The Los Angeles Railroad Society was commissioned to create a 4’ x 8’ working model railroad layout for use in an episode featuring the fictional Albany Train Museum. The deadline was very tight, with a little over two weeks to build a layout from scratch.

1. The first step was to create a track layout within the space. For the base, we repurposed an existing piece of plywood from a former layout.


2. Lloyd Lehrer volunteered his garage for this project. The plywood was cut into four sections so it could be more easily moved. A 1” x 3” support structure was added to the bottom side. The boards were painted.


3. Terrain was added with construction foam, and some “grass” areas applied. We used buildings from our club inventory and began to rough them in as shown.


4. Lloyd Lehrer and Marv White add schrubbery to the layout. Tim Stein- meier painted the road surface, masked off the lane dividers and painted them white.


5. Bushes and trees were installed. Vehicles added to complete the scene, and the layout was finished.


6. The shoot took place in one of the car barns at Travel Town, a railroad museum in the Los Angeles area. We delivered the layout to the set very early on the day of the shoot. It was set up and tested. Here is Marv White, Tim Steinmeier, and Lloyd Lehrer, after getting it ready. The televi- sion crew added a black board around the edge of the layout. We were not allowed to take photos during the shoot.


7. The staging area for equipment was just outside of the car barn where the shoot took place. Tim Steinmeier takes a break after a long morning on the set.