The prototype VMID line: The Virginia Central

Part two in my travels yesterday, I will show you some of the ROW of the Virginia Central Railroad. This line is what my model railroad, the Virginia Midland Railroad is based on.  The line runs 35 miles from Fredericksburg, VA southwest to Orange, VA. On my model railroad, Fredericksburg or Battlefield Yard is on the upper level and the ride down the helix is my version of heading west to Orange.
More pics can be found here:
Virginia Central ROW pics from Fredericksburg, VA to Orange, VA

The first stop on the lower level is St. Just, in Orange County.  Don't believe me?

Yes, this is St. Just.  A busy point on my model railroad.  Not alot going on here if it ever did.  Milepost 24

Nice name to the farm by the St. Just s.ign.  The ROW is to the right in the treeline in this pic.

The ROW is now a driveway to house way back in the woods.  The tracks crossed this road by the green sign.  The sign reads VA Central Ln.  The pic of the St. Just sign is directly behind me.

Here's a pic of the ROW across a field, east of St. Just.  Amazingly, when the ROW was built in the mid to late 1800's, there were no machines to do this grade, and most of it was like this for 20+ miles!

Rhoadesville, VA is also in Orange County.  As you can see, history is all around the area, from the Revoltionary War to the Civil War.  The ROW in this picture is on the right by the trees.  Milepost 28

The Rhoadesville post office.  The tracks once ran behind the post office.  Pretty sure this was a railroad station also.

Another view of the impressive grade in the treeline, just east of Rhoadesville.

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

Easy model railroad photography/videoing with your smart phone

All the the photos I put on this blog are from my camera on my I-phone 4.  Sometimes they are quick grap ones and sometimes thay are a little more involved.  I do have a regular camera but who uses thoes these days?  I probably will ugrade in a few months but this is how I get good pics easily.
This is mainly for I phone 4's:

First, get to the camera mode and make sure your flash is off and not on auto.
On the the left side of the screen, there is a HDR mode that is usually off.  Turn it on.  The HDR mode is a mini image stacking item on your phone.  Which improves the overall picture.  With this HDR mode, You need to have a steady phone for this to work well.  We will need something to "hold" the camera.  This is where the clamp showed below comes in handy.

This type of small clamp can be bought at Home Depot or any hardware store for a buck or two.  It holds the phone upright and still for pics and video.   

As you can see, the end has electrical tape on it.  This prevents shorting out the layout when it touches the tracks.  Yes, it happened to me.  The clamp is small and can be laid almost anywhere.  This clamp is ideal for video and I use it all the time for my You Tube videos.

When the picture is taken in HDR mode, there will be 2 pics.  The first one is regular and the second will have HDR on it.  Use the HDR one and erase the other pic.
Examples:

Non-HDR mode:  Bright light overhead and some blurriness.  

HDR mode:  overhead light not as bad and the vegetation is sharper.

 The above pics are not ideal but a good demonstration for what I needed.  Hopes this helps you get some better pics on your layout or in everyday life!