Amazing artworks, Creativity of Skip's layout is the Arcadia and Betsie River RR

Album photos Collection N#291

Skip's layout is the Arcadia and Betsie River RR.

Skip's layout you are greeted by this dramatic gorge scene.

Going around the gorge is the second aisle.

After crossing the upper trestle, some looping occurs - and the train appears on the bottom trestle.

And as all layout visits have to end, I leave you with the Shay's train circling over the gorge.

And directly above, a small log loading crane in what I believe is Hill Camp.

And here is Skip holding the fully lit roof.

And the top deck logging site.

And then my ADHD kicked in and I got distracted by a backwoods engine house.

And then the end of the layout in two photos (bottom deck lumber mill).

Back to the Heisler.

Heisler geared locomotive pulls a manifest freight.

Here is another view of the lumber mill at the end of the line in Arcadia.

Here is one of Skip's job cards, that also shows a nice schematic diagram of the layout.

Here is the engine house with it's roof removed.

Here we have the Shay-led skeleton log car train that Skip was setting up going through the trestles we saw earlier.

I pretty much followed this train around the layout for awhile.

Let's take a closer look below that bridge - fishing, anyone.

Logging community, with all the buildings capable of being moved to a new location as needed.

Nearby is this very detailed car shop.

On the bottom deck in the corner opposite the gorge is this log dump for the lumber mill at the end of the tracks (see the fifth photo above).

Skip does lovely bridges and trestles - this pair is in the back of the first aisle.

So lets start looking at some of the close-ups of this highly detailed layout - a spar tree rig with two donkey engines.

The Heisler passes a log loading facility with a spar tree crane.

The other side is a detailed lumber mill.

The other side.

The whole train nearly fits on the trestle, BTW.

Then we've got Skip working on the area directly to the right and behind me in the above photo while Les Halmos takes pictures with his iPad.

There is quite a lumber mill and sales complex here.

This town is on the bottom level of the second aisle, along the outside wall, IIRC. It gives a nice view of Skip's scenery base techniques.

To the left is the first aisle.