South Jersey Garden Railway Society Member Layouts: Jim Lewis

Lewis Key Tourist Line, A Division of the Conch Republic Railroad

Main Line: ~ 122 feet

Tolley Line: ~ 44 feet

Switching Yard: 2 switch Inglenook Sidings

Era: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Theme: Whimsical

Scale: Buildings 1/24, engines and rolling stock - if it fits it is okay

Phase One

The Lewis Key Tourist Line Garden Railroad started in the fall of 2011 with a simple oval on a deck. In the spring of 2012 the first layout was built as a simple single line oval with an elevated up and over loop. At that time the theme was a tourist line in the Florida Keys. My own little piece of the Keys in NJ.

The rest of the year was spent repainting engines and four passenger cars with the colors of my imaginary tourist line - blue and yellow. Each passenger car was named for a grandchild and numbered with their birth month and day. My original plan was to construct building facades to be placed on the deck between the track and the railing. However, I ended up scrapping this idea after doing one side of the deck. The next few years were spent trying out ideas and constructing buildings.

Phase Two

In 2016 I made the decision to completely rebuild the layout with a new grand plan. My plan for that year was to build a switching yard that would allow for a simple shunting puzzle. Doing a section at a time allowed me to keep running trains during the rebuild. Over the next few years section by section was replaced and completed in the spring of 2018. During the time of reconstruction the winter months were spent constructing my buildings.

My layout does not really reflect any era. The theme is still the Florida Keys Tourist Railroad. The tourist line runs on the main line and carries freight sometimes. The main line runs behind the city. The trolley line, which runs in front of the city, is a point to point with a station stop at the The Royale Casino/Hotel. Most of the buildings and scenes have easter eggs (example; name of casino). Most of the easter eggs are Sci-Fi related. A few are personal. What do you see?