A journal following the history, design, construction and operation of Bernard Kempinski's O Scale model railroad depicting the U. S. Military Railroad (USMRR) Aquia-Falmouth line in 1863, and other model railroad projects.
©Bernard Kempinski All text and images, except as noted, on this blog are copyrighted by the author and may not be used without permission.
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August 23, 2013

WWI Project

Work on the Aquia Line is on hold this fall while I work on my next book. Part of the book will be about a WWI trench layout. I am building a small project layout for the book with this theme.  Here is a quick look at how it is coming along.
The layout depicts the railroad activity leading up to the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917. It was the first massive
 tank battle in history, but also saw the first American WWI soldiers in combat along with the first American casualties.

This side of the layout depicts a standard to narrow gauge railway  interchange in north west France.

The other side of the layout shows a section of the front line trenches. The figure provides a size reference.














If you are unfamilar with WWI trench railways, this movie will give you an introduction to this fascinating subject.


6 comments:

  1. Gary DombrowskiAugust 23, 2013

    Next book? What was the FIRST book? Just curious.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BernieAugust 23, 2013

    This will be my third book for Kalmbach Publishing. The first was a book on model railroad track plans for mid size spaces. The second was about steel mill modeling. This one has a working title called, "the model railroad goes to war." One can order signed copies of the first two books at www.alkemscalemodels.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. HeislerAugust 26, 2013

    Fascinating, I'm looking forward to seeing this book released. WWI has always had a special fascination for me, this will be a nice add to the reference collection.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BernieAugust 26, 2013

    To clarify a bit, the new book will cover most of the major conflicts and the role railroads played. There will be major chapters on the American Civil War, WWI, WWII and the recent Gulf wars.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownSeptember 08, 2013

    Hi Bernie,

    Should be fascinating. I'm interested in WWI at the moment as I've been doing some research into my grandfather's role in it. I'm also a model railroading enthusiast who writes about the hobby. I don't know if you're looking for more content or are interested in publishing articles written by other people, but if you are I'd be delighted to let you use some of mine (free of charge, of course).

    Warm regards,

    Mark

    ReplyDelete
  6. BernieSeptember 09, 2013

    Mark,
    Thanks for the note. The WWI Project layout is for a book I am writing for Kalmbach Publishing. I am not posting much information about that project as the focus of it is primarily for the book.

    I would consider a guest post to his blog if it deals with the subject of civil war railroads amd modeling them.

    ReplyDelete

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