Welcome to the Homepage of the Wood River & Spotsy Railroad (WR&S)

In the beginning there was the benchwork. We took no pictures of that. It is uniquely unorthodox; though solid enough. Our layout has neither upgrades nor downgrades, but for a first effort we think it is coming along rather well.

Hi, we're Bill and Monica Perry, and we're constructing the Wood River and Spotsy Railroad, abbreviated WR&S. The layout is in the room above our garage. I grew up just outside of Wood River, Illinois (a 1967 Roxana graduate) and we now live in Spotsylvania, Virginia (referred to by locals as Spotsy); thus the name of our railroad. (Monica is from Bologna, Italy. Adding that to the name of the railroad just didn't seem to fit in with an American line.)

Why the emblems of the Chicago and Alton Railroad and the Alton and Southern Railroad at the top of the page? Well, these are two lines from my home area, Alton/Wood River. I intend to acquire some unlabeled Heavy Pacifics and passenger cars, and label them WR&S. In the meantime, I have a Heavy Pacific from the Chicago and Alton line pulling a four-car passenger train, "The Alton Limited", circa 1920's. I also am looking for a Mikado as used by the Alton and Southern (there is a real one on display in a museum in St. Louis). I doubt I shall find a model of one, so I will need to do the same as for the WR&S engines. In the meantime, since I am fond of the Pennsylvania Railroad, I am running two K4 Pacifics, one for a circa 1920's three-car passenger service (circular emblem), and one for freight (later PRR shield).

We just recently decided to keep a record of the layout development. In keeping with this decision, Monica took some pictures, which have not yet been developed. I took some pictures with a really crummy digital camera we got from signing up with the absolutely worst internet connection provider in the world, Earthlink.

Check out the pictures below to see how our layout is developing as of September, 2000

In the picture above, Pinastri Pass is located in the upper left corner. The Wood River industrial area, as portrayed, is fictional. Wood River does have an industrial area, but it is mostly oil refineries (my brother-in-law, Dan Zitt, works for Shell Oil Company in Wood River). Spotsy Mountain is located in the upper right corner of the picture. Spotsylvania does not have a mountain, but we decided to throw it in for the heck of it. The city of Wood River will be located just in front of Spotsy Mountain. You can see the two mainlines of the layout. The outer line splits and encompasses the industrial area before it rejoins, and the inner line runs between the industrial area and the town. I am presently busy with the wiring. Monica has done the scenery and buildings. She has done a fantastic job on the mountain and pass, and below the unfinished area of the Spotsy Mountain you can make out (sorry for my poor camerawork) the farm she has finished.

The second picture, above, is a close-up view of the first image. Note the three buildings in place for the town of Wood River, one of which is the fire station. There are currently two separate lines running past the base of Spotsy Mountain through Wood River's industrial area, one passenger and one freight. The line on the left (of the two going up the picture, not across) is the inner line (passenger line) of the layout. Around the mountain, on this line, is the entrance to the Vaughn's Hill tunnel, on past Glendale Gardens, and then a highballing section of straight track, finally entering the tunnel of Spotsy Mountain and coming out again to reenter the industrial area. The right track is the inner split of the outer (freight) line, which runs the opposite direction, from Vaughn's Hill, around Spotsy Mountain, into a tunnel through Spotsy Mountain, up a highballing straightaway, past Glendale Gardens, entering Vaughn's Hill tunnel, and, after exiting the tunnel, splitting either to the aforementioned inner split past the base of Spotsy Mountain, or taking the outer split outside the industrial area and through Pinastri Pass, and coming out on the track running across the picture, from right to left, and then back into Spotsy Mountain's tunnel. The upper track at the bottom of the picture is an industrial siding.
The engine coming out of Pinastri Pass is a K4 Pacific (model by Spectrum), and is pulling an RPO (Railway Post Office), passenger car, and observation car, all of the PRR.

For additional pictures from our work in progress, click here.

Thank you for coming by our WR&S Page. Check back to see how we're doing. As the weather will become cooler soon, we'll be spending less time on the Chesapeake Bay, and more time "Working on the Railroad".