The first Troll & Elfin model RR

As I have been doing for a few years, I am posting some photos of my late father's model railroad.  These photos show the first model railroad he built (with some minor help from me as I was a young teen at the time).  This layout was built in our home in Guam, MI in the mid 1950's.  My father was in the Navy and stationed there.  Our home was a quonset hut, a metal building with a curved corrugated roof & walls.  Because the weather there was always hot (and humid) and because we had no air conditioning, the windows had no glass - just screens.  We had a banana tree in our yard.

The layout, seen above, was about 4' x 8" and located in our living room.  You can  see the curved wall behind the layout.  The window lead to an enclosed porch at the end of the quonset hut.

In this photo you can see the general track plan on the control panel.  The power supply was under the panel.  The plan was generally loop to loop with one loop on the upper level.

Here is a better view of the control panel.  The lower station is at the left and was a card stock kit model.

This is the station on the upper level.  My father's scratch built Troll station which he used through the years.  I still have that model.

We had about a two year stay in Guam - somewhat interesting.  My high school classrooms were in large quonset huts called "elephant huts" and it was the only high school on Guam as far as I know.  My father and I joined a model railroad club at another Navy base on the island and that is when I first joined the NMRA - a requirement of the club.  The Navy base where we were located was a small communications station located at one end of the island.  I recall there was an old derelict army tank in the "boondocks" next to the station and the kids used it for play.  The turret turned but most everything else was stripped out.  I remember once finding a grenade in the jungle and brought it home to the horror of my parents.

Interesting times ....  long ago.