Telegraph Lines in Tunnels?

Note the telegraph poles with two insulators at Stoneman's Station. (The wires are not visible)

I am preparing to run the final section of telegraph line (scenic only, not functional) on my layout.. Since I have a tunnel that was not on the prototype, I wondered how they would have run the telegraph line. Would they run through the tunnel or over the nearby hill?

On the Aquia Line the telegraph line was installed by the U.S. Army Signal Corps and not the railroad.  I suspect the Signal Corps had other military, non-railroad related,  factors to consider when laying the lines. So they would not have necessarily followed the railroad.

However, photos of the Aquia Line do show a telegraph line paralleling the tracks in the Stoneman’s Station area (see image above). Since the units of the Army of the Potomac were deployed primarily along the railroad right of way, it is reasonable that the telegraph wire would follow it. But the Army of the Potomac Headquarters at this time was not near the railroad. It was at White Oak, a few miles east of  the railroad. Reports state that the Headquarters did have a telegraph office, so at least one line was sent over land away from the railroad. The Army Signal Corps was mobile (see wagon at left) and could lay lines over land as the campaigns progressed.




I posed this question to the Civil War Railroad Historical Society Yahoo Group. The consensus there was mixed with people suggesting that either case was possible.

Late 19th century postcard view of Crozet or Blue Ridge Tunnel

My tunnel is based on Crozet Tunnel on the Virginia Central. 19th Century photos of that tunnel show the telegraph lines going over land. Thus, I will run my lines over land.















With regard to telegraph lines at Aquia, perhaps the more interesting line was the “submarine cable” from Aquia to Washington. That allowed rapid communication between the Army and the War Department.  I suspect that the train orders on file at the National Archives are actually copies transcribed by operators at the War Department as they listened in to the Aquia Line traffic. Depicting the submarine cable on the layout will be really simple!

Professor Gabel on CSPAN

I recently came across this CSPAN talk by Professor Gabel on railroads in the Civil War. If you have read his work, you will be familiar with his message, but this talk shows some evolution in his thoughts from his earlier papers.


 http://www.c-span.org/video/?320456-1/discussion-railroads-civil-war

Updated Aquia Line Track Plan

I updated the track plan for my home layout to reflect the as-built configuration for the areas that are complete and to revise the design of the portions in Aquia Landing that have yet to be built. While I was at it, I revised the graphics to incorporate the improved techniques that I adopted for my next book.

The big change in Aquia Landing was to remove one of the yard tracks between the bakery area and the wharf. I did this because the layout really didn't need a third track there and this more closely resembles the prototype. I also reconfigured the wharf to better reflect the prototype. This required removing the ironclad from the layout.

Note that this drawing depicts the track and ties to scale (the ties are not exact but they are close). One of the aspects I find with track plans that show tracks with just a single line is that it is easy to draw in too many tracks for an area. When you draw the track showing the rail, ties and roadbed to scale you get a much better feel for how the track fits in the scene. It is usually impractical to draw in the ties and rail in room-sized HO or N  scale plans. But for my O Scale layout, drawing the tracks this way helped convince me that I did not need that third yard track. Mocking up he scene convinced me.

The plan shows design length trains and four dozen freight cars  as they might actually appear during an op session. Note there are only 5 engines on the layout. I may have the only layout where I have more radio throttles than locomotives. Since I have about 13 freight cars now, I still need to build about 35.

Matte Painting for Cinema

Readers of this blog will know I am very interested in realistic backdrop (back scene for our UK readers) painting. I recently came across this blog, Matte Shot dedicated to matte painting for cinema. There is not a lot of instruction on the site, but it included hundreds of samples of matte painting for films. Some you will recognize from your favorite movies. 

Matte painting for the movie "Winds of War"

What I found interesting is that many of the matte paintings on display at the site were not "photo realistic." Apparently they just need to look good enough for the quick views that one gets in a movie. 

I recommend taking a look at the site.  You might get some good ideas for painting or photo compositing your own backdrops. 

With most special effects now done  with  Computer Graphic Images (CGI), traditional  cinema matte painting is becoming a lost art. 

Scene from Naked Gun

B&O 1852 Rule Book

Last month I posted some information about a pre-ACW Timetable for the B&O Railroad. In that post I cited the B&O Book of Rules, a book I did not have. Nicholas Fry, of the Barriger National Railroad Library, saw that post and sent me a copy of the B&O book of rules from 1852. Many thanks to he and Henry Freeman, who facilitated the transfer of the book to me.

Here are some pages from the book. The book has a total of 21 pages with about 10 relating to rules, the rest time tables and other interesting data. I need to study these in more detail.

In some ways this kind of information, combined with the nearness of the B&O Museum, makes me wish I had chosen the B&O as my Civil War era prototype subject.  But life is full of tough choices and I am happy with my decision to model the USMRR.