Layout - Wil Van Oldenmark

Layout - Wil Van Oldenmark, Southern California Chapter

Wil Van Oldenmark's AC layout is housed in a room that is 51x28 feet. The layout has seven Schattenbahnhofs totaling 60 storage tracks. Highlights of the layout include a large passenger depot and hump yard at “Lottie” as well as a small town with yard at “Weldam”. Each of these stations has an accompanying locomotive depot. In addition, there is a large yard and locomotive depot with a 15 stall roundhouse at “Olden”. The layout logic is digital using a number of relays and seven control panels custom built by Wil. Trains run on analog control. Occupancy is detected using reed switches and magnets on the last car of the train. The position of the reed switch on the track and the position of the magnet on the car determine whether the train is passenger or freight and whether the locomotive is an electric or steam/diesel. Each Schattenbahnhof is controlled by its own Marklin 6021 and keyboards and memory as is the station at Weldam and the yard and depot at Olden. The Lotte station, yard and depot are controlled by an ESU ECoS. All the yards can be isolated and operated manually. Wil uses Marklin M, K, and C track. The M track is integrated into the scenery so as to appear at grade. He uses Merkur and hand ballasting for the visible K track. Track in the Schattenbahnhof is laid on indoor/outdoor carpet. Currently, after 12 years of construction, all by Wil, the layout is 95% complete. Enjoy these photos of Wil's layout.