Pete Bialecki

Buckingham Central Railroad

Layout Visit January 15, 2010

When ILSR member Ron Loudermilk heads south for the winter, he may leave his G Scale layout behind but he certainly doesn't abandon model railroading, he just moves up to really LARGE scale at Pete Bialecki's Buckingham Central layout. The BCRR is a 7.5 inch gauge, 1:8 scale railroad built on several acres in North Fort Myers, Florida. The two pictures below are from the BCRR web site, the first showing Pete with steam up on a fantastic 4-8-2 Mohawk that he scratch built:

While the webmaster (David Palmeter) was in the Fort Myers area, Ron very generously got me an invitation to visit the BCRR. The pictures below are the ones I shot during that January 15, 2010 visit. The first four are from the tour of the shops and layout.

Above - Ron posing with Chris Colby's Boston and Maine 4-8-2 Mountain

Above - The B&M 4-8-2 engine "office"

Above - Another look at the fantastic Mohawk

Above - A working coaling tower and water tower

After the walking tour, the host was kind enough to pull out a gas powered RS-3 "diesel" and a complete train. Then a highly qualified engineer was found and a ride around the entire line ensued. The layout consists of a series of folded loops, so a complete tour includes all the mainline and makes quite an extensive and enjoyable ride.

And finally, why is Ron lying around in the Florida sun? Actually, he and some other volunteers build structures for the BCRR in their spare time. The one below is a combination passenger and freight station and switch tower. A structure this complicated is quite a sight to behold in 1:8 scale. Ron is attaching the freight section to the passenger side in the photo below.