Stoney Creek branch of the ET&WNC, in On30

I'm very happy with my scratch built store which I built during the start of the pandemic when everything was closed down (it even has 'built during pandemic of 2020)'written underneath the base).

The gas station/store is a representation of the J Grindstaff store in Sadie, TN, but more influenced by the store in Carter. First, I had to remove the old structure (a Woodland Scenics pre-built structure I was never 100% happy with), then change the ground around it as the new store would be smaller. The new structure has a full interior and figures, detailed down to the right magazines on the counter for the time the layout takes place, and the FDR portrait on the wall. As it has a much smaller footprint than the original structure in that spot, so I needed to change the gravel area around it. Previously I'd used much too coarse gravel there. I stripped it down with a caulking knife to the base wood and paint, smeared white glue all over the area, then laid in much finer gravel around. I later added things like oil stains and the like. As the glue was drying, I created a set of ruts in the gravel, and it dried like that, alongside the store. I was happy with that result (though it's now hard to see with the ground clutter).

I wanted a 'concrete' base for the gas pump and the front roof supports, so I had painted a section of styrene, and scraped equal dividing lines to show segmented concrete. With the paint already dried, I added small lines of glue along those seams/cracks and put ground foam on that to show grass popping up between the segments and around the outside edge. I also added figures inside while I was waiting for the scenery glue to dry. The first structure on the layout here was close to the road, and this one is much further back, leaving a larger area on which I can park wheeled vehicles. The only thing I didn't like afterward was realizing the outhouse is now much closer than it'd be in real life.

The structure has a full interior with lighting.

Last weekend, I got this gas pump off an eBay vendor. It's 1/43 scale so it's a little bigger than it should be, but it's an excellent rendition of a pre-war gravity fed pump. Texaco was the brand I was looking for as the store I used for inspiration was that brand and it had two of these pumps (one red and other yellow for ethyl gas, though that wasn't very common by the 1940s, so it's just the one pump for now).

20 minutes of weathering with washes and dry-brushing got the desired result of a well-used but cared for gas pump which would be about just over 20 years old by this timeframe:

I'm very happy with the results.

Really nice job! I am seriously considering doing a modern day Tourist layout in On30 as I still have a bunch of On30 just sitting on the shelves. I have about 24x16 available and your layout gives me inspiration Please post more! Also, what turntables are you using?

@jonnyspeed posted:

I am seriously considering doing a modern day Tourist layout in On30 as I still have a bunch of On30 just sitting on the shelves. I have about 24x16 available and your layout gives me inspiration Please post more! Also, what turntables are you using?

Thanks for the kind words. I have two Peco turntables (one is their On30 one, the other their OO, but both work just fine for On30, I just wanted each to look a little different. I re-planked the bridge deck with real wood on one and someday will likely do the same on the other, tossing out the handrails on each).

As for photos, I love being as creative as I can with shots on the layout:

I also not only love details, but historically-correct ones. I make a point of only including that which I am aware to be correct for the Blue Ridge Mountains area during WW2...

Lee, Very impressive layout and scenery ,nice to see your steadfastness to keeping all the  details within the era being modeled.

I dabble in 0n30 mostly locos and cars but have no layout.

Good to see you posting on your layout. I was on another forum with you, but recently abandoned it because of drama there.

Nice to know I can keep following your adventures again over here.

Griff

Cool. really cool, impressive!  I especially like the US Army ROB.  Though I didn't belong to the ROB at Ft. Eustus, Va,, I did serve in Germany with the Transportation Corps in the 49th Transport Group, with HQ in Mannheim.  I was assigned to the Bundeswehr Verkehrskommandantur Ansbach.  We were involved with US Army /German Army convoy clearance.  We "moved millions" of GIs to and from the military training areas, mostly to take part in the spring and autumn war game exercises.  Despite the fact I was a pencil pusher, I did have to take periodic rifle practice with the M14 assigned me.  I'd be interested in purchasing a cloth patch for the 796 ROB if you do decide to produce any!

The late Lee Riley, a prominent employee of Bachmann, was instrumental in convincing the well known manufacturer to begin production of On30 model trains at affordable prices.  It worked too!  I really do miss visiting with Lee when he'd be present at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, each year.  He'd give me lots of insider information that hadn't been released to the public, knowing I'd keep my big Texas trap shut!  I did too!

In the 80s on leave from my then employer, Deutsche Bundesbahn, I went with my mother and step-dad on a trip to North Carolina, where they had a trailer house in Johnson City that had been purchased from a co-worker of my step-dad.  I talked them into a day trip so I could visit the East Tennessee Railroad where they were operating with some Alco RS32 Diesel road switchers.  The employees were very accomodating and your typically friendly Carolina folks.  I got the grand tour of the office and shop building.

Though I'm a onetime Colorado railfan from Dallas, TX, I must agree with you, in that the Rocky Mountain narrow gauge has been blown out of proportion.  OK, no complaints from this long time member of the Peanut Gallery.  It sells, and remember, all the manufacturers and their employees like to enjoy three hots and a cot, just like most human beings do.  However, I have developed an interest in the East Broad Top, as well as the Strasburg Rail Road, and remain a big fan of the Pennsylvania Railroad too.  I'm a fall guy for the GG1!  I do remain loyal to my home base having switch the huck finn out of box cars for Cotton Belt as well as Santa Fe in the D/FW area in the 60s and 70s.

About me: visit www.railhopeamerica.com  The Railroad Evangelistic Assn. prints All Aboard, a magazine not just for railroaders, but for anyone interested in the Holy Bible and trains as well.  The REA was founded in the 1930s by an Atlantic Coast Line locomotive engineer.  I'm also big on the ACL and SAL too, but that's another story altogether!  Anyway, the REA links will enable anyone to read All Aboard for free and in the Summer 2015 issue, on page eight and nine, editior Joe Spooner (a former Burlington Northern employee) printed an artical about yours truly.

Item: All Aboard is seeking short articals from model railroaders as it now has expanded to include a model railroad page or tow in each issue.

I look forward to your updates and thanks for sharing your layout with OGR railroaders.

73

Joe

Lee I always enjoy your posts no matter which forum they are in.  Your work is top notch.

@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:

The late Lee Riley, a prominent employee of Bachmann, was instrumental in convincing the well known manufacturer to begin production of On30 model trains at affordable prices.  It worked too!  I really do miss visiting with Lee when he'd be present at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, each year.

In the 80s on leave from my then employer, Deutsche Bundesbahn, I went with my mother and step-dad on a trip to North Carolina, where they had a trailer house in Johnson City that had been purchased from a co-worker of my step-dad.  I talked them into a day trip so I could visit the East Tennessee Railroad where they were operating with some Alco RS32 Diesel road switchers.  The employees were very accomodating and your typically friendly Carolina folks.  I got the grand tour of the office and shop building.

Joe, I so badly wish I could have met Lee Riley. He's single-handedly responsible for getting me back into the hobby. I'd left in total disgust after a series of insane experiences with a modular group in my hometown in Florida. Years later, Riley's Baldwin ten-wheelers came out in On30, the very prototype I'd always wanted in a scale smaller than G (I'd had one of those, too but it was too big for a layout). Were it not for him, I might never have gotten back into the hobby and met a lot of great people!

As for the RS-32s, I have a photo of one of them going past the Porter Fireless 0-6-0 at the North American rayon mill at Elizabethton. My parents grew up just east of there so we'd go up there every year to visit. the place is like a second home to me.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone!

Today is Veteran's Day, so:

Here are some more random detail shots I played around with from the weekend:

Another sweltering summer day along Stoney Creek...

Beautiful Lee!

I wanted to explore Tweetsie territory, when in Hickory, NC at the Narrow Gauge Convention, but found much was private property. I'd like to see a map or book on what can be explored there and... ..a good photo of that unusual RR covered bridge . Great work on catching the essence of your modeled period, AND owning a "finished" layout!

Cy Crumley eyeballs one of the Ensor daughters as his train pulls away from Hunter...

I LOVE your layout. I'll be watching the YouTube videos and getting inspired. Many thanks!!!

" .....I'd left in total disgust after a series of insane experiences with a modular group in my hometown in Florida......"

I hope my friends here will pardon this comment on a website that is supposed to be free of negative stuff. I fell this is relevant for the future of groups connected with the hobby.

I live in a town of almost 1/2 million. There were two different societies focused on Orchid growing, one of which was founded in the early 50s. The other started in the early 80s because of alcohol fueled hostilities in the first society. The second finally folded because of an obnoxious woman who ran everyone off. Alcohol caused the first society to succumb.

There is another society, a musical one, barely holding on because it is run by a covert narcissist.

My point? In today's world, we are all picky about where we spend our free time. Most of us will avoid functions that create more stress than the "real world."

Many thanks!!!!

Nice layout! The vignettes on your layout remind of scenes from the tv show "The Waltons."

Fantastic!!!!!!

@Texas Eagle 77 posted:

Nice layout! The vignettes on your layout remind of scenes from the tv show "The Waltons."

In a way, that ironic as they filmed the show in California (split between the Warner Brothers lot and Hollywood Hills), but I get the point and appreciate the compliment. The original concept of the show was in the area of Schuyler, Virginia, more toward the Chesapeake area than the Blue Ridge.

Thank you all for the kind words!

The ET&WNC (and Stoney Creek) is in the extreme northeast corner of Tennessee, take place in Carter County, just east of Elizabethton. There was a real railroad there, which was yanked out around 1932. In my concept, my fictional layout line (the Stoney Creek Southern) competed with the real one and drove it out of business, then flopped during the depression, when the ET&WNC bought them out (soon regretting so, once the big hurricane in 1940 washed a lot of stuff away).

I've long had two dreams throughout my life that involve railroads;

• I would wake up one morning in my childhood home in Florida to the sound of a train (we were miles from the nearest tracks, even logging line in the past) and see a train going down our road, right on the opposite side of the road from the house, with current at the time rolling stock and a black/yellow Seaboard GP on the head end (yes, it was that detailed of a dream)
• The ET&WNC had a branch line on Stoney Creek, and on visits to the area as a kid, my brother, cousin and I would discover it was all still there, slowly rusting/rotting away

I think the latter was based on our seeing the Doe River Gorge tracks when I was about 10 or 11, which looked like they had only been used last a few years previously (which surprised me to find many years later that the operation there did run into the mod 70s, we had no clue at that time).

This layout was something I'd felt the drive to create for most of my life, but only once Bachmann made the ET&WNC ten-wheelers in On30 was it attainable (as there was no way I could scratch build one to my standards).

I know plenty of people in the hobby want the layout first, then go looking a concept (or just don't have a concept at all, and just run whatever they want). That make no sense to me at all. In my own case, it was always about what I've done. Sure, there are other concepts I would have liked, but it was always going to be this.

I shot some random video this evening, after mounting this on my wall:

Very nice Lee. The sounds on both steamers are excellent too.

Bob

I placed my gopro camera (which I have hardly ever used since I got it on our European cruise in 2018) inside the Grindstaff store, put the roof on and used the remote shutter on the app.

Not the best shots ever, but it's neat to see how a O scale person would see it normally inside.

Just playing with the cell phone camera and apps again...

For a while, I'd wanted more correct pilots for my ten wheelers and only today realized bachmann gives you the earlier one in the extra parts bag.

So, I painted and weathered three of them and installed them all tonight.

In order is today, the 30s on a real ones and how the models used to look...

Still playing around with new camera angles.

Lee, really great modeling. I feel like I'm almost there!

Trainmasters TV just ran a segment I shot about my layout:

https://trainmasters.tv/progra...ishop?categoryId=228

Model Railroader ran a shot of my layout in Trackside photos in the March issue.

My presentation to a NMRA affiliated group on Friday was edited down to this in case you might be interested:

https://youtu.be/AztpmExwYrE

Great video! 

The hundred dollar cornfield!  Sad but true!  

@Frank Mulligan posted:

Great video!

The hundred dollar cornfield!  Sad but true!

Thanks, Frank! Hopefully it wasn't too boring.

Just got this 3D print of a ET&WNC wood hoppers car yesterday, from Western Rails.

I am very happy with how it turned out, I only have to put a brake wheel and grab irons on before paint/decals/weathering. I already have the couplers and trucks.

It's got a lot of heft and is much better detailed than the wood kits I built last year...

Someone asked me the other day what I would model if I didn't model a fictional branchline of the ET&WNC.

Easy, I told him; the real main line of the same railroad!

I've had some time to think about this and along the back wall where the barrel factory flat is, I'd have a massive industrial flat showing the front of one of the massive twin rayon mills just west of downtown Elizabethton, TN:

In front of which would be the Bemberg depot, which was renamed "Port Rayon" during WW2 due to the German name of the depot (both rayon mills were built by German companies in the 1920s).

There was a water tower there near where the commuter trains would stop during WW2. The mills were just to the right of this shot beyond that low berm across Elk Avenue:

The depot is still around even though the tracks are gone today, yanked out after this shot was taken (and the Wal-Mart which now sits on the Bermberg plant site can just be seen to the right in the background):

It'd be a challenge to build a model of this as it was a masonry structure, but it would look sweet in O scale if done accurately.

The area where the track goes to the center of the room would be the yard lead at Johnson City, TN and the other end along the wall with the window would be downtown Elizabethton (as the tracks actually ran right through the center of town).

The idea of modeling streets, brick buildings and the like... I gotta admit there are times I wish I'd had this idea first.

New 3D print hopper, just waiting for the decals to dry before I start weathering. I just drilled and tapped the bolsters and coupler pockets.
I numbered it 36 for the year my parents were each born. That number car was in use to the end of the railroad in 1950.

Number 44 above shows what it should look like when it's done.

I plan on getting more of these 3D prints.

Eminent Domain Lee! Time to annex another room in the house.

@RSJB18 posted:

Eminent Domain Lee! Time to annex another room in the house.

Yeah, you've never met my wife...

As for the new hopper # 36, it's on the layout now:

I do like those hoppers, very effective and atmospheric

Just playing around with my cell phone camera...

Here's something no visitor to the layout has ever noticed, a Jeep and GMC 2.5 ton truck in the tree line in the back of the area behind the tracks which run behind the general store and the cornfield.

The Jeep is 1:48 scale and the truck is 1:50 scale, each a little too small in scale for everything else on the layout.

What cell phone camera was that for the video?

Now that I got two more ET&WNC hoppers (3D prints form Western Rails) on the way and will have eight very soon, I’m going to go back and re-structure the concept of operations on the layout.

Before it was a simple “swapping cars” deal, but now what I want to do is to start off with different cars, but a coal train comes in and each car goes somewhere (three of them to the Army area, eventually I’ll have a coaling area for them).

The second train will be mixed, but now I’m going to put a lot of thought into which car goes where.

I really doubt anyone running on another guy’s layout cares where a specific car goes, but for those who do, the new concept will make more sense. This means I’ll run my first-ever solo op session and take notes along the way.

Most of all, I’d always wanted some hopper cars and it’s great now that they’ll be as ubiquitous on the layout as they were on the real railroad.

@BillYo414 posted:

What cell phone camera was that for the video?

Galaxy S20. My old cell died on me last summer so this is relatively new.

Good to know on that Samsung. I'm wanting to start a youtube channel and I'm trying to figure out what camera I need.

I gotta say I am really impressed and inspired now that I have had some time to comb through the thread. Your scenery is off the charts!! I think the most mind blowing thing for me is how the full scale world melts away in your photos and videos. I can't get over those 3D printed cars too. Very impressive!

@BillYo414 posted:

Good to know on that Samsung. I'm wanting to start a youtube channel and I'm trying to figure out what camera I need.

I gotta say I am really impressed and inspired now that I have had some time to comb through the thread. Your scenery is off the charts!! I think the most mind blowing thing for me is how the full scale world melts away in your photos and videos. I can't get over those 3D printed cars too. Very impressive!

Thanks for the kind words, Bill.

I always say unless you model a desert, you can never have too many trees (or details). I really think one of the reasons a lot of people model the D&RGW is so they don't have to put down much green grass or trees. I spent some time every year of my youth in that area, so I knew how lush the scenery is there. Frankly, I don't think I've nailed the look of it for how I remember it (I haven't been back there in far too long, sadly) but I keep adding more scenic elements where I think they make sense.

I have a flickr.com page in the signature line, with a lot of photos (if you work from the back you can see the progression of the scenery as well). I had a website but the server recently (and suddenly) declared you have to pay $30/month, so I'm in the process of starting over in Blogspot with updates of what I'm doing at the time.

As for the cell, it doesn't take as good still photos than my previous cell phone did, but it takes really good video. So much so that I shot all the video for my trainmasters.tv segment on it and I think it all turned out very well.

I will definitely check out the site!!

The video looks good. I figure I can start small and get a nicer camera as I go. But I need a new cell phone so I also figure I could get two things done at once.

I really enjoy operations when each car has a specific destination.    I used a computer program I wrote to route mine and every switchlist is different within the parameters of what types of cars go to what locations.

I don't find it as interesting to just swap car type for car type without paying attention to the numbers.

I also know a guy who used only one switchlist on his layout.    He had worked it out in detail for each siding and car and used it every time.   He had 4-5 jobs, and he kept track of which job you had and assigned  you a different one next time.    And he operated a few times a  year, so it might be over a  year for you to repeat.    However, I thought it was not philosophically right.    Each to his own way to have fun.

A couple of days ago, I found a photo from someone else’s layout (I forgot which website I found this on and couldn’t find it again when looking just now), and the builder had copied something I did. I did an article for the 2018 On30 Annual on taking an old tender from a Bachmann On30 2-6-0 and turning it into a water car. This guy had done everything I did, decking the top of the tender in plastic to look like sheet metal, even copying the same type of reinforcements (which I did from my imagination) and the same type of water hatch (a D&RGW K27 part I found at a hobby shop) I used. He added some pumps and valves, but clearly he used my article as a guide. I thought that was neat as its proof my work has influenced someone!

Mine:

His:

And later, another guy confirmed he copied my concept almost 100%:

Tonight I put grab irons and brake wheels in place on my 2 last hoppers. Next comes paint

Gorgeous layout. Nice modeling! I am going to add a small 0n30 area to my layout. But the focus is lumber, not ore. Still, seeing your work makes me cogitate a bit more. The question is how much you can squeeze onto one layout!

Don Merz

Don Merz

A friend of mine told me last night that he was able to get two sets of Bachmann hoppers painted in EBT "old colors" for me. What a surprise as I have not seen any of those hoppers at shows for many years.

@PRRMP54 posted:

A friend of mine told me last night that he was able to get two sets of Bachmann hoppers painted in EBT "old colors" for me. What a surprise as I have not seen any of those hoppers at shows for many years.

Yeah, Bachmann has been confusing with their offerings. First, they utterly flood the market with On30 stuff, then stop making some of in altogether. Now, some of the cars people thought would never be tough to find are so rare that some people question if they ever existed.

I was lucky, in that when I decided to make this layout, I found what Bachmann had that I could to represent ET&WNC stuff, and bought a bunch of them. I modified, decalled, and weathered them all to my taste then put them back into the boxes for the day when they could be used.

So glad I did that now, as many of them are difficult to find at any prices now.

As for my hoppers, those are 3D prints from Western Rails. They were wooden hoppers, something no other RR had. The ET&WNC never had steel hoppers on their 3-foot line.

@p51 posted:

A couple of days ago, I found a photo from someone else’s layout (I forgot which website I found this on and couldn’t find it again when looking just now), and the builder had copied something I did. I did an article for the 2018 On30 Annual on taking an old tender from a Bachmann On30 2-6-0 and turning it into a water car. This guy had done everything I did, decking the top of the tender in plastic to look like sheet metal, even copying the same type of reinforcements (which I did from my imagination) and the same type of water hatch (a D&RGW K27 part I found at a hobby shop) I used. He added some pumps and valves, but clearly he used my article as a guide. I thought that was neat as its proof my work has influenced someone!

Mine:

His:

Fantastic modeling!

I applied the decals on my last two hoppers.

43 because it's always 1943 on the layout and 1 because, well, I couldn't resist.

Both numbers were running on the ET&WNC to the end.

Tomorrow, I'll start weathering.

What loco is that with the red trim on your Flickr page?

Don Merz

@Don Merz 070317 posted:

What loco is that with the red trim on your Flickr page?

That'll be one of the three Bachmann On30 4-6-0s in the black/red ET&WNC paint scheme from 1943 to the end of operations in 1950.

I changed the builder plates and number plates on them, put real coal in the tenders, added crews, oil cans and shovels, and weathered them. I love watching them wheel around.

One still exists (#12), running at Tweetsie RR at Blowing Rock, NC.

A good guy with a HOn3 layout that does an excellent job recreating ET&WNC scenes made this postcard from a photo on his layout looking just like the real ones.

He mailed one to me, and it just went into my binder with all the original postcards and paperwork I've collected from the real railroad.

That postcard collection is a treasure. And his postcard project is pretty impressive too. I love it!

Don

I have enjoyed reading through your thread and admiring your exquisite modeling and photography. Even though I am currently a tinplate guy, if I were to get back into scale modeling, On30 would be my choice, having limited space and budget.

I have a few Bachmann On30 pieces from years ago. I always admired their shays and climaxes too. You said they are not making a lot of their On30 offerings any more? I bought mine more than 15 years ago- maybe closer to 20, I think around the time they came out. For the money, they were hard to beat.

@Will posted:

You said they are not making a lot of their On30 offerings any more?

Thanks for the kind words, Will.

I'm not sure what they're still making but a lot of engines and rolling stock that used to be common, are quite hard to find now.

I just finished working on my new switch lists. Now every other train coming off the mainline interchange is a coal train, and I think it'll make more sense to operating crews, whenever the day comes when I can have people come over to operate.

I'm going to run all 4 sessions to be sure it works, soon.

Lee, as a Lionel AC guy, who have only dabbled in DC trains, can you tell us what transformer(s) -is power packs the correct term?- you are using on your layout and what you recommend?

@Will posted:

Lee, as a Lionel AC guy, who have only dabbled in DC trains, can you tell us what transformer(s) -is power packs the correct term?- you are using on your layout and what you recommend?

Will, I use a DCC system, the MRC prodigy express.

It's a complete system, power supply and controller it looks like? And enough power for the entire layout including lights, or do you power that separately? Thanks, this is helpful should I make the plunge into On30.

@Will posted:

It's a complete system, power supply and controller it looks like? And enough power for the entire layout including lights, or do you power that separately?

Yes, that system runs the trains, but it needs a lot of wiring and plugs.

The structure lights are all lit from the Woodland Scenics plug and play system.

I was just playing around with my cell phone at lunch time today...

At the Buladeen, TN depot, everyone is getting ready for the 12:15 from Elizabethton:

Meanwhile, down at the Winner, TN depot, a couple of women are waiting for the next westbound train.

At the "Baker Company" motor pool, the CO'd command car really needs a washing after being taken on some back roads:

Across the tracks from the Unaka company factory, an older man comes to reflect at the memorial to the War Between the States. Though Tennessee was a Confederate state officially, they sent almost an equal number of units to fight for the Union:

That first one could pass as an old photograph without even trying.

@BillYo414 posted:

That first one could pass as an old photograph without even trying.

Thanks. I love getting shots from 'eye level' and then messing around with some photo software to make them look like someone snapped a shot with a Speed Graphic camera, and it's now faded over time:

I never liked soft lighting on a layout, as you see that in real life only on a very cloudy day. I use LED cans, so none are overlapping and in shots it looks more like direct sunlight. As anyone who's watched a movie shot indoors that represents the outside can tell you, the lighting is easy to spot when it doesn't look like sunshine.

@p51 posted:

Thanks. I love getting shots from 'eye level' and then messing around with some photo software to make them look like someone snapped a shot with a Speed Graphic camera, and it's now faded over time:

I never liked soft lighting on a layout, as you see that in real life only on a very cloudy day. I use LED cans, so none are overlapping and in shots it looks more like direct sunlight. As anyone who's watched a movie shot indoors that represents the outside can tell you, the lighting is easy to spot when it doesn't look like sunshine.

The effect is phenomenal! Eye level shots are some of the most exciting in my opinion.

Lighting is the one thing I'm most intimidated by on my layout. Thankfully I have some time before I have to worry about it. But I feel I have to get it done before I start doing scenery.

I have just been invited to join a local round-robin operating group, all really good guys I'm familiar with (more than one MMR and most have been published lots of times) and I'm honored to be asked to join them.
As I got the COVID shot over a month ago, I'm far more open to the idea of taking part in op sessions than I certainly would have been before that (which is to say NOT at all before then).
It'll be so nice to eventually have people over for ops eventually. The last people who came over for ops was the OlyOps event in October 2019...

I went over to a friend's home last Tuesday for a 3 hour ops session on his large N scale layout followed by dinner.  There were 7 participants and all were fully vaccinated.  None of us wore masks during the 5 hours we were in his basement / home.  All of us felt safe doing this because we were full vaccinated.  NH Joe

For my recently-acquired ET&WNC spike (recovered from just before milepost 13 between Valley Forge and the covered Deck Bridge near Hampton), I bought this framed tile thing at Hobby Lobby yesterday.
Today, I had to get a carbide bit to drill through it, and I then used steel wire to wire it in place.

I them made my own label for it and printed it on photo paper.

Here it is in place:

That's cool. I have collected a few railroad spikes over the years. The one that baffles me the most is the one I found in the backyard. I do NOT live near any railroad tracks and the old mine was a half mile from my house and was underground, not surface mining.

How old would you guess your spike is?

@BillYo414 posted:

How old would you guess your spike is?

The 3 foot gauge line there was abandoned in 1950 and ripped out in 1951, so the spike probably predates WW2.

@p51 posted:

The 3 foot gauge line there was abandoned in 1950 and ripped out in 1951, so the spike probably predates WW2.

Nice. I love to see old pieces of history slip by and be preserved.

Just ran my 2-6-2T a little.

A lot of very fine modelling, in 1/48 scale; But how many 2ft 6in. Prototypes actually existed in the USA??? Plenty of notable 2footers, and of course the Colorado 3 footers and the numerous lumber lines, but 2'6" (On30?

Here in Australia, we have 2ft ( sugar cane) 3'6" ( major state lines) and one or two 2'6" ( Puffing Billy, Victoria);

Other State and National lines are 4'8.5", and 5'3".( 2 adjoining states only).

Is the use of On30 in the US a matter of convenience/compromise, as to availability of models off the shelf...I remember when Great On3 layouts were almost all scratch built, with high quality Brass Locos; are modelers getting too easy in Track and Rolling Stock sourcing, and accepting what the Big Trainmakers sell them???

E G WWI Trench Engine in 0n30, when it should be in 0n600mm, or On24/2???

Just my observations in searching for Models which can be converted to QGR 1880s Baldwin Imports, with new chassis in correct On42.

Or in the case of Trench Engines, correct On24. On handlaid track ( 12.7mm, .500 inch)...cane tramways.

DocAV Brisbane Australia.

@Astrid Vallati posted:

Is the use of On30 in the US a matter of convenience/compromise, as to availability of models off the shelf...

Yes.  Plus Bachmann's intent was to go after the ceramic village enthusiasts without having to make investments in On3 track.

Rusty

Wikipedia lists them, though the timeframe covered is ambiguous: Search on "2 ft 6 in gauge railroads in the United States".

The book American Narrow Gauge Railroads by Hilton would be a good source.

And finally, the old magazine Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette is a hugely valuable reference if you can find back issues.

Don

@Astrid Vallati posted:

Is the use of On30 in the US a matter of convenience/compromise, as to availability of models off the shelf...I remember when Great On3 layouts were almost all scratch built, with high quality Brass Locos; are modelers getting too easy in Track and Rolling Stock sourcing, and accepting what the Big Trainmakers sell them???

I guess I have to ask, how many exact scale steam engines have you scratchbuilt?

I have done NONE. Had I decided to scratch build this, to my standard, I'd still be working on the first one (and I would have wanted three):

I got back into the hobby because Bachmann decided to make THE prototype I love, in a workable scale.

Sure, I'd have rathered they made them for the same price in On3, but I know my strengths and weaknesses, especially for a hobby I was just getting back into after over 30 years.

If that makes me lazy, well, that's really my business. Tell that to the editors of EVERY major magazine in the hobby, who have all run my work...

@p51 posted:

If that makes me lazy, well, that's really my business. Tell that to the editors of EVERY major magazine in the hobby, who have all run my work...

Looking at your work, I wish I was as lazy as you.

Besides, look at how many O Scalers have accepted 5' gauge track...

Rusty

This afternoon, I found a small piece of granite in the back yard, it was terraced but very small.
I couldn't resist cutting a hole for it in an embankment near a turntable and putting it in. I then placed some foliage around it and I really like how it turned out. I doubt a visitor to the layout would even notice it, though...

Ignore the haters Lee. Probably why I didn't go HO when I got back into the hobby (key word, hobby)

I hope that one day adding a rock and being happy about it is all I have left to do.

Bob

I know that you know the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette is running a series on ET & WNC locomotives, now up to 4-6-0 #9, but, just in case .... I, too, want ready-to-run On3 locos and track, and have held off on a narrow gauge branch because of that, in spite of gauges being an arbitrary invention tied to Roman chariots, for l do not have time to scratch build everything.

@colorado hirailer posted:

I know that you know the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette is running a series on ET & WNC locomotives, now up to 4-6-0 #9, but, just in case ....

Yep, I had an article in one of those issues that also had one of Johnny's articles.

But as for Roman chariot/wagon gauge later being related to railroad standard gauge, that's actually something people repeat with little real basis in history.

Tonight I was working on some new photo angles, and I like how this turned out...

@p51 posted:

I've been posting here in various forums for a while but I finally decided to have a thread dedicated to my On30 layout and its updates.

The layout is in a 11X10 foot room and takes up a lot of it. I started in 2014 and had the scenery for the most part looking like I wanted it within just over 2 years.

The layout has been in OGR three times so far:

1. A reader photo in the August/September 2018 issue
2. A layout profile article in the February/March 2019 issue
3. A locomotive review for the Bachmann On30 Baldwin 'trench' engine in the April/March 2020 issue

it's been in several other magazines as well over the past 3 years.

I've been told I made more progress in 2 years than many make in 20. The before/after shot is 3 years difference to the day, the upper being the first day the of track laying:

I was never that big on scenery before, but I found I have a feel for it. I love adding realistic scenic elements and scratch building structures:

The layout theme is of a fictional branch line of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina RR that ran from Elizabethton, TN across the Watauga River, along Stoney Creek, up into the valley northeast of the real-life mainline that turned southeast toward Cranberry, NC. The layout takes place in late summer 1943.

Maybe I'm the only person in the hobby with an actual Army RR Operating unit, complete with insignia? B Co, 796th ROB takes up two sidings on the layout:

So relax trackside and watch the parade of mostly Baldwin ten-wheelers as they go back and forth between Buladeen and Hunter, Tennessee:

More, soon! I'll still also post in the "what have you done on your layout" section as well...

Looking GOOD!

@C.M McMahon posted:

Looking GOOD!

Thank you very much

Another summer's day comes to an end at the Grindstaff store at Sadie, TN...

Videos from last week:

https://youtu.be/aeoZ6LO0DhA

https://youtu.be/VVD8wpDirlE

Well, a tape measure and access to that ancient road north out of Rome (Italy), with the ruts in stone,  do provide some hard evidence of the possible origin of the gauge.  Coincidence?

While discussed here is an excellent model of the Tweetsie, readers may be interested to know that the Narrow Gauge Convention is scheduled to be held again in Tweetsie territoriy  this year .  I still would like to see  good photos  of its unusual covered bridge.

I was just visiting my parents in Florida (they're well into their 80s, with all the issues you'd expect) and I think I've found my next project.

My father built a blacksmith shop in the early 60s. I want to build an O scale version as the real structure isn't very large and could easily fit into my layout's theme.

Nothing but wood, metal roofing which I already have, and a small amount of plastic for the door hinges. That's about as easy of a project as you can get form a real-world structure. Beats me where I'd place it, but as soon as things calm down here (my wife was dealing with a nightmare of a kitchen remodel while I was in Florida), I'll get rolling on this.

I really only had time to get these shots as it was a very full several days I was down there. Dad's memory isn't all that great but he was adamant that it was 10X30 feet not including the overhead to one side. So figuring out the other dimensions should be pretty easy knowing that.

I wouldn't weather exactly as you see as in Tennessee weather you wouldn't see the same colors there as you see here after 50+ years in Florida weather, but I'm sure I could make a decent scale replica of this.

I'm sure any replica you make will be far more than "decent".

A mixed train meets a commuter train at the water tower near Hunter, TN...

Meanwhile, Robert Nidiffer digs up some ash near the ET&WNC right of way, near the interchange with the main line to Johnson City.

Residents of Stoney Creek often wonder what he does with the buckets of ash he walks off with, but with wartime rationing in effect, it's one of the few things that is easy to obtain...

More random shots from Baker Company...

Build that shed...capture that moment in personal history.  I am in this hobby based on nostalgia of childhood pleasures, and suspect many are.  We will expect a very good model.

Paul Estep (first name taken from my last living uncle who sadly passed away recently) is taking a rest next to the Hunter, TN depot. Boots, his beloved hound, is taking up the entrance to the small depot, requiring everyone else wait outside for the last evening train to Elizabethton.

Meanwhile down near Sadie, Mister Grindstaff is waiting to be able to close up for the evening

Love what you've done with your layout.

Building your father's blacksmith shop would be perfect. As you say it fits in with your layout but the memories...

@Scotie posted:

Love what you've done with your layout.

Building your father's blacksmith shop would be perfect. As you say it fits in with your layout but the memories...

Thanks. I don't really have a place to put the shop, but I bet I could find somewhere for it once I build it.