My layout is based on Iain Rice’s “Port Loleta & Mad River RR” plan (from a Model Railroader supplemental booklet entitled “8 Great Track Plans for Small Spaces”), adapted to model somewhere on the New England coast waterfront in the late 1920s. The yet to be named railroad (probably be a somethingorother Railway & Navigation Co) is a freelanced line powered mostly by geared steam locomotives, but the president and gandy dancer has dreams of a bit of traction… (there is a GE steeplecab kit waiting to be built)

Prototype inspiration is varied, stemming from the Boston & Maine railroad in the vicinity of Boston and Cape Ann, MA,  Boston’s Union Freight Railroad, Mystic Seaport Museum’s recreated seafaring village in Mystic, CT, and New York harbor’s tugboats, carfloats, barges, and other rail-marine operations.

As of this writing (Feb. 2012), the main project is a wharf along the front edge of the layout, to carry track through a transfer bridge to a car float barge, which will provide staging and interchange tracks.

Structures will be mostly from craftsman kits, and boats (a tug or two, a schooner, a steam passenger ferry, a barge or two, etc) will eventually populate the harbor.