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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September 21, 2022

The Golden Spike

Haupt and a few USMRR officials watch the crews drive the last spike on the Aquia Line extension

What it really looked like

I drove the last spike on the Aquia Line extension today. I got into a rhythm and the last  18 feet went fairly quickly. 

There was considerably less fanfare when the last spike went in  than would happen at Promontory a few years later. Nonetheless, it is a nice milestone. 

I am sure my helpers are glad that the tedious task is done. I did notice a distinct lack of enthusiasm among them when I asked for help with driving the spikes. Thanks for Jack Thompson for his help in driving in some of the last batch of spikes. 

I did a rough estimate. The total distance of mainline on the layout is about 165 feet, which is about 1.5 scale miles.  Counting sidings and mainline there are 225 feet of track, or just over 2 scale miles. There are on average about 25 ties and 100 spikes per foot of track on my layout. That works out to  5,625 ties and 22,500 spikes.  Whew! That's a lot of spikes.

I am happy to also report that Paul Dolkos visited today and had a chance to run an engine and switch Falmouth. Every thing worked well. 


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