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.

Water Scene by D.C.

Clearly DC has the most time into this layout. To date his accomplishments include 7 scratch built structures, about 15 structure kits and kit-bashed buildings, one being the Dalton cattle pens. His scenic contributions are much of the rock formations at the base of Kennesaw mountain, the creek at the south end, Alatoona Pass and Rocky Face Ridge. Some of you may be asking what the heck I've been doing.... Later! 

DC has also helped with bench alterations and backdrop framing. You can see his work in the LABEL listings on the front page of the blog. Here's one of his latest...

and that is scenicing the swamp below Rocky Face. It is loosely inspired by a drawing in 1864, shown above, made along the W&A just outside of Dalton. It was Mill Creek Gap. Using selective compression, DC placed it at the layout corner and was able to include a small section of the creek also. We began by cutting out and lowering a section of the benchwork base. DC took it from there using sculptamold for the contour. The reeds are a combination of scratch building using wire. He then used a kit by Scene Master - Waterlilies which was also quite intensive. Recently I found a product by JTT Scenery Products, HO cattails, #95535. No more scratch building for his next project.

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!

BACKDROPS by BRIAN

BACKDROPS by BRIAN

Brian has been with us since the beginning, 2003. And fortunately he lives reasonably close in CT. Hence, the bulk of the backdrop painting Brian has completed including Lookout Mountain. Approximate total length is 60'. With His latest visit earlier this month he added some details with figures, plowed fields, clouds and touched up the Oostanaula River. Too bluish, given my brownish 3D version, his blend is none other than perfect. Have a look...
He is blending the painted rock into the bench, highlighting the edges. This is the north end of Rocky Face, a dominate feature west of Dalton. Heavily fortified at the time of Sherman's campaign to Atlanta, unfortunately for Joe Johnston's Army of TN Sherman chose to out flank his Confederate opponent and avoid a head on charge against a fortified enemy, lessons first learned during the battle of Fredricksburg.
 

As Brian adds clouds, I am taking a few lessons on the art of cloud creation. Prior to Brian I have painted all the clouds which, as humble as I can sound, came out pretty good. They show up better in photos however, as seen in the September 2009 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Brian's look great in person or photographed.
 

The tent far left and third from left has the back half painted onto the backdrop.

As Brian mentioned throughout his visit, it's all play now for him since the panoramas were quite tedious and although he very much enjoyed the visits, it required a lot coverage. Now it looks like he may even want to scratch build some scenes.

Kingston to Dalton and Beyond

A recent visit this March by friends who have been contributing to the construction of the Western and Atlantic RR for many years, DC Cebula, Brain Kammerrer, Christopher Eldridge and Andy Salcius, have moved us toward the last phase on this layout. 10 years in the making, Andy, aka Uriah Stephens, shot this "creative" video with a few sound effects, unlikely heard in any steam locomotive sound decoder.
 

The following photos attribute the recent work projects with their respective authors. I use this term author deliberately since the skills that each person brings is at a level where I trust their ability to "author" their sense of a scene or scene element. 

 LeBron, on his January 2013 visit, has painted, inserted and here is dry brushing the perimeter fence (Musket Miniatures) of the Barnsley Estate. Godfrey Barnsley, if you missed prior postings, was a cotton trader. With offices in Atlanta, New Orleans, Savannah and London, interestingly he was opposed to slavery and paid all his workers.

He was also known for his extraordinary gardens, some of which we plan for the center section just in front of his home. This mansion was scratch built by Christopher from book illustrations in Barnsley Gardens. You can see Chris' work under LABELS for Barnsley.

 

 

 

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.

A New Modeler

I have known Andy for about 15 years., mostly through his cello music and improvisational gatherings. He has been integral to helping me establish this blog. He also takes great photos. However he had never done any modeling. A few months ago he took on making trees, with a little coaxing, as a first. As you may know, trees are always a scenic feature, especially those in foregrounds. A simple technique I use Andy is demonstrating here with medium and large plastic trees by Scenic Express. First step is to cut the plastic pin molded onto the tree base. The intent is to insert a brad for easy replanting. Once the tip is removed a hole is drilled into the base the size of the brad, and about 1/8" to 1/4" deep. There is usually plastic residue on the bit and is easily removed by simply unscrewing the plastic from the bit. The brad heads are cut off with a wire cutter. We adhere the brad into the new hole in the tree base using  blue Loctite CA glue; it is a gel. The brad extends about a 1/2" from the hole. Next step is to heat the tree to soften the plastic, then gently bend branches. The last photo shows the results. Interestingly Andy started bending the branches, AND the trunks! Although slight, it offers a more realistic contrast than every tree being boringly straight. This may sound obvious but it never came to mind. This is one good reason to have someone working on the layout that has no prior knowledge or limited thinking! You can expect new ways and approaches to any aspect of modeling.

Heating the plastic then twisting and

bending branches and trunks.

Below: final inspection before deployment into the fields 

The finished products below waiting for their paint job and foliage. 

Atlanta Redoubt by LeBron

 Dr. Matthews, on one of his many visits to the "North Branch", has been instrumental in creating a few 'signature scenes'. LeBron is constructing a scene common along the outskirts of Atlanta and later in the war. These entrenchments were a series of earthen and log forts known as redoubts. As the war edged closer to Atanta, fortifications were constructed along a crescent shape, south west to east of Atlanta. Musket Miniatures makes earthwork sections with a logged interior, perfect representations of what was built at this time. LeBron included a long rifle trench, finishing off the scene with tree stumps and abatis (trees and branches laid out as an impedance to infantry attacks). Musket Miniatures also make the line of wooden stakes which come in 2" sections. It is these subtle details that enhance an authentic visual experience for the time. 

Here are a few photos showing his work and how he blended it into Brian Kammerrer's backdrop painting.

 

These black & white picture gives you some comparison of the actual construction and LeBron's replication in the 3 prior modeling photos.

DALTON CAR SHED

The only reference that I have located to this structure is mentioned by one of the raiders from the GLC, William Pittenger, in Craig Angles book. If you have not seen this reference before, Craig wrote "The Great Locomotive Chase" in 1992. No longer in print, Craig takes time to describe various areas along the chase route. In his book he includes this from Pittenger, "...the large passenger depot which had a shed over all the tracks..." So I went with a similar look to Atlanta. Chattanooga had a similar shed but slightly different construction materials and design. This structure holds the foreground on the North Branch (the layout). I decided to add some details given very visible location.

These two photos show early stages of Dalton and the car shed when I considered foam-core as the material. I decided on plywood after Chris' exasperations using this material for another structure. He is building the Barnsley scene found in the LABELS.

Shed Construction

On the left we're pretty along the way with the walls, roof supports and support columns already assembled. To the right shows the brick work. It is an adhesive paper by Clever. They have a very good website with a wide variety of stone, brick, siding and roof prints. You can purchase just the print  at a very reasonable fee and print any number of copies, or the adhesive backed sheets.

Two more views showing some of the wall supports and the most recent backdrop work from Brian Kammerrer. I invite you to view the new posting of Brian's work creating the backdrop scene as well, completing this and other backdrop scenes in 7 hours! More to come.

Thanks for following our work. Although we began in 2003 and await the arrival of the first sounding locos (still working out the bugs), the enjoyment never ceases.

BARNSLEY GARDENS AT WOODLANDS

THE GARDENS  

Christopher continues in his next phase for the Barnsley Mansion at Woodlands scene. The mansion has been completed and he is now building the gardens based on diagrams from the book. Nothing like having the research to authentically replicate a scene. Early construction of the mansion can be found in the list of LABELS in the right margin.

The view to the left is a diagram from Godfrey Barnsley's plan for his gardens. The author refers to this as the parterre "a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern." Wikipedia. We simply copied and enlarged this diagram to a close-to HO scale with selective compression for a  reasonable fit. You'll notice this is pre-mansion given the structures illustrated. Barnsley had not yet built his home.

    The  photo to the right is the gardens from the mansion's 2nd or 3rd floor. Although very post civil war, they stayed close to the original design concept. 

Below left you see Chris slicing hedges from Faller. Although a bit tedious as it is a fibrous foam product (nothing new for Chris), smaller lengths are a great fit. A foam-core base allows Chris to remove it while he constructs the garden. And to the right you see the addition of the first hedges and a sense on how the scene will come together. My wife, Ku'uipo, is looking forward to adding the flowering plants, ornamental trees and the green roses that Godfrey horticultured. She loves real gardening so those of you looking to involve your wife, significant other...