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!

The ATLANTA SHIFT

After two operations sessions it came to pass that one aisle was unacceptable. Although I thought I had planned the scheduling efficiently enough, the reality of UNplanned consequences take shape. I discussed a few possibilities to minimize and not overcompensate to expand the aisle. After some consternations and reassurance from a couple of reliable friends, we decided to cut!First I took a few days to clear the deck underneath the section. Fortunately I have plenty of friends including members of the Garden State Central Model Railroad Club and those who have been contributors over the past 10 plus years.

Here is a time-lapse shot by good friend Andy Salcius of the ATLANTA SHIFT. You will see initial planning, then Ray appears with his saws-all... it felt extreme, like being at a field hospital and the doc says, "Just amputate!" Shortly after, you see the crew appear. Not knowing how difficult the shift would be I invited about 10 fellas. At first I though 4-6 would be sufficient. But given all the unexpected shift encounters I could conjure up, 10-12 was best. This was an affirmation on good planning... hours, and it paid off as the actual maneuver took about 1 minute.

https://youtu.be/WyrxSlqehII

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

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.

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.

 

#BASIC: How To Get Good Video with Your iPhone!

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.

Al Mueller's Orange & Alexandria RR

May 29-30, 2014

Another productive and fun visit to Al's O&A RR The following video was recorded with my iPhone. This features the Mueller Machine Works factory, an extremely highly detailed interior and exterior structure. Details include belt driven machines, winches, tool benches with tools, drafting tables and many scratch-built elements. Al is consistent with the quality of his modeling skills. The locomotive is the Dr. Thompson. This is an engine with the Atlanta & West Pt. RR., and is one of mine that I bought to 'Dr' Al, with some performance issues. As seen here it runs as good as it gets. The passenger cars are brass models that of course were built and painted by Al.

Dr. Thompson

As the W&A North Branch continues to evolve, we are at the point where we now have locos with good to excellent running Mantua 4-4-0 locos. The Dr Thompson, shown here, is one of three recently retooled Mantua Generals, the other two being the Dispatch and the General, both of the W&A RR at the time. Al Mueller's manual, "Mantua General Rebuild" is a key resource for anyone interested in refining this Mantua locomotive. Although as many as 20 to 30 hours are invested, depending on the level of detail one wished to add, the exceptional smooth running is certainly worth the time.  A product that I have found extremely useful is CRC, an automotive contact cleaner. I was amazed at the amount of dirt removed from both the rails and loco drivers. Clean is paramount for these locos, as well as the retooling noted in Al's manual. We hope you enjoy the ride. Comments are encouraged so we know how it appeals to the viewer.

NMRA MER Division Meet Open House

A short video of events and travails.

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.

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!

DALTON'S EVOLUTION

Dalton GA was on the north end of the Western & Atlantic RR, just south of Tunnel Hill. By August of 1863 it had become a bustling city due to the defenses being constructed along the W&A to protect this critical supply line for the Army of Tennessee. The following 'movie' of slides gives you an idea of the development, start to near completion, of this section of the layout. It began in November 2003 as tabletops with basic track plan.Also posted is an interview of Brian Kammerer as he is painting the backdrop section along this area. Friends who have had contributed to this section include DC Cebula, Chris Comport, Andy Salcius, Jimmy Judge and of course, Brian Kammerer.

The General has a Voice

Sound on the Western & Atlantic

This is a maiden run by LeBron's Mantua General. He has completely retooled this 4-4-0 including scratch building the boiler from styrene. As you will shortly experience, if you have not already played the video, LeBron is one of two people that I know of who have successfully installed a Tsunami sound decoder in a completed, fully functioning model. Sound takes the experience to a very enjoyable level. The rolling stock include repainted Mantua house cars, IHC cattle cars, and two of my first scratch built cattle cars. The latter two are based on drawings in the April 1969 issue of Model Railroader, "Cars of the 1860's". The bridge is a Howe Truss modeled after photos of the type used on the W&A, most notably over the Tennessee River. 

NMRA Mid-Eastern Region Open House, September 19, 2009

W&A Railroad, North Branch recently participated in the National Model Railroad Association's NE region open house. Here are a few moments, including a short video, from that event. This came on the heels of the October RMC article featuring this modeled version of the Western & Atlantic R.R. The timing was quite good of course, a dual promotion of sorts.

Video to Come

Here is a link to the Garden State Central Model Railroad Club's video of this event.


Other video clips can be found by clicking on the Video link in the right column.