Peter Noto, (RM 48880) a new member joining at the Scranton convention, shared his love for Lionel Trains starting back in 1949 upon receiving a Lionel Scout Train set #1115. This is a familiar tale shared by many of our members who fondly remember their first train. In Peters’ case, he went to work as a Manufacturer’s Representative which allowed him to travel to New York and Pennsylvania on business trips which also allowed personal time to attend Train shows and visit Toy Train Shops.

Peter started collecting Toy Trains and memorabilia in earnest in 1988. He quickly secured rights in his home to display but quickly ran out of right-of-way and sought more. His home had an attic, a small sloping 3^rd floor roof room accessible only by a ladder into a scuttle hole in the 2^nd floor ceiling. By removing the attic windows, he brought in all needed to convert this unused and unfinished room into a space into his railroad empire. He never did update the attic access and to this day, must open a scuttle hole, pull down a ladder and club to his railroad.

The railroad he built, while silent and hidden in an attic sanctum, is large, exquisite and filled the entire space – not just the tabletop, but the entire volume of the room. The layout itself is a massive 24 x 40 using over 600 feet of track. It has 5 main lines with 2 of these elevated. These contain several popular postwar Lionel accessories we are familiar with including the #115 train station, Ice Depot, Hell Gate Bridge, #156 Station Platforms, 365 Dispatch Station, Flood light and Beacon Towers, newsstand, water towers and cattle, milk cars and loading platforms. Around the layout there are several types of villages and buildings, not only Lionel, but a fair share of Dept. 56 and Pasticville. These are built into dioramas around the layout.

Power is delivered by three ZW 275-watt transformers, a KW and a smaller ZW 250-watt transformer for accessories. Trains are not the only thing Peter collects. Like so many of us, his collecting interest goes beyond trains. The ceiling is filled with models of airplanes, balloons, and zeppelins from the early flying days of the 30's to 50's era. There is also an outstanding collection of political buttons (all pre-2000 candidates) and of course various signs and let’s not forget promo posters of movie stars.

Peter, perhaps from his upper Pennsylvania upbringing favors DL&W Lackawanna and D&H Delaware and Hudson that worked the Anthracite Coal Fields of the Scranton Lackawanna Valley Area of the 1930's to 1960's. The vast majority of the motive power and rolling stock are period Lionel pieces. The Lionel roster of Diesel and Steam locomotives includes the make-up of the Lionel catalogs from 1949 to 1957 with a smattering of semi-scale units from 1938. Over 40 boxed sets complete the Lionel collection.

Peter shared that while proud of his layout, very few have seen it. The authors are delighted to have the opportunity to meet Peter and to share the afternoon in his attic cubby,

Peter says it all smiling ‘One Mile away from the real Steamtown I have my own secret Lionel layout where memories of a golden age of Lionel and the USA are alive and well today!’

Enjoy these images or better yet check out the video of Peter's Layout - Click Link