Florida - Part 3 Model Trains and Planes

 

Wrapping up my documentation of our trip to Florida, I will mention our visit to Rick Bellanger's N Scale layout and the Titusville Model Railroad Club.

Rick Bellanger is an accomplish model builder and long term N Scale model railroader. His house is practically a museum filled with well built models of ships, planes and armor as well as a nicely built, double deck N scale layout. 

Rick and his layout

Rick is originally from Florida but lived in LA for many years. He was a member of the Belmont Shores N Scale and the Tehachapi HO scale model railroad clubs.  

His current freelanced layout features the UP and Sante Fe railroads.  It is well built and features many illuminated buildings.  Rick said he is interested in selling his N scale layout and equipment, preferably in one transaction. If you are interested, let me know and I can put you in contact with him.  He has a lot of rolling stock and many structures. 

Engine terminal on Rick's layout

After visiting Rick's layout, we stopped by the Titusville Model Railroad Club layout. We got to met some of the members and had a chance to look at their layouts. They have three layouts, the O gauge 3-rail and N scale layouts are finished. They are in the process of rebuilding the HO scale layout. It is coming along nicely. Alas, I forgot to take pictures at the club.  

The guys at the model railroad  club suggested we check out American Aero Services, New Smyrna Beach, FL. So we did that the next day after a round of golf at nearby Venetian Bay (note, I was the caddy, my back was still not healed enough for golf).

American Aero Services is a restoration and maintenance facility that specializes in serving the War-Bird community. They restore aircraft, military vehicles, armor, missiles and rockets. They do complete restorations, repairs, maintenance and annual inspections. They also have a museum. Amazingly, they let visitors wander around their two hangers to see what they are doing.  

The tank is a former Soviet T-55 that they are visually modifying to look like a WW2 Tiger.

This B-17 is being refitted for flying service.

You don't see this too often

On my last day in Florida I took a long walk on the beach and saw a large, dead  turtle washed up on the sand. This is the second time I have seem a large turtle dead on the beach. The first one was larger than this one, but was in an advanced state of decay. This time the turtle appeared in fairly good condition, so it was not dead for long. However, it appeared to have three wounds on the left side that were probably strikes from a propeller. One of the wounds was pretty deep and looked like it was oozing. It may have been a fatal blow. The state of Florida tracks these turtles, so I reported it to the local lifeguard and he called it in. I am not sure how the orange markings got on the turtle. 

That  wraps up our trip to Florida. It was a fun week despite the issues with my back and the unfortunate turtle.

We are back in Virginia. My back is getting better and more projects are getting added to the do list. 

2021 Columbia PA Railroad Day

Next weekend will be an interesting day for people interested in civil war railroads.  

The  2021 Columbia Pennsylvannia Railroad Day program is scheduled for May 1 after cancelling last year's event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They will be using the new Columbia Crossing River Tails Visitor Center for facility for their Civil War Railroading theme presentations. It is located along the Susquehanna River at 41 Walnut Street, and offers full audio/visual support and extensive seating both inside and out.

Columbia, PA is located east of York near the former Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, which the scene of an important skirmish and bridge burning during the Gettysburg campaign. The burning of that bridge pretty much ended the rebels plans to cross the Susquehanna River during the invasion of Pennsylvannia. 

I plan to drive up the day before and revisit Gettysburg on the way. In addition to my talk, I will have some of my ACW era models on display.

The schedule of events is as follows

09:00AM - 09:30AM: Civil War Railroad Day Opening Remarks.

10:00AM - 10:45AM: Civil War Railroad to Gettysburg, Scott Mingus.

11:15AM - 12:00PM: Civil War Canals and Railroads, Doug Bosley.

12:30PM - 01:15PM: Railroads During the Civil War, Bernard Kempinski.

01:45PM - 02:30PM: Civil War Aquia Line Model Railroad, Bernard Kempinski.

03:15PM - 04:00PM: Rails to Freedom in Columbia, Chris Vera.

Other planned activities during the all-day program include four Civil War Encampments on the Columbia Crossing grounds. The Columbia Historic Preservation Society will host three all-day model railroad activities: their large HO Columbia and Susquehanna Model Railroad Club that depicts Columbia in the early 1950's, the O-Scale Lower Susquehanna Model Railroaders modular layout, and several NMRA Susquehanna Division model railroad displays. Lastly the new owners of Rail Mechanical Services may allow tours, displays, and speeder activities at their site.

It should be an interesting day. 

Florida - Part 2 Cape Canaveral

On Monday my brother and I had an appointment with Bill Paul, a curator of the USAF Space and Missile Museum. Bill and my brother are in the same model club, so we were able to set up a visit to the USAF Cape Canaveral Museum archives even though they are closed on Mondays and are very limited in visiting due to security and COVID concerns. My purpose in visiting the archives was to find plans for the mobile launch pad, also called the transporter, used at Launch Complex 41 (LC 41) to move the Titan Missiles from assembly buildings to the launch pad.  I want to build a model of this facility as I think the juxtaposition of rockets and trains is really cool. 

Current mobile launch pad
LC41

If you have my book, "45 Track Plans" you would know that I wrote about how United Launch Alliance (ULA) currently uses trackmobiles to push their mobile launch pad at LC41.  See photo at left. 

Before ULA took over operation of LC41, the USAF used LC40 and LC41 to launch numerous Titan III and Titan IV missiles.  In the Titan era, they also used a mobile launch pad but it was pushed by SW-8 locomotives.

The locomotives are actually US Army Korean war veterans that the USAF employed here. One of them is on display at their museum at Cape Canaveral (see photo above). The arm on the engineer side of the loco allows the operators to connect two locos so they can be operated at the same time, i.e. to MU them. 

Alas, we were unable to  plans for the mobile launch pad. We did find some photos that would help. 

But the best photo I have is from a friend's collection.  You can't see how the boom is deployed in this photo. Note the charring on the tower from exhaust from previous missile launches.

This is an example of the scene I want to model. Titan III on the transporter (aka Mobile launch pad)

This photo shows the boom extended.  Anway, I am hesitant to proceed without a better set of plans. I may be able to draw some based on photos, but for now this project has moved down on the "do-list."

 

One of the artifacts on display at the archives was this Atlas Mercury missile signed by the Mercury astronauts. I got to handle it too! It needs some repairs, but to say it is very valuable is an understatement. 

After looking through the archives, we made a visit to the USAF Museum Annex where we got to see the missiles on display in their protected environment. The missiles look great and being protected from the sun and salt air will certainly help preserve them.  

We also got a peek at Blue Origin's launch pad and the Cape Canaveral light house. 

Some of the missiles on display at the Missile Annex

One of the unusual missiles on display at the museum 

As we were driving around the base, we had to yield to a SpaceX missile transporter that was heading to the port to retrieve a used booster. As an added treat, I got to see that SpaceX booster being recovered from their barge at the Port of Canaveral. I was lucky a couple years ago to see a SpaceX launch from my in-laws' condo in Daytona Beach Shores.  See video below.

Stay tuned for part 3 of our amazing week in Florida. 

SpaceX Booster being recovered at Port Canaveral Hmm, I do have an HO scale model of that crane.....the mind boggles.

Florida Trip Part 1 - Jaxcon 2021

We are back from Florida visiting our family. We had a fun and productive trip. My back precluded my playing golf, so I was the caddy. Walks on the beach and stretching did help and I am feeling better.

My two models on display and their medals

 The first model related event was Jaxcon 2021. That IPMS meet was held in a very large auditorium of a local church. Everyone was really friendly and happy to discuss their models.  About 250 very nice models in several categories were on display. That was about half the normal number.  After lunch, the organizers went about judging the models for medals and best of categories. They awarded bronze, silver and gold.  This meet does judging a little different from others in that they assess models against a standard, but what the standard was I do not know.  Later I learned  that they assessed that any model built out of the box, i.e. stock, could not qualify for a gold.  

I had two models on display, the 1/32 Land Merrimack and the 1/56th Battle for Aachen. The Land Merrimack got a gold and the Battle for Aachen got a silver. I suspected that would be the case as many IPMS modelers are accustomed to super-detailed, larger scale models and smaller scale models have to be really outstanding to attract attention.  The fact that the Land Merrimack is totally scratch built, and has working brakes and an operable cannon also attracts attention.

My brother's display of 1/72nd scale armor models
was awarded a Gold Medal.

My brother had several models on display and he received a gold, 4 silvers and a bronze. Given that he took up modeling about 18 months ago that is quite an achievement. 

In general I am not that enamored with model contests. So I liked the idea of awarding medals according to a standard. But there were some extremely well built models that did not receive medals. From what I could tell, if a model was not weathered, it did not receive an award, no matter how finely built except for model show cars, like hot rods.

These ship models were well built but did not get medals

Possibly the best paint I have ever 
seen on a model

Speaking of hot rods, there was one model hot rod that had the most impressive paint job I have ever seen on a model car. The builder was a retired auto body painter and he did an amazing job. He received a gold medal and best car model award.

There were a few of the large scale armor models on display. These models out of the box are so well detailed it is amazing.  The photo below shows a 1/35 and a 1/16 scale Abrams tank adjacent to each other.

More about our Florida adventures in a later posts.

Back Door to the City of Charlemagne - Battle for Aachen

We are planning on visiting family in Florida next week. My brother convinced me to bring some of my models to display at the JAXCON, the 2021 IPMS meet for northeastern Florida. I was working on a diorama of a scene in WW2, so I decided to finish it to display at the meet.

This diorama is based on a series of 3 photos that shows US tanks from the 745th Independent Tank Battalion and soldiers from E Company, 2 Bn -26th Infantry Regiment, of the 1st Infantry Division (The Big Red One)  at the Rothe Erde train station. Rothe Erde is an industrial suburb east of Aachen. 

The following excerpt from CSI Battlebook 13-C, The Battle of Aachen, Ft Leavenworth, KS describes the scene in the diorama. 

This photo was inspiration for the diorama

The 2nd Battalion was finally ready to enter the city proper. The railroad tracks marked the southern limits of the city and would be considered the line of departure (LD). The LD embankment was about 30 feet high on the west side of the Battalion sector and sloped to about 15 feet on the east side.

The banks were fairly steep and would impose an obstacle to vehicles. There was one underpass in the Battalion zone, but this was blocked (note a down bridge and other obstacles). The plan called for the 2nd Battalion to drive to the north and the 3rd Battalion to attack west with the two meeting on the north-east border of the city. The 2nd Battalion had all three rifle companies on line; "F", 'E", "G", in order, east to west. 

The blown railway bridge over Adalbertsteinweg  and other obstacles blocked movement across the railroad line. The Rothe Erde station is just to the left of this image that looks west toward Aachen.

 

"The problem at that time was how to get the tanks, tank destroyers, and AT guns over the obstacle before the Germans could react. The tank platoon leader made a recon and finally found a place where several tanks could be taken  over. The rest would have to wait until the underpass had been cleared. In the "Capture of Aachen", LTC Daniel relates the detailed planning for the attack. "use heavy air and artillery in early morning. Air will bomb anywhere in city except within 500 yards of the railroad tracks in 2nd Battalion zone. Artillery will stand on line 100 yards from the railroad tracks with light guns. Mediums and heavies will cover from 300-500 yards from the tracks. 2nd Battalion mortars will work the area from the tracks to the artillery line 100 yards beyond. Jump-off time was 0930, 13 October. All artillery would lift 200 yards and air will stop except for targets marked by colored smoke. Main problem was to get infantry across exposed railroad embankment. Each  infantryman was given a hand grenade to throw over the embankment at 0930".

The main attack kicked off and E and F Companies scrambled over the embankment firing every weapon they had. The Germans were completely caught by surprise. They had expected the main attack to come from the south and not the east. Thus, the Americans advanced several blocks before encountering any resistance. As soon as the Germans got partially reorganized, they put up a fierce resistance and fought for every rubble heap.

Every position had to be stormed by the Americans using grenades, bayonets, rifle butts, and flame throwers. F Company had been instructed to stay clear of the built-up area and head north until they reached their zone and then turn west. E Company was to clear all the buildings east of Adalbertsteinweg and north of the tracks. F Company found quite a built-up area in their zone northeast of the cemetery, and was slowed down considerably. By mid-afternoon, E and F companies still had not reached the line that was to allow G Company to be committed. An underpass was created by blowing out part of the walls of the station just to the west of the original underpass. Tanks were then driven through and by nightfall, 13 October, all the fighting vehicles were into the city. G company was also moved from its position along the embankment, so that all units were now in the city and ready for another push on 14 October. It had been determined by this time that daylight operations were absolutely necessary in street fighting to take full advantage of firepower and avoid loss of command and control. 

The model is in 1/56th scale, which is also called 28mm scale. The tank and figures are by Rubicon, who make some of the nicest models in this scale. Note, this is mostly a wargaming scale, so many of the models have coarse, over-scale features to survive rough handling in miniature games. But Rubicon figures and models are very finely made.

I scratch built the station with laser cut parts using photos and measurements of the actual station. I was fortunate that Joseph Franke is currently a graduate student in Aachen and he kindly measured the existing station and got dirt samples for me. The station underwent extensive renovation several times after the war  and many of the  details are now different compared to WW2. So I had to rely on the 3 prototype photos for many of the details. 

It is a railway station so tracks are de rigeur. I hand laid these to 1/56th scale. 
I tried using bolts, but switched to spikes as the bolts were not working for me.