Williamsburg Trip, Day 1

I just completed a weekend trip to the Williamsburg area to tour some museums and visit layouts. The trip was a great success and I will document it over two posts as there was so much that I saw. The itinerary started with a visit to the U.S. Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis. Gerry Fitzgerald met me there. After a quick lunch and a ride alongside the C&O we visited John Roberts O Scale layout.

He took us around the Williamsburg area to see three other layouts, two HO and Ed Rappe's giant O Scale PRR Horseshoe curve layout. Gerry returned home while I stayed in Williamsburg to have dinner with Major General (Retired) Robert Sunell and his wife Joanne. The next day I went for a run through Colonial Williamsburg and then visited the Mariner's Museum. They were observing the 150th Anniversary of the Battle between of Hampton Roads between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia. There was all kinds of activities going on there.

I'll cover the trip in two posts, one for each day.

Haupts frock coat next to an SMR Trains model

Day 1: Fort Eustis Transportation Museum


The Transportation Museum was much better than I expected, even though they did not have the US Army supply wagon that I was looking for. They had a colonial era Conestoga wagon and a later 1890s era Escort wagon. However, they had many other interesting displays.

Of particular interest to me was the civil war railroad display, including Brig Gen Haupts frock coat.



Biographers state that Haupt was a small framed man and his coat reinforces that. It was quite small. It was reported that when he first entered West Point at age 14 he was too small to handle the regulation musket.  Based on his coat size I suspect that Haupt weighed about 120 to 130 pounds.

Close up of the fabric on Haupt's frock coat

Inspecting this coat confirmed what I suspected with respect to the fabric used. The cloth is a much lighter weight than the frock coat that I purchased from a reenactment sutler. When I look at ACW era photos the way the fabric lays and creases on the senior officers made me suspect that it was a lighter weight than I purchased.  This confirms it.









I got some photos of the wagons, particularly their suspensions and tack. Even though they were not exactly what I was looking for, I hope these will aid me in making accurate model wagons for my layout.

Escort Wagon from the Post Civil War Era.

Civil War era river boat

There were many other interesting displays at the museum. I took lots of photos, but I'll just post a couple highlights.

The U.S.Army railroad yard was under construction and we could not visit it.

Vietnam era gun truck

IED damaged HMMWV in a Iraq war display. The museum is quite up to date.

In the afternoon we visited layouts. John Roberts was a gracious host and tour guide. He was the former president of the NMRA and convinced me to re-up for two more years.

John Roberts and Gerry Fitzgerald

John's layout is an O scale depiction of the C&O. He models two major scenes, the Newport News area and a location on the James River up in the mountains. It is coming along nicely.

Overview of John's layout

Next we visited Ed Rappe's 2500 square foot PRR Horseshoe Curve theme layout. As Ed describes, this is the same as the layout he had in Fairfax, Virginia but on steroids. It is amazing. He expects to be operating in about one year.

Later we visited two HO layouts that are in various stages of construction, Jack Brown's Western Maryland and Gale Trieber's  freelanced layout.

(L to Right) John, Gerry, Blair, and Ed Rappe. The plan is a CAD drawing of the layout

Electronics and TV controls for the staging yards. That is MG Tower above.

Extensive staging under the Horseshoe Curve

Altoona Yards - wow!

Dinner with Bob and Joanne Sunell was a treat. Bob and I worked together on many armor vehcile projects over the years. Before I knew him he was the Deputy Program manager for the M1 Abrams Tank. Later he was the Program Manager for the M1A1 and the commander of TACOM. He has many great stories about those programs. He was a combat veteran in Korean and Vietnam. He was too young for the actual war in Korea, but spent two years as an infantry man hunting down North Korean stay behinds that refused to surrender.  If you want to know more about Major General Sunell see this Historical Analysis Series study titled  DEVELOPING THE ARMORED FORCE: EXPERIENCES AND VISIONS

Upping My Tree Game

I recently picked up the book Modelling Trees by Gordon Gravett.  Thanks to Trevor Marshall and his blog for the heads up on this book.  The book is published in the UK and is available from several on-line sources there. However, I ordered it from International Hobbies in Auburn, CA and received it in a few days.  I could have possibly gotten it for a few less bucks from a UK source, but the delivery time was expected to be much longer. 

The book covers Gordon's techniques for making specific species trees, mostly from the UK. My brother Rob, an expert in Bonsai trees and the president of the Bonsai Clubs International, has been urging me to "up my game" in the tree modeling. Thus, I gave Gordon's techniques a try.

I previously used twisted stranded 10 gauge wire to make trees in N Scale. I taught the technique to my daughter and she helped me make an apple orchard for my N Scale Afton modules. I also previously described the Harvard Forest Museum's method of making trees. So I was familiar with the general idea of using twisted wire to make trees.  

Where Gordon's technique differs from what I was doing in the past is that he suggests using straight floral wire to to build up the tree structure. I was able to find a batch of 26 gauge, shiny silver wire at the local craft shop. I followed Gordon's techniques but modified it slightly.

I found it much easier to control the branching structure by starting with the straight wire compared to the twisted wire I was using.

Since I used shiny silver wire, I was able to solder the pieces together as I assembled the trees. That makes them quite strong and durable.

I use floral tape to help build the thicker trunks at the ground. The floral wire naturally tapers as you branch it out further up so no extra effort was needed for that.  I like Gordon's technique for making the roots. I soldered mine for strength.

I used artist Gesso mixed with black and brown acrylic paint and some fine sand to make the bark texturing paste.  One of two applications and the trunks looked quite realistic. I need to do a little work to simulate the bark texture better depending on the species I wish to model. 

In the wild woods in this area of Virginia we have a lot of Red and White Oak, Yellow Poplar (aka Tulip Trees), Red Maples, Sycamores, and lots of Southern Yellow Pine (see my earlier posts on them). See this link for more info on Virginia Trees. These are the types of trees I need to model. This first batch looks like maples to me. 

The oaks in my time of year would exhibit marcescent  leaves. Thus, they should have withered dried brown leaves on the limbs. I have simulated this using Heki dried leave material. I plan to add some to these new tress made with floral wire.

An O scale figure  and rule for comparison.

Using floral tape to build up the thicker truck at the base. Also note the "nebari" or roots.

The first batch of three trees awaiting paint and installation. This is just a temporary placement to keep them out of the way. This represents three nights work at 2 hours per night.

A young grove of trees near my house for prototype comparison. I am not sure what kind of trees they are.

Note the marcesent leaves on the oaks in the right  background.

Where was Yuba Dam?

I was reading through some documents I obtained at the archives and found some interesting items.

This page from Patrick Brigade's Provost Marshall Log contains some message traffic where medical officers were trying to locate their medical supplies that were allegedly delievered to Aquia.

The messages indicate that there are two separate locations, Yuba Dam and Aquia Wharf. Heretofore, I thought they were the same place, while the wharf down river was called Burnside Wharf. Now I am confused. Is the down river wharf actually Yuba Dam and the main wharf called Aquia Landing?












This message describes a plank road at Aquia Landing. At the White Oak Civil War Museum I learned of corduroy roads built near the fortifications at Accokeek Creek.



The photo shows a section of a replica corduroy road at the White Oak Museum. A plank road is similar except that the logs are split to provide a flat surface.

Stafford County is building a park at the site of the former Accokeek fortifications and actually found a section of existing corduroy road preserved under about 3 feet of dirt.

I plan to add a section of corduroy road to the layout at Brook and perhaps some other locations. I found some weeds growing near my house that will make excellent logs for a corduroy road.








This message is from a log of trains received at Warrenton on the USMRR controlled O&A RR. Most of the log entries list trains hauled by one locomotive. But this entry describes a train pulled by two engines, Minoh and Vulcan arrived at 1:20 PM with 18 cars: 12 with forage, 1 with com (I assume commissary stores), 5 with clothing. So the USMRR did double head engines at times.

White Oak Civil War Museum - A Hidden Gem!

Replica winter camp at the White Oak Civil War Museum

This weekend Alicia and I went to Ashland to present my talk, "Introduction to the Railroads of the Civil War." The talk was sponsored by the Virginia Train Collectors. Over 70 people attended the talk along with special guest Dr Gerry Fitzgerald, who came over from Charlottesville to take it in. I was very pleased to see that three members of the audience came dressed in period Confederate attire. I was promised safe passage by my hosts, so I needed not fear a visit to the infamous Libby Prison. But it was fun to see people getting in to the topic.

The talk was very well received and I got invited to do it again for the Richmond National Railroad Historical Society.

We spent the night before the talk at the Henry Clay Inn, in Ashland, VA. This is a charming inn in a charming town. The inn stands right behind the railroad tracks and is a great place for a rail fan to stay. The inn is very quaint and attractive. You shouldn't hesitate to bring your spouse along.

Alica posing by a Sibley Tent pole and stove.

On the way home we stopped at the White Oak Civil War Museum just across the river from Fredericksburg, near White Oak Church. I had been contacted by Ken Pitts of that museum to help with some research on a park they are building near Accokeek Creek where the Union army had installed some fortifications and a corduroy road. We had a brief meeting to discuss future cooperation.Then one of the musuem docents gave me a quick tour of the exhibits. This has got to be one of the least heralded but most interesting museums, especially if you are building a model of the Aquia Line!

Built in an old school house the museum has ample space to display an incredible array of artifacts found at the sites of the former Union encampments. They had sections of the original strap rail from the RF&P, pieces of T Rail from the Union Army Potomac Creek Bridge, and even sections of wood from the wharves at Aquia Landing that were under water and thus saved from the fires that consumed the rest of them. The Minie balls, belt buckles, bayonets, knives, tools, telegraph insulators, Sibley tent pole, stove, and thousands of other artifacts was just mind blowing.

Inside the museum they had a diorama of a

camp with some typical soldier's gear

They have an indoor diorama showing what the  4 man shelters at the winter camp looked like. These included lots of neat artifacts and embellishments like birds, canteens, bottles etc.

But outside was a full scale replica of a winter camp that you could wander around, go inside and just experience like no other museum I have visited.  This is a great museum to visit if you are at all interested in the Aquia line or the civil war in general. As proof, even Alicia said it was interesting.

Standing in front of the remaining stone abutment at Potomac Creek

As we drove home, we stopped at the Potomac Creek bridge site. I was told that remnants of the bridge piers still exist. I could not see them when I visited in the late summer a few years back due to the over grown trees and leaves. So I took this opportunity to search for them with the leaves off the trees. Alas, I could find nothing. However, I did see an unusual brick abutment on the north side of the canyon. It was heavily obscured by trees, so I could not make it out clearly. I don't know what it could be, but it was not in the correct position to be the northern bridge abutment.

Strap rail from the RF&P

Note how crude the pieces of lumber are.

Nice chimney work on this shelter

Looks cozy, doesn't it?

Interesting variety in shelter types at the replica camp

Inspecting the camp

Inside a 4 man shelter

Different kinds of shelters at the White Oak Civil War Museum

Replica grave yard at the White Oak Civil War Museum

The Amtrak Station in Ashland has a nice visitor's center

Morning Formation at Stoneman's Station

I painted some figures this week to populate the newly sceniced areas. This batch of 28mm Renegade Miniatures will be posed as a unit in morning formation. They are still on their paint sticks as I am waiting for another batch of similarly posed figures to come in from the custom painter. They should be arriving sometime in March. Then I will remove them from their sticks, cut off the bases and glue them into their final position.

This image at Falmouth is inspiration for this scene

I plan to mix is some other manufacturers figures to add some variation to the figures to match the image at the left.

I painted the figures as members of 1st Division, XII Corps. This unit was stationed near Brooke. I later decided that these soldiers will be stationed at Stoneman's Station, so I need to change their Corps designation to III or V Corps since those were the units near Stoneman's Station.

I also ordered some bell tents from Empress Miniatures. These are notionally tents from the British-Zulu War. They are not exactly correct for the ACW, but should be acceptable for background use. One drawback is that they are rather expensive at $15.00US each. The smaller bell tents in the background are from Reneda.

Renegade Miniatures 28mm figures awaiting final placement. Behind the men are two unpainted 28mm Bell tents from Empress Miniatures. In the far background are two bell tents from Reneda.