structures, and RIX tanks. Many components and details were scratchbuilt. The engine is an Overland Models USRA 0-8-0 with an Omnicon 2-8-0 tender. The cars are a combination of American Models and S-Helper Service models, painted and lettered for the SLE&P, as well as a brass car. The black surface is real coal, the rest is Arizona Rock & Mineral Co material. The figures are by Arttista. This photo appeared on the inside cover of the December 2023 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman magazine in the NASG promotional ad campaign.

The south side of the layout, with the town of Coal Creek above.

This photo shows just about the entire layout.

The north side of the layout.

These two photos are a bit older than the above, but they show Bill's track work in more close-up detail.

Bill models a private railroad called the "St. Louis Eastern & Pacific", and so he letters his standard-gauge equipment for that railroad with custom decals. This is a River Raisin Models 2-6-6-6 brass model.

Here is an oil-burning 2-6-6-2 also by River Raisin Models working hard on Bill's layout.

Bill's narrow-gauge railroad is called "Coal Creek Central", so he runs equipment custom-decaled for that line as well.

Freight and passenger cars are also custom-decorated for his lines.

Bill exchanged decals with Mike Swederska for each of their respective private railroads. This photo shows Bill's model on his layout, using Mike's "Meramec Valley Lines" decals on the box car.

Bill is excited that, of all of the layouts he has built over his lifetime, this is the first one to get some real scenery. This overhead shot of the Coal Creek structures of the narrow-gauge line shows the progress he has been making.

Here are two ground-level views of the same scene.