An HO scale model train layout depicts Horseshoe Curve in the 1950s

More views of the HO scale Brunswick & Tuscan layout

Published: Monday, October 28, 2002

(Photos by Lou Sassi)

Check out these views of Mike Shanahan's HO scale Brunswick & Tuscan, a scenic Pennsylvania RR layout set near Horseshoe Curve in the 1950s, featured in the December issue of Model Railroader magazine.

The Pennsylvania RR kept its steam locomotives busy with a variety of tasks. Here we see an 0-8-0 C1 switcher with veteran hogger Tom Lee in the cab spotting a refrigerator car at Van Deusen Creams, and a USRA 2-8-8-2 doing the familiar task of moving an endless string of hoppers out of the coal fields of West Virginia and western Pennsylvania.

With the hustle and bustle of big-city life on North Street in Brunswick, Pennsy K4s barely get noticed as it leads its train through town. But the days for this locomotive are numbered as diesel locomotives begin to fill the Pennsy's roster.

A charter bus from upstate New York stops at the crossing as a T1 class Duplex pulls out of the station at Tuscan. The transition era is clearly evident as a pair of Pennsylvania diesels lead a train in the background.

Pete and his son, Repete, with the fish, are enjoying a fine summer day at the Panther Lake Outlet as no. 6200, as S2 turbine with smoke deflectors, thunders over the bridge. A string of hoppers, destined for the Great Lakes, rumble across the truss bridge with an N6a bringing up the rear.

Horseshoe Curve's steep grades have challenged locomotives for decades. Here we see a pair of M1a's are battling gravity to get up the east slope around Horseshoe Curve, while a T1 Duplex drifts down grade with the all-Pullman Broadway Limited.