DOWN TOWN SPUR

Welcome to the Down Town Spur, a HO scale layout which is heavily based on locations around Allapattah, Brownsville & Gladeview, suburbs of Miami not too far from Miami’s International Airport.

Although not an exact copy of the short line railroad known as the ‘Down Town Spur’, it is a proto-freestyle layout that shares prototypical traits of the real world.

American modeller and model railroad author Lance Mindheim was a huge influence on my chosen region of modelling.

The layout has been built as a modular design, which means it can be set up in two different configurations. What you see here is the larger of the two designs.

The sidings and buildings on the layout are 'selectively compressed' versions of the prototype buildings found around Miami. These are all scratch built from heavy card stock and styrene. The industries and scenery portray the gritty rail side landscape from 2000 to 2015 and the locomotives and rolling stock can be seen plying the rails today. CSX and FEC are the two main carriers of freight.

Google maps was used to set out and track plan, buildings and scenery, which made the modelling far easier to accomplish.

After all, if it worked in the real world, it’ll work as a model. Please feel free to get up close to the layout, take photos and if you have any questions, please ask, I'll be happy to answer !

You can read more about the layout at platform1mrc.com or visit my YouTube channel, Gaz3801.

Enjoy the exhibition.

Operated by Gary Ruming