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.