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This site is dedicated to my model railroad, the HO scale Virginia Midland Railroad. This layout comprises a 12X9 room with two levels. The upper level is complete and the lower level scenery has just begun.

I do a handful of train shows in the Virginia/Maryland region with Makin Tracks.
I also can help you find that freight car/locomotive or other hard to find item.

Email: virginiamidlandshops@gmail.com
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Saturday, February 14, 2015

Orange tie loading: The Prototype

I traveled through the town of Orange, VA today and I always travel by the station and through the tie loading area that I am trying to model on the Midland.  It's seems to always have a few interesting gons there and since the sun was out, I grapped some shots to hope help me complete this area.
This area is also the prototypical end of the actual Virginia Central Railroad line that started in Fredericksburg, VA and ends in Orange.  My Virginia Midland model railroad is based on this line that was ripped up in the 1930's (except the 1 mile line in Fredericksburg).  Yes, the Virginia Central still lives on my layout, but just a branch line.  If I could start it all over, I would have just had the Virginia Central.   This post will start off with tie loading spur.  The second installment will show the line as it appears now.

Typical untreated tie bundle.  They are unbundled when they are loaded in the gons.

Not your typical setup.  The spur of loaded ties, with the Town of Orange public works dept. on the the right.  The Buckingham Branch Railroad switches this on Ex- C&O tracks from Gordonsville.

A string of loaded gons.

This is looking the other way from the above pic.  This the last of the old VC trackage.  Some rails from the 1930's have been photographed here.

Old SCL gon

SCL herald

Typical CSXT gon.

This actually might be original VC trackage interchange with the C&O railroad.

An old railroad building by the gons.

No ties left here.

The ties are literally dumped right in.

Another view

The tie "loader"

Impressive tie stack.  Public Works dept in the back.

Another view of the loader.

Office of the tie loading facility

4 comments:

  1. nice prototype pictures, Shan.

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  2. Great photo-documentation! I love those photos showing the buried ties and showing only the rails!

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  3. I grew up in St. Just in the sixties and I lived in the white house on the left in the photo. I remember playing on the rail lines as a kid. They left some of them but they were all twisted up. I always thought maybe Yankee soldiers did it to damage the line. Alex Palmer in Reva, Va. The house we grew up in is the Mayo farm now.

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    1. Thanks for the comment Alex. I'm always looking for info on this line. Even though it's been gone since the 30's, the line or Right-of-way is pretty much still intact throughout the area.

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