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Club member Mark Paskus’ home is full of European train memorabilia. In addition to his layout in the train room, notice the beer steins on the fireplace mantel in the back ground of the first shot above. We doubt that Mark is any longer able to burn firewood! His extensive layout completely fills the room and covers an area of 12′ x 16′. It sometimes presents a challenge when accessing distant parts, but the variety provided by all the detail makes it worth a little inconvenience. The other shots show his Marklin 60212 control station that operates his entire layout.
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The layout consists of some 750′ of track, arranged in 6 layers… quite an intricate design as you can see from the above photo. In the lower photo, notice how Mark has provided scenery to even the partially hidden layers. There are 5 blocks and 100 turn-outs placed throughout the layout. Locomotives are able to reach almost any part of the layout from any other part, although there are two circuits that are isolated and designed to run Mark’s era I collection.
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An ice skating rink and circus appear above. The skaters are continuously distracted by passenger and freight trains passing nearby and overhead, however.
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Mark’s layout is scenically broken up into a residential area, light manufacturing, water sports area, amusement park, food court, pond side camping (above) and several train yards. His growing collection includes some 30 locomotives, 50 passenger cars and 150 freight cars from all eras and parts of the world.
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A hilly roadway appears somewhat beneath a nicely detailed steel bridge span on Mark’s layout. Note the many early-era trucks that dot the cityscape.
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A nicely detailed locomotive servicing facility appears on the layout as well. It comes complete with a pit where the workers can access the underside of their locomotives. Here diesel switchers await attention.
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Although not shown, Mark’s back yard contains an extensive outdoor layout for his collection of Marklin 1-guage stock. When it’s inclement weather out-of-doors, Mark runs his collection around a loop on his enclosed porch. Here you can see a finely detailed steamer making the loop.