Found some deals ordered some prints

Last weekend I attended the Greenberg show in Richmond, VA.  Normally I don't find much other than a book at these shows, but last weekend I hit the jackpot.  A dealer was selling off three BTS kits and I was happy to buy them.  A wood rack (2 pack), boxcar with radial roof (3 pack) and a flat car are now sitting in my to be built pile. 

Also, this week I broke down and ordered large prints of the City Point yard and the Line out to the trenches.  These charts are a great resource and should allow a closer inspection of track arrangements with the caveat that they need to be cross-checked against photographs as the two don't always agree.  Also, they should make great wall decorations in the train area. 

I added a link to another user who is doing City Point in HO.  He has done a lot of cross-checking against photographs.  The plan shown on the link is over 30 ft long in HO.  In O that would make mine 60 to 70 feet which is way too long for my small space.  Time to rethink some of my assumptions.  More on this later.

Decision Time 2

After a hiatus imposed by work and personal commitments I am getting back to modeling trains. After thinking through the recommendations I decided to call Bill at Bill's Train Shop and order the rest of the City Point structures. Though I believe a switching layout would be very entertaining I think that a Civil War layout will be both enjoyable and relatively unique.

'Have you thought about....'

One of the frequent questions from the group at the ACWRRHS meeting when I mentioned City Point as the subject of the layout was 'Have you thought about...'  You may fill in your choice.  I thought that I would mention a few without the names attached unless you want credit.  The choices will be mentioned and look for a revised design matrix in the next week.  Also, the sources page now gives full documentation of the two places Bernie Kempinski originally mentioned the design matrix.

The O and A in No VA was mentioned early in the convention.  The issue with this option is that the loss of general running once the war is really under way.  The restriction on traffic except in convoy mode and the constant flux in the operational length seems to preclude TT and TO operations which are a significant goal of mine. If one focused on the area of Alexandria as a terminal road and just ran the terminal area it could have some interest as a very large civil war switching layout.

The B and O came up quickly in relation to Harper's Ferry.  The heavy duty road of the time and a chief supply line that warrants attention from anyone seeking to model the ACW period.  The real question is the fact that much of the line was double track.  I have operated on layouts with double track and found them not quite what I envisioned as my layout.

The Virginia Central near Charlottesville, VA.  This is home turf for me and has the added bonus of including the Orange and Alexandria which still ran from Orange to Gordonsville and south of Charlottesville to Lynchburg while using the VC from Gordonsville to Charlottesville.   Traffic levels here are a major concern.  The larger issue is the lack of documentation.  The logical trackplan would be from Orange to Gordonsville to Charlottesville to Staunton.  The traffic would be flow mostly to Richmond though depending on the date chosen there would be some traffic to Orange.

The Western and Atlantic.  A favorite among Civil War fans and railfans  It is well documented and several of the locomotives are available.  The gauge is the correct 5 feet between the rails.  There are cars in brass but SMR is sold out of the cars with no known source of wooden cars.  This could be a reasonable prototype except for the size of the terminals on either end.  In HO layouts like Thom Radice the models are large and in O Scale could be massive even with compression. 

I will try to revise my spreadsheet  to include some of the alternatives.  More to come.

American Civil War Railroad Historical Society Annual Meeting

This past weekend was a great one spent at the American Civil War Railroad Historical Society Annual Meeting in Alexandria, VA.  The meeting started on Friday with a great overview by Bernie Kempinski. Each of the following lectures were great and worth the time.  During Saturday and Sunday local historian Ron Beavers lead the group on a tour of key sites going from Alexandria to Manassas.  Ron's knowledge of the line is exhaustive.  Other key organizers were Jon Vrana and Jenee Lindner were valuable resources.  Bernie Kempinski graciously opened his home to our group on Saturday night for Pizza, salad and great brownies.  Of course, the layout wasn't bad either.  Bernie's trackwork was impeccable and gave many ideas to think on for my own layout.  Dave from SMR trains gave a great talk on Lee's Rail artillery.  There were many side conversations and suggestions which I will take up in another post.  If I have overlooked someone please accept my apologies.   

Cars, Locmotives and Projects

Last Saturday a box came from Bill of BTS fame.  It included a USMRR flat car, a USMRR House Car and an Open Wood Rick. These should be a good start on projects whenever work slows down.  This joins another project which is already under way and that is the conversion of a 3 rail SMR Texas to 2 rail.  I picked up this beautiful loco a month or so ago. Dave provided me the parts to change the drivers and tender wheels.  The NWSL wheels for the front truck arrived recently and they fit very well.  Now comes the time to to paint the wheels the right shade of red , put on the pickups and try to figure out DCC. 

Hopefully by the next post I will be able to include a skethc of the basement area.

Decision Time

Given all the parameters and the material the decision is to follow the path of the City Point lines of the USMRR.  Going this direction will engender certain compromises, but far fewer that if I try to model a more traditional full division of even a Civil War era railroad.  The length of the line at a maximum of 19 miles from one end to the other makes this more doable than the other options.  High density of traffic is another plus for this prototype.  The next step will be to list the materials I already have in my possession and track down additional sources. 

Revised Spreadsheet

The decision spreadsheet was tweaked a little more this week with the result that the City Point line of the USMRR is a clear winner.  The runners up included the W&A and both the standard gauge and On30 variations of a proto-freelance line.  The next step is to reflect a little more on the values to make sure I don't want to change anything in the key points features or valuations.  There is a link to the spreadsheet at the end of the previous post. 

Narrowing the Field

A number of years ago I started playing with a Layout Decision Spreadsheet based on one from Model Railroad Planning.  It is heavily modified and changes to reflect changes in taste.  Plugging in the roads from my last post into it and I come away with two key winners.  The first is the USMRR City Point line with a close second to the Western & Atlantic.  The choice is now narrowed down to these two unless someone out there has a better suggestion.

Layout Decision Tree Spreadsheet Link

Prototype Choices in the ACW

There are many fine options to choose from for a prototype during the ACW era.  Some of the prototypes that I am considering or friends recommended are the following:

USMRR - City Point
Virginia Central/Orange & Alexandria - Gordonsville/Orange West
Western and Atlantic
Richmond & Danville
B&O through Harper's Ferry
PRR predecessor

Need to narrow these down to one

What Scale this week or in reality What Era this week.

The joke among my friends is what scale are you in this week which stems from my having tried all the major scales except S.  What is more accurate is what prototype are you reading about this week.  Research is a passion since long before my graduate school days.  Though I had looked at the American Civil War (ACW) as a prototype era long ago it was dismissed due to the problems with the small HO locomotives.  After converting to O Scale almost 8 years ago I decided to check out various prototypes.  Many different ones were evaluated including PRR, NKP, C&O, N&W, SR&RL, C&S, RGS, and several modern roads including shortlines.  Each had their issues and nuances.  The ACW came back after looking at Bernie Kempinski's blog on his USMRR layout.  His website and appearances on the Model Railcast Show made me look more closely at this era.  So now the fun begins with a new layout.