Updated Track Plan

I did some work refining the modified track plan. Here it is. You can find a higher resolution version by clicking here.

The turn back curve will be 30 inch radius. I made a mock up of the curve with cardboard and decided that punching through the wall into the HVAC closet will create the best scene.

I also updated this drawing with the as-built configuration of track and bridges. The big bridge at Potomac Creek is about 50 percent complete.

I like the fact that I can model a town in this design. In this case, the town will be Brooke. In actuality there was just a church and perhaps a store there. But I plan to add a mill, tavern and a couple houses.

I will depict the town as largely abandoned and now occupied by the Union Army. The blacksmith will be a Union operation for repair of wagon, horse shoes, etc.

The first photo illustrates the mill scene. Since it will be toward the rear of the scene, I may try some selective compression on the structure.

I can't remember where this mill was actually located, but I believe it was someplace in eastern Virginia.

The foreground items shown in the plan at Aquia Landing are piles of supplies such as lumber, barrels, artillery pieces and military stuff. I also read that Haupt had prepared several prefabricated truss bridges for use in the planned drive on Richmond. So I will need to have several of those laying about ready for action.

The Aquia Landing area will be considerably reduced. Fortunately, there should be room for a nice harbor scene. Most of the structures on land will end up being flats. The second photo is about what I hope the building flats at Aquia Landing will look like. Note the track buried in the dirt. A high resolution copy of this photo is available from the Library of Congress. I love to study the details in all the various uniforms and dress of the men depicted in the photo.

The current church at Brooke looks like this, but I am not sure it was there during the 1860s.

Big Design Change Coming

Two nights ago my brother Marco was working on extending the roadbed from Potomac Creek to Aquia Landing. We discussed several possibilities for adding the wye to Burnside's Wharf at the south end of Aquia, none of them satisfactory. See here for the original plan.

After he left I began to look at the layout, then I started squinting. Since a wye was not going to work, I dropped the idea. That freed up some possibilities.

I did some measurements, and decided that Aquia Landing would fit on the shelf in my workshop adjacent to the main layout room. I had planned to use this layout footprint in my previous N scale layout. I think it will work here.

The advantages are several: a longer run, room for a long siding at Brooke, the possibilities to model a small town where the harbor would have been, room for more structures and scenery.

The main disadvantage is that the harbor area won't have as much room for ship models and structures, but the track arrangement would stay about the same.

There would also need to be a non-prototypical tunnel to let the track loop back around the HVAC room to the work shop. I'll make it look like Crozet

Tunnel, since I have the laser artwork for that tunnel done and the actual tunnel predated the ACW.

I still need to work out the details, but it looks promising. Note that for the sections of the layout already completed, there are slight changes from this plan. At some point I will update the complete drawing with the as-built design.

Interesting Backdrop Painting

The conventional wisdom on backdrop painting is to keep it indistinct and neutral. But when a good artist is able to paint a backdrop the effect can be spectacular. The best backdrops I have ever seen in person were Mike Danneman's and Ed Louiseaux's. Ed hired a professional artist to do his, while Mike, a professional artist, did his own. Mike's backdrop and layout lighting is so skillfully done, that a visitor has a hard time discerning where the layout ends and the backdrop starts.

I happened to see recently Troels Kirk's blog that is documenting the construction of his layout. Troels is a Danish professional artist living in Sweden. His backdrop is stunning. Click the link to see more. He models the 1930's along the Maine coast in On30. (Photos by Troels Kirk)








Dare I tried something similar over my harbor scene? This is a Photoshop file I did as a test for a backdrop. The ships are composites from photos I took of contemporary ships with editing to backdate them, such as removing radars and antennas, and some artwork from a book on civil war ships. Brian Kammerer volunteered the artwork for the car ferry after he saw my original, unsatisfactory attempt. The water and distant tree line is from an actual photograph of the Potomac River taken last March.

I need to practice my painting techniques if I hope to capture this scene. I could try a large computer print as before, but I am concerned about how to blend it with the rest of the backdrop. Maybe a combination of cutouts and hand painting will work.

Etched Switch Stands arrive

The test etches arrived for the new switch stands today. We tried two thicknesses of stainless steel, .010 and 0.008 inches.

I had trouble soldering the first 0.010 inch sample using the paste flux I had on hand. But, when I switched to liquid flux the job went a lot easier. Of course being liquid in a bottle and all, I spilled the flux all over the work bench. Drat!

It looks like the design is good. I may make a few tweaks to improve it. But overall I am pleased. The stainless steel is quite strong, but I may switch to phosphor bronze to make soldering easier.

The switch stand kit includes parts to allow use in either a normal two way switch or a three way switch using a different guide plate . These switch stands are very close to scale size. Combined with the bridles, these turnouts will be as close to scale as I can get. Hopefully they will be a product for Alkem Scale Models.

While I was soldering Paul Dolkos and his son Todd stopped by to help out (they were actually escaping ladies' book club night back at Paul's house.) Paul spiked about 12 inches of rail, while Todd supervised my initial feeble attempts at soldering the switch stands. They didn't stick around to see my more successful effort.

Adding Arches to Potomac Creek Bridge

Work continues on the bridge. I finished making the arches and swaybacks. I started adding them to the bridge trusses. Each span gets four. With 3 spans I need twelve arches.

Both trusses are complete. I also prepared the floor beams and made a trip to Pearl Arts and Crafts to pick up some long sticks for the stringers. I could have cut them on the laser, but decided to use some scale lumber. They are supposed to be 5" by 10" by 32 feet. I couldn't find that exact set of dimensions, so I went with 1/8 by 1/4".

The bridge will be about 2 inches lower than in this bottom photo. I have not yet cut away the ground where the abutments will be, so the bridge is riding a bit high.

When I installed the arch cover plates I noticed that the bottom pieces that cover the sway backs are too short. They should extend to the below the bottom chord and abut the adjacent arch. I can cut new ones and install them separately, so it's not a big deal.