Jim, a member of the Loblolly Railroad crew, has started building a home layout. He started his layout by building a 24 x 40 feet building that would house his new railroad empire. Once the building was finished, Jim had to down size his layout and the bench work measuring 20 x 24 feet began.

Jim started building his permanent bench work in 2000. Using 2 x 4's for legs and super structure, ¾" plywood for the top, Jim has built his bench work to support anything.

Jim used homosok for his roadbed, Gargrave's phantom track & switches, Gargrave's new switch motors and lots of screws. His track plan provides for a 2 train operation. With the throw of a couple of switches, he will be able to run one train on both mainlines in several different configurations that will keep train operations interesting.

Jim's passenger station will have two sidings allowing for plenty of passenger service, industry sidings and a freight car yard for storage.

Jim used an 'E' shaped bench work design with a drop in bridge connecting the top and bottom legs of the 'E'. This design gives Jim maximum use of his space, lots of trackage and nice curves to operate almost anything semi-scale and scale equipment.

Jim's curves run O-42" to O-72" and plans for a block system that will allow the operation of multiple trains on the same loop of track. Jim super elevated all of the curves on his layout. In 2003, Jim rewired his entire layout to handle the operation of the new MTH DCS system and the Lionel Command Control system.

In the bottom leg of the 'E', Jim has installed a turntable that will allow him to display up to 16 locomotives waiting to be serviced or waiting to be pressed into service. A partial round house will be built around the turntable for locomotive and car service work.

Jim's wife has been collecting Snow Village Buildings for some years and it's their plan to use these buildings for town and surrounding areas. Sounds like it will be Christmas all year round.

Jim has agreed to feature his developing layout as part of the Loblolly web site. Pictures of his 3-rail pike will be made during the construction phases and placed here for you to see. The Loblolly Crew hopes you will visit Jim's pike and see this 3-rail empire develop into one of the crown jewels of toy trains layouts in East Texas. When asked, "When are you going to have a train run?" Jim's reply was, "When I get all the wiring done, we'll talk." So Guys, start lining up your gear!