Turnbale Discussions Episode 4, Part 1

July 2016 I had the great pleasure to be with Charlie Taylor at his Memphis and Charleston RR. Charlie has been working diligently in preparation for our American Civil War RR's 2016 meet in Memphis. He chose O scale acquiring equipment from SMR and BTS. Track is all hand laid by Charlie and turnouts were built using FastTracks templates. The line runs from Memphis and includes the towns of Huntsville, Corinth, and Chattanooga. Also featured is the "Lost Tunnel" recently located out side of Chattanooga by Charlie and Mark Brainard, an ACW RR historian. Three of the most outstanding features by Charlie are the scratch built trestles and bridges. The structures are of the most beautifully constructed by his friend CC (Charles Curro) who has evolved into a master builder in his own right. His head is slightly visible in the background. Charlie's nephew, Will Shirey, is the gifted artist who painted the backdrops. Will's art here was a key element of his portfolio that got him an acceptance into a premier art school in California. 
This is a brief 'interview' with Charlie Taylor in his layout room. Charlie, by the way, was a bit reluctant to do a more in-depth, formal interview so we took what we could get.You can see more photos of Charlie's layout. Go to "Labels" on right side of the blog. Click on Memphis and Charleston RR.

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.

Turntable Discussions, Episode 2 with Dr Lebron Matthews

In this latest episode, I interview Dr. Lebron Mathews who lives in Midland GA. Although a doctor of theology and retired as pastor, Lebron is extremely well educated in the American Civil War, in particular units from GA and of course, the Western & Atlantic RR. He shares his early experiences with model trains, his time as a re-enactor and several aspects of modeling his own version of the W&A. Photos of LeBron's layout are posted in the photos section of our  Civil_War_RR@yahoogroups.com.

 I want to thank David Guardia for shooting this episode. David is currently working on his degree in computer sciences and does vidiography as an avocation.

Turntable Discussions, Episode 1 with DC Cebula

I have had the extraordinary good fortune to find some of the most gifted modelers and artists who have contributed to the this model railroad. More than displaying photos of their work and them, I thought to present each one in a manner that would connect viewers to what has motivated and inspired them to do what they do. The first foray was an interview on this blog last year with Brian Kammerer, our backdrop artist. Using the layout as the setting, our conversation was off-the-cuff and informal while Brian was in the act of painting. We received more comments about that posting and requests to do more interviews than any of the other blog posts. Months later I saw, and was inspired by, the MRR Video Plus Roundhouse Discussions where three MRR staff talk about a wide variety of model railroading. I found them to be very engaging, fun to watch and I learned nuances of modeling philosophy and practices. This helped shape the idea for "Turntable Interviews", using a similar format with our many modelers and historians.

DC Cebula is featured in this latest episode. He is our American Civil War Rail Roads Historical Society Yahoo group moderator. Some background, DC is from Delaware and acquired a degree in historical archeology. His vision has been to apply his passion and knowledge to the education, preservation and modeling of Civil War rail roads. If you have frequented our blog you have noticed that his work and photos are all over the place. He has been the key contributor to the ideas, planning, and construction of all aspects of this layout, plus a dear friend. Hope you enjoy the ride.

INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN KAMMERER

Brian has been a part of this railroad scene since 2003 when he along with DC Cebula and Chris Brannigan came to visit at my home. It was our second time together, the first being Timonium - a neutral location that seemed most reasonable to all especially since we had a relationship only through emails. We of course hit it off and Brian offered to began painting the backdrop. His first foray was painting a 35'x3' canvas. Ever since then he has visited many times and continues to add backdrop scenes as the railroad evolves. April 29, 2013 I captured a few stories on how he began his interest in modeling the American Civil War. Hope you enjoy our interaction.