Modeling Civil War Railroads - The book

My latest book, Modeling Civil War Railroads is now available for pre-order  from Artisan Rail Media's Web site here.   

The book isn't out yet, it is in final production. However, I had ChaptGTP review the final draft. Here is what it "said."

Review of Modeling Civil War Railroads

Modeling Civil War Railroads is an unusually ambitious book that combines Civil War history, railroad history, and practical model-building into a single work. Bernard Kempinski does more than explain how to build accurate models; he shows why the railroads mattered and places the modeling in its historical context. The book covers everything from locomotives, rolling stock, track and structures to railroad operations, military logistics, destruction and repair, and the men who made the system work. Extensive historical research gives the modeling projects a purpose, allowing readers to understand not simply what they are building, but what the real railroad looked like and how it functioned during the Civil War.

One of the book's strengths is that it is not solely a showcase of Kempinski's own work. Approximately one-third of the book features projects and modeling techniques from other accomplished modelers, demonstrating a range of approaches, skills, and interpretations. Their contributions broaden the book and reinforce its central idea: there is no single way to bring Civil War railroad history to life in miniature. The result is both a practical modeling reference and an engaging introduction to an often-overlooked aspect of the Civil War. Whether the reader is an experienced modeler, a Civil War enthusiast, or someone simply fascinated by how railroads transformed warfare and logistics, Modeling Civil War Railroads offers something valuable—and provides plenty of inspiration for creating historically informed models of their own.

Here are sample pages. Click for full size. 

Road Trip Part 3 IPMS National Convention

The road trip continued with a visit to Charlie Taylor's O Scale Memphis and Charleston RR in Memphis, Tennessee.  On my way there,  I stopped in Corinth, MS at the National Park Visitor's Center to refresh my memory as it had been several years since I was there. Not much of the battlefield was spared from development, but the visitor's center is very good. 

I bought an interesting book that focusing on the Union Ironclads battling the rebel fortifications. 

Will and Charlie at the start of the session

Several members of the ACWRRHS convened at Charlie's house for a day of operations.  This was my fourth trip to Charlie's wonderful layout. He had completed a few more scenes since that visit and refined his operating scheme. So this was a good test. We had a lot of fun. 

Charlie has been experimenting with rare earth magnets instead of links to coulple cars. He built several adapters that allow magnets to grab track nails to couple cars. I may have to experiment with this idea. Charlie traded some of those magnets with me for figures. 

Charlie's grandchildren play with the layout and they set up a huge battle in Chattanooga. Fortunately, the battle did not affect the op session.

Next stop was a quick visit to my son and his family. Then it was off to Fort Wayne, IN for the IPMS National Convention. I stayed with several friends in a large rental house about a half mile from the convention center. Zack Becker from the NCMSS, joined Dan Pierce, Rob Kempinski, and  Dave Nowinski from Space Coast IPMS,  plus  Phil Perry, Carlos and Edward from other Florida IPMS chapters in the large 120 year old house. The tradition of haunted old houses continued as Carlos swore he saw a ghost.  

We set up our models own Wednesday. Then Zack, Dan, Rob and I had dinner at a nice place on the Maumee River in sight of the old fort. After dinner, we visited Alan Bell's model railroad and machine shop. Alan's layout models the NYC in the Albany area. He has a lot of signals and other cool electronics.  He selected that area for the wide variety of operations in a compact area.

I honestly did not know about his layout, but I did know about his machine shop. It is very well equipped. The most amazing thing is that he taught himself how to run the various machines including a chucker lathe, which is an early type of CNC lathe designed for high-volume production of small, precision parts, often used in industries like aerospace and medical. It features an automatic turret for efficient machining operations with different tools. I think he said his machine is an analog model, i.e. not digital controllers. Too bad we did n't get a demo of this cool machine.

The IPMS Convention was a lot of fun.  On Thursday night, Zack and I did some painting, trying to give Dan some tips.

Friday was busy. I presented a talk on the making of the D-Day Diorama, then a painting class with Jim Rice and then judging. I was part of the Miscellaneous Judges team. We worked well together and got through about 400 models in an expeditious manner.

On Saturday I attended two talks and did some shopping at the vendors. Then we had our traditional group dinner with Dan cooking and Rob helping. That evening was the awards ceremony. Tailgate modelers got several awards.

Zachariah Becker received 1st for Val Kilmer bust and third for the IH Tractor

Rob Kempinski received 1st for his automotive diorama, and four thirds, for the warlord Sherman, Wonder Dread truck, dino rider and the female scratchbuild.

I received two second places, one for John Hancock bust and one for Fast Rope ship and helicopter diorama. I received thirds for the fantasy figure Acinad  riding Koda, and one  for the Declaration of Independence shadowbox diorama. The latter also received the special Happy 250th Anniversary American award. 

All three of us received dozens of peer awards. We each had models selected by Fine Scale Modeler to be photographed for their magazine. 

Several other members of the Spacecoast IPMS received awards including Andy Caldwell who received the special indy car award.

There were 3110 entries in approximately 50 categories. Overall quality was quite high.  Lots of amazing work on display.

Road Trip Part 2 NMRA National Convention 2026

1

The 2026 NMRA convention in Chattanooga was a fun and productive time.   There were a lot of events going. Here is a quick summary of the events related to Civil War Modeling.

The ACWRRHS, which is also a Special Interest Group, of the NMRA had

*  a large display TTRAK layout

* a computer monitor displaying a early test of a civil war module for Trainz 22

* posing with costumes to create photos that can be used to make 3-D printed figures

* several static displays of engines and rolling stock in N, HO and O scale,

*  a 3R O scale display layout. 

* Thom Radice, DC Cebula, Marty Vaughn and I presented talks on various civil war related topics. There were also other speakers that presented ACW era talks.

* Most of the ACWRRHS members made trips to Mission Ridge and Lookout Mountain. These highlight the importance of Chattanooga in the ACW.

* Artisan Rail Media announced that they will be publishing my next book, “Modeling Civil War Railroads.” We are hoping to have it published by November, 2026.

* I entered my machine and engine shop in the model contest and I was pleased to be awarded 4 awards, The National Judges Award, NMRA Editor’s Favorite Model, Hunterline Award for best scratchbuilt wooden model, and finally, Best In Show.

..

On Monday, several of the ACWRRHS members visited Charlie Taylor’s large O scale layout. We had a great time operating it.

I think most of us in our group thought it was the best NMRA convention we had ever attended. 

it.

. N

Road Trip Part 1 Dixie Rail 2026

Op Session 29

I hosted Op Session Number 29 on 11 July. Five visitors from Williamsburg, Mat Thompson, Ed Rappe, Jim Taverna, Alan Balma and Rich Feller  attended. Local, Marty McGuirk filled in the final spot. The session went pretty well. I did note some problems. Engine Fury, which is normally the work horse, seemed to lose some pulling power. It was slipping on the grades in the tunnels. So we swapped it for Whiton, and Whiton ran fine. I need to check Furywhen I get a chance

On Wednesday, I departed Alexandria for Atlanta to attend DixieRail 2026 as a guest of Scott Dunlap, an old friend. I got to operate on three layouts, Jim Travis, Howard Goodwin and Mark Bridgewater. They were lots of fun. 

Jim's layout spans three rooms of his large basement. It's a large loop with several industries. I ran mostly through trains, with one that required some switching. Jim's wife Kim gave me a tour of the structures she built and detailed. They were very nice. 

Howard's layout was two stub staging yards in the garage that feed  a J shaped loop in the basement. The trains are not too long, but there is a lot of activity. 

Mark's layout is only 20 months old, but it has the making of a top layout in the country. It is a 2500 square foot mushroom layout with two branch lines that are on separate decks. The mainline is about 600 feet with 7 passing sidings. The mainline is operational with some of the branches also working. Mark has built several fine layouts in the past, so I have great hopes for this one.

On Sunday, I headed up to Chattanooga stopping at 5 more model railroads.

The first was Bill Heb’s. This in a N scale layout that spans several rooms in his basement. The theme is the B&O in Ohio. The highlight of the layout is an automated transfer table as a staging yard. It is quite impressive.

Second was David Godwin's HO scale Georgia Central RR. It also spans several rooms in his basement with two decks plus a large peninsula in one room to house a large passenger terminal.

L

Next I visited Phil Stead's On3 DRGW. I was there 13 years ago. He has basically finished the layout. He has 13 engines, dozens of cars, and a fully sceniced layout that goes from flat drylands to mountain peaks. One of his helpers told me it is the largest On3 layout in the US. His wife painted the back drops too.

After Phil I stopped at the Tate Depot Museum where there are 2 layouts on display. Both are excellent. The Depot is a non profit organization that maintains the layouts and opens them to the public as a tourist attraction for the county. In return, the county covers most of the expenses. In addition to public sessions, the club also has their own work and operation meetings. 

The final layout was Steve Austin's On30 masterpiece. Steve expanded the layout by about 40% since I was last there. It is a highly detailed modeling tour du force. Steve probably has every detail part ever created in O scale. 

I am now in Chattanooga for the NMRA National Convention and Train Show.

June Update

 

Fast Rope- US Navy and Marines Enforce Blockade

June was a busy month with a wonderful 10-day trip to central Europe wedged between work on  several modeling projects.  Since it's the Fourth of July let's start with that.

1. Writing the Declaration of Independence Diorama

Ferris' painting

This will be a shadow box diorama depicting Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams as they edit the declaration of independence 250 years ago.  It is based on Jean Leon Gerome Ferris' painting, but I modified the composition for better arrangement in a 3D shadow box diorama.

It features from right to left, Adams (right, who became the second President of the USA), Jefferson (in the center who became the 3rd US president and was 6'2" tall) and Ben Franklin (who was 70 years old at the time). Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston were also members of the Committee of Five that helped draft it, but for some reason don't get as much fame even though they were both very influential people in the early history of the United States.

Mock-up of the shadow pox 

Adams had pushed for Jefferson to take the lead on writing. Jefferson had a certain literary grace, and, more importantly, he wasn’t yet tarnished by too much speaking in the contentious congressional debates. “You can write ten times better than I can,” Adams told him.

So Jefferson got to work in a boarding house a few blocks from the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall), putting pen to paper between June 11 and 28. His desk was a simple wooden box with paper and quill pens that he held on his lap, a 18th century laptop.

When Jefferson finished, he handed copies to Franklin and Adams for review and editing.

In the original draft, Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable…”

This phrasing placed liberty’s foundation squarely in the realm of religion and natural law. It had theological weight and lofty moral power. But to Franklin the appeal to divine authority invited theological disputation. Ever the rationalist, he suggestred using the language of Enlightenment reason.

Franklin crossed out “sacred and undeniable” and scribbled something new: “self-evident.”

In 1776, Benjamin Franklin was 37 years older than Jefferson, and had sat through more committee meetings and wrestled with more politics than Adams and Jefferson combined. He understood that to rally a continent and pass muster with the prickly delegates of the Continental Congress, the Declaration’s truths needed to be stated plainly, not preached.

“Self-evident” drew on the language of 17th-century philosophers like Descartes and 18th-century thinkers like John Locke. It suggested these were not mere articles of religious faith, but truths discernible by reason and shared human experience.

The edits weren’t over. Congress itself would spend all day July 3rd and most of July 4th revising the document—cutting nearly a quarter of it, including Jefferson’s scathing denunciation of the slave trade, ironic since Jefferson, a Virginian, himself was a slave owner. .

But Franklin’s change remained. Self-evident survived. It threaded the needle between moral conviction and rational persuasion, giving the line a universalism that has carried through centuries.

2. Fast Rope : US Navy and Marines Enforce Blockade

Inspired by recent events, I converted my existing container ship model from the PoLA layout  into a diorama depicting US Marine fast roping to the top of the containers. 

The helicopter is a MH-60S from a Chinese company MRY-SFW, which stands for Mr. Yao's Super Fantasy World. It is 3D printed. The model is very nicely detailed. But there are some layer lines visible. They were very hard to remove due to all the rivet detail. I used several coats of leveling primer to try to hide them. 

The other major problem was that the 3D printed clear parts had a frosted appearance with visible layers. I tried polishing them, but did not have good luck. So I ordered a Hasegawa UH-60 as it has a the same windows and doors as the USN MH-60S. I had to carefully trim and sand the clear parts from the injection molded kit  to fit the 3D printed model. I was lucky it worked out.

The figures are 3D sculpts. The fast roping marines I sculpted. The other marines came from a vendor on Myminifactory.  The ropes are steel piano wire placed into holes drilled into the containers. They I added curled up sections of cord to simulate the excess rope that typically hangs from the helos. The helo is rather high as it has to avoid the ship cranes. That puts a lot of torque on the wires, even though the model weighs about 3 ounces.

I used Liquidtex acrylic heavy gel and acrylic pouring medium for the water surface.  I added a backdrop to help protect the fragile helicopter during handling and transport. I also made foam support to secure the helicopter while the diorama is in transit. Hopefully that will minimize vibrations. 

3. Boudica Bust

I had a commissioned model for the Long Island Figure club. They requested a bust of Boudica, Queen of the Iceni. They plan to sell the bust to raise money for their club. I printed about 30 busts for them.

5. John Adams Bust

I also did a digital sculpt of a bust for John Adams. Part of the founding fathers busts series.Not sure when I will get a chance to paint it. Sculpting the curly hair was a lot of fun. 

6. Polish National IPMS Show

Rob taking with the owner of Lukgraph.
Rob bought the huge Grumman Goose model

We had a chance to visit the Polish National IPMS show in Warsaw. It was a nice meet. About as big as the Northern Virgina IPMS meet. There were a lot of nice models on display. I also purchased a model a 230mm mortar built by Skoda, but used by the Poles in WW2. Alas, the weapon was spectaculary ineffective. One report mentioned they only had 75 rounds for all their mortar.  The Germans captured it and reused it in Norway. 

We saw some amazing paper models. Here is one example. 

This is a neat idea of a scuba diver trying to help a manta ray with a fishing net .