Peter Noto, (RM 48880) shared his love for Lionel Trains starting back in 1949 upon receiving a Lionel Scout Train set #1115. Peter started collecting Toy Trains and memorabilia in earnest in 1988. He quickly secured rights in his home to display but quickly ran out of right-of-way and sought more. His home had an attic, a small sloping 3rd floor roof room accessible only by a ladder into a scuttle hole in the 2nd floor ceiling. By removing the attic windows, he brought in all needed to convert this unused and unfinished room into a space into his railroad empire. He never did update the attic access and to this day, must open a scuttle hole, pull down a ladder and club to his railroad.
The railroad he built, while silent and hidden in an attic sanctum, is large, exquisite and filled the entire space – not just the tabletop, but the entire volume of the room. The layout itself is a massive 24 x 40 using over 600 feet of track. It has 5 main lines with 2 of these elevated. In addition to many postwar accessories, around the layout there are several types of villages and buildings, not only Lionel, but a fair share of Dept. 56 and Pasticville. These are built into dioramas around the layout.
Peter shared that while proud of his layout, very few have seen it. Peter says it all smiling ‘One Mile away from the real Steamtown I have my own secret Lionel layout where memories of a golden age of Lionel and the USA are alive and well today!’
Hope you enjoyed that video and if you did please take a moment to like and subscribe to the Lionel Collectors YouTube Channel LionelCollectors - YouTube.
Check out this video of member Mike McLintock's beautiful home layout. Mike’s layout is in two sections. One is 8 by 10 the other is 8 by 13. Mike had to place the layout in such a position to accommodate a pull-down stairwell from the ceiling so he could get access to his air conditioning unit up in the attic. in his part of Texas, they did not have basements. The layout has three loops of track and two trolley lines he can run four trains at once. Mike uses Gargrave track, 11 switches in the layout and the minimum curve is 070.
Mike has been in the toy train holiday since the 1950s. He started when he was 8 years old. His father was a toy buyer for department stores so I’m sure that helped with his interest in toy trains. He's partial to F-units but also enjoys steam engines.Check out the beautiful scenery as you're viewing this layout. There are a lot of interesting details throughout.
By the way if Mike’s name seems familiar to you that's because he's the editor of The Lion Roars, our club’s magazine. Thanks, Mike, for sharing your layout. Hope you enjoyed that video and if you did please take a moment to like and subscribe to the Lionel Collectors YouTube Channel LionelCollectors - YouTube.
