Operating Session #17

August 12, Trainmen assembled into three crews of two operators each. Bill Myers was assigned to the special running out of Atlanta. A wide range of trains were dispatched, including artillery, mixed, cotton, and hospital. "Random Events" added the unexpected, a wreck train and a telegraph section. Operators also encountered a car with a broken axle, sabateour torching a bale of cotton, officers intervening and demanding two cars off fed and hay dropped on a siding. Bill's special was the spoiler as the other trains had no idea to expect him. Makes for a real-life prototype experience.

After each session, I ask everyone to supply me with highs and lows of their experience. During their runs, they also note where they had issues, e.g., derailments, short, poor loco performance, and anything I need to know for a smooth operation next time.

Here are a few pics from that Saturday...

Corey and Roger are picking up platform cars of cotton in Kingston. Their Random Event was a torched cotton bale, and to uncouple that car.

Here we have Jim on the right, a first timer. He is the Superintendent for our sister NMRA Division, The Garden State. You can read about Jim,  layout updates, and the activities of their division in the Whistle Stop newsletter. Google the NMRA, Garden State Division and their website will pop up. He and Glyn are taking a train through Kingston, on its way to Chattanooga. 

Rob, the engineer, and conductor Dave are making a move in the north end of Big Shanty. Most of you probably know that the Great Locomotive Chase began nearby. By the way, this crew had the car with a broken axle. 

May Operating Session

Our latest and perhaps one of our most enjoyable train runnin sessions.

Left to right, Andy, Heath, DC, Ted, Rob and Jim. Unfortunately Corey had to leave early.

When planning these sessions, there are always one or two operators that may need to cancel last minute. I lost my mind as I had spent more than a week working out the schedules for two member crews. Another lesson learned... KEEP MY COOL! It worked out great. There were four trains and two had solo operators. This helped me realize that one person can do all the jobs. Now I just need to make a few adjustments to minimize all the paraphernalia an operator needs to carry. Easy! 

This view shows the new ops elements I incorporated into different train orders. The car with derrick is the wreck train with two attached cars. These were mentioned in a couple of writings by trainmen who rode the W&A at the time and other lines such as the VA Central, East TN & GA and GA RR.

Bottom left is a telegraph car. This would take new poles and insulators to set along the line or to replace those needed.

The keg is one of whiskey which seemed appropriate to "support" the troops. Next is a grease bucket, the idea coming from Wilber Kurtz notes that one engineer was asked to meet another train to hand of a bucket of grease. 

Last are pole cars. Lever cars were had not arrived on the W&A in 1863. However, these pole cars were on occasion transported to an area where workers would need to travel down a line to either inspect of conduct minor repairs. 

During this session, each of these were added to a crew's train orders. The feedback was ecstatic as it provided a hands-on experience for the operators.

 

OP Session January 28, 2024

Another fun ride on the W&A, north branch! Operators included members from our ACW RRs group, Corey, Bill and DC, https://groups.io/g/CivilWarRailRoads. Another person, Glyn is a fellow board member in our NMRA Division, and Ed who is a member from our local model RR club, Garden State Central http://www.gardenstatecentral.com/

I had three train schedules prepared. However, a couple of folks couldn't make it last minute  And, I didnt even think about removing the one train. This, however, made for an interesting movement for the crew that encountered this train as it blocked their route. 

One of the compelling aspects of modeling this era is the consistent randomness of situations which were very prototypical then given the demands for both civilian and military needs and requirements.

Below, Bill is Yardmaster in Chattanooga while Ed and Glynn are preparing to depart for points south.

DC, brakeman, and Corey throttling through the Kennesaw Cut with a mixed freight of empties pulled by the W&A 4-4-0 Georgia. All names for the locomotives, as well as businesses and particular land features are consistent with the W&A line in 1863. 

Glynn and Ed taking out the Catoosa for its first run of the day, also a mixed freight with a few passenger stops scheduled along the way.

 

Test run with a Soundtraxx Current Keeper

 Locomotives running smooth is what truly matters. Otherwise I have a wonderful diorama. But that is NOT the goal. Here are two video shorts showing the Dr Thompson, a converted and detailed Mantua General, on a test run. My big difficulty was getting them to consistently run through turnouts. So far so good!

Operations Session

February 21 the W&A hosted its first official ops session! Long time coming it has been. We were honored to have six friends partner up in crews of two, one engineer with a brakeman. 7:00 PM crew members arrived to orient themselves to their schedules and plan their ways of working. 7:30 the clock started and everyone was completed by 9:15. Of course there were many breakdowns that were communicated to the superintendent, providing LOTS of maintenance work orders. But this is to be expected, although he (I) was more disappointed than expected. Bottom line is that it appeared all had a fabulous time.  
Engineers were responsible for operating the locos. Brakemen had responsibilities for coupling, re-railing cars when necessary and ensuring switches were set accurately. 
The schedules were challenging in that the timing of arrivals caused negotiations in order to ensure that their respective time tables were successfully met. 
The image below, with a Yankee who somehow infiltrated as a brakeman, shows Paul with Jimmy at the throttle. Shortly after this shot, another consist came barreling through with DC at the throttle causing one of those "challenging" situations. However, when considering this is 1863, trains were constantly running at all times in order to meet both military and civilian demands. Hence, this was quite prototypical. However, schedule adjustments will be made for the next session.

This next photo has brakeman Christopher questioning engineer Martin's instructions on how best to build their consist in Chattanooga. Martin is a veteran engineer and Christopher... well, this was his first time in this role. He had a steep learning curve, and did quite well.

Below, my good friend from high school and college, Dave Eberhardt, is on his maiden run as a first time brakeman with DC at the throttle. Dave had a layout in the '70's, my first experience helping to build structures and learn a few basics. Here they are building their consist in Atlanta. 

This one below is the opening of the session, two crews setting up their respective runs.

Prior to this evening, one of our favorite modelers and friends, Brian Kammerer visited. It had been quite some time since his last appearance. He did not like a bird I had set into the backdrop because of the shadow. So in his nature for clean imaging, we were able to get him to add a small flock of crows to the backdrop, the latter which he had painted in the early days of layout construction. So good it was to have his rare visit to the W&A. Here is a link to his art work http://www.cwbattlemapart.com 

DC arrived early to complete his scratch build of a prototype fire house in Chattanooga. "Look what I did!" And it is ridiculously exquisite! 

Shorty after, he wanted to see the cars he had built for his own future layout run on our W&A. All was well until he begin to uncouple. He pulled the pins, however, the links were a bit tight in the coupler pockets. As he pulled one car off it pulled the next... HO dominoes resulted! Although there were a couple of casualties, they were easily repaired. Lesson-do NOT uncouple on elevations!

This ops event was a much welcomed achievement given we've been at this since 2003! Using the hindsight factor, I would have ... but hindsight also says there is only so much planning; best is to get into it and be open to learn, adjust and have great friends to share the joy along the way.

NMRA OPEN HOUSE

November is open house for those model railroaders affiliated with the National Model Railroad Association. This is in addition to the local Divisions who sponsor Division Meets throughout the year where members also open their layouts to visitors. The following photos and video is from 11.18, last Saturday and although not a bright sunny day we had a reasonable turnout. The gentleman below with glasses, Dick Genthner, has been a long standing member of our Division and is a very accomplished modeler. Any compliment from Dick is one to appreciate.

 

Overlooking the Atlanta rail yards is Dick with another Division member, Herb, who also has been a terrific model railroader. Both gentlemen have established layouts conducting operations on a regular basis, one of my goals. 

Newest engineer on the W&A, DC Cebula, is running the locomotive Alabama of the Georgia RR which had an interchange in Atlanta. This view is overlooking Kingston. The interchange here was to the Rome RR, not Italy of course.

 
From inside the Macon & Western depot office. Windows were framed inside. Rafters and floor joists by LeBron Mathews.

 
Other photos and videos are forthcoming. But for now, here is a montage of videos shot by our good friend Andy Salcius who also took the photographs.

TRAIN RUNNING ON THE AQUIA LINE, RICHMOND, FREDRICKSBURG & POTOMAC RR

Our group, the American Civil War RR Historical Society, had our annual meet here in Harper's Ferry. Our site visits include Harper's Ferry of course plus the Martinsburg Roundhouse facilities and Bernie Kempinski's O scale model of the Aquia Line, otherwise known as the RF&P. It was heavily traveled by the USMRR as the Yanks were continuing their push into VA. Here is a video of three 3-man crews operating according to a live schedule of train movements at his home in Alexandria.

http://usmrr.blogspot.com/2017/09/we-have-met-layout-and-it-is-ours.html

SHAKE DOWN RUN

This was time to see just which locomotives would run reasonably well to terrible, and to detect track malfunctions as well. Two of  my club mates from the Garden State Central Model RR Club in NJ came by. Below is Jimmy flying our colors on his tee shirt. Beginning in Atlanta, he engineered the Catoosa to stops in Big Shanty and Kingston for a final stop in Dalton. However the Catoosa gave him (and me) fits of unplanned stops and stalls. 

Below, Martin is in Dalton with the famous General locomotive. He is setting up to reverse the loco on the Dalton turntable in order to run freight south over to Kingston. It was not unusual to have locomotives pulling trains but not long distances. The General has been one of the more reliable locos in my stable. For this session it had less difficulty than Jim with Catoosa.

Jim hovering over Atlanta while Martin continues his reversal.

Looking south as Martin pulls the General from the turntable. You may also notice that we use the NCE DCC system; love it!

The session was fruitful. BIG lesson, which never fails to appear, is the need to have clean track and wheels!. My frustrations ran up watching the Catoosa struggle. The next day I began troubleshooting. I realized that I although I had cleaned the main line, I had Jim and Martin running onto sidings that had not been cleaned. Pulling another loco off to inspect, I discovered the filth on the driver wheels. I am sometimes surprised if not shocked as to the amount of dirt the wheels collect in a short amount of time. However, these Mantua 4-4-0's require as much contact as possible to ensure smooth running. Although I accept the fact there will be the stalls and stops, these can be dramatically reduced by handling the Ops Session Fundamentals 101... a thorough cleaning of ALL track and wheels prior to ops sessions. But we did have fun!

Turntable Discussions Episode 3 with Al Mueller

One common theme with these discussions is that my guests who model railroads of the American Civil War are all remote. Al is from the Milwaukee area. This is from my visit in February. As this was a rare opportunity to visit with him, I spontaneously decided to use a portion of time to shoot the next episode of Turntable Discussions. This is my first attempt using Adobe Premier Elements video editing. I want to apologize first for the blurriness in some footage. I used my iPhone 4S as well as trying to shoot while I was mobile. LOTS of lessons learned! The entire interview ran about 45 minutes. I edited much in order to meet the less-than-15-minutes allowed via blogspot. Additional footage will be posted at a future date.

Chattanooga to Tunnel Hill

My good friend Andy Salcius was here a few weeks ago and posted this video he took of the most recent excursion through Georgia on the W&A. A few things to note is that the landscape and structures are period in that they have been extensively researched. Most structures are either scratch built from period photos, illustrations and/or diagrams. The time is summer 1863. Chattanooga was on the verge of being captured by the Union Army of the Cumberland, led by General Rosecrans. Locals were evacuating to points south while Confederate troops and military supplies were be transported both north, from Georgia, and south from Virginia to meet the Yankee incursion. They were to eventually meet the Union army at a place called Chickamauga Creek were the south would experience its only clear victory in the western theater of war.

 

Decoder Installations

Over the last couple of years many activities have and continue to occur that provide alternatives for those of us/you looking to have quality running 4-4-0's, especially if using the Mantua General.

Over the last few months my primary focus has been to re-tool two locos. Al Mueller has been instrumental in helping me both with his manual on "Modifying the Mantua General", as well as locating a superb motor from a source known as "Motorman". These new motors clearly surpass the usual can motors. NWSL (North West Short Line) has been my source and the motor provided when Mantua was offering a retro-fit to replace the original open motors installed in their Generals. Motorman reconstitutes motors that he acquires. I use the Maxon Swiss 13mmx... Some are so small that there is plenty of room for a sound decoder in the tender. I use Tsunami micro and the OSI .62 speaker from Tony's Trains.

These two photos give you an idea on how I positioned them in the tender. Al's General rebuild Manual has been a key resource for ideas on how to modify the tender. You can also see that the small motor is a perfect fit. In this tender I fabricated a base for the motor for ease of removal. A piece of brass plate was tapped from under the tender then a styrene plate on top of the brass plate where the motor was attached with silicone adhesive. I can remove the motor if needed to make repairs or do maintenance. The speaker here is a .62 OSI round with its casing. Although someone mentioned the casing is not needed, I have not experimented with that idea...yet. 
In the photo below, foreground, I attached a plug for the hot (red) wire from the decoder to the the black which attaches to the loco drivers. Plugs are essential because of the number of times I may need to dismantle for maintenance, and there are times (sometimes too many for me) when this is needed. The drive shaft is piano wire attached to NWSL universal cups. You might also see my use of shrink tubing to prevent inadvertent shorting.

Photo on the right is an install after having machined the tender top and corners to allow more space. Lots of drilling and filing required!
Lastly, this photo below shows the addition of a tender "harness". This idea was another of Al Mueller's to ensure good contact,  key to the 4-4-0's operational ability.

NMRA MER Division Meet Open House

A short video of events and travails.

LeBron Mathews' Western & Atlantic R.R. South Branch

This W&A is sub-titled South Branch to distinguish his layout from my 'North Branch' as LeBron resides near Columbus GA. LeBron and I met though D.C. Cebula when D.C. posted an ad in a Model Railroader issue inviting modelers interested in ACW RR's to connect via internet. At that time D.C. had attracted about two dozen people. Shortly thereafter D.C. formed our current group the civil_war_rrs_@yahoogroups.com. 

LeBron and I had our first meeting in 2001 at the Georgia State Archives, both of us in the early stages of our respective layouts. Since then LeBron has just about completed not only his railroad, but has redone or renovated a variety of his modeling elements. Although built in a room about 8'x10', the detailing is truly extraordinary and very much a work of art. I have the pleasure to feature some photos of his best-in-class modeling., a master modeler indeed.  

This is his panorama of Atlanta and the skyline. His Backdrop was initially a commercial photo backdrop and runs along three walls. His layout is along three walls and is a walk-in. Trains run north or to the left. Atlanta is the end of the line. Over the years LeBron has used a variety of mediums including reduced photos pasted onto the backdrop and then painting additional details. He also has hand painted structures, fields and vegetation. An example is the church shown in the photo center.

If not all, a clear majority of LeBron's structures, most being scratch built or kit bashed, represent actual businesses and, or homes in 1862, the year he models. Middle foreground in the following two photos is the Trout House. No not a fishery or restaurant but one of Atlanta's premier hotels. Also notice the building to the right. It belongs to the Free Masons, their meeting hall.

Below is a George Bernard photo. He accompanied Gen'l Sherman and the Union army during 
Atlanta campaign. Compare this pic with the one above to see how LeBron built an exact replica of the Trout House as well as the building to the right belonging to the Free Masons.

Here is the famous Car Shed all scratch-built  of course. I believe he used primarily Evergreen styrene, Grandt Line details and the brick is a Micro-Mark paper product. LeBron has also added functioning gas sconce lamps for night operations on the inner structure which unfortunately is not visible here. Actually his layout is set up for night running. Many structures have internal lighting.

The dominant structure below is LeBron's depiction of the Concert Hall, one of the signature structures in Barnard's Atlanta photos. In the foreground are two trains, one arriving the other departing. Operationally, he has made gondola inserts and flat car loads, such as the artillery unit, for the quick on and off. 
Looking closely at his backdrop you can see his structure and field additions. The entire layout is full of details covering nearly every inch of benchwork. We'll be sure to add another post perhaps a video during an operation and views during one of W&A's summer evenings.

The Orange & Alexandria R. R. A Visit to Al Muller's Layout

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to spend two and a half days learning from one of the masters. Al wrote the MANTUA GENERAL REBUILD manual for converting the basic General into one that runs with precision quality and to be extraordinarily detailed. Of course I brought along several of my 4-4-0 Generals to get Al's "laying on of hands" and came home with more than I could hope for as we fine tuned, machined and took my work to the next level. You will be seeing these in action in a future post... I hope! For now, here are 2 videos I shot while visiting Al's O&A. 

In the video below, the first train is led by the 4-4-0 Senator. The second loco is another of Al's transformations, the Lexington, also of the O&A. The second video is Al's Warrenton pulling a passenger train of resin kits by John Canfield.

As it passes the town of Atlee VA you may notice the young man butchering the pig as it hangs from the post. Al's rolling stock is BTS, Alkem, Classic Miniatures, Concord Car Works and a few resin Passenger cars. The structures include kits from BTS, Bar Mills, Blair Line and several scratch built. Enjoy the sound in these beauties,  Soundtraxx Micro-Tsunami decoders,TSU-750, #826001.

W&A RR North Branch - Video.

This video features LeBron's Texas after a complete fabrication, everything from a new boiler to smoke stack and a variety of detailing including the addition of sound. We were testing pulling ability. During the war trains up to 23 cars were hitched to a loco, in some cases double headed. Here the General is pulling 11 cars. You also get to see and hear us in the background during a rare working session when LeBron, Christopher, DC and our videographer Andy could all be here, a rare treat. Toward the end you have a view into the troubling moment when a short occurs. This happens when all was well just the night before when a train had run that section without a hitch. Such as it is with model railroading. Always the adventure, fun and the shear enjoyment when the crew's in town!