John LaBabra’s G and HO layout open house

[Jim_Rowson]

First, this is not my work. But I have to say I enjoyed looking at it while touring layouts today in Santa Cruz as part of the BAGRS open houses.

There were 3 very nice layouts open today, but the one (er, two) that stood out for me was John LaBabra’s G and HO layouts. The level of detail and realism is inspiring.

First was the outdoor large scale, set on a 6 foot tall retaining wall and backed by another retaining wall with carved cliffs. This is a smallish layout with a simple loop, but it is extremely nicely detailed as you can see from the photos here:

Even more detailed and impressive is his HO line, just inside nearby:

[Jim_Rowson]

And for those who like video instead, here’s somebody else’s video of this same HO layout:

I guess I better go back out to the garage and work harder on my layout :-), though his HO layout did take 17 years, so I have time yet…

[Gregory_Hile]

Thanks for the photos, Jim. All three of the layouts were wonderful, but as a finescale modeler myself I loved seeing John’s work bench!