Train show in Lynchburg, VA over the weekend

Got up very early on Saturday and drove down to a yearly train show I attend every year.  My oldest son, Cameron also went down with me.  It's a smaller show but always turns up so good bargains for me and I do sell a lot of my excess items.  While my selling was OK, I did pick up a 65' gondola, a book and a Bachmann 70 tonner painted in the attractive M&ET scheme.  I actually ran upon them on my honeymoon in 2004 while passing through Modesto, CA.  It was really neat to see 3 70 tonners moving a long string of reefers.

Very well done 70 tonner in M&ET paint

On the way home, I wanted to bypass the unfortunate craziness in Charlottesville and decided to go another way home and see the original Buckingham Branch and photograph the large chip mill they have. I also grabbed some shots of two other types of loaders they have in town.  These are both not in operation but would be neat to model.

This looks as if it was a hopper loader at one time.  Probably sand trucked in.

A closer view of the loading area

This loader was on the same spur as the possible sand loader.  Maybe aggregate?

Loading shoot

The dump end

A very old Y&S boxcar rusts away

The original BB's largest customer and probably newest one: Rock Tenn wood yard.

These Westvaco wood chip hoppers are ready to be loaded.

One full hopper!

This is a massive operation.  Look at all the logs stacked in the distance.  That's only about fifth of them.

Our final stop was in the town of Orange to see if we could catch a train.  No luck on the train, but a great display on the railroad history of the town.

Lots of railroad history here in Orange, VA.  Orange is the terminus of my Virginia Midland model railroad.

This was a scary wreck back in 1965.

Some of those towns sound familiar!  This is the station list from Fredericksburg to Orange.

County map of Orange

Some more history on the Virginia Central

The wreck of the Fat Nancy Trestle just south of town

The Virginia Central rail bus.  It also had a trailer it towed.

Various work happening on the Midland

Spent the last two weeks doing multiple things in the office.  This includes weathering for a client,experimenting with Pan Pastels and working on a new industry.  Here are my progress photos:

Here's the smaller elevator I chose to add to Orange.  Like most Walthers buildings, they never go together well.  Had to add putty to the seam.  Even though it's a smaller elevator, it barely fits between the levels.

Here it is squeezed between the levels.  The lower level was never planned for the layout and just kinda happened.  I would like more room between the levels but it works fine for ops.

As you can see, I had move the elevator spur.  This gives plenty of room for the structure.  The closest track will be the Norfolk Southern interchange.

May have to change the lights in this area.  Wiring needs to be stapled up.

Some grain hoppers spotted. Will add a grain bin or two to the scene along with a office.   

A new gondola for the Midland.  Been wanting to do a gon with VM spelled out and finally got around to doing one.  This is an Atlas 53 footer.  It definitely needs to be weathered and a tie load added.

This is a Ebay win about a month ago.  It's an old Sylvan resin kit that was totally assembled.  It's an Ex-CP paper boxcar but will enter a second life on the Midland.

 TrainMasters TV from MRH has been running a great weathering series from Mike Confalone in the last month.  He's been  weathering various cars with oils and Pan Pastels.  I finally broke down and bought some back at the February Timonium show.  There not cheap but shop around to find the best price.  Finally tried them out and they work well.  Worked with the Pan Pastels and some oils to weather a Bowser 100 ton Reading hopper.  This was my practice hopper and it turned out quite well.  I'm planning to add CSXT reporting marks and put it in service.

My oils and Pan Pastels working space.  

My results from oils and the pastels.  I like it!

Orange decisions

The town of Orange on the end of the lower level is a tough nut to crack.  The area is in a T shape and that is not ideal for a whole lot.  I believe I have the track plan down and have finally started to figure out what I want to do with the left side.  The town has a tie loading spur, and the two tracks on the left that was going to be the interchange tracks with Norfolk Southern.  Instead of the interchange I have decided to add another industry to the tracks.  I decided to go with a small grain elevator.  Here is the small elevator.    This will be a perfect add to the rural town of Orange.  The interchange will then be moved to a hinged cassette or a removable cassette.

Here is the town of Orange.  The trains come from the center part of completed part.

On the right were the interchange tracks with this mocked up scene, now they will become a storage and grain elevator track

Now ready for a new industry.

The other side with have the tie loading spur with the town in the back ground.  The background building here will be be there.  The straight track will be the interchange track with some type of cassette for the rest of the track.

VMID #299 GP40 leads a train into Orange.

 

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

VMID op. session #2: The BY to Orange Turn

In this video, you will chase VM200W from BY west to the town of Orange.  Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDzCeH42AGo

Scenery is complete at Orange: Video

Been in a scenery rush to get the lower level done at Orange.  The scene is like a upside down "T" when viewed.  I had to do the scenery in the back because it was unreachable unless you access it from the access hatch behind the fascia on the right.  It turned out better than I thought.  It has a building and road crossing.  You will see the building about halfway through the video.  Enjoy!

Fascia, Fascia Fascia

Wow, am I tired of cutting, painting and installing fascia.  It seems it is all I have done since the last blog update.  My original fascia color I went with was a bright green, like the one on the Midland locos.  I did that on a whim.  When doing the new fascia on the extension, I went with black, a more neutral color.  You want the focus of your railroad to be on the layout not the fascia.  So I had to remove all the painted fascia and paint it black.  This sounds easy but I also moved DCC plugins to the lower level.  So that meant new fascia. I also did some sky blue background painting.

I'm also looking to move toward wireless NCE controllers.  I would mail my controllers to NCE and they would install the wireless capabilities.  I would need to buy an antenna and that would be it.  It costs $97 and would be a turnaround of 2-3 weeks.  I would have to send my Power Cab first since this is main controller.  That means I would not be able to use the layout for 2-3 weeks :-(
I'll probable do it later on this month.  If any subscribers have wireless NCE, email me or comment below the pros and cons. Until next time!

Here's the entrance to my layout room.  New black fascia for the extension and lower level.

Here's my switch panel for the 3 switches in Orange/  Need to put in the track arrangement so I'll know what button is what.  

Here is Orange ready for scenery and buildings.  The blue wall on the right is removable in case I need to access this area.  Will need to for scenery!  

Here is Orange looking toward the untreated tie loading area.

To the left in Orange is the interchange tracks.  

On the upper level, a bridge with a road coming down to the tracks will highlight this area. 

Across the room, I added some paint to the backdrop.  I've decided to put in corn syrup unloading facility in the spur where the tanks are spotted.  This area is called St. Just (based on a real town on this former line) where the Mine Run branch starts.  

A little bit of traffic at St. Just.  Ex-KCS power is doing some testing on the Orange line.  

Here's one of the NCE plugins I moved from the upper level.  St. Just also has a switch panel for the 4 switches here.

The upper level extension looks like its ready for it's scenery.  I'm ready for some too since this fascia has been kicking my butt!