Anyway, after getting married in 1991 I took the chance of constructing a layout in the basement-- technically not allowed by the rental agreement, but management looked the other way, when they weren't actually looking at the layout that is. The layout was sectional and divided into six pieces for eventual movement to a house... at least, that was the idea.

The concept for this iteration of the Wilmington was similar to the current one. There was a connection at Au Sable Forks with the D&H, and the Wilmington ran in the general direction of its namesake town. With this version, though, there was Jay Junction some distance from Au Sable Forks and a short branch from there. I didn't feel I could reach all the way to Upper Jay in only five feet so I called what I modeled "Oak Hill" after a wide spot in the road I found on a New York specific road atlas.

This version of the Wilmington was never finished, but it was "finished off" when the basement ceiling collapsed on top of it. We were already planning to move out so I cleaned things up and then dismantled the layout. However, it was never reassembled as I elected to start fresh with a new basement and a new layout. Most of the structures and trees were moved to the current layout and the cab control components were retained also until I finally converted to DCC in 2008, but the track was scrapped or sold off depending on its condition.

So here are some rare photos of the Wilmington as it existed during the period 1992 to 1995 or so, found, of course, while looking for something else. I didn't own a decent camera then so these are scans from what are probably crude snapshots.

This is a railfan spot on the Wilmington, a sweeping curve (actually 19 inch radius) heading out of Au Sable Forks. The New York Central RS-3 pulls along some of my early Kadee Micro-Trains acquisitions including the very first one, that Delaware and Hudson boxcar in the middle of the photo. With hills on both sides of the track, the train really does run "through" this scene. Behind the train is a set of housekeeping cottages for vacationers that visit the Adirondacks. Complete with playground for the kids!

	This shot of the same general scene wasn't possible until a few fellow N Scalers and I picked up and moved the entire layout away from the wall to allow access to the back of the pike. The visiting train is truly unknown; I don't know what it is exactly and I don't recall whose it was!

Same scene, better view of the housekeeping cottages, nice looking Con-Cor "bullet nose" Hudson pulling a vintage Atlas "First Generation" Railway Express refrigerator car and what I think is the Con-Cor NYC passenger train behind it. I still have the Hudson and the REA car is on virtual display on the A1G website. The train is coming from a section of the layout that I never finished. Although I tried several different ideas, I just couldn't pull off Au Sable Forks in this version of the Wilmington. I think I've done better with the current version!

And finally, courtesy of a time shifting wormhole, we have two Conrail Dash-8's (Bachmann) owned by my friend Tony cruising through the scene. I painted the lead unit and added the engineer to the cab. Decaling that "Conrail Quality" roadname was no fun! Fortunately, that paint scheme is now available commercially. I also did a Pennsylvania E-8 diesel in the five-stripe scheme for Tony, a decal job I still have nightmares about! Did I mention that I superelevated this curve? I think these big units show it off.

Same train, different scene: This is one view of Jay Junction. The train is heading back to the "main line" from the branch. Well, actually I'm cheating here. There is a temporary track that connects to the branch, just out of the shot to the left. That branch loops back around to a hidden track behind the scenicked portion of the layout, goes all the way behind Au Sable and comes back out. This allowed for a continuous run of about two-thirds of a scale mile if I recall correctly. I kept this concept for the current version of the Wilmington, including the temporary track!

Another view made possible by moving the layout away from the wall. Please ignore the 1:1 Scale hand on the throttle in the background! The Atlas/Samhongsa 2-8-8-2 belonged to my friend Mike and handled the 19 inch curves on the visible part of the layout well. It even negotiated the 11 inch radii in the hidden sections of the layout. The buildings in the foreground might look familiar as they were moved to the "new" layout. So was most of the oil dealer in the background. The stream along the track was made with good old Elmer's Glue, coated with translucent gloss blue paint from Tamiya. That paint lasts forever; I still have the bottle!

	A layout photo with no trains? Another shot of Jay Junction from an earlier time. I built a road around the hill in the background. "North Country Antiques" went to a layout I built for my brother back in New Jersey. The "Peach Pit Diner" in front of it was moved to Black Brook. Yes, it's a reference to the business in "Beverly Hills 90120"-- should I be mentioning that?!?

Boy, is this a crummy photo! But it's the only one I've been able to find from this angle, so it'll have to do... There's a lot going on here. In the far background is a pair of houses on the hill that sits in front of the sweeping curve that is pictured in the first few shots above. The yellow farmhouse is again a farmhouse on the latest Wilmington. In front of that and a bit to the left is the oil dealer. Then comes the trackage that the train is on, crossing an old Postage Stamp Trains (!) bridge and headed for Oak Hill (that's next). The plate girder bridge carries the temporary track that curves around to form the continuous loop back to Au Sable Forks. The stream in the previous shot then empties into the Au Sable River, just after being crossed by an ancient crude plastic bridge of unknown origin. Finally there is a road bridge (converted Atlas product) connecting to the road around the hill to Jay Junction. Phew!

Yikes! The break between sections is rather obvious here! Having completed its work on the Upper Jay Branch, the NYC RS-3 heads back down toward Jay Junction. This layout is the first on which I used better quality ground foam materials and although it's not quite obvious here, I did like the effect much more. The unwheeled caboose was used on several different iterations of the layout going back to the 1980 version (!) as a yard office and it's on the current Wilmington as a lunch counter in Au Sable Forks. Reduce, reuse, recycle!

It's looking pretty busy at Oak Hill! The morning RDC (Con-Cor, well before Kato's was released!) has arrived and the local crew is still trying to get switching done. This is an obvious staged shot as this Wilmington was powered by DC cab control. As I recall, the entire branch was one large block.

And here's one final look at Oak Hill as the local departs. This is the last photo I have to share of the layout-- at least for now! That Heljan Meat Packing plant at the far left is a venerable veteran N Scale building, as it was featured in one of the first N Scale project layouts ever, in Railroad Model Craftsman in early 1970-- right when I was entering the hobby and the scale. I know that N Scale has improved by orders of magnitude since then, and although I can't say that about my own modeling skills necessarily (!) I like to think I'm doing better with each iteration of the Wilmington. Thanks for sharing this trip down memory lane with me.