About the CV&W RR

In the mid 1930’s Hampton Rothwell wanted a model railroad just like his friend Hugo, who was the son of a diplomat. Instead of an electric train, Hampton received a wind-up train. Not exactly what he dreamed, especially when his father worked for W.R. Grace and imported Pullman cars to Chile. In 1940 Hampton moved from Santiago Chile to North Carolina, where he spent many years riding Eastern US trains. Having moved to New York to complete his Master’s Degree, he spent many hours commuting by train in and around the New York City and East coast areas. His adventure in riding trains grew as he moved to Germany and spent several years traveling throughout Europe on business. Moving back to the US, he landed in California and caught up on trains in the LA area, and later back in North Carolina. On one of his business trips to Chicago in 1988, Hampton met Barb.

In the mid-1950’s, when all her male cousins were getting train sets for Christmas, Barb got dolls, which as soon as it got warm outside, were given funerals. Her parents soon got the message that she didn’t like dolls, but instead of the train set that she wanted, she got stuffed animals. Barb grew up with the Milwaukee Interurban running past her Wisconsin grandmother's backyard, and loved riding trains in Philadelphia, where her other grandmother lived. She loved trains and enjoyed traveling by train when- ever possible, especially in Japan.

Through the years model trains got pushed to the back burner, while riding on real trains in the US, Europe, and South America, and the love of trains for both Hampton and Barb grew. In 1988 the two met and the saga of the Concord Valley & Western (CV&W) HO DCC Railroad began.

Barb bought Hampton a model train for their first Christmas together. Unfortunately the train died after an hour. But that “death” actually was the start of a long friendship with the late Hank Brown, and friends who were members of the South Central Wisconsin Division (SCWD) of the NMRA.

Shortly after New Years Barb and Hampton visited a local Madison hobby shop and met Hank Brown. Hank really filled them with information on model railroading and recommended what they should look for in a model railroad, and what to avoid.  Construction was started on the Concord Valley & Western on July 9, 1998, with the help of the original Train Guyz, (Hank Brown & Dave Dettmann), and a lot of good friends. This railroad is a collaboration of Barb & Hampton Rothwell’s dreams of eastern railroad lines and memories of travel throughout the US, and foreign rail lines.

The initial layout design was envisioned by Barb & Hamp and interpreted by the Train Guyz. Dave did a wonderful job of drawing out the layout in CADRAIL, but as you know, original designs change.

Not long after the first phase of construction had ended, the old basement’s work shop was emptied and redesigned into Detown, Chloe’s Glen and Ferguson Falls, connecting Detown to Alexander Station. Segments of Ned Ferguson’s old HO layout were incorporated into Ferguson Falls and Chloe’s Glen.

In 2003, the laundry room was renovated to incorporate Browntown, Cuinn, and crew lounge. Browntown was originally created for Hank Brown to have a place to “play”, so that he wouldn’t keep trying to change the mainline & sidings. While Hank was alive, Browntown was his domain, where he could switch to his heart's’ content, although it was everyone else’s switching nightmare.

You won’t be able to see much of the track dedicated to the towns of Callie, Sadie, John Mear’s and London-Mear’s, because they are under Adler Springs and Bradley Yard respectively. Originally designed as staging yards, they were mostly used as a by-pass to Adler Springs for continual open house running.

In 2006 Barb undertook the conversion of the storage room into Williamsburg yard. After Hank Brown’s death in 2008, both Browntown and Williamsburg were redesigned to eliminate the switching nightmare in Browntown and to provide better switching for Williamsburg. Land acquisition ended and the final construction of a turntable at in the Williamsburg yard finished Barb’s 9th AP Certificate for scenery. (She has yet to finish building 2 engine to in order to receive her last Certificate needed for her MMR.)

Why the Concord Valley & Western? Well it’s simple. The layout resided on Concord drive, and the basement is a sort of Valley. Hampton grew up with and loved eastern railroads, (note the engines on the layout), and Wisconsin is certainly Western if you lived in NY, NJ, VA, NC, or PA.

The towns were named after either our children or grandchildren, (we used the last names of our married children), and first names of our grandchildren, or portions of our parent’s names.

Industries are mostly named after friends that have contributed to the railroad, or our life in one manner or another, and a few family enterprises.

In May of 2009, Hampton passed away, leaving Barb to carry on the construction and maintenance of the layout. Thanks to the help of many close friends, the layout enjoyed running throughout the year for operating sessions, grandkids, friends, and visitors.

In 2012, the layout was physically dismantled and parts of it moved on to other layouts. Barb moved to Portage WI in late 2012, and later remarried.

We hope you enjoy the video and following pages that describe the layout in greater detail.