After the layout fire ... | May 2026 WHATS NEAT

On the May 2026 What's Neat. >> A fire started on the layout right at the new diorama in the Tinsley module. And so all of those modules are now gone. This is what I was left with as a mess. Uh there was nothing salvageable down here. None of the trees, none of the scenery, the ceiling tiles, the carpet, all the models and the shelves. Um in fact, everything at this point as you can see. And so I've got a lot of plans down here and we're going to talk about that. >> [music] [music] >> The What's Neat show is sponsored by Lombard Hobbies, [music] your value hobby shop for over 40 years of modelers helping modelers. Big inventory, value pricing, fast shipping, and great service. And by Broadway Limited Imports, [music] the cutting-edge leader in model trains. Check out their website at broadway-limited.com. And by Bachmann Trains. [music] Now, that's the way to run a railroad. Check out their website at bachmanntrains.com. And thank you [music] for helping us support the best hobby in the world. >> This is What's Neat for May 2026. I'm your host Ken Patterson and this month we've got a very unusual show in that we're not going to build anything this month, but we're going to talk a lot about layout design. So many layouts that I've seen designed were either based on road names or scenery, topography, operation operation a big one in designing a layout. But I've never used any of these ways to design a layout with the Midwest Valley Modeler's layout. I've always [music] been a rail fan. And with that modular club the scenes every module was set up to be its own run by where you can stand there and rail fan. And my present layout that I'm about to take down now [music] was also designed with the same rail fan aspect in mind whereas I was always the rail fan on my layout and I modeled [music] so many various scenes where I lived and around where I lived that I liked [music] that were actually modeled off of satellite photography and all the scenes were measured exactly [music] that what I ended up with was a beautiful layout that had all of these one to one size scenes so to speak [music] all over the room. So the bluff was this great big scene with a switch yard underneath it. And the Merrimack River scene that was so beautiful you that was a large 4-ft duck under. In this massive layout it was just dysfunctional scenes although each one was a beautiful run by effect. And I eventually streamlined it down by taking away the bluff and the Merrimack River and just having it go around the outside walls giving me still that wonderful run by effect layout around the room and then giving me then more room in the room for people. With the Pondcast production which was then a new thing at the time. But the next layout that I'm going to build is going to be different. Now as you recall ending in the April What's Neat we finished that beautiful scene that I built across the 12-ft window of my studio which really came out nice. It was a very functional diorama. But as you look over my shoulder here, you're going to see that that is no longer there. And I'm going to talk about that in the second segment of this video. But what I do want to talk about is the layout design. I am going to build an entirely new layout down here and create a lot of material for the What's Neat Show. But my layout is going to be designed initially on the ergonomics of how I use it. In other words, the flow of the room, the way it feels when I work around the layout, the viewing angles and what have you. So I'm going to completely change the design of the layout of that, and then I'll go further and decide the type [music] of scenes that I'll then be able to fit into my permitted real estate that I'm going to have based on again the size and flow of the way things are around [music] here. More into that on the third segment of this video. I do want to say thank you very much to Lombard Hobbies, Bachmann Industries, [music] and Broadway Limited Imports for helping create this product [music] the What's Neat Show What's Neat This Week for the best hobby in the world, and also of course Joe Fugate at Model Railroader Hobbyist Magazine [music] for giving us this wonderful platform in which we can show everybody out there >> [music] >> how we build things here. Now, as you can see this complete rebuild is going on, even the train shelves are behind me. I anticipate it's going to take some time, but the studio itself is going to be redesigned for how we use it for the podcast and how we shoot videos down here. That's going to be neat. Now at the end of the show, I want to talk about the fact that I'm coming up on to a 30th anniversary for shooting photos for Bachmann Industries. It's kind of neat, and I really want to go over and talk about a lot of the photos that I've shot in the past, and then at the end of that segment, we've got a very special surprise, a gift from Bachmann Industries to the What's Neat viewers. So look forward to that. So with that, be sure to check out the What's Neat This Week video podcast we shoot down here every Saturday night. Well, we've been improvising to keep you updated on what's new in this, the best hobby in the world. So, let's continue on with the rest of May 2026. What's new? In the last 4 months of What's Neat videos ending in April [music] 2026, we worked on a section across the window, a 12-ft long diorama that was in reality one of the most functional diorama's that I've ever built. Since that time, on December 13th, 2025, we shot a show down here. But, upon shooting that show, uh a fire started on the layout right at the new diorama and the Kingsland module. And so, all of those modules are now gone. I do have a photograph here of the two modules in place uh burnt. And for any further information on that fire, you can check out everything at the What's Neat uh podcast uh YouTube channel that we have. Uh Ken's Art at gmail55, I believe it is. Um just type in Ken Patterson fire, you'll find it. Um all of that is was covered because I had put cameras down here previously about 10 days before the event. So, everything was documented, and that's pretty much enough about that. The fact is, what I was left with is a mess. Uh there was nothing salvageable down here. None of the trees, none of the scenery, the ceiling tiles, the carpet, all the models on the shelves. Um in fact, everything at this point as you can see. And so I've got a lot of plans down here and we're going to talk about that later in the video, but what I want to do is now talk about the modules that were here. Let's start with the Kims Wick module that had burned. It was a beautiful module that I had built of a bridge about 7 mi south of where I lived and it was just I thought it was neat because it had girders in it, it had concrete bridge uh parts in it. It was just a beautiful structure. Previously, three truss bridges ran across this around the turn of the century. And so I built this scene, it looked dynamite. Uh I also showed a lift-out uh section here at the doorway. I did extensively a video on that and in fact, I've taken some notes here and I want to go over that with you. Some of these videos are really great because this is material that we shot uh for the What's Neat show through the years. And so I want to start with that lift-out section that I talked about. I covered that in the October 2014 What's Neat video. And it was a really neat lift-out section. It connected with door hinges and it was relatively bulletproof. It just worked and it had scenery on top. Now also in that same video >> [music] >> October 2014, I did an exposé on this bridge section. >> [music] >> Now this bridge section started out as simply a module I was building when Bob Hunman had come out with this book called Dixie Land. And in that book, which I've got a copy of right here, there was this one photograph that I thought was dynamite. Let me put that on the screen so you can see it clearly. And it simply was a Look like 485-ft girders to me and a bunch of cut wood uh piers. I would cut them out of wood and just create this scene and shoot it outside. And that that was my intention was to do an article uh Bob Hunman for the magazine. So, I built this scene and at the time it was further out here. It was straight. It didn't have a curve in it. And upon looking at the diorama more and more, I actually put it here in place and put it on some saw horses. And it looked absolutely dynamite. Later on, I put a BLMA bridge on there and I did some ad shots for Craig Martin at BLMA. And also, I had put on a plastic bridge from a Central Valley that fit perfect because anything 200-ft fits across that. And it never has been glued down. It's always been removable so I could take it outside because I did do a lot of outdoor photo shoots in it. And you will see that in the video if you watch that October uh 2014 What's Neat. Now, move up to December 2015. And that's where we started uh to build the waterfront video. That video was broken up into two parts, part one and part two, November and December 2015. And this is a B uh BTS hide pulp mill kit. And I actually built it reverse, built the wharf part. And in these videos, you'll see uh for example, how I lit this uh this this whole beautiful scene. In March of 2017, I did this video on how to how I lit the wharf using the brand new uh Woodland Scenics Just Plug Lighting System. And it was a really in-depth video. We even went as far as checking out all the electronics and the lights on voltage testers. We went through the gamut on this video, very detailed [music] video of the March uh '217 What's Neat. Now, as we move along further along this diorama, I'm referring back to the November '15 and December 2015 waterfront part one and part two, we showed how we built this entire module right here, all of it. The grade going downhill, I added narrow gauge. I showed how I put in the electronics. I showed how the for the very first time I used a red laser to cut the grade to make sure it was an even smooth transition throughout. And so in that video, all the little tips and tricks. In the next module coming up, this was a module that connected here to the corner and then it ran into another scene here, which is now gone. It's just pink foam at the moment. And that was my video September 2016 What's Neat on How to Make Roads. And that's where we used the patching cement uh material from DAP. And in that video, it's not just about the roads. We covered a lot of the scenery technique, the fake fur, the dirt, um how to paint the lines on the road, how to show patching on the road, how to build the road across this beautiful railroad crossing here. Um so many videos and so many great uh how-tos were made using these various sections of layout. Now, in order to finish rebuilding this studio down here, my plan is to completely eliminate this section of layout. But I wanted to make this video first before I did so just because it's one last chance to see all of the neat information that can come from building something that's actually quite honestly simple. It's just a lot of foam stacked up. And that's another thing that I want to touch on here briefly. You know, look at look at all the modules that are down here. Here's Lightner Trestle. That module's got uh seven layers of foam in it right there. If you look at this module right across, there's there's three complete layers of foam. I've got a gap in there. But the one thing I learned from the fire was it's this foam that when it when it burns, it gives off a really black, oily, [music] destructive smoke. It got into the kitchen cabinets, every dish in the cabinets upstairs, everything in the kitchen. Here's another example. While I've got you going here, look at this. These are all the models that I've worked with over the years with the various manufacturers, all laid out on one table. This is pretty much everything in my collection. But, look at the F units. And look at that F unit, you can still see the stringy, plasticky spider webs from the black foam. These engines were on the top shelf in the studio. And so, all these models need to be cleaned with a paintbrush, some of them with Dawn. Um that's a whole 'nother process. But, currently, I want to take all of these modules now that we've just talked about. I'm going to put them out in the backyard. I'm going to save the Hyde Pulp Mill set of structures because that section just lifts right out. When you watch the video, you'll see how that was designed. The BLMA bridge is obviously salvageable. And I'm just going to take these sections out. Now, another part of the layout, as you see down in the corner, and I want to talk about this in the next segment of video that I'm going to do. Those two modules, there was a corner module with the highway M bridge on it, and there was another module with a BLMA brass bridge and a Central Valley 150-ft bridge fit on that same scene. You know, those scenes have been with me forever. And I recently used the corner diorama to shoot this Bachmann uh New York Central steam locomotive. Just coming through the dioramas. While the dioramas aren't here now, they are under my back porch because I'm going to save them for future photo shoots. Parts of this layout, they were all designed to be taken outside and do photography. And that's how I made my living for many years in this industry. But, with AI and the fact that everybody's got a cell phone, there's other ways to try to hack out a living, and that's what we're doing by creating video now and making these What's Neat segments. So, I'm looking forward now in the next segment of What's Neat to describe to you my plans of what I have for this [music] new studio. We're going to build something absolutely beautiful and functional throughout. And in the next segment of video, I want to talk about that next. So, now we're to the part of the video where I want to talk about starting over. With over 50 years of model railroad experience, 400-plus articles in the model press, 150 covers, thousands of ads, I've read every article in every magazine, I've got all the books down here. With all of that experience, I just kind of think the answer is or the question would be, what am I going to build now? Now, I'm standing in the kitchen area where the washer and dryer is located. And you saw me build this section all the way across this beautiful stained wood right over the sink area. This whole place obviously is a mess now due to the construction down here. And we built this area, this foam section with all the beautiful track on it and a train station against the wall here. >> [music] >> In fact, we ran that beautiful Big Boy locomotive across it from Broadway Limited for the very first time on this section. So, through the What's Neat videos of 2025, we built all of this. Well, now I want to change it. I've taken out the bridge and the corner module. And like I said in the previous segment, I stored them in the back under the back porch. But look at all these buildings that I've been using for years and years for various props and various situations. And here you also see the original benchwork still in place against the wall. Simply laid across metal studs that are covered up with plywood. >> [music] >> And that's whereby the layers of foam set on top making this section so beautiful with all the trees. Well, now I want to build a city here. How dramatic would that be all lit up, all beautiful? And I want to bring it further into the room. So, I've taken one of my photographic carts and I put it in place here to sort of represent what I'm thinking. [music] I'd like to have a 2-ft walkway back there. So, I've got access to both sides and then I can put either a mirrors or flat panel buildings on the wall that would then light up giving a second dimension of layered scenery just like we do when we're outside doing the various photo shoots I've shown you in the past. Then I would have a section coming about where this diorama is right up the middle here. Walkway behind [music] it. And this diorama is about 24 in wide. I think I'd like to have the city area to be more like maybe 38 in wide in this area. That'll give me room for a double track main line. That's what I'm going to run around this entire layout. It's always been single track. Now, we're going to [music] make it double. And run double track right through the middle of what will be a city. On the front will be lower buildings, on the back will be two levels of larger higher structures. >> [music] >> And when it's all lit up with street lights and cars and activity, it'll fantastic and still have access to both sides being pulled further a little bit into the room here. The area over the window where we've spent so much time building something. [music] I'm not sure what I'm going to build yet here, but I know I'm going to bring it further into the room and away from the window so I have more clearance for the window treatments. Kimswick, I don't see me [music] rebuilding that module. I really would like to have some sort of beautiful stained woodwork like >> [music] >> like we built over by the washer dryer coming through this area quite simply into another lift out section of some type. But, that's where it's going to change. I want this river section. I'm going to eliminate all of that, and I'm going to build the layout right up the center of this room. Um I figure maybe 30 in wide double track main line. Could split the main line and have two scenes with a scene divider. That'll leave a walkway where the wall is. Against the wall over here, I would like to build a 16-in wide switch yard. Or just holding yard for holding passenger trains and what have you. Then there's a walkway, then there would be the layout of the center here of the room. I could also take that area against the wall and maybe double deck it and have two layers of uh 16-in wide holding tracks for holding passenger trains or holding just any kind of staging situation. So, that'll give me a walkway here. The layout would then come as you see I've got a diorama sitting here that curves. That would essentially be where the layout would be. It would then curve back in to the switch yard. I'm planning on eliminating the table back here with all these models on it and expanding, knocking out the wall, expanding the shop a little so there's more room for a spray booth that would vent out the front of the property. And a couple more pieces of wood equipment for down here in the shop. Another thought I've had and I'm still toying with the idea and things can change because they've changed a lot in my head so far is to take this [clears throat] switch yard that I've got. It's always been too small because when I built it 25 years ago um I didn't have very many trains, so I didn't need a big switch yard. Not that I have a lot of trains now, but I have more than I did being that I'm in the business working in the industry. It would be nice to maybe have this yard be wider. Or another thought would be is to pull this one away from the wall. Bring it into the room, make the walkway back here about I don't want to go less than 20 in. And then simply have that layout section of the yard maybe 35 in wide coming right through here. And then curving around like this diorama does up the middle of the room and back in front of the door. So, I always planned on taking this section that we're talking about over here where the river is and rebuilding it anyway. I talked about it about a year ago on the podcast. And in fact, even moved some modules into the middle of the room to kind of give it an idea to myself of how it would feel to be able to walk around it. Now, the layout of my rail is 51 and 1/2 in high. It's right around my che- chest height and I'm 5'9. [music] It was always important to me to have it at that height because at the Midwest modelers club layout that I designed back in 1988, I discovered that was the perfect viewing height. Now, there is a video that I have made and I want to talk about this. I think it ran on the June 2021 What's Neat. And that is a video that I made of my layout. In fact, as this river section curved around and before the hide BTS pulp mill was even here, this curved around into what was the Meramec River flood plain area, which is just south of where I live, ties into the Mississippi. And then over where all the trains are sitting on that table right there, I had a large model of my bluff where I live here on the cliff and I modeled everything. I measured everything. It took 9 days to carve it. Major big project, but all of that is covered in this video that I just described to you this um June 2021 uh What's Neat video. It's a very comprehensive video of my layout. It goes into great detail of what I had built down here. And of course, it evolved as I started doing all these podcast videos. And all of that material, again, is covered on various What's Neat shows. So, with that, um I'm excited about rebuilding down here. It's going to be functional. It's going to be beautiful. You know, all the train shelves that hold the G scale, all of that's getting rebuilt, repurposed, and redesigned so that it's going to be more functional in how we shoot videos and work down here. Whole bunch of work. Might take a year to do all of it, but think of the quality content that we're going to get out of future What's Neat videos, building a layout old school, and probably not using foam. Using very, very little if I use any at all, because I'm not comfortable with that, the way it burns so quickly. Um don't want to talk about that anymore. Just want to say, wow, this is going to be great. And so, with that, that's going to end this uh ideas on what's coming next on this segment here of What's Neat. >> [laughter] >> So, for this segment of What's Neat, I want to talk about 30 years of doing photography for the Bachmann Industries company in >> [music] >> Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And all of the stuff that you see us present on the show, as I always say, it's available from Lombard Hobbies in Lombard, Illinois. But, check this out what they sent me. >> [music] >> They heard I'm building a city. And Andrew and the folks up there at Lombard, it looks like are making a kit. [music] And I've got a photograph of this kit. This is an HO scale. Here's a picture of it. Check it out. Here's a finished model with interior. How neat is that? >> [music] >> So, thank you guys for sending that to us. But, like I said, over the years I've been shooting a lot of Bachmann photography. [music] And probably one of the most famous or most recognizable ads that I've done in the was in 2001 when I did the Bachmann Easy Track ad with the hikers in the bush and the dog, the backpackers, and all the beautiful trees, and the carpet in the foreground. And I always thought I should say from the carpet to your imagination Bachmann Easy Track would take you there. A lot of people don't know we also tried the same concept on parquet floors. Uh also tried the same concept with curved track and the locomotive in the scene. It's the one photograph, if you'll recognize, the Easy Track ad didn't have a locomotive in it. And so, this was the final version of the way it came out. This is a horizontal version with ballasted track and all those beautiful sagebrush trees in the background. I've also done a lot of train set ads for Bachmann Industries. And the one thing I really enjoy about that is when I work at home full-time, I also get to be with [music] my children full-time. And so, this is my beautiful little daughter Anna. She looks like she's about 2 years old in this shot [music] right behind the train set box art prop that I had. >> [music] >> Here's a large scale shot with a large scale Shay. G scale track was a subject of this, a new line of Bachmann track. [music] I've got the Model T in there. Here's the setup for that shot. I actually did this one in my front yard. [music] Big reflector reflecting a lot of light underneath those locomotives. This was a neat shot. This is Techny, Illinois. Famous Hiawatha train coming through there, Milwaukee Road. >> [music] >> And one characteristic of this area was the bridges. Look at that bridge in the background. >> [music] >> And they wanted me to do this shot for Williams for their new line of the E units they were coming out with. And even replicated the telephone pole using [music] beads. Um and that was the first choice. You can see the picture that they wanted me to copy pretty much exactly. And so I built a scene that was better than 16 ft long to hold all the passenger cars and this train. And this is the final product from that shoot including the father and the son waving at the train. An old newspaper trick to always work a person into the scene that makes the photograph so much more interesting. This was the season [clears throat] when I was shooting some ON30 stuff and this was I think around 2013 when we had a cicada invasion here in St. Louis. There was hundreds of them in air and they continued to always land on the models. >> [music] >> This is the side rod switcher in HO scale shot on Mike buddy's famous Volkswagen display. It's all these cars were beat up. The hood is made of aluminum foil and painted the right color, but it just accentuated the serving suggestion for an industrial locomotive in this type of [music] setting. One of my most most favorite HO shots was this 440 during a sunrise in the backyard. I've used my children both Tyler for Williams Christmas shots. This is in September when it's over 100° in the room. I've got half of a Christmas tree set up and a fire roaring in the fireplace. I actually shot video of this. It was a crazy day. I did the same thing with my wonderful daughter Anna. And it's [music] just another great wonderful hot photo shoot. Who can forget the Walthers Bachmann 1999 cover photograph. There's been a lot [music] of covers that I've done for them. This was a really favorite one of mine in that I got to use all of the brand-new Bachmann buildings they had just introduced to create a scene on the Midwest Valley Modelers layout with the Micro-Engineering girder bridge right up the center. And this is how that shot came [music] out. It It was It was a really cool job to do. I've done a lot of different Bachmann covers over the year, [music] and all of these different covers have been featured in various What's Neat videos. [music] The nighttime shot, for example, that we did for Bachmann Trains in 2023. I know I've shown the photos of the 2020 um beautiful Amtrak train shot. 2022 cover. The 2016 cover in G scale. Uh this was the famous uh train that was owned by that famous [music] Disney uh creator animator. And we built the station and showed how to build the entire scene in video. Now, this shot was just recent from last year. This is a 2025 [music] Bachmann Trains cover. And the feature of this shot was going to be the Dreyfuss Hudson steam locomotive. >> [music] >> They wanted me to copy this famous artist rendering of the New York Central system with a monolithic building in the background. So, I used the Bachmann uh building from their series of buildings they came out with with the Dreyfuss Hudson being the star of the scene. Another Hudson off into the background. And [music] then their beautiful passenger cars that go with this train in the blue, gray, and silver paint scheme. Just [music] a nice setup. The shot was to be vertical. I shot it in clouds. I shot it in sun. Uh I They even asked me to shoot it on a cloudy day. Here's a side shot of this beautiful Dreyfuss Hudson locomotive. And then, of course, this is the final cover shot that came out. They actually used the shot that I shot in the clouds, and they gave a fog effect in the photograph. And that brings [music] me to this part of the show. Remember at the beginning I said we had a surprise for the viewers of the show? The folks at Bachmann have asked that I [music] share with you this locomotive that I recently used for a photo. I'm going to show you a photo right now that I didn't have scheduled to show you, where I shot this uh beautiful [music] engine on one of the curved modules of my layout that I've taken out of here, which we talked about on a previous [music] segment of this show. This gorgeous Dreyfuss Hudson can be yours. Well, not this one. This one's mine. Um I actually asked that question. Um I love this model. It's got sound. It runs like a top. But what Bachmann would like to have is photographs of any of your Bachmann locomotives on your layout. They would like you to send the photographs to info@bachmanntrains.com. [music] There it is right there on the bottom of the screen. And whoever will win this locomotive out of the photos that they receive, they're going to randomly draw a name out of a hat. So, this isn't a photo contest. They simply want to see their beautiful products on your layout so that we can feature them on this show and on the What's [music] Neat This Week podcast. So, there's only a couple of rules that they've [music] said. Only one entry per person. And the locomotives must be a Bachmann product. And that's all the rules that they wrote [music] here. Um I'm going to add two more rules. No AI. And I'd prefer that you don't use Photoshop. Just give a great cell phone shot of your favorite Bachmann locomotive on your layout, any kind of setting. It doesn't have to be magnificent. It could be plywood central, as long as it's a Bachmann product. And then we're going to share all of these things. Now, May 15th is when this video is going to hit YouTube. >> [music] >> So, let's let this run for 30 days, and we'll end it on June 15th. And then we'll show in the July What's Neat Show here at Model Railroad Hobby's Magazine uh the winning or not the winning, but the photograph that uh were probably all the pictures that were submitted. And uh of course individual that submits the photo that is drawn out of the hat that gets the winning this beautiful model. [music] So, with that said, that's going to end this May 2026 What's Neat. The best hobby in the world with some of the best people in it. And I like I always say on the podcast, let's go run some trains, but in this case, I can't run them here. So, guys, let's all run some trains for me, huh? All the products seen on this episode of What's Neat are available from Lombard Hobbies [music] in Lombard, Illinois, or order online at lombardhobby.com. Broadway Limited [music] Imports, the cutting-edge leader in model trains. Check out their website at broadway-limited.com. Bachmann Trains, now that's the way [music] to run a railroad. Check out their website at bachmanntrains.com. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> Mhm.