Tour the Pennsylvania & Western RR, Bob Bartizek’s impressive O scale (1:48, 3-rail) model railroad representing a fictional subdivision of the Pennsylvania RR in western Pennsylvania between 1949 and 1953. Though it uses 3-rail power and GarGraves Phantom-line O gauge track with a black center rail, the locomotives and rolling stock are all built to scale.
Spanning 40 x 70 feet with a 550-foot mainline run, Bob spent a year designing the layout for realistic operation, including a classification yard and passenger station based on NMRA Layout Design SIG principles. The basement room was prepared over two years with coved corners and a hand-painted backdrop. The open-grid benchwork supports a laminate roadbed of plywood and Homasote. Scenery features foam hardshell and plaster castings, creating scenes like a massive trestle at Summit and the roundhouse at Annville. The layout is controlled using Lionel Train Master Command Control and an Absolute Permissive Block (APB) signal system that utilizes the 3-rail track for easy occupancy detection. Operating sessions use RailOp generated switch lists and a sequential 44-train schedule. Bob successfully proved that a prototypically operated model railroad could be built using large-scale 3-rail equipment!
Read more about this amazing display in Great Model Railroads 2026 — now available at shop.trains.com!
