Enjoying the nostalgia trip

I used to railfan over in east Alabama a fair bit, although I never had any luck in Talledega.  

Scott Chatfield

Fantastic!

Great modeling and a thoughtful look at some of the things that are attractive about the hobby. I tend toward prototype modeling, but also consider how my models 'fit in' to the real world. Your commentary really drives home the explosion in near-bespoke modeling the last 10 -15 years. An amazing difference in material availability the last 30 years. On the other hand, hard to believe the 90's were thirty years ago. And I've seen some Rock City barns. 

1.44 megs on a 3.5" floppy? Who needs that much storage? Looking forward to this project. 

Good to see the Georgia Roads still kicking

The RS Alabama Division of NS Layout---Learning by doing

Wait a minute....The first post talked about the RS Lineville Subdivision with all the 1990s CSX....

If you noticed the change in the subject, you are correct.  Just as my interests matured and evolved, so did those of the owner of the layout and those of us still operating.  After years of running CSX, the owner decided to move more toward modeling Norfolk Southern and Southern.  I had a year under my belt with NS on a tie gang and gave it up to be home with the family.  The change in subject was more than simply replacing locomotives.  While the layout design was fixed, there was still a need to rework station names and train operations to suit.  We were all fans of the old Central of Georgia (CofGA) lines.  The owner started railfanning in earnerst in the Brosnan era, where he frequently rode and railfanned Heart of Dixie and Tennesse Valley Railroad Museum excursions on the Southern and later NS steam program.  It seems most modelers go back to what they love, and I can only image the indelible images in the owners head as he watched and rode behind the glorious "J" and 1218  to name a few. 

As with the RS Lineville days, I wanted to start with a banner shot to show how the layout changed and matured.  The owner was an expert modeler.  I would put his skills against anyone.  He taught me a great deal, not only about the prototype but modeling also.   

NS train 198 storms by Bleeker, AL in the late 1990s as shot from the end of the old siding and interchange track.  The C39-8 was  a heavily detailed and reworked Rail Power Products shell on an Athearn frame.  By this time the control system had been converted to Digitrax, and he units ran flawlessly.

It is hard to find a single shot that shows the depth of the modeling, so I offer another.  I had a decent digital camera by this time, and while the pixel load was still primitive by today's standards, it nevertheless took reasonable pictures.

A gaggle of ex-SOU SD40-2 units round a sustained grade as it climbs out of the under layout staging to Columbus Yard at at Muscogee Jct.  The layout plan was adapted to the former CofGA "P"-Line from Columbus, GA into Alabama toward Birmingham, AL    Each of these NS high hoods are heavily reworked Athearn Blue Box units with Cannon high hoods and custom paint.  Each one corresponded to actual photographs.  It would be nearly fifteen years before the first high hood locomotive would be offered.

 This was a hand drawing of layout plan used to create the original RS-Lineville operations.  Later, with not time to do an adequate redraw, I scanned the original drawing and photoshopped changes.  Operations were more challenging than it seemed as the train had to make two laps to complete a run.  There are compound scenes on both the left at Columbus Yard and the right at Opelika, AL    A small dispatcher panel controlled mainline switches, set up meets and worked to keep trains separated while they were running different legs of the two lap run.  The owner laid the track as he went with no operational design in mind.  He did make changes to better suit operations.  It operated surprisingly well if the dispatcher paid strict attention.  Operations consisted of the dispatcher, yard switcher, up to two mainline trains at once and the branch line local that worked the sawmill branch.

On the prototype former P-Line, the 16 mile branch to Lafayette, AL that served a local sawmill was sold to a shortline outfit who ran it as the PineBelt Southern RR (PBSR).  It ran with a single B23-7 in full NS paint.  This was the early 2000s.   This railroad was the subject of much railfanning, and as a result the actual PBSR locomotive was created and the branch operated much like the shortline.  The freelanced track plan did not detract from operations, as it was close enough, and with the addition of the correct details, locomotives and railcars worked nicely.  Here  the PBSR works the chip loader at Langley Mill in Lafayette, AL.  Walthers Greenville chip cars collect with the old CSX kitbashed Ortners done years ago, though now repainted for NS.

Here is a cropped photo scan of the real PBSR working the NS interchange in Opelika, AL.  The interchange was about two miles from the physical connection of the PBSR at Roanoke Jct.  They had to run trackage rights into downtown Opelika on the CSX AWP-WofrA Sub to swap chip cars.  The average railfan would never know this was a shortline looking at the locomotive.  The fact that NS had retired all the old SOU GE units several years before was the only clue.  This unit now works for the HMCR in Huntsville, AL.  Comparision of the two pictures gives the reader a good progression of how prototype operation and modeling worked in my formative years.  I learned that nothing has to be always perfect  (we would have loved to have space available to build an accurate track plan with complete availability of the correct railcars and locomotives).  Instead, we drew on experience, prototype and operations to create a good stand in on the layout.  No guest operators ever noticed our obvious detractions from the prototype.  They were too engrossed in the operations with custom models that came "close enough". 

Now back to the layout...

 Another shot at Muscogee Jct with train 198 with a leased AMTK F40PH as it waits for a signal to enter the terminal.  For a time in the early 2000s, a very power short NS leased F40PH units from AMTK.  The venerable EMDs that defined AMTK in the 1990s were being retired as new GE Genesis units came online.  The old F40PH units were run in trailing service only.  The small fuel tanks aimed at passenger stops with frequent fuel stops proved troublesome for NS, and the F40PH lease era on NS was shortlived.  The SD70 is notable.  One would think it is an early Genesis line Athearn unit.  It is not.  This one was kitbashed by the owner follwoing an RMC article about two years before Athearn made the announcement.  We found that once we kitbashed something, usually a ready to run model was not far away.  

A shot of 198 with a mix of EMD and GE power in the form of a C39-8, GP50, C30-7  from the side of the layout.  If compared to the old RS-Lineville pictures from the preceding post, one will notice the diamond crossing is now gone.  This was one of the physcial changes that better adapted the trackplan to the new NS operational scheme.  The station is called Coosa Pines and the cars sit on the joint CSX and NS served paper mill lead.  The cars were picked up and set out regularly, giving road jobs a need to stop and work.

Another sign of the times shot when compared to the old RS-Lineville CSX layout.  This spur was a feature of the banner shot, being a local cement dealer.  After the change to the RS-Alabama Division of Norfolk Southern, the cement dealership became a woodyard, in keeping with what was actually on the prototype.  A late running 334 rolls through Wes Opelika while A46 local power with the kitbashed SD70 holds the branch lead.  These subtile changes to industry and rolling stock enhanced the feel of  the operation.  The new Walthers SIECO pulpwood cars helped populate the layout with enough cars to make switching and consists believable.

Opelika, AL yard can bee seen in the distance with a brass SOU caboose and local power with a mix of cars headed up the Lafayette Branch.  This picture predates the conversion to the Pinebelt Southern.  During this time, a local from Columbus with a pair of four axle units worked up to Columbus and all the way up the branch.  They would then lay over at Opelika and head back the next day.  The caboose was added for a long backing move at Uniroyal Goodrich in Opelika.  Sometimes, you just gotta have a caboose, and what says Southern better than the red bay window caboose that is an actual SOU bay cab.  Signs of tie renewal are also in the scene in the foreground as a welder corrects a broken rail in the siding.

The prototype P Line never operated coal train regularly.  Another truly Southern facet of the layout was the occasional detour Pride coal train complete with mid train remotes and the required radio car.    By this time, the Athearn SD70 was available, albeit not this detailed.  The radio car is scratchbuilt from styrene using a brass Overland model as the template.  The owner was not about to repaint a Southern Radio car to update it!

 A46 with three units hauls woodchips out of Opelika AL after pulling them from the yard tracks.  The train had to be dropped at the West Siding and pick up made in sections to prevent blocking the mainline and downtown road crossings.  The Pinebelt Southern power sits at their prefab office building with the old branch line caboose, resting from the a day of bring to chips off the branch.  The caboos is a model of  the prototype one that would later go on display at the old Lafayette, AL depot and museum.  

 A better shot of the Pinebelt Southern power and caboose at Opelika.  The prefab office was a holdover from the RS-Lineville CSX days and represented the pre-fab structure at Talledega, AL.  When the layout was converted to NS operations, the station became Opelika, AL where the PBSR interchanged with NS.   NS had long moved out and sold its brick depot, and the PBSR lived out of a mailbox at the end of the interchange yard.  Modeling license was used for visual appeal and saved a very notable structure.  The caboose was never used on the PBSR, but using it increased the complexity of the switching assigment and gave a home to a very sharp brass model.

The PBSR works the sawmill at Lafayette, AL.  The addition of a water tower with the proper name cemented the location in the mind of the operator.  This was literally one of two cormers.  The Opelika Yard was on one side, and the branch curved around to another where the mill was located.  The track plan was basic but a crossover and a facing swtich at a supply house made switching interesting.  That NS Ortner woodchip car is the same CSX car I did over ten years ago with fresh paint and touched up details as only the owners skilled hands could do.

The old interchange at Coosa Pines, AL was a favorite place to railfan and take pictures.  The Pride coal train roads by with an SD70  running as God and Brosnan intended, long hood forward.  The travesty of an undecorated unit in trailing position is prototype also.  NS was so power short they were taking new EMD units in primer with only NS numbers.  If we saw it, we modeled it.  the unit eventually got full NS colors when the FRA stopped the practice.  The model got paint also, following the prototype and was at that point just another locomotive  typical of mid2000s coal trains in the Deep South.

After the Pride Coal front power passed, a second photo is taken as the mid train slave and radio car passes by over the other shoulder.  The Lafayette branch Langley sawmill can be seen in the background on the bluff.  The whole scene is less that three feet.  The change in grade and the scenic separation with trees on the bluff is well done.  It is easy to get lost in the foreground or background, but neither take away from the other.

Shot from the same perspective as the coal train scene above, the PineBelt works the saw mil.  This was always one of the charms of the small layout.  Scenes were separated visually by height or viewing location.  The clouds in the background are actually on the backdrop of the opposite wall with an access between them.  The Coosa Pines siding is barely visible on the extreme left lower corner of the picture

It is pretty easy to see I was in the company of some great modelers.  Posting and writing has brought back some great memories.  

Take care, ya'll!

H

H

SIX MILE---Is it Prototyoe or Freelance---Make up your mind!

The last two posts may well make the reader think I have fallen off the freelance train in favor of specific prototype modeling.  The best prototype freelancers out there usually come out of prototype modeling.   The detail specific  nature of following a prototype is limiting, but by the same token the limits determine the fidelity and effectiveness of the prototype model.  Freelancing on its own needs no limit, but prototype freelancing requires the same limits as in prototype modeling.  The difference is the user defines the limits as he defines the concept.  This is that skeleton I mentioned in the first post.  The concept is then fleshed out on it as limits will bear.  The limits are established through research and experience of the prototype.  The goal of protofreelance modeling, then, is to create a "what if" scenario.  Deviations from reality are limited to what one would expect to be seen in the prototype(s) to be emulated.  My desire as a prototype freelance modeler is to build a concept and model that draws the observer into my world.  Key prototype aspects of the concept give a foundation that makes the deviations from prototype plausible and in some cases convincing in a real world.  All this wordage makes for a headache right now. It makes more sense as I delve into the creation of the concept.

For now, I will  revisit the RS-NS Alabama Division in HO Scale one last time.  The layout is mature as is the idea of a prototype freelance concepts shared by myself and a couple of the layout operators.  The layout was not without prototype visitors also which is exampled first.

The Georgia Southwestern RR (GSWR) was a prototype shortline that had a local operation centered in Columbus, GA and interchanging with NS.  Here a GP40 in Railtex livery pulls pulpwood racks from staging at Muscogee Jct.  The Wathers woodrack was a custom kitbash of a prototype car, complete with the bright orange paint of new owner GSWR.  The owner custom painted the Athearn Blue Box GP40-2, backdating it to a GP40.

As a fan of the US Steel Transtar shortlines, one of the few finished locomotives I did was in the form of BS #702, a former EJ&E GP38-2 reassigned to the Birmingham Southern ore transfers from its barge transfer at Birminghport, AL to the Fairfield BOF mill at Fairfield, AL.  This unit was moving through likely from offline repairs or short term lease.

 On another day, a IC GP40R works on 198 with a NS GP50 and SD40-2 as they cross the Coosa River in Childersburg, AL.  This paid tribute to an IC SD40-2 that managed to work through on the prototype P-line over several weeks before being returned.  I was quite pleased to find this consist when I arrived, being a huge ICG/IC fan which the owner was acutely aware.  The units was also an Athearn Blue Box, custom painted and detailed to suit.  Like the prototype, one just never knew what might turn up on one of the manifests staged for the operating session.

A former SD70M demonstrator, KCS GP40-2 and the BS 702 appeared on 198 during this particular day.  This was one of the more exotic consists and was not repeated often.  This featured completed units by several operators and always kept us wondering what the owner would come up with next.  Columbus, GA yard is in the foreground.

 In deference to all his excursions on the Heart of Dixie Chapter and the Southern and later NS Steam Program, the 1218 stops in Opelika for water on an excursion.  This was a brass unit detailed and painted by the owner using memory and pictures.  The back up water tender is scratchbuilt along the lines of the early Southern excursions.  

The owner was very amenable to allowing the freelancers among us to place our mark on the layout and its operations.  We did this following certain constraints in a effort to maintain the fidelity of the NS operation.  Here are some examples, both subtle and no so much...

I will always be grateful to the owner in his allowances to those of us who strayed from the prototype path, if for only a moment.  He was a great fan of Allen McClelland's V&O as evidenced by this Accurail set of hoppers.  The freelance only appeared in small quanitities and at specific times.  This kept our ideas from polluting his own modeling scope.   He enjoyed the fellowship, and we all challenged each other to be better by displaying our projects and adding to the layout.

  Astute observers will remember this photo posted last time about visual cues to help pull in the observer or operator.  What I did not mention was the second woodchip car.  Over the years I learned how to create my own artwork for decals.  This revolutionized the idea of bringing my prototype freelance to life, even if only in small steps.  The Florida & Gulf Coast RR is a regional that interchanges with the Georgia Road.  While based mostly in Florida, it has a subsidiary called the Alabama Central Railroad (ACR).  The second woochip car is an early scheme car with ACR reporting marks.  Woodchip cars were still in short supply on the layout, so these showed up regularly to augment the NS models that had to be kitbashed and painted.  The story went that the hopper regularly wound up in the pool of NS woodchip cars going to a paper mill servered by the NS and FGC.  The scheme was conservative so it was easy to miss it in a consist all together.

My best friend and prototype freelancer also operated on the layout in the later days.  He created the Georgia Midland Railroad, a large regional based off the Gainesville Midland Branch operated between his hometown of Athens, GA and Gainesville, GA.   He was the first to acquire a decal capable printer and I decaled cars in exchange for getting my own artwork printed.  This LBF JA rotary woodchip car was a new release at the time, stripped and repainted for his SCL inspired scheme.   

 This staged picture gave my best friend and fellow prototype freelance modeler a chance to photograph his growing roster on a layout.  The Georgia Midland Railroad was a modern large regional based on the Gainesville Midland near his birthplace near Athens, GA.  The GAM was all GE, and interesting quirk that gave his railroad some interest.  All the units are heavily reworked Athearn Blue Box locmotives.  GAM rebuilt U series units now called U36C-7s  (inspired by the real ATSF SF30C rebuilds of the time) sit in the foreground, with one rebuild without a cab due to a rather nasty grade crossing collision.  In the background,  four acle U36B-7 units bracket a GE MATE slug and C36-7.  These were years ahead of the scale hood Atlas units we take for granted now.

 The bluff shot at Coosa Pines is a favorite spot to shoot the trains on the layout.  Here the GAM consist with MATE and C36-7 work past the defect detector.  These trains were treated as detours due to weather or derailment re-routes.  This way we could weave just about anything into our operation sessions.  Needless to say, my friend was the engineer on this run through freight.

 Newer power runs Southern long hood style in this shot of a re-routed GAM manifest.  A C39-8 leads the way.  We saw NS run its own units in this fashion many times.  While odd now, during the time of the photo it was typical practice on the P -Line mainfest 198, which tended to draw the newer units such as the C39-8 and  Dash9-40C units.

By the time I had significant Georgia Road projects completed the operators has gone their separate ways and the layout became a fond memory.  We all lost touch due to cares of life and those days are just a memory.  It was the operations centered around these pictures that defined my modeling approach.  While I enjoyed the prototype modeling side, the need to create my own protofreelance concept was spurred on by the Georgia Midland appearances on the layout.  The watchful eye of the owner guided me to a deliberate approach which I carry to this day.

Next time we will look into the makings of a prototype freelance called the Georgia Road.

Take care, yall!

H

Six Miles to Nowhere---what goes around comes around

As a modeler of more than a few years, I have collected a lot of information.  My magaziine collection, reference materials and books, tools, actual model railroad items and assorted railroadiana became overwhelming after a move requiring several extra truckloads of very heavy boxes and totes that go no closer to organization than previous to the re-location.  I came out of the 1980s and 1990s, where most information was based in all this written word, usually gleaned from railroaders, hobby shops or the occasional acquaintance.  Keeping track of all of it took the skills of an acomplished archivist, which I was not.  

The Internet age gave me electronic options.  Many subjects could be found online through hours of research and access to obscure and long out of print information I could only dream of was now at my fingertips.  During this time I winnowed my collection down just as I began drilling down what my long term goals were as a model railroader.  Unlike many of my older associates, I was interested in modern modeling.  Steam was not known to me, aside from a very rare excursion by N&W 611, NW 1218 or AWP 290 as I reached college age in the 1990s.  I got to see some action from the sidelines, but never had opportunity to do more than see railroads within a few dozen miles of where I grew up.  It was small town mainline railroading.  The focus was the local road switcher as it came and went, bracketed by mainline trains passing or meeting in the surrounding area.  It was SCL, then Family Lines and later CSX,  Exposure to Southern and later Norfolk Southern required railfan day trips.  As one would expect, I focused on what I knew.  This is why the RS-Lineville Sub in HO Scale was such a benchmark, as it emulated what I saw and what I knew.

The collection of magazines were the subjects that dreams were made of---here I saw a spectrum of ideas, prototype and freelance application and how everything could come together as a whole.  My dream was to build that dream layout in my head.  I found Steve King's "Clinchfield Country" at a train show and was bitten by the heavy mainline and switching action in a relatively small space.   Not too long after that, I found a store worn copy of Allen McClelland's "V&O Story" which took prototype coal operations and reimagined them into a freelance world.  The book was detailed, showing not only how the layout operated, but how it interacted with other concepts and most importantly, how it fit into the real world.  I was hooked at that point.  I even begain designing my own version of a freelance coal haulter and with the help of my college roomate, also a freelance modeler, began desigining the Georgia Road. 

The pictures on the RS-Alabama Division of NS are the few pieces of documentation, but as I moved into adult life, I further honed my knowledge base while working down the Georgia Road into something meaningful.  The periodic articles on Eric Brooman's Utah Belt concept spurred me on, showing just how finished a concept could become.

As I struggled with the idea of rebuilding a protofreelance coal hauler like the Clinchfield set in modern era, I realized that coal was something I only read about.  The Steve King book discussed operations as well as documented them in full color, but the setting was mostly the 70s and early 80s.  I was now seeing Seaboard System roll new SD50s on Deep South coal trains.  I was also developing a deep interest for lease units and spin-off regional railways.  This was my world.

The early days of CSX are on display in Opelika, AL on the old AWP-WofA in the 1980s as 615 passes the old coaling tower that still stands watch today---Picture by David Harris from my collection

Another day, another 615 road train rolls through Auburn, AL in my college years.  It was anything goes in the early 1990s with a caboose tagged on for good measure.  David Harris photo

 Big time yard switching was Columbus GA in my world view.  It was a secondary yard on a secondary main, but full of locals that fanned out all over Georgia and Alabama on either side of the Chattahoochee River.  The SOU paint quickly gave way to NS but this was where Southern "Serves the South" The David Harris photo was the best place to find hordes of locomotives on one place without braving the Atlanta metroplex which was a good two hours away from my home in LaGrange, GA

 As I trainsitioned from college to work and family, my railfanning continued in the same area.  The result was I got to see how the industry changed over time, and how it affected the areas I haunted for two decades.  Here, CSX finds its identity in the late 1990s with a meet between Q615 and stack train  Q144 in West Point, GA ... my photo.

 Old print photos that were nominal at best create even worse scans.  Here an NS local plys the old CofGA north of Barnesville, GA working a chipping mill.  The GP in the rear was bought to hustle roadrailers and fast intermodals, now out of favor  and relegated to local service.

 In my college years I got to see many a branchline and regional in the Deep South.  If you wanted the odd, anacronistic or rare, these were the places.  Where else in the 1990s could you find a bunch of ex Chessie Geeps dressed in a L&N inspired red scheme?  G&O Railways Alatabma & Florida RR (AFLR) units rest at the old Andalusia, AL depot between work shifts.  my photo...

Georgia Southwestern was the closest regional at its northern most terminal in Columbus, GA.  This picture taken by my college roomate and fellow freelance modeler Wes Downs shows how shortlines get it done.  The yard shows years of neglect by former owner CSX but power is matched in UP style Railtex red and gray.  That slug is a former SCL MATE, now pair to a GP38-3 and carrying a GP9 dynamic brake.  Columbus, GA is the location in the early 2000's.

Railfan magazines covered many of the ICG and BN spinoffs throughout the 1990s.  I even witness a few small operations spring from CSX cast offs in Georgia and Alabama.  Intermodal was about to explode, and I found myself following the NYSW as they used Sealand to ressurect their railroad.  I also watched how regionals offered "work arounds" to many Class One operations.  During the time I discovered the KCS, and the IC.  It is not surprising I had a penchant for the 1980s-1990s  ICG and then IC.  My first Tyco trainset featured a high-nose ALCO and letters to the railroad yielded maps and pictures that tweaked my imagination.  

 IC and SP power waits for the call at IC Johnson Yard in the mid 1990s.  Fellow modeler and railfan Dennis Daniels gave me the tour of a lifetime from daylight until dusk.    There is something to be said at the mix of rebuilt and new units working side by side on a daily basis.  This was typical of my world.

 One can never get enough IC im my opinion.  Ex BN SD40-2 units congregate on the ready tracks near the old roundhouse at Johnson Yard in the 1990s..  My photography skills were improving by this time also.

While I long to see all the great railfan spots I read about, my life centered around the 200 or so miles in any direction of where I grew up.  One train carried on during all this time, though changing with the times.  A746 is the Montgomery-West Point, GA local switching turn that runs daily on the CSX AWP-WofA Sub.  It began as half of a unit sand train pair that worked sand pits near Montgomery into concrete plants around Atlanta.  Over the years the sand was put on other trains and it took on the role of a local switching turn.  Here in the mid 2000s, the local worked Knauf Fiberglass in Huguley, AL  The cars carry sand melted into glass pellets to be turned into rolled batt insulation.  I guess it is in some regard still a "sand train."

These visual examples are only the barest of overviews.  Each one documented a certain operation or train configuration.  All this somehow gelled into what would become fodder for the creation of the present Georgia Road concept.  After looking all over the Southeast for locations to settle in a model railroad, I came back to what I knew.  While many layouts are visually stunning, only a portion capture the prototype in such a way that they inspire thoughts of the real thing.  Freelance layouts that do this are even more rare, but create something that not only carries prototype, but momentarily tricks the observer to believing it might be a prototype.  You have to know your subject to models it.  You have to know the world in which your subject lives in order to create that give the freelance concept an illusion of prototype in itself.

I guess I went all the way around the world just to settle back where it all started!  Like that old local A746, I still roam the same rails I did from the beginning.  Like those old rails it works, I too have seen many changes in fifty years of living.  

Next time I will delve into how my prototype world influenced my freelanced world.

H in AL

Thanks for sharing, Hank. I

Thanks for sharing, Hank.

I remember you were active on the old PFM-SIG Yahoo group many years ago. Several of us had proto-freelance railroads fleshed out to one degree or another, but I always enjoyed what you came up with. It's so well thought out that it's hard not to believe it's a real railroad. Utah Belt had that effect on me when I first saw it in the pages of Model Railroader. The lead photo of this blog has the same impact. Bravo!

Yahoo groups are no more at this point, but many of the ones I was subscribed to migrated over to groups.io. I looked there and didn't find a PFM-SIG group. That's too bad. It was a fun place to share our ideas.