During the Summer of 2007, while packing and demolition proceeded at Stoney Creek, a committee of members met weekly on an additional night to plan and discuss the new layout. A significant majority of club members participated in the planning project, and it was a very positive experience for all concerned... just what we needed to boost our spirits while spending Tuesday evenings tearing down our old layout.

Starting with an evaluation of what we did and didn't like about the Stoney Creek layout, a firm consensus quickly emerged that the new layout should continue to model Hamilton in the 1950s, and with an even tighter focus than before. A key decision, given the smaller space available and our desire to have a layout we could actually finish in our lifetimes, was to model just the TH&B, with Canadian National, Canadian Pacific and New York Central limited to live interchanges to get cars on and off the layout.

An early-summer operating session on John Spring's home layout was also influential, convincing us that TH&B Hamilton Terminal operations were more than enough to maintain the interest of a large operating crew.

To maximise the layout space available, another early decision was to put our staging yard (largely salvaged from Stoney Creek) in the lounge, with workbenches and storage underneath. (Track is about 51" off the floor, so this under-layout space is quite usable.) We also decided to adapt David Barrows' "domino" technique to build a layout which can be moved in the future, if need be.

Many members felt that the Stoney Creek layout had too much hidden trackage, and that some hidden switches were especially problematic. The new layout minimises hidden track, and eliminates hidden switches entirely. There is one long section of hidden track from the west end of Aberdeen Yard, behind the Welland scene to Toronto staging. The only other hidden track is the entirely prototypical Hunter Street tunnel.

As before, staging represents Buffalo and Toronto (and now will be used for Brantford). TH&B, NYC, and CNR trains enter the layout from Buffalo to the New York Central yard in Welland, From there, the TH&B crosses the third Welland Canal on Bridge 15 - a key scene saved from Stoney Creek - to reach Hamilton via Smithville and Stoney Creek.

The first Hamilton scene reached is Kinnear Yard, where trains are marshalled for the Belt Line. Past Kinnear, the mainline passes Victoria Ave yard - where there is another CNR interchange, from Ferguson Ave - and the Forest Ave freight shed, before reaching Hunter Street. The Hunter Street scene will be recreated much as it was at Stoney Creek, and will be the first scene visitors see when entering the layout room.

Passing Hunter St station and coach yard, trains enter the Hunter St tunnel, coming out in a deep cut, then passing the Chatham St locomotive terminal and arriving at Aberdeen Yard, the operational hub of TH&B freight traffic. Aberdeen will have two yard jobs each shift, one of which will also switch Dundas on the H&D branch. Leaving the west end of Aberdeen, trains will go on to Toronto (yes, we know that's not quite right...) via the hidden trackage to staging.

The HOMES club has long had a close relationship with the TH&B Historical Society: their archives are kept in our club room, and many of our members are also members of the TH&B HS. The club needs to acknowledge the tremendous assistance of the TH&B HS, and especially their archivist, Lance Brown, in the planning process. Having access to prototype track plans and other documents made a huge difference in the planning process. Hunter St, Aberdeen Yard, and Welland are just some of the places where we were able to copy (with selective compression) the prototype track arrangements almost verbatim.

We're now finishing our twelfth year building this layout, and when you stand back and take a look, it's starting to look finished. (It helps if you squint...) Here's some photos of the construction journey, and here's what it looked like as of May 2014.