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On a recent Trackside Adventure to St. Louis, Mo., MRVP’s Drew Halverson took a short side trip to visit modeler Eric Brooman and his renowned Utah Belt HO scale layout. As captured in the December 2018 issue of Model Railroader, Eric strives to keep the UB current and updates his motive power and operations accordingly. Following Eric’s lead, Drew and his crew chased and paced the Utah Belt as though it were the real thing!
Eric does a wonderful job with his rock work! Too bad he’s stuck on Diesel power!
Nicely done, very enjoyable!
Re: Music; The use of music would have been accepted had the score from Marlboro been used. This music also appeares in the classic motion pictures “Magnificent Seven” and “The Sons of Katy Elder”. In this western which stars the unforgettable John Wayne, the music brings out the ultiment very best at the beginning of the movie which features a Denver & Rio Grande Western narrow gauge train when the credits are being shown on the Big Screen. FANTASTIC!
Watched the Utah Bet video again and I enjoy the “Light” weathering techniques Eric uses on his motive power and rolling stock. What an outstanding layout!
I have been following the Utah belt for many years. Thanks for the update again. I still have your boxcar going around my layout.
Great work Drew & crew! Wonderful job capturing one of the truly great model railroads.
This is how a model railroad should be show cased !! Great job Drew and crew. This is a keeper.
Excellent work, Drew. No one does railfanning – scale or otherwise – as well as you and the crew. Thanks
While I enjoyed the “tour” concept using local points of view, the best part of the entire video for me – by far – was the first four seconds!
After finishing the video I went back to the first four seconds and paused the frame about every 1/2 second. I must’ve spend just as much time “watching” those for seconds in that fashion as I did watching the rest of the video.
Please, when the layout itself is just as grand as each individual scene, don’t ignore the layout! I would’ve loved to see about a full minute spent just filming the perspective of walking through the layout. Seeing layouts as a whole is what interests me the most.
Or in other words, a tree in a forest can be a beautiful thing. But to see the whole grand picture, one needs to step back to see the whole forest. Let’s do more of that with layout features.
Outstanding Layout and an outstanding vidoe with explanation. Keep up the excellent reviews Drew of both types of layouts, model and the real trains.
Great video, I love rail fanning on a model railroad. rather watch that than anything on tv. Watch a lot of them on you tube. Keep them coming.
Fantastic railroad. Great video. Nice tribute to John Allen. I must admit though, that I miss the F7s et al. from the first time the UB was featured. Wouldn’t it be nice to publish a composite article in MR showing Eric’s UB from the fifties up to the present./ Just a thought.
Great layout! Scenery and detail are first class all the way. Great video and narration by the MRVP crew. Top- flight as always
Drew and team excellent adventure on one the best railroad around! Well done!
Nice work Drew. Although the music made me wonder if Eric had backdated the UB to 1972 and perhaps Huggy Bear was at the throttle.
Unquestionable this layout is of the highest, most premium quality. However to say it keeps up with modern railroad rules is a stretch. On the opening sequence a clear signal is displayed on a signal that has an approaching train in the opposing block. Block stayed clear even after the opposing train entered the block. A fatal mistake. Even the best layouts have flaws that remind us it is a representation of reality, and that’s just fine.
Great, realistic video on a superb model railroad.
I wish you’d quit the music. It detracts from the video to the point I can’t bear to watch it. If this keeps up I’m cancelling my subscription.
I second Michael Frysinger’s motion to publish a special on the Utah Belt from it’s beginning and on through time and bringing it up today. I’ll place my order in advance as long as it’s a 100 pager!
When will we see a professional model railroader with the talents that Eric possesses construct a new Gorre & Daphetid including the portions that John Allen never completed? I envision a GD LINE using all the techniques that have been brought up to Century 21 standards since John passed away in 1963.
Imigine a GD that would offer public viewing such as Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg, Germany…WOW!
Excellent video. This is the way layout tour videos should be done…narratives as the trains are followed add a lot to the video.
Too bad you haven’t yet put out/together a booklet for 20 bucks or so on the complete pages of that appeared thru the years in MR. Think you have missed something there! Love the “Belt”.
Great HD video. I would prefer prototype RR sounds with diesels and track sounds to the music background. Very very nice. Thanks.
Another great Trackside Adventure episode! Are any of the Utah Belt locomotives sound equipped and is the layout DC or DCC?
Drew, please do more layouts visits in the future.
Thanks.
Superb layout and well done video! I always enjoy a feature on the Utah Belt. One complaint though, the train is running much too fast for mountain country. And it gained speed much too fast from a standing stop. I see this all too often on model railroad videos and during operating sessions.