The Flood of July 8th, 2019 - The end of PoLA and the Aquia Line?

Flooding near King Street Metro stop
about a mile from my house

While we were enjoying beautiful weather in Utah last week, my hometown got hit with a torrential rain storm on July 8th.  Reports say up to 5 inches of rain fell in one hour.

We had about an inch of water in our basement as our sump pump could not keep up with the inflow. This is sad because about 3 weeks ago, I had a new sump pump installed with battery back-up and it was working well.

Now our basement is mostly dried out, but there is water in the space between the Allure laminate planks that I installed in 2011 and the concrete slab. The water left a thin layer of clay silt on the floor and baseboards that is proving difficult to clean.

My insurance company says they will cover some of the repairs. So tomorrow work crews are going to remove the laminate flooring and assess what else has to be done. Hopefully we do not have to remove the Aquia Line. It has relatively few legs that hold it up, so it will be easier to work around.

Unfortunately, PoLA will probably have to be removed as there are a lot more legs to deal with.

The unresolved question is what to put on the floor when the remediation is done. I'm leaning toward ceramic tile, as that seems to be better able to withstand occasional flooding.

Clay silt in the tile bathroom

If you are keeping score, this is the sixth water incident we have had in the basement. All have been from different failure mechanisms.


Some video of the flood waters from the WaPo at various locations in Northern Virginia.

Epilogue 2019 NMRA Convention

UP consist dragging coal empties eastbound at the lower Gilluly Loop

On the last day of the NMRA convention, Alicia, Susan, and I played a round of golf at the Lake course at Wasatch State Park. It is one of our favorite courses and we all played well.

L to R Me, Adam, Brian at the National Train Show

Then Alicia and I took a trip to Mapleton, UT to visit Adam Pinales' layouts. Adam and I have been corresponding via email since 1999, when he was just 16 years old. This weekend was the first time we met.

He told me today that he learned to fire a steam locomotive before he learned how to drive a car. He has worked as a locomotive engineer for the Heber Valley RR, Utah RR, and BNSF. He is now a conductor for Amtrak.

Adam has three model railroads and numerous other projects underway. The first railroad is a F scale loop in the back yard with DRGW rolling stock. He also just started building a 7.25 inch gauge layout on his property. Inside his house, he is building an N scale layout depicting the DRGW on the western slope of Soldier Summit. It's a complex layout that spans several rooms in his basement. And he plans to take over more bedrooms later as his kids grow up.  He runs 60 car trains on this layout using code 55 rail and hand laid turnouts. There are several helixes on the layout using Kato uni-trak.

One of the layout rooms for Adam's N scale layout. He has multiple helices.

Since we were close to the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon, we decided to take a quick trip so that Alicia could see the Thistle slide area.  The sightseeing plan rapidly morphed into a train chase as I spotted a empty coal drag heading east near Adam's house.

The chase was on.

Since the sun was low in the west, getting good light on the train was difficult. So we drove up to Gilluly Loop where I knew the train would reverse direction and head west for a while.   We got there with plenty of time for me to scout a good photo spot.  I got some nice video and still shots using my iPhone (see lead photo  and the shots below).

Eastbound MTY rounds the lower loop at Gilluly

Since I was with Alicia, chasing the train further east would have expended more marital brownie points than I had in stock. So we headed back west with Alicia driving just in case I couldn't resist. As I was examining my photos Alicia said, "Look another train." I just barely had time to get a shot out the passenger window of a second eastbound empty coal train.

Seeing two trains on the Soldier Summit line these days is extremely rare. UP, BNSF and AMTRAK use the line on rare occasions, while the Utah Railway is practically gone.  The railfanning gods were kind to us today.

Eastbound coal MTY approaching Gilluly Loops

Second eastbound shot from the moving car.

One other neat thing we saw was a new rest stop on the otherwise desolate Rt 6 between Gilluly and Thistle. The rest stop is designed as a DRGW round house and station complete with a water tank and mock turntable.  Behind the rest stop was the DRGW/Utah Rwy mainline (sorry I can't call it the UP mainline).  Even Alicia thought the rest stop was cool.

Highway 6 rest stop

2019 NMRA National Convention and Train Show

West bound stack train creeping through Echo Canyon due to track work further west

The Jackson River scene on Brian's layout
 got a lot of positive comments

Whew, what a week. My wife and I traveled to Utah for vacation that included the NMRA National Convention and Train Show.

Actually, I didn't spend much time at the convention as I stayed with Brian Brendel to help him prepare his layout and then host several open houses.

I arrived at Brian's house on Sunday after a few rounds of golf with Alicia. We immediately went to work on the layout. The tasks we accomplished included painting rock carvings, finishing the fascia, adding scenery to various sections, hanging skirts and clean up. Brian has been working on this layout for about 3 years and has made a good deal of progress, especially considering he is now the chief of the Mountain Green Fire Department, a volunteer outfit. In the four days I was with him, he went on 4 calls.

The strategy we followed was to have the scenes that greet the visitors to be relatively finished.  So that's what we concentrated on. While I worked on fascia and some scenery, Brian installed the tracks to the Waynesboro switch district.

This is the view the greets visitors as they enter the layout room

The open houses went off very well. There were about 110 visitors over three days. Everyone was extremely nice and polite. Brian received a lot of nice comments. The green covered hills and the Jackson River scene received most of the accolades.

Brian entertaining visitors from the LDSIG

Steve Woodward and Paul Graf from Atlas Model Train Comoany 

listen to Brian extoll the virtues of code 80 track

LDSIG presented Brian with a fancy plaque on 

plywood and homasote  

After the open houses, we did an afternoon of railfanning. I finally managed to get a shot of a train in Echo Canyon, a very scenic spot on the UP main line. (See lead photo). Track work on the line had reduced the normal high train frequency to a much lower level.




























On Friday, we went to the train show. I enjoyed talking with the various vendors and manufacturers, also trying to recruit vendors for MARPM.

There were a few product announcements that were of interest to me. First, Bachman announced a new locomotive in On30 based on the 60cm  WWI 2-6-2T tank engines. They also plan to have rolling stock to go with the engines.

Bachmann is going to offer On30 2-6-2T Tank Engines

Walthers announced that they are reissuing their steel mill model kits with new details and packaging. The blast furnaces will have the stairs and railing included. The rolling mill will be doubled in size with new details inside.

Lionel announced two new 4-4-0s in 3-rail configuration. The engines look nicely detailed, but conversion to 2-rail would be a big job as the wheels would have to be replaced or machined to smaller flanges.

Converting to 2-rail looks like a big job

The locos look nicely detailed

The FreemoN folks had a massive and impressive modular layout. They had some very nice modules.

Later that evening I presented two clinics at the convention hotel. I got some nice comments from the attendees.

That ended my convention activities, as Alicia insisted I play more golf with her.

I'm in the mood for a work session before the NMRA National

John Drye and Mark Franke stopped by Alkem Scale Models World HQs today for a work session. I ran the airbrush and repainted two of John's cement hoppers and weathered a half dozen coal hoppers.

Meanwhile, Mark was painting US infantry for our next game.  I did not get any pictures of the weathered models. But I did get a shot of us having a great BBQ dinner at Myron Mixon's Pitmaster BBQ in Alexandria.












Before today's work session I completed the sand tower to accompany the coal dock for Brian Brendel's  N scale layout. I will hand carry these with me to Utah.









Back to the wargaming. We have been commemorating the Allied campaign in France 1944 with a scenario appropriate for each month. Last month, on June 6th,  I ran the Battle at Fiere. Later this month,   JD will organize a scenario set in the bocage country of Normandy.

To get ready for that scenario, I've been working on a M4A1 76mm Sherman with Cullin hedgcutters.  Those cutters were field expedient plow-like devices welded onto tanks to allow the tank to break through Norman bocage hedges. The tank I am modeling belonged to Sergeant Lafayette Pool.   He was a tank ace with 3rd Amored Division

According to Wikipedia, he was an American tank-crew and tank-platoon commander in World War II and is widely recognized as the US tank ace of aces, credited with 12 confirmed tank kills and 258 total armored vehicle and self-propelled gun kills, over 1,000 German soldiers killed, and 250 more taken as prisoners of war all of which took place in a combat career that covered only 81 days in action from 27 June to 15 September 1944 with three different Shermans. He received many medals, including the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the Belgian Fourragère, and the French Légion d'honneur.
Pool served with the 3rd Platoon of Company I, 32nd Armored Regiment, 3rd Armored Division in France between June and September 1944. He successively commanded three Sherman tanks; an M4A1, and two M4A1(76)Ws, all of which bore the nickname "IN THE MOOD."  He kept the same crew throughout the majority of the war. Corporal Wilbert "Red" Richards was the driver, Private First Class Bertrand "School Boy" Close was the assistant driver and bow gunner, Corporal Willis "Ground Hog" Oller was the gunner, and Technician Fifth Grade Delbert "Jailbird" Boggs was the loader.
Pool's first tank, an M4A1, lasted from June 23 until June 29, when Combat Command A attacked for the first time at Villiers-Fossard. It was hit by a Panzerfaust, causing Pool and his crew to bail out of the stricken tank. Pool's second tank, his first M4A1(76)W, lasted from around July 1, 1944 to August 17, when he was leading CCA in the process of clearing remaining German forces from the village of Fromental.  This tank was knocked out by friendly fire from a P-38.

Pool's third and last tank, another M4A1(76)W, was destroyed on the night of September 15, 1944 while CCA was attempting to penetrate the Siegfried Line at Munsterbusch, Germany, southwest of Aachen. The tank was hit by an ambushing Panther, and while Pool's driver was trying to back his damaged Sherman up, the Panther hit it a second time. Positioned precariously on the edge of a ditch, the force of the second round caught the tank and tipped it over. The round killed Pool's replacement gunner, Private First Class Paul King, (Corporal Oller had been temporarily transferred back to the United States) and threw Pool out of the commander's hatch, severely injuring one of his legs with shrapnel. The leg was so badly mangled that it later had to be amputated eight inches above the knee. As a result, Pool would not return to amateur boxing after the war.

Speaking of 3rd Armored Division, I highly recommend the book Spearhead by Adam Makos. It is one of the most exciting books  with unbelievable plot twists I have read on WWII, made all the more memorable because it is based on actual events. This is the book that movie Fury should have been.  You can learn more the about the book in this video.

 

Utah Bound - NMRA 2019 Convention

It was a busy week as I finished up some models for clients.  In a few days we head to Utah for the NMRA National Convention. For the first few days we'll play golf and visit with friends and relatives. Then on Sunday, I'll head to Michele and Brian Brendel's place.  I actually will not be at the convention much as I will helping Brian work on his N Scale Mountain Subdivision layout and host two open house tours.   I jokingly tell folks that I have three layouts, O and HO scale layouts in my basement, and an N Scale layout in Utah.  Then on Friday, Brian and I will go to the Train Show. Later on Friday, I will present a talk at the convention.

To get a head start on the layout work, I built this N scale model of the Clifton Forge coal dock.  The shell is laser cut acrylic. Most of the detail parts are laser cut 1/32nd inch laser board. I was very pleased with how fine I could cut that material and yet still be quite strong. For example, the stair railings are laser cut while the stair treads are plastic parts from Plastruct.  The crows nest is a kit bash using the top from one of Alkem Scale Models N scale light towers.  Brian's layout is set in the modern era, so the coal dock is not in service.  At one point, Chessie/CSX used it for servicing sand on diesels, but I don't think they do that any more.

  

Scene on the Jackson River on Brian's layout.

Meanwhile. Brian and his crew have been working on the layout getting it ready for the NMRA open houses. They made some good progress on the Jackson River scene near Rainbow Rocks.   Brian tells me that we will be laying track when I get to his house on Sunday. Hopefully we can get his Clifton Forge Yard track installed so we can have a place to spot the coal dock.

Earlier in the week I stopped by the Lyceum and checked on the models I built for them.  All was well. If you are in Alexandria, you might want to check them out.  When I get back from Utah, I hope to get some work done on my own layout projects.  I have a long list of tasks to complete.

Model subchaser at the Lyceum in Alexandria, VA

.