Gallery
Scroll down the photos on the left to see additional photos.
Gallery: Layout - George Nelson
A Lionel Union Pacific GP-30 approaches a crossing on George's Cotton Belt & Gulf Railroad. The crossing gates are protected by infrared detectors by Z-Stuff for Trains. The billboard at the left background says SWARM, the Mobile-area (AL) multi-gauge train club of which George is a member (South West Alabama Railroad Modelers) in addition to LCCA. [Photo by George Nelson]
Cotton Belt motive power on George Nelson's (RM 13073) Cotton Belt & Gulf Railroad line up for a beauty shot (L to R): Atlas O DASH 8-40B, Atlas O RSD-4/5 in the center, and finally a GP-7 on the right. The GP-7 is painted to match the only GP-7 owned by the Cotton Belt - used in passenger service through his hometown of Benton, Louisiana, in the early 1950s. [Photo by George Nelson]
One of the joys of model railroading is sharing it with others. George runs trains on his home layout for Wes Cochran, the great-grandson of a church member. Note the three-track spur yard and the backdrop made from photos of International Paper's Mobile mill before it was dismantled a few years ago. Some of his collection of prewar and postwar trains is displayed on shelves above the layout. [Photo by Alegra Cochran]
George recently added this new farm scene to his O-gauge home layout. Since taking this photo, he has added a woman milking a cow and a John Deere tractor to the scene. The industry to the right is the International Paper Mill in Mobile. He used photos of the mill taken before it was abandoned and torn down, printed them to the needed size, and pasted them to foam board as a backdrop. The small trains in the upper left area of the layout are N-scale. Because they are about 1/4 the size of the O-gauge trains, the placement creates "forced perspective" and adds depth to the layout.