The Waco, Temple, & Western Roadrunner Fastfreight
The O Gauge layout has its own railroad name, The Waco, Temple & Western Road Runner Fast Freight (WT&W). The logo was designed by one of Dr. Jerry Johnson’s marketing students, XX XX at Baylor University.
19xx – The Beginning
The original O Gauge modules were assembled in the Old Sante Fe Depot before it was remodeled. Some of the early people involved in building the first modules were Mort Benjamin, Howard Bell, Buddy Burk, Bruce Kohler, and Dr. Moore (now deceased). Buddy Burk designed the corners. The mountain module was built by a friend of Bruce Kohler who moved up North. Bruce acquired the module from him and had it shipped back to Temple when he no longer wanted it. This module was kept intact and used in the new layout constructed in 2002.
19xx – Mid America Mall
2001 – Tear Down, Rebuild, and A New Home
In 2001, a lease agreement was made with the city of Temple for the club to relocate to the Moody Depot. The O Gauge layout from the Mid America Mall was not suitable for the new 17’ x 18’ space in the Depot.
There was very little money for constructing a new layout, so the decision was made to reuse as much of the old layout as possible. A new track plan was developed for the available space and used all of the existing turnouts, track, and buildings from the old layout. The old modules were then disassembled and their materials used to build the new layout.
The old layout was dismantled in October 2001. Construction on the new layout began in January 2002 with the move into the depot. By the end of July 2002, the new layout was up and running. All the modules had been rebuilt including the legs (the previous legs had varied in lengths from 36″ to 42″).
The Layout
The layout is double-tracked 3 rail O Gauge operated by Lionel TMCC digital command control. This system also has the capability of running analog trains which originally ran on earlier transformer systems.
Layout Operations
Normally the outside oval carries passenger trains in a counter clockwise direction and the inside oval carries freight trains in a clockwise direction. The operational idea of the layout is that trains run from Neill Yard to Alston Yard. A Car Card system is available for prototypical switching operations. However, the layout is usually just run for the public in opposite directions without using the card system.