No. 6: A Visit to Jim Canter’s P48 Layout

One of the highlights of a trip I made across the east coast in September, 2015 was a visit to Jim Canter at his home in Indianapolis. Jim is a terrific fellow and runs the huge annual Indy O scale meet. He is an accomplished Proto48 modeler and has a large P48 layout in his basement, and has produced a line of track and parts in O scale. If you’re interested in the O Scale show, contact Jim at oscaleindy@att.net.

If you’re not familiar with Proto48, you can find out more information here: http://proto48.org/

Here are some photos from my visit with Jim. Thanks Jim for a very memorable evening!

The view above is what greets you upon entering the basement. Jim is rebuilding the layout to update the track plan, so there is plenty of new construction underway. The broad, sweeping curves in P48 scale with the big equipment on superelevated curves is breathtaking. All of Jim’s equipment is modified to the P48 standard. Jim’s grandson is at the throttle; he was running big trains around the depot all evening.

Brass equipment was everywhere in multiple cases underneath the fascia. Everything of course modified to P48.

Here’s another case, this one full of freight cars.

Jim’s layout is full of exquisite cars too. Here’s a view of Frankfort Yard.

John Pautz, who also lives in Indy, was over this night as well, laying a long crossover at a station scene. There’s no better man to do the work; John runs American Switch and Signal, which makes fine O scale/P48 track components. John is a terrific guy and a lot of fun to talk to, and was kind enough to work my invite for the evening. John is a regular vendor and P48 ambassador at St. Louis RPM. More information on his company can be found on Norm Buckhart’s website at http://protocraft.com/