Op. session at Dale Latham's Piedmont Southern

Norm Wolf and myself traveled over to southern Maryland yesterday and operated on Dale Latham's Piedmont Southern Railroad.  Seeing pics of it in MR's Great Model Railroads, I knew I was in for a treat.  It had changed some since that issue of GMR in 2009 but it was one of the nicest layouts I have visited.  It is a proto-freelanced layout based in western Virginia in the early 1950's.   My pictures don't do it justice.  I thank Dale for letting me have the chance to operate on his sensational layout.

Bob Sprague gets ready to make a cut in the yard.

Yard ladder track.

The many industries of the Piedmont area.

One of the yard switchers

This is Piedmont, my switching job consisted of jobs in this switching puzzle.

Another view Piedmont, my switching job consisted of jobs in this switching puzzle.

Norm Wolf poises with his train by the only tiny unfinished area on the layout.

A run through freight flies by the yard.

Like the Midland Coal sign by the station

Piedmont Station on the bluff.

Smaller tipples always seem to me to really stand out.  This one is no different.

Dixie Grocery Distributors

A RF&P boxcar is spotted.  Dale is a RF&P historical member so you will see some RF&P cars scattered on the layout.

In the distance is the largest coal mine on the layout,

What a great home by the tracks!

Details are a big part of the layout.  Here are two structures on the PS.

A log loading spur.

A neat scene of a log truck crossing a river.

The latest scheme on the Piedmont Southern is shown on this geep.

Norm continuing on his long trek throughout the layout.  To the left is part of a cement facility.

Another part of the cement facility in the hills.

Most of my switching and run-arounding was done in this area.

A view of Buckingham Box and Crate

Post #100: some motive power updates

Well, this is my 100th post here on the blog.  I enjoy this as much as I like getting things done in the layout room.  Got some motive power updates.

Here is 4 of my RF&P GP40's.  the RF&P had 7 of them and I do have all 7 that I have renumbered.  The other three are packed up in their boxes.  A few still need to be detailed.

The view from the other end.  Notice the rear horns and the exhaust vents like the prototype.  I missed a decal on the #121!

Side view of the GP40's.

Here's the Fredericksburg & Northern Neck F3 #46 (Ex- B&A).  I just applied the F&NN logo.  This is an Intermountain loco and runs well.  I installed a Tsunami in it.  This F unit makes me consider turning back to the early 1980's instead of the early 1990's that I model.

Completion of my hidden staging

Had to the chance to get some layout work done this week, since it is my spring break.  This afternoon, I completed the RF&P hidden staging in the garage.  It's one of those things I did not have to do right of way and really did not want to do it in the cold weather, like I did with helix.  The weather was great today and opened the garage door and went to town.  The staging shelf is right beside the helix and uses the same hole in the wall.

With the 90* crossing in the wall, it makes the helix entrance and the hidden easy to co-exsist.

A piece of real rail makes a great weight.  The track to right goes to the helix.

The base of the staging is clamped, waiting for the wood glue to dry.

The track is positioned and the track base is clamped now.  MDF board is easy to work with.

Overview of the work.

Track is laid and ready for a test run.

Typical train in staging: one engine, 5 cars and a caboose.

RF&P GP40 #124 is ready for it's entrance.