Here are some of the layout photos I took yesterday. 

A William Crooks 4-4-0 model built by the late Rhett Tyler in the rear, a brass Jupiter 4-4-0 factory painted model in the center, and a Samhongsa factory painted CP Huntington 4-2-4 in front of my scratch-built engine hose base on the one used by Grant's army at City Point, VA in 1864.

Two views of the engine house interior, in situ on the layout, as is stood yesterday. I still have lots of details for the interior & the model is need of weathering. 

Stock train crossing the trestle, small gons of coal pulled by the CP Huntington, and a DCRR passenger train departing for Wilmington and then the west.

Train emerging from the hidden loop behind Avella and pulling into town. That is David Cain looking out of the window of "Cain's Woodworking & Fine Furniture." The original sign on the stone structure deteriorated and I have to make a replacement. The tunnel lifts out for access to the track behind it. Obviously, there is lots of scenery work that need to be done.

Crow Car & Foundry is the largest industry on the layout. It warrants its own switch engine. The CP Huntington is a stand in until the new switch engine arrives. Some kit bashing and ALOT of scratch-building went into my model of the CC&F main building shown here. 

A couple of freight trains on the long dock. It is 43" long but the "blue sky" backdrop is not that long.

Looking down the long dock toward the engine house.

 It has been too long since I last posted on the blog. I just got back from our annual convention held in conjunction with the NMRA's national convention in Chattanooga, TN. Our SIG coordinator, Joel Salmons asked me to send him some images and a blurb on my railroad. Here is the blurb, some images will follow.

Delaware Central Rail Road & Navigation Company 

The Delaware Central Rail Road & Navigation Company is an HO scale freelanced railroad set in the fall of 1864. My intent is to capture the actual feel of the period and a prototypically correct railroad operating in a noncombat zone. Freelancing allows me to run any piece of prototypically correct rolling stock I can justify filling a commercial roll on my railroad. Like many early prototype railroads, the DCRR’s fictional goal was to connect the port city of Wilmington, DE to its’ hinterland and eventually the interior of the continent somewhere along the Ohio River. Most of the original investors envisioned three things to happen. First, the railroad would siphon off the already established ship traffic from the up-river port of Philadelphia, PA, to the Wilmington area (closer to the Atlantic Ocean) while simultaneously siphoning off those profits into the pockets of Wilmington capitalists. Second, the railroad would tap into the rich agricultural area north of the Susquehanna River, bringing fresh produce to market and opening markets for eastern & imported manufacturing goods. Third, to funnel the products and profits of the flourishing and profitable intercostal trade of the eastern shore of the Delmarva Peninsula into Wilmington. Delaware agricultural products at this time were shipped to the many small towns at the headwaters of Delaware’s numerous small coastal rivers.

Why model a port scene? A port is a universal industry. Any commodity can be exported or imported. This scene is loosely based on the track plan of USMRR’s facility at City Point, VA in 1864. In 1864, City Point may have been the busiest port in the world as it supplied Union forces in their siege of Petersburg, VA. A few of the highlights of this scene are the 43” long, double tracked long dock, the 18.5” long coal dock capable of dumping 8 coal jimmies or six iron pot hoppers into the waiting barges below, the scratch-built wooden engine house, the turntable, numerous warehouses & smaller docks, and the cattle pens. A port scene also allows me to model the tall and early ocean-going steam ships of the era as well as the ships involved in the intercostal trade. The port is modeled so that various waterline ship and barge models can be added or taken away from the scene during operations.

The basic track plan of the layout is a loop to loop with a spur to a bustling port along the Delaware River. Both loops are hidden but there are windows allowing for easy access to these hidden loops plus the scenery sections above the loops are designed as a lift outs for worst case scenarios. Both hidden loops have passing sidings. One siding in the loop behind the port scene represents the city of Wilmington. The other passing siding here represents the town of New Castle, DE. These loops allow me to run a few cars from the prototype New Castle & Frenchtown RR (the 1832 built ticket office still exists in Old New Castle, DE) and the prototype Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore RR (whose president’s letters complain of his rolling stock being taken for use on other lines and either not being returned or being returned in less than stellar condition and the fact that John White’s book has drawings and information on a P,W&B RR box car.) One track in the second return loop represents the mainline with a spur allowing for future expansion of the layout into a second section of my basement. The other, inner siding of this return loop represents the Pooterville Mine spur. This allows me to run coal jimmies, B&O RR style pot hoppers, and gondolas of coal on the layout without having to model a mine facility itself.

 

Setting the layout in 1864 allowed 2 things to happen. First, northern factory production was at its height in support of the war effort by this time of the War.  The town of Avella (my grandfather was a weighmaster and cashier [according to a pass issued to my grandmother] for the Pittsburgh & West Virginia RR) features the large Crow Car & Foundry (named after my Grandfather Crow) and a large stone factory (commodity or commodities to be determined). There is also a small house coal company in this town which receives gondolas of coal, a tannery, a brewery, and cattle pens here. The second town on the layout, LaGare, is more rural, they have a large freight station for shipping/receiving lcl loads and large stock pens. Though stock cars made up a miniscule amount of the rolling stock for the B&O RR and the PRR during this period, stock cars are my favorite type of rolling stock. I justify the number of stock pens and stock cars on my railroad as during the Civil War, Wilmington had the second largest cavalry depot in the North, the largest being in the Washington, DC area. This would require stock cars making up a larger portion of the DCRR rolling stock compared to the PRR to the north or the B&O RR to the south. Stock cars were used to ship horses, mules, beef, hay, and even soldiers. Therefore, stock cars play a more important role on the DCRR. Second, West Virginia became a state in 1863. Therefore, in addition to war production reaching its peak, this allows me to run rolling stock from the Pittsburgh & West Virginia railroad. Even though this railroad did not exist at the time, it allows me to run equipment in honor of my grandfather.

Why set in the fall? Because fall is my favorite time of the year. Also, the bright fall colors contrast nicely with the slate blue color of the majority of DCRR rolling stock.

The layout uses NCE dcc and throttles. It is currently divided into 5 power districts, each with its own circuit breaker. Each return loop is on its own circuit breaker. There is a separate circuit breaker for the dock scene, and the town of Avella is divided into east and west power districts, each on its own circuit breaker.

The track is Micro Engineering code 55.  Flex track was modified with about 1/3^rd of the ties removed, and the rest respaced at period correct increments apart. Turnouts were all built using Fast Tracks jigs. There is a 60-degree crossing in Avella that was rebuilt from a BK Enterprises unit. Curves are as sharp as a 15” radius but hidden in tunnels and cuts. The short cars and engines I use have no problems negotiating these.

 

I have been working on lining the three tunnels on the layout with cut stone and brick. Still finishing up the last of the 3 tunnels. I have also been working on a few structures for the layout. I took these images in early April.

The large stone house is the Wilks' Family Home resin kit by Sylvan Scale Models. I built the small back porch to replace the kit's concrete steps because my layout is set in 1864 and not the 20th century. The small stone spring house started as a cast plaster dynamite storage shed by the P&S Building Structure Company. When I saw it at the Timonium Train Show it looked just like the spring houses dotting the farms and countryside in northern Delaware and on the road from Delaware to Strasburg, PA.

The front elevation of the Wilks' home. The kit's front stairs have subsequently been replaced by some steps from my scratch building supplies. The original steps were evidently rotted (broke apart as a result of a short fall and some of the pieces could not be found to reconstruct them) and needed replaced. I still have to cut and install window glazing.

A Wills Company OO scale cattle creep (aka a culvert). There was a divot in the 2' thick Styrofoam here and I decided to transform this deformity into an interesting scenic detail. You cannot tell from this image, but I lined the culvert with brick. The culvert is just sitting loosely in place. Still have to work it in with Sculptamold and scenery.

A small resin house. I believe this was a Rusty Rails casting. I bought the casting at a train show. It was not in its original packaging and was missing the front pillars. I made front pillars from some Evergreen styrene rod.

 

 Very tardy, but here are 3 images of the small building on pilings that I built for the Delaware Central port scene. This small building was completed to this point several months ago but I can't find the images on my computer, so I just retook some with my cell phone. 

Oops! I just saw that I forgot to install the window glazing.

A new shed

I have been constructing the largest structure for Crow Car & Foundry. While I was waiting for the glue to dry on it, I began modifying a 50-cent shed I got at a train show a long time ago. After I broke the glue joints and removed the roof, I noted that the shed was manufactured by Quick Plastic. Here are 4 images of the shed ready to go to the paint shop and then have window glazing installed.

The pilings are Evergreen Styrene 6"x6" strip, the original toy-like doors were pried off and replaced by a door from my scrap box of odd doors. The stairs are from my drawer of odd stairs and the shed annex is from my collection of small, odd buildings. I am not sure who originally made the chimney. It came from my drawer of chimneys that I have collected over the years. The original roof was sanded flat and cut so as to allow for a roof shingle overhang. I then overlayed it with Dyna Models shake shingle roofing material using Walther's Goo as the adhesive. The roof cap boards are Evergreen Styrene 1"x10". The "metal" flashing where the chimney protrudes from the side of the structure was cut to size from an Evergreen 0.01 x 0.188 strip. Finally, the door handle with lock is from an Overland Models #9171 pack. I may add guy lines to help support the chimney as well as joints in chimney sections.

Ventilated Box Cars and a Stock Car

 It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy working on the railroad, however, and Donna, Socke & I took a vacation to Upton ME. Socke is the newest addition to the family. He is a 4 +/-year old German Shepard mix we adopted from the Brandywine Valley SPCA.

I digress, here are a couple of images of the latest rolling stock I have completed for the Delaware Central RR. They include Illinois Central Box Car kits from Alkem Scale Models (no longer in production), a reworked Alkem Scale Models ventilated bax car I inherited from Al Mueller's estate, and a reworked BTS covered stock car I inherited from the late Rhett Tyler.

The ventilated box cars are painted my favorite shade of slate blue, Model Masters Intermediate Blue (no longer available) with craft paint khaki tan roofs and Poly Scale Grimy Black hardware. The trucks are from Panamint Models with Reboxx wheels. The couplers are from San Juan Models. Car #490 on the far left of the images is the conversion from Al's car while cars 486 and 487 are the Alkem kits I built. In the drone view image, you can see that the brake staff on the car Al built is on a different side than the 2 ventilated box cars I built. I made the same mistake that Al made on one of my cars while building my 2 kits but chose an alternative construction remedy so that my 2 cars reflect the ICRR prototype.  

The covered stock car features scratch-built doors that Rhett built, and the trucks and wheels are the original ones Rhett installed on this car. I did remove the 2 brake wheels Rhett had installed on this car. One was TOO modern and extremely oversized and the other was too much of a variation from the original BTS kit for my liking as well as it did not measure up to Rhett's typical level of craftsmanship. I replaced these brake wheels with a BTS brake wheel and Tichy Train rachet mechanism to more closely match the 3 other BTS covered stock cars that I had previously built. I also removed the 2 end ladders Rhett had installed and used pieces of Northeastern Scale Lumber that I cut to replicate the end construction on the original BTS kit. The conversion is car number 135 in the images and the original cars I built from BTS kits are on the far right.