Life happens
Astute readers will notice that I haven’t really been active around here for the last year or so. The last time I wrote a blog post was July, 2025. Yikes! I want everyone to know that I am still here, still active in my research and modeling of the Georgetown Branch. But, a lot has happened since last Summer, so let’s catch up a bit and talk a bit about the future.
The spring and summer of 2025 proved to be a challenging time as I went through a divorce which finalized last Fall. Despite the closure of that chapter being a deep inflection point for me in so many ways, it also became a starting point for many other new opportunities, concerns, projects and challenges. It’s a tough space to navigate, and hobbies needed to take a back seat to getting a hold on more prescient tasks and responsibilities. To sum it up, I haven’t really felt up to doing much model railroading with everything else I’ve had going on.
The model railroad
As the dust settled, I wound up keeping the house and decided that I wanted to expand the model railroad now that I had domain over the basement space. I made the [believe it or not] not-so-difficult decision to demolish the model railroad. Yep. Good friend Kelly R. came over and we made short work of it in a very full day of demolition.
At one point Kelly gave me the nickname “heavy duty Ben” due to the fact that I overdid it with the screws when constructing the layout. Ok, maybe I went a little overboard.
It was a bit of a bittersweet day, as a lot of heart and soul was poured into that little layout, but I knew that it was never what I wanted it to be and in the long run I would kick myself for not taking advantage of the basement space. Any model railroader will tell you there is a lot of excitement and thrill in considering a new layout.
So, after fourteen years, the layout came down. All of the special items, such as the trestle and the hand laid turnouts in Bethesda and a few other things were preserved, along with most of the lumber, Homasote, track, wire and the many hundreds of fasteners.
So now what? A full 13.5 months have passed since Kelly and I did this demolition. He has visited a few times to help me relocate items in the basement in preparation for demolition of the greater basement; my spray booth, tools, shelves and lots of crates are now stored in this space, as it will be largely untouched during demolition. The rest of the basement is ready for demolition. So why haven’t I started? Well, it’s a big, messy job, requires a lot of coordination to deal with the debris and remember what I said about this time being a “tough space to navigate?” I haven’t really felt like it.
I haven’t been able to figure out a track plan. I have struggled to figure out how to render said track plan. After Kelly visited one day he made a nice CAD drawing of the basement to use as a starting point. (I highlighted the area the old layout occupied to give you an idea of how much additional space I will gain through renovation):
Since I’m at an inflection point with prime design opportunities, there are many things I have been pondering. I’m going to share my detailed thoughts in a follow-up blog post.
Research never sleeps
One thing that hasn’t stopped in the last year is my somewhat passive research on the Branch. Last July I gave my Georgetown Branch presentation to the B&O RR Historical Society at their 2025 Eastern Mini-Con. It was a hit. I was asked to come back this year, but struggled to say yes, since my layout was torn down and life was kind of scrambled. But, I had the idea that perhaps Kelly would want to do a collab, where we focus on the prototype modeling we’ve done. So, I formulated a plan, got Kelly on board and despite him having triple bypass surgery we managed to present at the 2026 Eastern Mini-Con just yesterday. It went really well and I think everyone enjoyed it.
I’ve collected several additional slides, images and other documents over the last year an change that I am gearing up to share here on the blog. I even got to make a special behind the scenes visit to the 3400 Water St. property as it was under renovation this past winter!
Please bear with me as I slowly bring this stuff online to share. I’ve got to make time to go through it and do the proper research which takes some time. I promise, it will be worth the wait! There will be some catching up to do. I am hopeful that I’ll get into a more regular cadence of posting things here, as I truly love the interactions and sharing my findings. This is very much a passion project of mine and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
More to come.
Talk is cheap for me, since I do not have a model railroad.
But my plan now – and what I did when I was a teenager – is to model the 1970’s/80’s when I was a youth, but as if the railroad had kept all the customers that were by then lost. So a little imagineering. Modeling the world as I kind of wish it was rather than actually was. A world where the railroad was able to compete and retain the business. Where it avoided the self-inflicted wounds. And as long as I’m imagineering, I’ll (and did) work in some other stuff I think is cool, like the old quarry operations and paper traffic to the Army Map service as if it was Holliday-Tyler printing (which actually was located near Rockville, but was a constant in my high school railfanning). And a car-ferry and my old Cox container crane. There was never either in Georgetown, but I want them on my layout. (but talk is cheap . . . ) Oh and maybe even send a line off into a staging area to represent the never built line to Potomac Yard.
Another thing I’ve been toying around with in my brain: instead of helix where the train goes in and takes a long time to pop out at the top, make a helix a little larger where every other level is visible and sceniced so portray some sections of the run between Georgetown and River Road along the canal and the bluffs and the woods of Little Falls Creek. Maybe sidings for the Map Service and Filtration plant would come off too, not sure.
I’ve always wanted Georgetown to start low at desk height, so that switching would be done siding on a rolling chair, then have the tracks climb. Most model railroads are basically flat, but I was always impressed by the grades of the Georgetown Branch. Another use for the helix, maybe . . . (did I mention talk is cheap?)