2023 Finger Lakes Railway Layout Tour

Come Along on a tour of the Finger Lakes Railway as we take a look at all of the progress made throughout the last year.

[@LamplighterScott]

Great themes behind your project!

[@KraigSickels]

Excellent tour !!! 👍👍

[@elleryparsons2433]

Very Nicely Done It will Be Awsome When done Slow but surely it will Be Good When Done.

[@robfairportlogistics]

I love the scene in Canandaigua where it crosses at the courthouse!

[@elsdp-4560]

Thank you for sharing. Very nice.👍

[@sparky107107]

that was a nice tour. the one bridge that goes over the river, I have seen from underneath, bit of a boat tour down threw the locks. and a few other things that you are modeling,

[@davidbrown4823]

Incredible layout.

[@nobill8332]

Looking good. can't wait to see it in person , nice talking with you at the club as well. Rick

[@victorrojas8798]

Very interesting layout, great description of a prototype job. Keep it up!!

[@TwoRailfans]

You are modeling an area where I grew up. I will definitely be following your build!

[@FGLKPaul]

Awesome! Glad you have you along!

[@MyFingerLakesRailwayLayout]

Paul you did a great job touring and narrating. This is gonna be great. Hey you forgot to mention Watkins Glen!

[@FGLKPaul]

Thanks Bill! I did plan to talk a little bit about "things to come" but totally forgot! Whoops!

[@clammodore2557]

The WSOR boxes are loaded in the next town over to me IRL at Seneca Foods in Payette, Idaho. We see these cars a few times a week at the shortline I work for. I have seen (and have photos) of these exact same cars (WSOR 503196 and WSOR 503194) along with several other WSOR boxes. (6:49)

[@FGLKPaul]

Very cool, those WSOR cars are pretty darn neat.

[@SD40Fan_Jason]

If you need any block detectors, I have a batch of them made and ready to go. Excellent for crossing signals, wayside signals or any other autonomous function of a model layout. Meanwhile one of MY favorite scenes to see on a layout as diverse as yours is the abandoned spur. So many of the lines I have worked on over the span of my 21 year career has had at least one track pulled out. The building may still remain and there are definitely remnants of the track or even the switch. But for all intents and purposes, the track is out of service and the engineering department has done their best to ensure no one tries to roll a car back into the track somehow. I think if I ever get to modelling a layout myself, I would do an entire branch that has been abandoned, complete with the bike trail and the unending piles of bad timber. Maybe an occasional patched crossing or creek bed bridge. But some of the details that really pleases me are to see turnouts that have been modified, or whole lengths of track that are missing the rails. Or perhaps the customer demanded that their rails remain after the railroad removed their connection, so between the customer's fence and the branch line is a section of rail-less tracks. Ties all disheveled among the ballast and vegetation. The points and frog of the switch are missing, replaced with a solid stretch of rail. But the majority of the ties are still in place for the turnout. These are details that certainly express that feature of modern railroading. Kind of like when you weather your cars and add some graffiti to it. A sign of the times for a modern railroad is the amount of graffiti. I saw some of your cars had the street art added to them. Before I retired, we had 68,000 cars come through our yard annually. Only the newest cars were without street art and they were usually begging for someone to sneak in and tag them. About 25% of the traffic in our yard were giant refrigerators so a brand new one was nothing more than a 72-foot canvas for street art. And quite often, they did some really amusing art too. Yeah, there was the poor depiction of a phallus, or some obscene lettering... But then there were cartoon characters and other artwork that was just impressive. And the colors really brightened up the otherwise dull yard. Black tanks, white refrigerators, brown boxes and gray hoppers. BORING! My only peeve to the street art is when they covered up the reporting marks because now the car was defective and could no longer interchange. I think most of the street artists were aware of this rule because they usually did an excellent job of avoiding the reporting marks. However there was one artist that would put the reporting marks back in his or her own font and sometimes incorporate it into the artwork. I'm telling you, these artists were extremely talented! One time I encountered a crew of them. It was two men and a woman, and a cart full of paints. I am pretty sure they thought I was going to arrest them or have them arrested but they were not savvy to the terrain so I quickly caught up to them. I got them to stop and talk to me for a few moments, once I explained that they were not in any trouble with me. I also told them to come back on a Saturday morning when no one was there and Bring a ladder next time so they could do the whole car! The only thing they were concerned about now was finishing what they started but my engineer was also telling me that he was ready to drag them into the yard so we could start classifying them. Yep, sorry, I gotta get to work.

[@ShawnCalay-hi6gy]

They gotta be millionaires...you ever see the price of paint lately?

[@SD40Fan_Jason]

@ShawnCalay-hi6gy yeah actually many of them have pretty good jobs, the ones that do art, not just tagging or obscene junk. If they are artistically inclined, I'd bet they also have a job doing some kind of artwork elsewhere.

[@robk1310]

I live in the Baldwinsville area. I’m familiar with the finger lakes trackage that goes by the NYS Fairgrounds, through Solvay, Camillus, Elbridge and points west.

[@calvincurtiss2490]

NICE!!! this my first look. IT will NOT be my last. even subbed

[@FGLKPaul]

Awesome! Glad to have you along!

[@calvincurtiss2490]

Yeah got to catch up I see, nice work again. I guess that's why I'm IN.@@FGLKPaul

[@ajkleipass]

Corn syrup........ it has several uses in wine making, including the fuel of the fermentation process and to sweeten certain wine types.

[@grahamparry7200]

Great work with the background photos. Your hard work really paid off. Graham from New Zealand

[@daivdwalker2374]

There's a Seneca Foods manufacturer plant here in Baraboo Wisc.

[@kenmunozatmmrrailroad6853]

'First time on your channel; spectacular work here💪🏽

[@brian102256]

Yes I've seen those. When you uploaded those to Walgreens did they give you the comment about the resolution not being good

[@FGLKPaul]

They did not

[@dfunkdband]

I see your layout is listed on the Lakeshore Division ops weekend coming up. If I have the weekend free I’ll be sure to put you on my tour request list.

[@BPSDMRR]

Well done, great update :-)

[@LieutenantJim]

I moved to Geneva from NYC a decade or so ago and live very near the yard! Glad I found this channel...!

[@BlamesmokeBuffaloNy]

Buffalo area nice layout!

[@ShawnCalay-hi6gy]

A engineer I worked with worked there! I subbed you! Interesting railway!

[@FGLKPaul]

Awesome! It's a starting point for a lot of people I hear. Thanks for the sub, glad to have you along!

[@modelrailroader5619]

Great update! That is a well thought out layout with some really good operations planned.

[@Glenn_Mead]

Coming from someone that lives in the area, this is really cool! Defenately needed to sub to see the progress. Keep up the good work!

[@FGLKPaul]

Thanks Glenn!

[@rimodeler7963]

Just discovered your channel and subscribed. Excellent layout tour and an impressive model railroad. You are obviously very familiar with the prototype operations and have done well researching and understanding the various industries. I look forward to watching the progress of your layout. Well done! Mike

[@FGLKPaul]

Thanks Mike! Glad to have you along!

[@waterloojunctionrailway]

Great Progress, enjoyed the tour!

[@MadmanMicha]

That’s me benching FGLK in Auburn yard at 4:40-4:43 😂

[@jeffpotter7656]

Im looking to join a railroad club in Geneva.

[@FGLKPaul]

Nice! Do you already have the info for one? I know there's one out there but I'm from the other side of Rochester so unfortunately I don't have much information.

[@edoconnell7070]

Great progress. Buzzin' right along. Should look considerably different come March.

[@bncsystemsshortline]

Wow man I really like how your model the prototype. Your scenery work is really good. Love how your blending it into the backdrop. Looks really good. You got me hooked. Can't wait to watch the progress. KUTGW

[@webbstrains]

Fantastic progress! Your layout looks great. Toast to a great 2024 as well

[@josephcolasacco]

Enjoyed the tour. Amazing job so far!

[@randysrockandrollrailroad8207]

Very cool 👍🤠👍

[@dundasjunctionmodelr.r-jam8267]

Great progress , I started my new layout this spring , lots of work , you have completed a lot in the last two years, fantastic job

[@brian102256]

Just found your channel and subbed! Where did you get the photo backdrops? They look amazing. Looking forward to following your progress. - Brian

[@FGLKPaul]

Thanks for subbing! Glad to have you! The photo backdrops are all drone photos of the prototype that I've taken myself and stitched together in Photoshop.

[@brian102256]

@@FGLKPaul Nice! Where did you have them printed?

[@FGLKPaul]

@@brian102256 just at the local Walgreens. You can order them online and a lot of times they even have a 50% off coupon so they only cost like 15-20 bucks for a 2ftx8ft banner!

[@ACRR46]

Very nice layout tour. Looking forward to additional updates.

[@FGLKPaul]

Thank you!

[@cattaraugustonawanda4426]

Your printed background is outstanding !!!

[@FGLKPaul]

Thanks!