US Military Railroad- Virginia 1863

Third Anniversary

2012-02-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

This week marks the third anniversary of work on the USMRR Aquia Line model railroad project. It has come a long way from the scene below when I first tried testing out the concept. In fact, this is the furthest along I have ever progressed on a layout. On most of my previous layout projects at some point before this level of completion I would have gotten bored with the project or distracted

Alexandria in the Civil War

2012-01-26T00:01:00.001-05:00

Wally made this panorama of the Alexandria waterfront from three images Alicia and I attended a lecture tonight by Wally Owen at the Lyceum, Alexandria's History Museum, called, "A Visual Tour of Civil War Alexandria." Wally Owen is the Assistant Director of the Fort Ward Museum and co-author of "Mr. Lincoln's Forts: A Guide to the Civil War Defenses of Washington." The lecture was a two hour

An icy cold weekend

2012-01-22T23:58:00.003-05:00

The cold, icy weekend meant lots of progress on the layout. First I reconfigured the slope of the hill behind Potomac Creek to make it look more like a country road. This resulted in a slightly sunken road at the top of the ridge. Then I painted the rocks at Wiellep's Cut with a dark base color. I find that when using water putty for rock carvings, one can not just stain the rocks like you can

Homeward Bound

2012-01-16T23:10:00.000-05:00

This Paul Strain painting shows the 20th Maine marching to battle from Stoneman's Station The Potomac Creek station scene will feature a long line of soldiers marching on a road to the railhead. The road leads from the back drop to the railhead at Potomac Creek. My intent is to display a regiment with each figure shown one-to-one. A full strength regiment has over 1,000 men. At two years

Shelob's Lair.

2012-01-16T00:08:00.001-05:00

In a long awaited move, I finally painted the base scenery and fascia from Brooke to Accokeek. Only a 6-foot section to go and all the fascia and scenery will be painted the base color. I am using Ralph Lauren Adirondack Bark. It is a textured paint and does a great job making the fascia and the layout visually blend together. The base coat of paint makes a big difference. The layout takes on a

Model Railroad Planning 2012

2012-01-14T00:36:00.000-05:00

The 2012 issue of Model Railroad Planning has an article about my layout. It was written by Gerry Fitzgerald. You might recognize him from this blog as he is one of my regular gandy dancers even though he lives in Charlottesville, VA where he is a graduate student at UVa while serving as a visiting professor at GMU. Gerry wrote the article with my permission and cooperation. I took the photos

Planning an Alleghany NTRAK Module

2012-01-11T23:51:00.004-05:00

Thom inspecting the rocks of Mordor, I mean Brooke. Matt photographing the Hidden Valley layout in 1995 Thom Metz stopped by tonight to discuss his plans for an NTRAK module based on Alleghany, Va. We are lucky that Matt Schaefer designed an excellent module based on Alleghany for Dudley Ross several years back. Matt was one of the best NTRAK modular designers ever. People from

Alco Heritage Museum

2012-01-09T23:23:00.001-05:00

I recently learned that the Alco Heritage Museum in Schenectady has moved to a new, larger location. The museum will feature many neat exhibits including tanks, locomotives, a replica of an engine erecting shop, an FA-1 cab simulator, and a civil war railroad model display. From wikipedia, and google books, Prior to 1901 this Works was known as the Schenectady Locomotive Works and as

Historic Princeton Junction Photo

2012-01-09T23:15:00.000-05:00

Doug Gurin recently gave me a copy of this photo. He didn't have any additional information about it so I posted it here in the hope that someone might know more about it. I did some web searching and found that Princeton Junction was the location where a short branch line connected the town of Princeton to the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company in May, 1865 (see here, here and

Ah, Sunny Florida

2012-01-08T23:53:00.000-05:00

Top down, visor on, iPod synched - ready to boogie. There is nothing like a trip to sunny Florida in January. Prototype Rails 2012 is over and I had a good time. Here are some of the highlights. A scene on the FECNtrak oNeTRAK layout Prototype information on the Hialeah Balloon Track Their model of the Hialeah Ballon Track Matt, Gregg, Tom (l to R) The FECNTrak group was

Prototype Rails 2012

2012-01-05T16:41:00.000-05:00

Water tank on Paul Dolkos' layout I'm off to Prototype Rails 2012 in Cocoa Beach. I will be doing an update on my layout at 9:00AM on Friday, 6 Jan. Later that afternoon I'll be doing a make-and-take class on how to build an HO scale rooftop water tank kit that includes both laser cut wood and photo-etched parts. The photo at the right shows the water tank kit installed on Paul Dolkos' HO

One Does Not Simply Walk into Mordor...

2012-01-04T00:49:00.000-05:00

This is for those of you that thought that the rock face looked like Mordor. I always thought Middle Earth would make a neat setting for a Lord of the Rings inspired model railway. They didn't have steam power in Tolkien's world, so you'd have to come up with some other form of motive power. Water powered cable railway maybe? Here is what the rocks look like without Mount Doom.

Sisyphean Labor?

2012-01-02T21:54:00.002-05:00

Unlike Sisyphus, I am nearly done with my rock work. I ran out of Durham's water putty or I might have finished tonight. Another night or two of of mudding and the basic terrain will be done. That will be a relief. Once the rock face at Brooke was dry, I painted it with a base coat of acrylic paints. I do the dark colors first as I like the extra contrast it gives me. So I use a mix of

Hard shell and rock carving

2012-01-02T02:38:00.001-05:00

Gerry Fitzgerald stopped by for a work session on the afternoon of New Years Eve. He worked on fixing some loose scenery by Potomac Creek siding as well as spiking some more rail. I worked on adding hard shell and rock carvings. We decided that the rock carving process was interesting and worth making into a video tutorial. You can see the 12 minute movie below. Adding hard shell to the

Layout Visitors and Prototype Rails

2011-12-30T00:48:00.003-05:00

Work progresses, but it's too messy to show to the public. In between slinging plaster and making a huge mess, I had some very nice visitors this past week. John Drye points out some detail at Stoneman's Switch to his niece, Sarah. Ben and Katrina, my niece and her boyfriend, check out the layout on the day after Christmas. Fred and Helen posing by Potomac Creek. Fred and I were

Aquia Line - Layout Trailers

2011-12-26T23:30:00.000-05:00

Coming soon to a basement near you..... Once more, this time without using the iMovie template. .... OK, but maybe if I stop playing with iMovie and my new iPhone 4S I will finish my layout.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:08:00.002-05:00

Soldiers not actively campaigning celebrated Christmas in several ways. Union soldiers would use salt pork and hardtack to decorate Christmas trees. Here workers from the railroad visit with soldiers to admire their tree.

Dirty Job 161

2011-12-24T00:12:00.003-05:00

Sorry Bernie, I'm too busy Where is Mike Rowe when you need him? I slung some water putty, white glue, and fast and final spackle on the layout tonight. The objective was to get the dam scene surrounded with basic scenery so I can paint it and then get the mill placed. Then final detailing can begin. First I taped over the Easy DCC control panel with masking tape to keep glue and water

Water Wheel of Fortune

2011-12-22T00:16:00.000-05:00

Work continues on the mill. I finished the basic structure except for the roof, a few doors and some hatches that must wait until I install the wheel. Near finished mill with tail race extension installed. I still need to paint the stones, add the roof and some other details. Water wheel with NBWs installed. I used a half- inch wood dowel for an axle. I laser cut the parts for the

Going with Option 3 for the Water Mill

2011-12-21T01:30:00.001-05:00

The view shows the wheel and dam, but is not the normal viewing angle from the aisle. I started building the mill structure and have it about one third complete. Before I went any further I decided to see how it was going to fit in the scene. I decided to go with option 3, i.e. having the mill against the backdrop with the dam hiding the seam where the creek meets the wall. The Yates Mill

A Milestone Achieved

2011-12-19T00:37:00.000-05:00

This weekend marks a milestone for the Aquia Line. All major construction and terrain forming is complete. I can put away the chop saw for "good." Dave Cooper had the distinction of running the first train from Falmouth to Aquia under the new fully covered mountain. Everything worked as planned....YES! I also finished all the basic terrain shapes for the complete layout. There is still a

Back to the future

2011-12-16T00:23:00.001-05:00

Last week I mentioned that I had received the Model Railroader 75-year collection DVD set. I had trouble getting the disks to install on my iMac, but after two calls to Kalmbach Customer Service, a replacement set of disks, which were probably unnecessary, purchasing an upgrade to my Max OS, which was also unnecessary and not suggested by Kalmbach, and a software patch that Kalmbach emailed to

Nice Backdrop Painting and Models

2011-12-15T10:17:00.003-05:00

The 2012 Wigan Model Railway Exhibition in Yorkshire, England featured some awesome layouts. You can find a nice summary of them here. I am a big fan of British exhibition style layouts and want to build one or two myself, once I get the Aquia line finished. What is a exhibition layout? I could not find an simple definition on the net, but I define it as a small, portable, self-contained model

Mill Mock Up

2011-12-14T23:50:00.002-05:00

Using the plans of the Piney Branch Mill I made a 1/48th scale mock up of the Piney Branch Mill building. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the building in 1/48th scale is only 8.6 inches long. That will fit in the site nicely. I tried various placements of the mill. The problem is that this mill has a large wheel and requires quite a bit of vertical drop for the feed water (hydraulic

Tunnel Cut Construction

2011-12-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

Gerry sent me some photos from Sunday's work session. His set of photos shows a nice sequence of how I did the tunnel portal area. Using foam to frame in the cut leading to the tunnel portal. The surgeon at work. Note to self, don't pull hot glue that sticks to your skin off.