Back in 1995 the madness I described in the Sep 19 blog had taken hold of me. By this time, while others were counting sheep to go to sleep, I was counting trains. Unfortunately counting trains only kept me awake causing me only to think of that next acquisition. By now, I have joined the Toy Train Operating Society, Silver State Division and built a portable 3-rail train layout for displaying at the meets. The layout was 4' (1m 21.9cm) x 8' (2m 43.8cm) with folding banquet table legs underneath. The backdrop was removable and doubled as a cover for the layout while being transported and the control panel/coffee mug shelf was also removable for easier transport. The layout featured original Marx track: 0-34 on the outside, 0-27 with black plastic roadbed on the inside. There are several hills on the layout, all of which are removable for transportation. I gave this layout a Hershey's theme using licensed Hershey's building's by K-Line. When Marx went out of business back in the late '70s, K-Line bought the majority of the tooling for the Marxville line of plastic buildings and so using K-Line is a good alternative (they also had a good many licensed products from various companies making it easy to do themed layouts). Although sveral different trains were run n the layout, the most fun was the K-Line Hershey's train which would have little hershey's chocolates in the open cars. The Hershey's vehicles came from a variety of manufacturers. This was a fun layout and My Wife & Me enjoyed it for years and I hope you enjoy it as well. Enjoy it From Me & My Beautiful Wife :)
The hill along the curve in the background has a carved head towards the left side.
The small hill between the tracks has dowels glued underneath that stick out about a 1/2". The dowels fit into holes in the layout keeping the hill from shifting around from the vibrations of the running trains.
Hershey's buildings include: the barn , factory, station, water tank, diner, and store. There's also a Hershey's billboard.
I would point to the brown cows and tell the little kids that's where chocolate milk came from. :-)
The open cars were filled with various Hershey's fun size candy.
A variety of trains were run on the layout.
