USMRR Aquia Line and other Model Railroad Adventures

February Update

2026-03-02T21:45:00.004-05:00

Lathe at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History

February was a whirlwind of activity amid some of the coldest sustained wintry weather I have experienced in Virginia in the 30 some years I have lived here.

An expertly painted NMM finish on a figure by Dave Colwell
that was best of show at Crimson Brush 2026.

The main event was a figure painting class my brother and I took in Atlanta, GA as a prelude to the Atlanta Figure Society Show. The class was taught by Jim Rice, a well known figure painting artist, and was great. It focused on non-metallic metal (NMM) painting techniques. That is a technique used for centuries by 2D artists and now adopted by miniature hobbyists to create the illusion of metallic surfaces, such as armor or weapons, using only matte acrylic or sometimes oil paints instead of actual metallic pigments that are not metallic at all but small flecks of mica suspended in medium. This method involves layering gradients of light and shadow to mimic how light reflects off metal, with a dark base color and progressively lighter shade highlights while incorporating subtle color shifts for reflections. One key advantage of NMM is its scalability and photographic appeal, as it avoids the glittery sheen of true metallics that can look unnatural under certain lighting or in photos. Additionally, NMM allows for greater artistic control since non-metallic paints can be customized with various hues to match specific themes or environments. However, it is very hard to do well on a miniature. Hence the class.

This is the figure we painted in the class.

I enjoyed the class and I think I learned a lot about techniques that he showed. I need more practice. The Mizar figure has several NMM surfaces on it included the breastplate, scythe, bell and censer. At home I added the graveyard backdrop to help protect the figure and convey the story of a medieval zombie hunter.

After the class, the show commenced. It was a successful show with over 500 figures on display. Rob and I had several figures on display. In between we managed a trip to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. It was his first visit there.

We received several awards. Rob got two silver and two bronze medals. I got 4 silver and one bronze. The trip home was marred by yet another snow storm requiring me to take a hotel in Henderson, NC to let it blow over.

The next weekend was the Richmond IPMS Old Dominion Open. That is one of the largest model shows on the east coast aside from the IPMS Nationals.

My brother again joined me as he had a flight coupon he needed to use. He entered 3 models and I had 10 in the contest. I was also a judge for categories that I did not enter. There were 1100 models on display with 245 contestants and 800 general admission folks. I met several friends form other meets and had a great time sharing stories. I especially enjoy talking with Don Johnson. He gave me detailed comments on how to improve some of my figures.

The contest went well. Rob received a 3rd place award for his Old King bust. I received a first place in dioramas for my Avenging Varus diorama. I also received second place for my 75mm figure of Herman Haupt. I received 3rd places for Mizar (see above) and Acinad and Koda mounted figure. I also received the Best Diorama special award. I also got some peer awards for Moby Dick, Avenging Varus, and my 1st Virginian Infantry at Valley Forge bust.

Two trips to shows with the 1st Virgina bust and his long musket convinced me that the musket is just waiting to break off. So I decided to make a small backdrop to protect the musket on this figure and help with the story of an American Rev. War soldier at Vally Forge. Painting the backdrop was almost as much fun as doing the figure.

I am making progress on a pile driver model for my layout. I will post pictures later.

Work Session on the Rio Grande

2026-02-15T00:19:00.011-05:00

I went to a work session on Charlie Bassing’s HO scale Rio Grande layout yesterday. Mark, Steve and Nick joined us. My job was to install tunnel portals at Tennessee Pass. I prefabricated and painted the tunnels at my house. I used laser cut kits from Alkem Scale Models. I painted them with acrylics and chalk.

The portals needed a slight trimming as the benchwork is very narrow on this part of Charlie’s layout. I was able to cut off the extra width using a motor tool with a cut off wheel.

I was able to get the south portal installed with the surrounding terrain. I started work on the north portal, but Charlie needs to make some changes to the sky board before I can finish.

Meanwhile, the other guys installed more rock castings and added basic scenery to some of the terrain.

At the end of the session, we discussed how to finish the big trestle on the end of the peninsula just as you walk in the room. I volunteered to build the micro engineering trestles for the project. The bridge will be about 18 inches tall and it’s highest at about 36 inches wide.

February already?

2026-02-10T18:19:00.002-05:00

A foggy morning at Aquia Landing

I missed the January update. In mid-January Alicia and I went to Costa Rica for 11 days. Then the ice storm hit. It took us 4 days to get home, with three days in Florida waiting for American Airlines to remember how to run an airline. We eventually gave up on American and bought tickets on Delta. They got us home without too much fuss.

The trip was great. It ranged from a camping out-like adventure in cabins on the Pacific Coast, to stays in deluxe hotels with private gardens. We took 3 different boat rides through mangrove swamps, and river along the Nicaraguan border. We saw a good portion of northern Costa Rica.

We hiked in the rain forest low lands and mountains. Our guide was great and he found lots of good hot spots for bird watching. We logged 247 different bird species and 140 lifers. I posted an assortment o f bird pics on my face book page. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1De6AjTXPw/

Alas, while we were in the rain forest, Alicia caught a chest cold. I got it two days later. It turns out it was actually a case of the flu despite us both getting flu shots. It took us nearly two weeks and a trip to the doctor to finally start feeling better.

This week I felt well enough to start building some models. I'll post more on that later.

Meantime, I played around with atmospheric effects on some of my model railroad shots.

Dawn on the Aquia Line

What? An Operating Session!

2026-01-12T01:44:00.003-05:00

Phil, James and Ethan (l-r) work Train 7 At Aquia Landing

It has been a long time since I hosted an operational session. According to my records, the last session was September 5, 2024! (I didn't do a blog post for that session probably because it was part of MARPM and I had to leave my house as soon as the ops were over to go to the hotel for do the final paperwork and payment).

Nick, Jacob and Amby (L-r) work Falmouth

So it was great to host a group of 9 operators on Saturday, 10 Jan 2026 for an official op session on the Aquia Line. That was session number 28. And what a great session it was! The basement was full of laughter and camaraderie as Phil Taylor, James Rodgers, Joel Salmons, Joel Salmons, Remy Salmons, Ethan Rodgers, Jacob Hol, Amby Nangeroni and Nick Ozorak ran the railroad for nearly 3.5 hours. Five of them were first time operators. Remy was only the second woman ever to operate the railroad.

Remy, Joel and John (l-r) at Falmouth

Because we had 9 operators, we ran the normal scheduled trains and an extra. That makes things a bit crowded in the front room when trains meet at Brooke or Stonemans, but everyone seemed to make it work.

Screen shot of the virtual Aquia Line in Trainz

Nick is the host "The Roundhouse" podcast. He also builds virtual railroads in Trainz. He brought screen shots of the Aquia Line railroad he is building in Trainz, a virtual model of the Aquia Line. He has been working on that for quite a while. It looks really neat. One of the views he showed me was the layout without the house walls in the way. That was an interesting use of the virtual layout. After the ops, Nick spent some time taking photos of spots that needed more work in his virtual plan. We also discussed some possible changes to the layout including the foundry at Brooke and the installation of the machine shop at Aquia Landing. When it is done, he will make it available for downloading. To see more of his podcasting work and virtual railroads go to https://www.youtube.com/@NickOzorak

Nick's concept of the foundry at Brooke. Looks good, but that W&A Car has got to go!

Happy New Year. The Moby Dick Diorama

2026-01-06T15:55:00.010-05:00

Scene from the News Years Party we attended

Work on the Aquia Line is 2025 was dominated by the machine shop construction and developing a range of figures to populate the layout. Somehow I managed to host no operation sessions all year, though I did have an open house for the layout and ran trains for some quests. I did attend some op sessions elsewhere including Marty McGuirk's inaugural session, Mat Thompson's new Oregon layout, Rich Steinman's EL and George Shindledecker's WM.

I hope to get more projects finished on the Aquia Line next year. I also have several other modeling projects lined up that I wish to compete (see Moby Dick diorama below). It will be a fun year as I also have a lot of travel planned starting with a trip to Costa Rica. Then to the Atlanta Figure Show in Feb, and Florida in March. Later in the year there trips to Japan and Prague on the schedule. In July-August there is the NMRA National Convention in Chattanooga and the IPMS National in Fort Wayne on back to back weekends.

From Hell's Heart I Stab at Thee

Gregory Peck stabbing Moby Dick

This is a figure diorama I am working on inspired by the story of Moby Dick. Specifically the scene from the movie with Gregory Peck where Ahab is caught on the whale and he tries to stab it as seen at the left.

The scene in the movie is a bit different from the book where Ahab doesn't get lashed to the whale, but is yanked off the whale boat by the harpoon line as it wrapped around his neck,

"The harpoon was darted; the stricken whale flew forward; with igniting velocity the line ran through the grooves;—ran foul. Ahab stooped to clear it; he did clear it; but the flying turn caught him round the neck, and voicelessly as Turkish mutes bowstring their victim, he was shot out of the boat, ere the crew knew he was gone. Next instant, the heavy eye-splice in the rope’s final end flew out of the stark-empty tub, knocked down an oarsman, and smiting the sea, disappeared in its depths.

The scene in the later movie with Patrick Stewart is a little closer to how the book described, but still has some differences.

Scenes from Patrick Stewart's movie version

I mocked up the diorama in Blender

The whale was too large for my printer so it required me to print it in two parts.

I used 2-part putty to resculpt the eye area.

I added additional wrinkles to the whale using my Rotex sander.

I have blocked in the colors on Ahab/

Work Session on the DRGW

2025-12-15T23:12:00.005-05:00

About one quarter of the overall layout

I went to Charles Bassing’s DRGW layout today to participate in a work session. I had not been to his layout before. I only knew about it from Mark Gionet. Well, turns out I was really in the dark as this is probably the largest layout in Northern Virginia. Charles has been working on it since 2008. It’s pretty far along with benchwork and track. Now a crew of folks are helping build scenery. The railroad covers the Tennessee Pass and Royal Gorge regions from Pueblo, CO to Minturn, CO in the 1930-40s including standard and a fair amount of narrow gauge. This is an area that I am somewhat familiar with as I modeled Tennessee Pass in N scale about 20 years ago.

I was assigned rock carving jobs. First I helped add rock castings to some of the many vertical cliffs. They were using sculptamold as a means to “glue” the castings to the cliffs and to carve the areas between castings. Believe it not, this was the first time I tried sculptamold. I found the my regular carving techniques didn’t work as usual when I use Water Putty. But, we made it work.

. After lunch, Charlie asked me to finish the rocks around a tunnel portal. For that I used lightweight hydrocal. My usual carving techniques worked here and it came out nice. After that I went back to sculptamold on the cliffs.

Meanwhile, Nick Kalis was painting structure mockups, Steve, Mark and Charles worked on staining and painting the huge cliffs. By the end of the day, the cliffs looked great.

Mark making some last minute corrections to rock castings

Mark begins staining rocks

Steve, Mark, Charles and Nick painting rocks

Pueblo yard

Looking good.

Great rockwork

Holiday Open House

2025-12-13T23:01:00.006-05:00

We hosted a holiday open house today. This is become somewhat of an annual tradition. There was a good turnout. I didn’t put out a guest list, but at least 40 people were there at one time. There were several first time visitors. And I may have recruited some new operators.

Alicia made cookies and brownies. Marty and Christine McGuirk brought some cookies. Almost all were eaten too, saving me s lot of calories

Several of the guests did the scavenger hunt which seems like they enjoyed.

Yule log playing Christmas Carols.

John Hancock

2025-12-11T23:45:00.007-05:00

This is a figure I have been working on for a possible 2026 show figure for the National Captial Model Soldier Society. It is a bust of John Hancock in 1/12th scale. The figure is part of the theme of US 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. I sculpted the figured digitally using Meshy and Blender. It is painted with acrylics and inks. I tried to use Rembrandt lighting with a main light to the figures lefthand above and a small fill light on the right.

The signature name plate was cut on my laser. The base is a piece off rosewood salvaged by Rob Kempinski from trees damaged in a hurricane a few years ago.

I have also been painting a 75mm figure of BG Hermann Haupt. This is WIP.

Merry Christmas

2025-12-11T01:31:00.002-05:00

November Update

2025-12-03T23:33:00.002-05:00

I spent most of November traveling to various locations so not much work on the layout.

John poses by part of his large layout

November started with a Joint division NMRA meeting for the Potomac and James River sub-Divisions. I visited two layouts in the afternoon. John Swanson's PRR layout and Cam Green's new O Scale Maine Central. John has done a lot of work on his layout since my last visit. It is an impressive layout.

Hand for scale shows that this is not HO scale.

Cam has accomplished an amazing amount of work on his new O scale layout in a short time. People were surprised when he tore down his former HO, double deck layout to start this new project. But I like what I saw. It's a big layout that features a relatively simple plan with a mainline loop and a branch. But it looks more complex than that because there is also a wye and the loop has a large portion under the main level. The large O scale engines are impressive. It will be fun to watch this layout develop.

Arizona

The travel started when Alicia and I left for a week long visit to Northern Arizona to see the Grand Canyon and then golf at Sedona. I had never been to the Grand Canyon before. It was spectacular. I did find it a bit strange that the canyon is so deep and narrow at the bottom when viewed from the south rim visitor's center that it was hard to gauge the full depth. I contrast that with my earlier visit to Canyonlands, where more of the whole depth can be seen. I was also surprised to learn that the south rim is heavily forested. I didn't expect that. It really is a beautiful site. I managed to catch the Grand Canyon Railroad as it arrived at the south rim while we were there.

Sedona is a spectacular mountain town that probably ranks number 1 of all the mountain towns I have been to in the US and Canada. (Note I have not been to Jasper or Banff which I suspect are more spectacular). We played some golf and I did a fair amount of bird watching both at the Grand Canyon and in the areas around Sedona such as Page Springs - see below. Hard to believe this is Arizona.

I did see a lot of cool birds on the trip. These are two of my favorites, both taken at Page Springs.

Northern Pygmy Owl

It was late in the day when I photographed this black phoebe. The resulting slow shutter speed left the wings in a blur, but the face is relatively sharp.

Yucatan, Mexico

We returned home for a few days to recover before I flew to Merida, Yucatan with my brother, Rob, for the grand opening of JAMYBO, Professor Enrique Castaño's new bonsai garden. My brother was one of the guests of honor who participated in the ribbon cutting ceremony. There were folks from around the world at the event.

One portion of Enrique's Bonsai Garden ay JAMYBO

Enrique (in the red shirt) listens to Herman on the right do a critiques of some of Enrique's trees. Enrique's garden has been described a probably the best collection of bonsai trees in Latin America, including species that are endemic to Yucatan. Enrique told us that he can't grow non-native species as the local ants eat them too quickly.

Two Crane Hawks near Merida

Enrique asked me to document the wildlife on his property for use in an application to the Mexican government for some type of nature preserve status. Just what I needed, an excuse to take bird pictures.

I also spent a day with a profession bird guide, Ramón Trinchan Guerra from Yucatan Bird Tours. He was an excellent guide. Between Enrique's Garden and Ramon's hot spots, I saw 106 species of birds in the Yucatan, including two endemic species. Ramon got this photo of me taking pictures of the flamingoes that are common in this area.

Prairie Warbler at Enrique's Garden

Rob and I also played golf at the uber exclusive Yucatan Country Club (the most expensive round of golf I ever played), we visited the Mayan Ruins at Uxmal (pronounced Oosh-mal), the beach at Sisal, and the Maya Museum in Merida.

We also stopped by a nice hobby shop in Merida and met the owner and his sons. They were having a model show, so we got to see some nice entries. Everyone was super friendly.

Arturo and his sons at the hobby shop. The fellow throwing the shaka hand signs is an American Civil War model specialist that lives in Merida. He had some nice ACW figures in the show.

Part of the juego de pelota maya court at Uxmal

Main structure at Uxmal.

Anuar (lower right) took us to an authentic Yucatan Restaurant. The food was interesting and very good. Anuar is a bonsai artist but his main job is tracking and studying jaguars in the wild. He promised to take me out with him the next time I visit Yucatan.

We had a great time with the bonsai folks. We even managed to get invited to more bonsai trips including the Czech Republic, Columbia, Ecuador and Brazil. All great birding spots too.

Kentucky

I got home late from from Mexico and immediately left the next morning to visit my son and his family in Kentucky for Thanksgiving. We had a great time playing with Ruka. She is growing so fast.

Chase said, "Ruka is into planes now." So we took her to the Kentucky Museum of Aviation

Frosty sunrise on our way home

When I got home, I had a lot of catching up to do for Alkem Scale Models.

October Update - the AI Invasion

2025-10-31T22:03:00.004-04:00

Proto People

An example of prototype people I can 3D print for my layout

I have spent much of October involved in developing a range of figures suitable for the Aquia Line. This is because there are very few civil war era figures available in the market that are in non-combat poses. So I decided to make my own.

One of my long term objectives was to learn 3D sculpting software to sculpt and then print those figures for my railroad. I considered Zbrush and Blender as possible software tools for this. Both have pretty steep learning curves so I delayed learning them. Zbrush is also very expensive, while Blender is free, open source. However, I learned about a new sculpting service called Meshy that greatly simplifies the process. Meshy uses AI functions to convert 2D images into STL files that can be 3D printed. It is similar to the photogramatry process used in 3D scanning, but it uses AI to extrapolate a 2D image to 3D. They charge a subscription fee, but it is not too expensive.

The work flow is as follows

Find an image that I want to use as inspiration for a figure or set of figures.
Clean up the image in Photoshop.
Import the 2D image to Meshy and create an STL.
Clean up and or repair the STL file in Blender and Meshmixer. For example, add an arm that the AI may have omitted, or fix the insignia or hat style on a figure. I also embellish the facial and other details.
Export a final STL that I can use in Chitubox to create the sliced file that can be used on a 3D printer.

I am not going to bother going into detail on any of those steps as there are thousands of websites and Youtube videos that explain them. The bottom line is that this work flow saves me a lot of time in the sculpting phase of the process.

With this I have been able to produce 3D prints of actual people that I find in images taken on the actual Aquia Line. I have developed a range of these figures that I sell on my Alkem scale models web site https://alkemscalemodels.biz/proto-people

Story Telling

Another one of my long term objectives is to use the USMRR Aquia Line as a setting and prop for telling stories in video or graphic novel format. I am not a big fan of superhero graphic novels. But I do like more realistic and historical stories told in graphic format and they are fun to make. However, the possibility of making a video story has been enhanced with the use of some of the new AI video tools that are coming available. I have done a limited test of these and the results are promising, but not quite where they need to be yet to make a good video short.

Here is a test video that I made using mostly Grok, but also some RunwayML.

Unfortunately, RunwayML has been disappointing. Grok works better but has many limitations. So, for now, this objective will have to wait until the AI video generating software improves.

NMRA MER Annual Convention

I attended the NMRA MER Annual convention in King of Prussia, PA, which is a suburb of Philadelphia, PA. The convention was fun, although a bit on the expensive side. The hotel was very nice and convenient to a lot of other attractions, such as the Audubon Center, where I went twice to bird watch. I went to one op session, managed to attend one clinic and spent a good part of Saturday acting an an evaluator for the Model Contest.

The model contest was very well run. My team was very proficient and did a great job in evaluating the many models. I also entered a model in the contest, so I had to sit out that category.

I am happy to report that my model of the USMRR Machine shop won three awards,

First Place in On-Line Structure
The Charles Haldik Memorial Award for best model of a southern RR subject
Best in Show

I will be taking the machine shop to one more show, then I will be installing it on the USMRR Aquia Line. I should mention that I used figures from my new line to populate the model.

On my way home I stopped at 4 model railroad open houses. All were very nice. I met Bruce Friedman, who is an Alkem Scale Models customer and has an impressive modern prototype based railroad. He was kind enough to demonstrate his contemporary US Army tank train on his layout. It is an amazing 70-car long train full of DODX cars hauling Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and a few other odds and ends.

Bruce had this posted on the wall of his train room.

It was an interesting coincidence that his and my model railroads were featured in the same issue of Model Railroader.

September Update

2025-09-21T23:09:00.003-04:00

The month isn't over, but the first three weeks have been super busy, so I decided to do an update.

1. National Capital Model Soldier Society (NCMSS) Annual Show

This was the 64th Annual show by the NCMSS. It was one of the most successful to date. This year had over 70 individual exhibitors in the competition with approximately 345 pieces on display, along with 179 general admission tickets sold. All display categories were very well represented to include figures of all genres, ordnance, vehicles, aircraft, ships, Gundam and always impressive dioramas.

Highlights included the Judges’ Best of Show awarded to James Rice for his Fantasy Display and the People’s Choice Best of Show that went to Steve Pyle for the fourth year in a row. My brother and I received the show theme award "Celebrating 250 Years of the U.S. Military" for our "Train Busters" diorama. Jack Thompson won the Best Marine and Tony Stencil for the Best U.S. Infantryman. I entered several models and received 1 gold and 6 silver medals.

I was busy as the chief judge for the ordanance category, so I did not participate in any of the clinics offered at the show. However, I did take the figure painting class offered by Jim Rice at the National Museum of of the US Army in the 2 days before the show. In the class we worked on a bust of a Continental Infantry man. We focused on the skin and eye painting.

I finished the figure after the class. I painted him as a member of the 1st Virginia Regiment at Valley Forge.

The class was very informative. I learned several lessons on using acrylic paint a figure especially on painting texture, and skin tones using verdaccio base coat. Jim has an award winning style. It was interesting to learn how he approaches achieves it.

2. MARPM 2025

The next weekend was MARPM 2025. This is an event totally run by volunteers with me as the director. It was also a successful meet. The largest we have had yet.

We had about 36 clinics, 10 open houses and 3 operation sessions. There were 3 layouts on display at the show including a large O scale layout organized by Dave Vaughn, and one medium size HO layout by John Drye, and several highly detailed models by Scot Wahl. There were several vendors on site and one manufacturer.

The raffle was also a big hit. It was a lot of fun, but there was little time to rest because the next weekend was...

3. ACWRRHS Annual Meet

Continuing the busy month, the American Civil War Railroad Historical Society held its annual meeting in northern Delaware on the 18-20th. The meet featured visits to the Hagley Museum, Fort Delaware, Old Town New Castle, several presentations at the hotel, and the inaugural op session on DC Cebula's Delaware Central layout. We capped off the weekend with a group dinner at the colonial era Jessup Tavern in New Castle.

The Hagley Museum was truly amazing. I never fully realized how gun powder was made in the black powder era, so the visit was very informative for me. My main priority was to visit the operating machine shop at the museum. The docent there was very pleased to have visitors that were so interested in his presentation. We had a very detailed presentation on the tools in the shop.

On the next day we took a ferry over to Fort Delaware. This stone and brick fort was built before the Civil war to protect the Delaware River approach to Philadelphia. The fort was used was a prison for confederates during the civil war. It is now a state part that has been partially restored. Many of the rooms were equipped with details from the civil war era. I took dozens of photos for detailing ideas.

The mail room at the fort

On the day we visited there were several volunteer docents in period uniforms to answer questions. The volunteer at the left was very authentic looking.

These trousers caught my eye. Note how dirty they are even after being laundered.

It was well worth a visit.

August Update

2025-08-27T23:20:00.012-04:00

It has been whirlwind of activity since my last update. I have been traveling, birding, building models, and trying to stay healthy. Here is a summary of the modeling activity. My Facebook feed has more pictures of my travels if you are interested.

The Machine Shop

I finished the machine shop. I installed it on a portable base to take it to some shows before I install it on the layout. I took a few quick photos, but I plan do take more later after I get it installed on the layout.

I brought it to the IPMS National Convention. They didn't have a category for models like this, so I entered it in the Miscellaneous Category. It did not get a National award, but it did get a couple peer awards.

My favorite view looking into the line of machine tools

It will be on display at MARPM 2025 and the ACWRRHS Annual Meeting, both of which take place in September.

Avenging Varus

This is a small diorama I worked on in the past few weeks. These are the first figure models I have painted in several months. This diorama depicts a scene from the battle of Idistasvisto, 16AD, when the Roman Empire sought and achieved revenge on the German tribes that participated in the Teutoberger Wald battle.

All the figures are 3d prints that I made. The Romans are from Minormous and are about 75mm scale. The dying German warrior is a print from Reconquer Designs that I scaled up from 28mm. I did a little bit of conversion work on the German to make his fit the scene better.

I will be showing this at the National Capital Model Soldier Society Annual Show next week.

Lotus Diorama

I built this diorama for the Lotus Club of Washington. They will auction it for charity. I started with a prepainted and assembled die cast model.

I weathered it for a more realistic appearance. The road is a piece of foam covered with a thin layer of Durham’s Water Putty.

Roger Sekera

I am saddened to report that Roger Sekera died while in hospice care. He suffered a stroke and heart stoppage while on a cruise in the Atlantic and could not recover. It was just a few months ago that I spent a few days with he and his wife Sue. I will miss him.

News Update: US Army 250th Anniversary and New Location for the D-Day Exhibit

2025-06-09T23:49:00.011-04:00

US Army 250th Anniversary

I am steadily working on the Engine House and Machine shop. I have the windows built and am now adding the exterior planks. I hope to debut the model at the US Army 250th Anniversary Celebration at Joint Base Langley- Eustis on June 13th, 2025. I will also have other civil war railroad models on display.

The event is open to the public. You can find more information here. The Military Railroad Society will be there with prototype and model train exhibits. The Army will have tours of their water vessels, other equipment of display, and lots of things for kids to do.

Come check it out.

D-Day Exhibit at 1st Infantry Division Museum

The D-Day Exhibit with the dioramas we built, Keith Rooco's artwork and his collection of artifacts are now on exhibit at the First Division Museum in Wheaton, IL You can find more information at the link below.

https://www.fdmuseum.org/exhibit/d-day-omaha-beach/

Shafts, countershafts, pulleys, belts, and belt shifters

2025-06-06T23:49:00.010-04:00

Side view of the machine shop

View looking through the machine shop. More weathering is required.

The boiler and steam engine were the final machines to add to the machine shop. The boiler is a kit from Crow River. I used Vallejo Model Air Black Metallic paint on the boiler. It make a nice simulation of Russia Iron typically used on boiler shells.

The engine was a file I obtained from GrabCAD. That is a website oriented to engineers vice hobbyists. Still, there are lots of files on it that can be printed in a scale model application.

I decided the steam engine needed a governor as that was a common feature in mill engines. The governor helps keep the steam engine at a constant speed as the load changes. That is key requirement when cutting multiple machines are running at specified feed rates and powered from the same source. So I drew a governor, printed it, and added it to the machine.

I installed the boiler and steam engine in an extension to the left of the shop. That means the structure will no longer fit in the wye at Aquia Landing. So, Plan A is now out.

With all the machines installed, I added the main shaft and countershafts. Some machines get power directly from the main shaft. Other machines use countershafts.

Countershafts have to fulfill three functions. They may drive at one speed, or at two speeds, but in the same direction; or they may run at two speeds, one for driving, the other for reversal. There are different ways of effecting these movements. I opted for single-speed countershafts with machines that have stepped pulleys. I 3D printed stepped pulleys for these countershafts.

Looking through the roof at the machine shop

Typical belt shifter design

The belt shifters are essentially the on-off switches for the machines. To make them I soldered pieces of 0.032 inch phosphor bronze to the roughly correct shape. I curved the belt shifters slightly to follow the shape of the pulleys. I used extra hangers that I printed to install them except in a few locations where there wasn't room for the full hanger. In those cases I used blocks of wood.

The belt shifters don't spin in the hangers. They slide longitudinally to shift the belts from pulleys that are loose to pulleys that are firmly attached to the shaft. Each belt shifter was a long, tapered wooden staff that extends about 6 feet above the shop floor. Operators reach up to grab the wooden staff to engage the belt shifter. I cut those staffs using 1/32nd in birch plywood on my laser cutter. The linkage for the staffs required that I solder a short section of rod at 90˙ to the direction of the belt shifters. I used 1/8 inch square sections of strip wood to hold the belt shifters to the joists.

Belt shifter.

All the shafts, countershafts, pulleys, belts, and belt shifters create a nice complex look. Installing them was almost as tricky as rigging a sail ship model. The view looking down the length of the machine shop is really cool.

Machine Shop Progress

2025-06-01T00:29:00.012-04:00

Machine shop at the EBT Railroad. It is amazing how many machines they crammed into those old shops.

I finished building most of the models of the machines I will use in the shop. I have only finished painting and installing the wheel press. The rest need final painting and weathering. Here is a list with status.

Planer 1 Wildwest kit

A nice, but expensive, model based a planer in the Sierra Railroad shops.

Planer 2 3D print from artwork that I modified from a file drawn by dansfoundry at printable.com.

This model was based on a New Haven planer restored by Vintage Machinery on YouTube.

Engine lathe Wildwest kit

This is the newer version with 3D printed parts

Bench lathe Wildwest kit Not built yet.

Slotting machine 3D print from my artwork.

I only had one view of the machine, so I had to make a lot of assumptions about the how it all works and fits together.

Wheel press
3D print from my artwork. Thanks to Marty McGuirk for finding a set of plans from a book on the Sierra Railroad.

This one had the most fiddly parts as there is a very delicate saddle to hold the wheels set in place while pressing it and a chain hoist to help lift the axles.

I decided to print a wheel set with 33 inch railroad wheels with the cooling fins on the back. I found a drawing of this type of wheel used by the UP. Those wheels were lightweight and discontinued as material gots better and trains got heavier.

While I was at it, I printed extra finned wheels to use as clutter around the shop.

33" Finned wheel set based on a UP drawing

Dill press small Wildwest kit. This will be mounted on one of the posts in the shop.

Pedestal Grinder Wildwest kit. A small grinder that can be used for general shop tasks.

Radial Drill Press 3D print from my artwork.

I based this on the machine that Iron Jonesy is restoring on his Youtube channel. He provided enough information about the machine that I could make a pretty good model of it. The only issue was that he never provided dimensions, so I printed it in two sizes to see which worked better.

This is the artwork of the machine.

I had to thicken up some of the parts to survive 3D printing.

The wheel press is the first tool I installed. It will be in the middle of the shop. I plan to work out from it.

I should have left some of the beams of the structure off to allow me to fit my hands inside more easily. But this should work.

I decided to attach the belts to the machines first. Then I will install the line shafts once all the machines are in place and secure the belts to the pulleys on the line shafts.

I am using 0.010 inch thick resin impregnated board for the belts. It is a bit stiffer than paper and is the right color.

I also printed a bunch of hanger and pulleys that I drew. I am not sure exact ly how many I will need as it depends of how many counter shafts I install.

The Sarlacc Pit?

2025-05-25T00:48:00.005-04:00

Mock up of engine storage tracks

I was distracted for a few days by an interesting track plan assignment. So today, I started building the pit for the turntable. If you recall, I built this turntable for the Road Show several years ago. I saved the rotating wooden part, but not the pit. So I had to make a new pit. Note that this pit is a conical shape, like the Sarlacc Pit in Star Wars. Now I need Boba Fett figure for the turntable scene.

I thought, "no problem, I have the files for the parts on my computer, I'll just cut an another set and glue them up." That went well enough for the main pit. But,... for some reason, the wedge-shaped pieces to make the surface of the pit were not the correct size. I must not have saved the final version of that file. So I had to redraw those parts. Now, they are tricky to design as I had to cut the parts in 2D but rotate up to make a 3D cone. It's kind of like trying to make a model of a building with hipped roof from 2D plans, except a bit trickier as this is a truncated cone or frustum.

I could have spent a few hours doing the math, but instead I got out my calipers, measured the required shape and cut the parts on the laser. It took a try or two but I got the parts I needed. I cut those parts from 0.032 in thick laser board.

Plan B v2 with storage tracks

Now the decision is where to place the turntable. I am coalescing on a modified version of Plan B from my earlier post. Note that I am adding two engine storage tracks to the design. I like how the parked engines look alongside the engine house. The storage tracks are needed as I have 6 engines, but we usually only use 2 or 3.

I did a short video describing how the turntable could fit in the space.

New Engine House and Machine Shop at Aquia Landing

2025-05-21T17:21:00.012-04:00

Work in Progress on the new engine house and machine shop

MYSTERY PROJECT REVEALED!

I have started work on a new engine house and machine shop. This project was inspired by a letter by Herman Haupt to General Burnside where he briefly described an engine shop at Aquia Landing.

November 17, 1862-11 a.m.
Major-General BURNSIDE:
I have just returned from Aquia Creek. ....snip...
A machine-shop will be extemporized at Aquia by sending lathes, planer, portable, small tools, and shafting. Army forges will furnish smith-shops.
HAUPT.

From the machines and tools he described I assume that this would be a shop for light repairs and maintenance on locomotives and rolling stock.

This project consists of three main phases, design and build the machine shop, build and add the tools, install everything on the layout. These are somewhat iterative as the size of the machine shop needed will depend on how many machines are included.

1. Design and build the machine shop

I decided I wanted this to be a higher quality model than the existing engine house I built years ago for the Road Show. So I scrapped that structure saving the roof shingled sections. I plan to redo all the windows, so I removed the Tichy windows and put them in the spares box.

Engine house framing at City Point

The new single track engine house at Aquia Landing will be based on the one at City Point with just one stall instead of the 3 at that location. The length will be 15 inches with the main posts on 10-foot centers. The frame members will all be stick built with bass wood strips. Some I will cut on my laser for precise fit of the miters and tenons (yes they look like Lincoln Logs). I used 3/16th inch wood as that scales out to 9 inches in O Scale. Heavier beams just didn't look right.

Framing plan for new engine house

Engine house and machine shop
at City Point

At City Point, the machine shop was installed at right angles to the engine house. I opted to make my parallel to the engine house to maximize room inside for the machine tools and work benches. I have not decided where to place the boiler house with steam engine. That depends on where I install the engine house.

I initially planned to add the engine house and machine shop inside the wye and Aquia Landing where the current engine house is located. But several other plans came to my mind.

Alternative plans for location of new engine house and machine shop

Plan A is possibly the simplest (see lead photo). The engine house resides inside the wye. There would be no changes to the track plan. The drawback is that the location of the machine shop would make it hard to see all the cool detail inside.

Plan B mock up

Plan B moves the engine house close to the aisle between Aquia Landing and Burnside Wharf. To accomplish that, the wye gets replaced by a turntable. I have an extra turntable leftover from the Road Show, so it would not be that much work to add it. The drawback here is that the turntable might be a little difficult to reach as it is deep in benchwork. The plus is that it gives the most flexibility as there would be two tracks to access the turntable.

Plan C Mock up

Plan C has the turntable and the shop close to the aisle by placing it alongside the engine house. This is how they did it at City Point. Accessing the turntable would be easier here. But, there is only one track to access the turntable.

I like how both B & C make getting to Burnside wharf seem a bit farther away than Plan A as crews can no longer back around the wye to get there, they have to go all the way back to the yard and them come down the back track. B & C also remove the wye track that was probably my least reliable piece of track. It worked well most of the times, but sometimes trains derailed on the wye, especially when backing.

The location of the boiler house and steam engine to power the tools would change depending on which plan I pick. In Plans A & B, the boiler house is parallel to the shop. In Plan C the boiler house is perpendicular to the engine house. In all those cases, the steam engine pulley would be parallel to the main line shaft.

What are your thoughts? Comment below.

2. Building the Tools

I am just about done making the tools for the machine shop. I am using some kits from Wildwest Models plus models that I am drawing in Fusion 360 and then printing. So far I have the following:

Planer 1 Wildwest kit
Planer 2 3D print
Engine lathe Wildwest kit
Bench lathe Wildwest kit
Slotting machine 3D print
Wheel press 3D Print
Dill press small Wildwest kit
Grinder small Wildwest kit
Shaper TBD
Borer TBD

Mock up of tools in the shop

I will do a more detailed report on the tools when I get them installed.

Trip Reports and Another Sneak Peak

2025-05-19T01:44:00.006-04:00

Sultana heads to dock in Cambridge, MD

The talks at the North Carolina RPM and the Chesapeake forum went well.

CAROLINA RPM

I carpooled to the Carolina RPM with Mike Pulaski. He lives in Richmond, about a 3.5 hour drive to Greensboro. So I drove to his house the night before. I had a chance to see his layout again on Friday and see his latest progress. We left his house at 500AM on Saturday and made it to the meet as it was getting started.

Butch Eyler had this display of cars weathering over time

The meet was fairly small with about 50 attendees. They held it is a conference center for a small business. The facility is quite nice with couches and chairs in the foyer and snack room with free drinks and donuts, and later pizza for lunch. They had one track of clinics to attend.

The model display room was small with about 6 people showing models. The vendor room was also small. But I was happy that vendor Aaron Chamberlain was there with basic supplies as I purchased tools and phosphor bronze wires.

I attended most of the clinics. One tidbit I learned was that certain solder fluxes can be conductive. You need to be careful when soldering on printed circuit traces and use non-conductive flux.

I was the last speaker to present. By then, the meet had thinned out and perhaps 15 people were present for my talk. I think everyone enjoyed it.

On Saturday night we visited a large club layout in Greensboro, got caught in a heavy rains and saw several NS trains roll through town while eating dinner.

All in all it was a fun time. Thanks to Mike for driving and Amy for hosting me Friday night.

CHESAPEAKE FORUM

A few days later I drove to Easton to present another talk. That one was more oriented toward civil war railroad history. I think it went very well. The audience members asked a lot of questions. Later, the Chesapeake Forum coordinator sent me feedback comments and they were very positive. One person said they could, "listen for another hour."

Roger Sekera and his wife, Sue, were my hosts while in Easton. We operated his HO switching layout after the talk. He designed the layout with ideas from my article on the C&O Brooke Yard that I wrote over 20 years ago. It took the two of us about 2 hours to switch the car float and various industries.

Sue made a nice dinner and we enjoyed a walk around his lovey neighborhood.We crashed early after dinner. Thanks to Roger and Sue for hosting me.

The next morning I got up early and visited Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and the Pickering Audubon Center. I saw a lot of birds and got some good pictures.

On my way home I spotted the Sultana heading into the dock at Cambridge Maryland. Sultana is a replica of a Revolutionary War sailing vessel. I stopped to get some pictures of the Classic Chesapeake scene with the schooner and light house.

MYSTERY PROJECT

The plot thickens.

Here are more sneak peaks at part of the mystery project. Any idea what it might be?

Upcoming Talks and a Sneak Peek at a New Project

2025-04-25T17:31:00.006-04:00

I will be presenting two talks at the start of May about railroading in the Civil War.

The first is at the Carolinas RPM Meet on May 3-4 in Greensboro NC. You can get more information about the meet at https://cmrgreensboro.org/calendar/rpm-carolinas-may2025/

The second talk is the same topic at the Chesapeake Forum in Easton, MD on May 7th. You can get more information about it at https://chesapeakeforum.org/course/railroads-of-the-civil-war/ Note, they are charging a fee for admission.

Next, I started working on a new project for my model railroad. I started off by getting a supply of scale lumber. Any guesses on what it might be?

Hint, I discussed this project on my blog before. It is a structure.

April Update- Northern Virginia Modelers Classic

2025-04-12T22:31:00.007-04:00

Vietnam War Theme Diorama

I attended the Northern Virginia IPMS Modelers Classic today in Fairfax, VA. This is the annual show hosted by the Northern Virginia IPMS chapter. It was a fun show. I got to meet a lot of interesting people and perhaps I will be engaging in some new projects.

Larry Valett, who is the skipper of the Washington Ship Modelers Society, mentioned a new project for the Mount Airy Museum. He is a point of contact for that museum too. I had donated a bunch of my HO civil war era cars to this museum in the past. They are now gearing up for a new exhibit honoring the 250 anniversary of the US Military. I may be contributing some models to that. It depends on what they want. We also discussed having the ship model society coming to visit the Aquia Line.

Don (l), Charles (r)

Next, I had a nice chat with Don Hakenson and Charles V. Mauro. They are northern Virginia locals that have published books on the history of civil war in the Northern Virginia region. In fact, it was Mauro's book that informed me about Nettie Barnes and her pig. I actually cited his book in an earlier post here. So, I was pleasantly surprised to meet him. I invited them for a visit to the Aquia Line.

I also got to meet Tom Jett, who is the chairman of the IPMS National Show scheduled for this summer in Hampton , VA. We discussed a possible collaboration in building a 1/35th scale flat car for an armor project he is working on.

High Road to Rome Diorama

The National Capital Model Soldier Society was also present in force. Darci and Dave staffed a table where we had figures on exhibit including the High Road to Road diorama. Our club members handled judging of the figures for the Modelers Classic.

I brought 6 models to the show in five different categories. I am pleased to say that I received two second and two third place awards. I also received the Special Show Theme Award for my diorama depicting a scene from the Vietnam movie, "Full Metal Jacket." I actually built this diorama in 2022, but it fit the theme of the meet, so I decided to display it. The actual award was an interesting full color print on a piece of aluminum. I really liked it.

Richmond Open 2025 IPMS Show

2025-02-27T12:01:00.007-05:00

My 1/76th scale WWI tank on Macaw flat car got a First Place award in the small armor category

I attended the Richmond Open 2025 sponsored by the Richmond IPMS club on Feb 21, 2025. It was a big show at the Old Dominon Race Track facility with about 900 models entered and over 1,000 people attending.

Sci-fi and Gundam was one of the most popular categories. The younger people really seem to like this theme. Aircraft were also popular.

Our model figure club, The National Capital Model Soldier Society, was tasked to judge figures, which we did. There were so many entries in sci-fi and fantasy that the table was jammed with models. It was hard to fully examine them for judging with moving many of them. But we did the best we could.

I entered some models in the contest and received two first place, one second and one third awards. Note this show does first-second-third vice gold-silver-bronze.

My WWI tank on flat car was a model I built several years ago for my book on military railroads. The flat car was completely scratch built except for the trucks and wheel sets. The tank had to be modified for rail transport mode. The figure is by W^D models. They were a source for some of the best 1/76th scale model figures. Alas, the owner retired and has not sold off his masters.

Alien- Ripley's Last Battle shadow box diorama got a third place award in Dioramas

Avalynne and Orien got a second place in non-historical busts

King Konrad won a first place in 90mm and greater figures. The is a100mm flat figure, I made the shadowbox using my laser cutter to depict the Palantine Chapel in Aachen, Germany

February Update- Road Trip

2025-02-27T11:39:00.007-05:00

I've been on the road for much of February so I didn't have too much time to work on the layout.

I started the month with a road trip to Nags Head and Wanchese, NC.

There I took a one day boat trip to look for pelagic birds, i.e. birds that live predominantly at sea. We journeyed about 20 miles off shore in choppy weather on a 60-ft long charter boat. The weather was too rough for good photography, but we did see quite a few birds. I got a decent photo of a puffin and a dovekie.

I also stopped by the Wright Brothers National Monument. I toured the museum. I did not realize how much research and development the Wright Brothers did . They had their own wind tunnel and developed their own engine. The whole effort was much more involved than I knew.

Replica Wright Flyer on display

Puffin about 20 miles off shore.

Florida scrub jay

I left NC and drove to my brother's house in Melbourne, FL. I spent a week there with him doing some bid watching and getting ready for JAXCON, 2025. A highlight was finding several rare and endangered Florida Scrub Jays near my niece's house near Rockledge, FL. I spent a morning at Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. Then I met some old friends, Clark Folwer and his wife Debbie Heystek, in Titusville for lunch.

Lifeboat from Maersk Alabama at Navy UDT-Seal Museum

On Thursday we took a drive to the National Navy UDT-Seal Museum in Fort Pierce. The museum is small but has a good collection of artifacts especially small arms and scuba gear used by the UDT-Seals from WW2 to current. Outside they have a collection of small boats from various eras. I was especially intrigued by the lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama that the Seals rescued from Somlai pirates.

We attended JAXCON for one day. The show was well attended with over 600 models on display. I entered several models and picked up two gold, 5 silver and a bronze medal. There were several models that I liked. Unfortunately, there were not enough people to act as judges. I was very busy as I judged half of the armor models and almost all the figures (except for the ones I entered). I later learned that several models did not get judged, which was disappointing for the people that missed out. When I judge I like to provide feedback to the entires.

This Mustang was awarded best in show at JAXCON 2025

Light house at Ponce Inlet

I left JAXCON and met Alicia at her mom's condo in Daytona Beach. Alicia's childhood friend, Debbie, and her husband, Dave, were staying with Anne. We visited Ponce Inlet for some wildlife viewing. We saw a manta ray, several dolphins, and many birds.

Incredibly cute Borrowing Owl

On Monday we dropped Alicia's mom off at Melbourne airport and then spent an another day with Rob and Terry. We played some golf and did a little birdwatching at Viera Wildlife Preserve. On Tuesday we drove to Homestead, Fl with stops to see Alicia's friend Denise in West Palm Beach, a quick birding stop at Valley View State Park where we spotted several burrowing owls, and finally a visit with my college friend, Eric Carr, in Fort Lauderdale. It is amazing how the area has become one giant megapolis from West Palm Beach to Homestead.

We spent the next morning touring the Everglades National Park. We saw a good number of birds, though not as many as I expected, but lots of alligators and fish. The waters of the everglades are just teaming with fish. Seems like everywhere you look you see fish. It was like looking in an aquarium.

They have a whole wing of the REV Institute museum dedicated to Porsche

Next stop was Naples, Fl to visit Alicia's brother and sister-in-law. They bought a nice condo in Naples. The following day we toured the REV Institute museum in Naples. It is an excellent museum filled with rare and historic cars. If you like cars, it is well worth a stop.

We continued north to Clearwater, Florida to visit our friends Joe and Carol Post. The next morning Carol took us to Sand Key Park to do some bird watching. It was very windy and cloudy, but I did get an interesting photo of a laughing gull with a small catfish.

We headed back to Daytona with a stop at Lake Apopka to do the famous wildlife drive. The weather was cool and very cloudy. We saw over a thousand birds and even spotted some lifers.

Purple Gallinule

We played one more round of golf. Then headed home to Virginia. In all I was gone for 18 days. It was a great trip. As far as bird watching, I got a lot of photos, and picked up 8 lifers in Florida and 11 in North Carolina. Alas, we didn't visit any model railroads.

USMRR Dot Code

2025-01-27T17:32:00.003-05:00

I recently had some questions about the UMSRR Dot Code. There used to be two websites with good information about them. Alas, one of the sites is now gone. However, I was able to download this file from their website before it went dark.

The other website is still around at http://www.civilwarsignals.org/pages/tele/tele.html

That site contains several quotes by Walt Mathers. Walt was an expert on Civil War telegraphy. Alas, Walt passed away a few years ago. He describes a dot code used on telegraphs on that webpage.

I did have some correspondence with him before he passed about the USMRR Dot code. Unfortunately, his answers to my questions were not very clear. Here is an excerpt from a message I received from him. Note that the 3rd, 4th and 5th paragraph describe a dot code, despite him saying that a dot code wasn't used in the first paragraph.

"To the best of my knowledge, neither the USMT or their Confederate counterpart used a two-element dot code. American Morse system, of four elements, was used on land lines. While the 1852 Berlin code, of two elements, was used on the 1858 trans-Atlantic cable, and the Bain code, of two elements, was absorbed by a successful law suit brought about by Morse, the land-line, or Morse code (actually invented by Alfred Vail but that's another story), was used.
The Union army's chief signal officer, Albert James Myer, who had been a Bain two-element operator on the NY line as a youngster, developed a simple code that could be used on an electric telegraph magnet using single blows to represent a dot, i.e. a single blow representing the numeral "one" ... and two quick blows on the sending instrument (to signify a "two".
This code, which superseded Myer's original four-element code of numerals (one through four with five being used to end a word, two for a sentence and three to finish off a message), could be used with flag and torch or as a homographic code of using one's limbs.
So, instead of using dots, dash, extended (or sustained) dashes and spaces between dots such as the letters "Oh" "Rah" or Cee" with the Morse system, a signal operator could use combinations of single or couplet blows of dots upon the sending instrument's anvil.
Neither US or CS landline telegraphers have ever been documented as using a dot code in the field. Did others, such as army signalists use it in a pinch on electric lines? We just don't know. If documentation does surface we'll let you know. Re-enactors do effectively use it to good effect to communicate over their distant event wires."

I found this document on another website, but I did not record where I found it. It contains some additional information on dot code and operating procedures used by the telegraphers.

Myer's system is described in this document. http://www.civilwarsignals.org/pdf/lgmanualofsignals.pdf It seems to apply primarily to flag and torch signals, but he does briefly mention electrical signaling in the document.

From this message traffic it appears that using dot code on electrical telegraph was used by re-enactor telegraphers, but perhaps not very likely by actual civil war telegraphers.

Merry Christmas

2024-12-17T20:57:00.000-05:00

Hope Santa treats you well!