Description

by Nick Sklias 

New in Nicksville in 2002

In the year 2000, Nicksville received its lights for the parking lot, along with street lights and telephone poles. The telephone poles were strung with black thread to represent electrical wire. The module also received fencing along the back of the buildings near the tracks.

More people have been added to the town and more details added to the buildings. More cars and trucks were also added; these included two EMT ambulances, a fire truck, two police cars, and an emergency medivac helicopter with a powered rotor.

Also, you will notice a second helicopter circling above the town (the local news radio helecopter). Behind the buildings, next to the tracks, there is a back alley where hotrod cars are parked. These belong to the local hotrod club of the town and they hold their meetings in the basement of one of the buildings.

You will notice people lining along the edge of the parking lot near the tracks. They are looking at the terrible accident that occurred when a teenager thought he could go around the the gates at the railroad crossing after the train had passed, and before the the gates could go up. He never heard or saw the other train on the next track. The car was struck by the engine and was thrown across the tracks into a wooded area. His passenger was killed (body under yellow blanket) and he was severely injured, thus the medivac helicopter.

This scene, though horribly lifelike (as it looks) is being used as a teaching tool to illustrate what can happen if you don't observe the lights, bells, and other signals at R.R. crossings . THE LIVES YOU SAVE MAY BE YOURS AND YOUR PASSENGERS'.

On a more pleasant note in NICKSVILLE, 2001 brought SAFEWAY to town. The old warehouse that was on the east end of town was torn down after years of neglect an abandonment. Safeway bought the property and built a new store, which served the 1950's-60's era.

You will also notice that farm equipment sales are moving along at a good pace at Olsen's Feed and Larson's Implements, having added combines and John Deer tractors.

Nicksville has grown since 1999 and will have an additional 2x4 module extension for the CAPITOL LIMITED 2004 NSCALE COVENTION.

Since building Nicksville, I have also built Manata Gap, which is an addition to Cotton Bowen's Indiantown Gap module. The B&O 2x4 I was researching has been started but waits on the back burner for the time being. I am also building a 2x4 module engine servicing facility with an engine house, a round house, and turn table, {both by Atlas}, a fueling facility (by Bachmann), and some side tracks.

Nicksville has been to many set-ups over the last three and half years, including the Ricmond Unconvention 1999, Landmark Mall, Va. Southern Junction in Raleigh, N.C.,the MER convention in Altoona, Pa., the N Scale Collectors convention in Lancaster, Pa., the Gaithersburg train shows in Md., Fairfax Hospital for Women and Children in Va., Spotsylvania Mall in Fredricksburg Va., Damascus Library in Md., the Capitol Expo Center in Chantilly, Va. And multiple set-ups at Fairfax Station Museum. Also, not to forget the Bethesda Chevy-Chase Rescue Squad set-ups during the Taste of Bethesda Festivals, one of my favorite shows. And this year, the UnConvention Part Two 2002 in Richmond, Va.

Some further Nicksville improvements iclude 1/4 inch thick pexiglass shield to protect the scenery in front of the module. This includes an abundance of trees made from branches of azalea bushes and Woodland Scenes foliage clusters.
I hope by the time the CAPITOL LIMITED 2004 comes I will have four modules to set-up and show.

Original Description (from way back in 1999) by Nick...

This is my first NTRAK module and I hope to build several more in the near future. I built the basic module itself over a year ago, but really didn’t have a theme in mind for the scenery. So it sat for that year as a plain 2’x4’ module with track on it. It was built to NTRAK specifications, including the wiring. I use it at home with a 2’x2’ transition module on my regular layout which consists of four other 2’x4’ modules, but these are not built to NTRAK specs.

I joined NVNTRAK this past February after attending the January Great Scale Show in Timonium. I have observed the NTRAK layouts at these shows over the past several years and was impressed with what I saw. That’s when I decided that I better get busy and think of something to put on the module.

I had several Design Preservation buildings that I had put together over the past two years just sitting around, so I started experimenting with them. Eventually Nicksville emerged from the process. Nicksville is a town in the mid-sixties to mid-seventies. It’s not any specific town, of course, but is typical of any town in Western Maryland or along the Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. The Metropolitan Branch covers the territory between Washington, DC and Point of Rocks, MD.

I kept arranging and re-arranging the buildings until I was satisfied with the setup. The Shell service station is a ready-made Bachmann model that I reworked. The Shell tanker truck is a Wyking model. The Bud trailers and ConCor and the tractors are by Atlas. The automobiles come from various manufacturers.

The farm implement scene is from the DPM Gold Olsen’s Feed and Larsen’s Implements kit. It turned out to be just the right thing to fill out the space on the outskirts of town. It took me about two weeks to finish the scenery and I got done just in time to have the model debut at the Gaithersburg setup in March.

I still would like to add some “final touches” to the module. High on my list are lights for the parking lot, lights on the telephone poles, and some fencing at various places in the scene.

So far I have brought the module to the Gaithersburg show and two Fairfax Station setups. But Nicksville is just a beginning.

Right now I’m researching the B&O’s Silver Spring station on Georgia Avenue in Montgomery County, MD. It will probably be my next project on two 2’x3’ modules.