Catenary in the Past Couple of Model Railroader Magazine Issues

Model Railroader magazine (available digitally from Kalmbach, Apple, Nook, Google Play, Kindle, or Kobo online stores, in addition to news stands and hobby shops) covered two different heavy electric-themed layouts in the past couple of months. Considering that the magazine has been known to go years with nary a trolley or interurban article, let alone a mainline heavy electric, this is remarkable.

The May Model Railroader featured Brent Monahan's Pennsylvania Railroad layout, which features electrified New York city and New Jersey vistas. Brent's layout has also turned up on the Model Memories site, as his catenary was built using MM components.

Peter North's Virginian layout was mentioned here a couple of years ago when it was covered in the UK Continental Modeler, but it recently got the Model Railroader treatment in the in the July issue.  MR's photo choices downplayed the electric parts of the layout as the story was focused on the layout's small size. Nonetheless, Peter gives some good insight into his Virginian roster, and there is a good view of a Jack Shaft motor on the spread photo. This layout is apparently intended for exhibitions in the UK, and I would like to figure out how to see it at some point.