Jack "Hot Water" Wheelihan's Layout

Jack "Hot Water" Wheelihan was the regular fireman on Southern Pacific Daylight No. 4449 for many years. He also built an amazing O gauge layout, the Central Connecting Railroad.
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simplecirc.com...

[@brianginn6354]

Jack is a fantastic story teller. Always love interacting with him on the forum but listening to him tell stories is an absolute treat.

[@20thcentlimited]

Thank you, finally a face and voice to put with "Hot Water's" posts on OGR forum.

[@brianginn6354]

He has a great interview with Notch 6 from several years back. Google it as it's a fascinating story of his life and the railroads.

[@isellu]

Great story and layout! I enjoyed Jack's backstory and seeing two friends relaxing and visiting. The trains are the stars on this layout with spartan, but nice, scenery and beautifully weathered locos and cars. Rich's typical pacing shots and creative videography are unmatched.

[@trainchef7870]

So envious of your talent and time you had to create such magic!!

[@Prewarpostwaramdmore]

Fantastic! Love Hotwater on the forum. Great video!

[@caseyvillemodelrailroad3877]

Great vidio, like the layout and the story's.Thanks for the morning coffee....

[@jimmelchin1531]

A knowledgeable video through fantastic filming. Thank You 👍

[@luvindemtrains]

Really enjoyed this!

[@ToddWerner-vp3vc]

Wonderful layout!

[@OGRYouTube]

Thank you so much!

[@billmashinter]

Great video. Thank you.

[@OGRYouTube]

Glad you liked it!

[@Mr.Rogers143]

Fantastic video! The way these videos are shot, and the classic sound of the narrator's voice makes me feel like I'm a kid again watching old model railroading VHS tapes. Jack mentioned that Mike's Train House asked him to take pictures of the Daylight so that they could use them as reference to make their model. Do model train manufacturers tend to make their models based off of pictures if they can't get their hands on construction drawings of the engines? I have some projects of my own that I'm working on that involve steam locos from the US, UK, Germany, and Switzerland, and finding drawings of steam locomotives has been next to impossible. I have been lucky to find line drawings from different angles, but they rarely have things like dimensions or cross sections.

[@OGRYouTube]

@@Mr.Rogers143 Model train manufacturers often use photos for reference when making new models. One thing Jack did not mention in his interview was that in each of the photos he took, a yard stick, rule, or other reference measurement device was also in the picture. This gave MTH a series of reference points and dimensions to use to get the basic design of the model correct. I did the same thing for MTH years ago shooting images of an SD40-2 for them. Rich Melvin

[@timstandish2025]

any track plans