More Photos from Andrew J Russell

I haven't had much chance to work on the layout this week with a U2 Concert, a work session at John Drye's N Scale layout and taxes. But I wanted to post some additional Russell photos I found in books I have in my collection that are not on-line in the Library of Congress web site. These two shots are by Andrew Russell from the book, "Russell's Civil War Photographs- 116 Historic Prints", available from Amazon by clicking here

This image shows Phillips House with Lacy House and Fredericksburg in the distance. General Burnside used Phillips House as his headquarters until it was accidentally burned down by a careless soldier.

As I think about the topography of my layout and the actual ground, I am beginning to believe that I should have Phillips House and not Lacy House on my backdrop behind Falmouth. My RR runs N-S with south to the right as you look at the backdrop. So the backdrop behind Falmouth should be to the east. Phillips House is east of the railroad, while Lacy House is west. But the RR makes a long Ess curve as it heads through Falmouth to Fredericksburg, so the views can be confusing depending on where you are on the ess curve.

The town of Falmouth was actually about 1.5 miles northwest from the Falmouth Station. Karl Schwartz, a former guide at Lacy (aka Chatham) house, tells me that at Falmouth Station there was little development -most likely a few slave cabins and perhaps an overseer's house. There may have also been some service buildings for Lacy House. The Confederates burned the station at Falmouth when they retreated so it is charred remains at the time of Union occupation. It lies to the east of the tracks. So far I have not found any photos of the Falmouth Station and supply terminal area.

The shot of the bridge is the best close up of the triple-arched truss at Potomac Creek I have found. This shot helps fill in the questions I had about how it was constructed.

In the background, two freight cars are visible, implying that there is a siding just north of the bridge. That would most likely be the Potomac Creek Siding mentioned in several train orders and schedule for the line. I may combine this siding with Brooke Station on my layout as I don't have room for both sidings.

Also visible in the background of the image are several log huts, and a fortification at the upper left to protect the bridge site. My layout design leaves a lot of room at the north end of the bridge to model some of these neat details.