Owner Inspiration and Techniques: Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville

Lance’s Mindheim’s Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville model railroad runs through Monroe County, Indiana in 1955. Allen Keller asks Lance why he selected that railroad to model. Since this area is where Lance grew up, he has very fond memories of home there. He also believes it is a lot easier to model an area that you are familiar with. He chose 1955 for the colorful diesels, and also allowed him to include the unusual headend equipment of the period. They started the trailer on a flat car service. The main line that he is trying to model is about 25 miles in a space of about 20 by 20 feet. This is quite a space for an N-scale layout.

When Lance started the project, he viewed it through HO blinders on because that was the scale that he had been familiar with. In reality, N scale is nearly four times the size, so to this day it still catches him off guard as he is modeling a larger layout than he thought. What some viewers don’t understand about Indiana is that the south side of the state is surprisingly quite hilly. There have been a couple influences when building his layout, especially the switch to N scale. Lance goes on to list some of his influences in the hobby. To meet other professional builders or for more Allen Keller videos, visit the Model Railroad Academy archives.