Your golden-era model railroads!

[p51]

On Friday a good friend of mine got a huge batch of letters from railroads from a guy in the 40s who wrote to railroads all over the country asking for timetables. Among them was a 1942-dated letter from the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina. Better still, it says enclosed was timetable number 119 from 1940. in an amazing coincidence, I HAVE one of those! So once Robert gave me to the letter, I had to place them side-by-side:

 

[p51]

I just made this for those who have seen my layout on video:

 

[p51]

I was taking some shots for an article for the NMRA magazine and decided to go for a cover shot. Neither of these were useable, but I played around with them so I could post them instead:

 

[p51]

Just got this in the mail today:

I had no idea this was coming. This was one of two proposed cover shots I'd sent them last year with an article on my layout. The editor chose what I agreed was the best of the two but said he liked this one as well and would use it later.
This issue has no layout article, so it makes sense and I'm glad it wasn't used instead of someone's layout photo from the inside of the issue!
I'm going to get another copy, chop the cover off it and hang it on the wall with some of my other magazine appearances.

 

[p51]

Over the weekend, I put up the original builder's plate for an Army ALCO S2 locomotive on the wall of the layout room, which fits in with the layout's timeframe:

Then, I cut the cover off a copy of O Scale trains with my newest cover, and added it to the 'wall of fame':

 

[p51]

I ran an older video through an old movie film filter to create this video.

 

[p51]

The NMRA 4th region convention was last week. It was a nice event, I gave a presentation on military railroad operations for model railroads.

I also won third place overall for the photo contest. They combined the real and model photos and mine was the only model photo to place.
This is the original photo:

 

[p51]

It's been a bad couple of weeks for me and I'm just in a place where I can post about it.
My parents were both born in 1936, and well into their 30s when I was born. They had all the types of issues you expect from people past their mid-80s.
Dad got sick, went to the hospital, got COVID along the way (the hospital and the assisted living place are pointing at each other as to how he got it) and from those complications, he passed away on June 6. I find that date ironic as I've always been into military history and June 6 will never again be mainly the anniversary of the Normandy Landings in 1944..
I DO NOT want a bunch of responses to this or platitudes. I've got more of that than I could ever use at this point.
Dad was not only a great man (kind, funny, and the smartest person I've ever known), he was finest craftsman. In the 60s, he built a Civil War cannon (a M1841 6-pounder) that we re-enacted with into the 1990s.

Other than the barrel (the only thing he couldn't cast), he made every single piece of it, and anything that could be bronze, he made it as such. He couldn't bring himself to paint it after making those wheels.
He also built several cannon models, and this 1/6 scale James Rifle appeared in Finescale Modeler from this series of photos I took of it.

As for how this factors into my layout, Dad's last gun barrel is on my layout. I wanted a memorial on my layout to that unpleasantness in the 1860s (some Southerners call it, "The War of Northern Aggression,
but East Tennessee was quite pro-Union during that timeframe, something I bet they're proud of in a PC-centric world). He said he only needed to know what kind of gun barrel and scale I wanted. As I know the types, I said I wanted a 12-pounder 'Napoleon' in 1/48 scale, and it showed up in the mail about a week or so later. I jokingly said he didn't drill the vent at the back, which would be smaller than a tiny fraction of the diameter of a human hair. He thought that response was funny.

I made the pedestal, and I still can't bring myself to weather it as it'd look (all such bronze barrels outside are oxidized in green unless someone polishes them regularly).

I just wish he'd been able to see the layout. I miss you, Dad.

 

[p51]

I took some more shots last night, for a article I'm sending to the NMRA magazine. The vertical one is one I'm going to submit, but in color. I really like the 'old photo' effect on it, though.

 

[p51]

Just uploaded these:

 

[p51]

 

[p51]

https://www.tracksidemodelrailroading.com/magazine/past-issues/2023-archive/oct-2023/
Here's my latest magazine appearance. They came out to shoot stills and video not long ago.
It's not much if you REALLY want to see it.

 

[DeaconKC]

I have definitely enjoyed this thread. Just getting started back into model railroading [N scale] and using the Gorre & Daphetid as my inspiration.

 

[p51]

I recently got the digital proof for my article for the Kalmbach 2024 Model Railroad Planning Annual complete with Model Railroader-produced track plan. That was surreal to me to see that as I never thought I'd see my own layout in one of their trackplans.
I assume it'll be out in December or January. That'll really be special for me, as I think most in the hobby know how hard it is to get into any Model Railroader publication.

 

[p51]

On August 12, 2014, I ran the very first movement of a locomotive on my layout, using ET&WNC # 12 on a small section of the layout with a spur in place. My friend Robert Scott and I started laying track from one end to the other and had maybe gotten 4 feet of mainline in at this point, on plywood bench work. I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my modeling ability at the time, having been out of the hobby for many years. I didn’t think much would come from this other than a way to have fun running my own trains instead of waiting for op session on other layouts.

Within two years of this photo, scenery was in place and I’ve been improving stuff ever since.

Ten years later exactly, here’s the same locomotive. This area is more of staging area with scenery. But had someone told me the layout would be in almost two dozen magazine articles, three commercial videos (including a Blu-Ray) and many dozens of visitors over the years, I’d have told that person they were nuts!

It’s been an amazing journey to get to where it is today. I am continually surprised at how well my work has been received over the years.

 

[DeaconKC]

P51, congrats on your achievement. Well done Sir!

 

[p51]

Here's the only other ten year apart shot on the layout, of the first run of the mainline. The turntables weren't in at that time.
This is the same locomotive and cars.

 

[DeaconKC]

Oh, that is nice! It's finally getting cooled off a little here, so I will be able to get back on the porch and working on mine. First step, just getting a base coat of paint down so I can see where terrain slopes need to go.