Category Archives: News

New and interesting items.

Commodities: Dalecarlia Water Treatment Plant

News

One of the challenges as a prototype modeler is deciphering what commodities traveled on the railroad that I model and from where they came or were going to. So far, my only clues are the venerable B&O Form 6 (a document which outlines sidings and businesses that they served, yet is not complete considering there were team track yards, shared trackage, etc.), photographs and some maps & diagrams which offer up clues. There are documents buried in various archives waiting to be uncovered but that’s another story. For now, I run with what I have.

An excellent HABS/HAER document from the Library of Congress outlines the history quite nicely. Dalecarlia existed as a reservoir beginning in the mid 1850s, which received water from the Washington Aqueduct. The water treatment plant was built ca 1922 to help meet the growing population. DC began adding chlorine to its drinking water in 1923 and the Dalecarlia rapid sand filter came online around 1927 and used sand and aluminum sulfate to clarify the water. In 1928 the chemical building/head house was constructed, including a five-story tower which stored additional chemicals; alum, bauxite, lime and more. Likely, the B&O’s relatively new branch line provided a conduit for construction materials and consumables/chemicals for the construction and initial operations there. (Kelly and I uncovered what I believe to be an old siding where there was some sort of unloading device or construction facility astride one of the ponds, in the very northwestern tip of the facility.) Early photos indicate that the B&O had merely a short siding there for many years.

Dalecarlia Reservoir in 1930. The Georgetown Branch snakes along the lower, middle area of the photo, from top left to right. Note there are no unloading facilities present. Image from National Archives.
1931 aerial photo. The GB tracks are seen on the left, filtration plant to the right. Note the siding, which appears to have fresh ballast and is perhaps new. The only access to this siding is the road seen passing from left to right. There is a small dirt track branching off and heading toward the siding. Perhaps for offloading supplies.

At some point, the B&O built a yard and an unloading system In a photo from 1947, I can see the unloading tanks which is the earliest photographic representation I have. An aerial photo from Historic Aerials shows the facility in 1949.

Visible in this 1949 aerial image is the small yard consisting of five tracks, including the main. I believe the left-most tracks were used for chemicals and the right tracks were used for sand and aggregates. Storage tanks are lined up to the north, across the access road. Likely there were various pump houses and maintenance structures nearby.

In a photo from 1956 shot by Ray Mumford, we get the best view I have of the yard and facilities. Note the overhead pipe bridge.

Dalecarlia Reservoir, May 30 1956. Photo by Ray Mumford.

Thankfully, the B&O documented the construction of this overhead bridge:

B&O Bridge Sketch Book

The plan indicates that this bridge was constructed in 1952, perhaps replacing or upgrading an earlier structure; I have no photos to determine this, yet. Here is a detail of the pipe bridge cross-section:

Detail cross-section of B&O chemical bridge at Dalecarlia.

So back to our original question about commodities. This cross-section has labels on the pipes, indicating what they were used for. Nice! We see: sulfuric acid, carbon, “elec.” (electrical?), air (compressed?), sulfur dioxide and two chlorine conduits. Combined with the information found above – sand, aluminum sulfate, alum, bauxite, lime, etc. – we start to get an even better picture of what arrived at the water treatment plant via the B&O. This helps me to hone in on freight cars and operational schemes for my layout which is a crucial thought exercise for planning what cars I want to model and what purchases I want to make for my fleet.

I still have so many unanswered questions – like what did the plant look like in the 1940s? What were the chemicals used for? What was stored where? How did the unloading facility work, exactly? What shippers sent cars to the reservoir and what rolling stock was used. Someone once mentioned seeing a “chlorine train” going down the branch with a few cars. Did the B&O have a dedicated train for chlorine on the Georgetown Branch? This offers an interesting operational possibility, if true. These fine details are what run through my head as I compile this information and seek answers and solutions. For now, I’ll have to go with what I have. We’ll probably go in a bit deeper later on some other speculation and theorycrafting, but until then, enjoy this photo of a train at Georgetown Junction that includes a chlorine car from Westvaco in WV:

December 31, 1959. B&O 9023, an Alco S2, is coming off the Georgetown Branch, tying up the Metropolitan Br. mains at Georgetown Junction. Visible to the right of the engine is an interesting chlorine car. Markings read “WESTVACO CHL[ORINE], FOOD MACHINERY & …, SOUTH CHARLES [, WV], LEASED TO…, WESTVACO CH…, WATER CAPY OF TANK, 493?? LBS.” My collection, eBay purchase, photo by Bill Williams.

My copy of the 1954 ORER indicates 12 cars for Westvaco, with reporting marks WVCX. By 1959 I am sure they had more but I need to get my hands on an ORER for that year. Onward!

Rock Creek Trestle: Pointing to Georgetown

News

This post is sort of a mental dump from several months ago regarding a curiosity I discovered while doing research on the Rock Creek trestle for the model I’m constructing. Good photos of the trestle are very rare. Doubly so for older photos from the 1940s and earlier. The trestle was located in an area with a decent amount of vegetation and was a bit out of the way. I only have a few images of the trestle that date from the timeframe in the 1940s-1950s that I model, and they are mediocre shots at best. It was a difficult structure to photograph! But, they are like gold to me. They are all I have! They are the only visual representations of something that was very special and existed in various arrangements over time due to rebuilds, strengthening, vandalism/fire and flooding damages.

Ca. 1967. Photog unknown. Collection of W. Duvall. An arsonist’s fire gutted the trestle five years before Agnes would destroy half of it in the major flooding of Rock Creek. Note the diagonal supports on the outside of the trestle. So which side of the trestle was this photo taken from?! North or South?

Because there are no strikingly significant differences between the North and the South side of the trestle, I have always struggled to determine what I was actually looking at in the photos; North or South side? The small refuge bays that jutted out a few feet at the top were offset on each side in the same relative place, so if you stood on the ground below the trestle and snapped a photo, it would look nearly the same from either side. I had to find a way to figure out which side was which when looking at photos taken from the ground! But how?

Anyone else remember this moment from It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World? This was me moments before figuring out how to identify the North and South side of the trestle.

First let’s take a look at the bridge sketch. This view would be standing on the south side, facing north.

Bridge Sketch, B&ORRHS. Ca 1959, shows bridge after reinforcements were added.

As I studied photos there was one thing that stood out to me. The large diagonal OUTER cross braces seemed to form an arrow that pointed toward the west. I first took a look at a few known photos that I shot of the East end of the trestle to see if there was something to this. Here is a view from the North side, facing South:

11/12/2019, North side, East end. Outer braces highlighted in blue.

And here is a view on the South side, facing North, of the East end as well; the other side from the above image:

11/12/2019, South side, East end. Outer braces highlighted in blue.

And there it is. My “W” moment. The cross braces form “arrows” which always point West. Looking at some images in my collection which I previously could not determine the side confirmed my suspicion. Here is an image from ca 1946:

A view from below, ca 1946 or 1948. I have highlighted the outermost cross braces. I now know this shows the locomotive facing a westerly direction.

Note the side bracing, which I have highlighted in blue, pointing to the West! I have a few other images that I unfortunately don’t have permission to share here, which further confirm my suspicion. So, for anyone who is attempting to identify an old image of the Trestle, if you are curious which side you are looking at, just look for the outer bracing to “point” you the way. 🙂

1941 Bethesda Freight House Construction, continued

Georgetown Branch related links, History, Model RR, News, Prototype

Well folks, this one’s a doozy. A friend, Brian R., who regularly volunteers at the B&ORRHS just sent me one heck of an image. You may recall a few months back he sent me a couple images of the Bethesda Freight House under construction. Well, here is one more that was shot weeks prior to the other one and shows a WHOLE LOT of the surrounding area. I get pretty excited when I get really nice photos of Georgetown Branch subjects, but this one is really very special and so chock-full of details, it’s hard to know where to begin. Let’s dig in. First, here is the full image:

Freight House Construction, Bethesda, MD, May, 1941. Photo courtesy B&ORR Historical Society. Depicts early construction of the freight house with footings being poured. Of note are surrounding yard and town area.

So there’s a lot in the image and what is funny to me is the construction of the freight house is not the primary interest. I picked out several things of interest. Let’s take a tour around the photo. First up is the yard area, largely visible behind the Maloney Concrete cement mixer. The yard is choc-a-block full of what appears to be marble or limestone. I have references to stone being delivered to Chevy Chase for the Washington National Cathedral and of course the extension of the line in Georgetown to serve construction of the Lincoln Memorial, but I have never heard of any stone deposited in Bethesda on a scale such as this! Have a closer look:

As far as the eye can see, stacks and racks and car loads of stone. Impressive! There are even two unloading devices; one, a stiff leg derrick visible to the left and a crane of some sort, likely an early Burro Type 15 or 20, similar to this one seen here.

Stiff leg derrick.
Small crane. Note, the “smoke stack” seen to the left is actually from a building in the distance, not the crane. Note that the crane is facing almost perpendicular to the photographer. Also note the position of the operator in the open cab, with what appears to be the drum and hoist mechanism opening to his right. The crane is quite short in length, which steers me to think it’s an early Burro Type 15 or 20. Another image of the Type 20 patent design.

Getting a bit closer to the nearest gondola, I can see that it’s a PRR gon, and the number looks to me like 368270. A quick search in the 1943 ORER shows that this falls into the PRR GB class GRA, constructed around 1916 and modified from the GR class by adding 3′ to the overall length. These cars were somewhat plentiful in 1943 with 590 listed in the ORER. (By 1953 this number had dropped to only 31!) Thankfully, Westerfield offers a resin kit of this car, for anyone interested in modeling it.

PRR GB GRA class gondola, number 368270.

There are other GRA class gons in the yard, identifiable by the slightly stretched space between the middle braces.

Another PRR GRA gondola.

Let’s look at the other freight cars visible in the photo:

A long string of freight cars, all apparently boxcars, stretching on the siding toward Maloney Concrete.

The first one is obviously a PRR car and appears to me after some careful study to be numbered something close to 123951 – my confidence is medium, here. If this is accurate, and based on the overall design I think it is, this would be a class X28a boxcar, rebuilt from door-and-a-half X28 class cars in 1933 and of which there were 4957 listed in the ORER in 1943. (In 1953 there were still 3676 listed.) Some info here. Thankfully, Funaro & Camerlengo offers a resin kit of this car if you’d like to model it in HO.
Decals here.

PRR X28a boxcar.

The next car appears to be another PRR car, but there’s much less to go on. My guess based on the panels and bracing is something similar to an X26 class boxcar, as they were plentiful; in 1943 the PRR had over 6000-some listed. Again, Funaro & Camerlengo offers a resin kit of this car as well as Westerfield.

Likely PRR class X26 boxcar.

The rest of the cars are so far away it’s very hard for me to discern. Perhaps some of the steam era freight car gurus can pick them out. 🙂 Next up, check out the lumber in the Einsinger lumber yard:

Einsinger Lumber; partially a parking lot.

The siding is past those stacks of lumber. It’s interesting; at some point in the next few years, Einsinger would build more structures in this area to expand the lot. The cars occupy a space which would be the site of a long lumber shed. Photos from the late 40s and 50s will show the yard expansion. Oddly enough, in later years, the yard would once again be a parking lot and eventually a residential building. There was a curious sign off to the right, next to those cars:

Eisinger Lumber sign.

Would love to know the story behind that sign. Heading back over to the right is the Irwin Roofing shop. This is a particularly interesting spot, as it’s a showroom of sorts and there is SO much to see.

Looking closely, I see a well-maintained front lawn with a short walkway up to the small shop and a nice decorative sign hanging out front. The shop itself is adorned with stone all around. Coming out into the back yard, there is a small courtyard with an overhang, the roof of which features various types of slate roofing, each labeled with a letter; A, B, C and so on. A really neat detail! Irwin Stone is still in business today! Behind Irwin Roofing is Enright Oil:

Enright Oil.

Enright is interesting. I would imagine they unloaded from the second siding coming off the main, which would be just to the right of their plant. Unfortunately the photo cuts off there but we get some idea of their storage yard to the right. A couple storage tanks are visible as well as some bins (coal?) and a nifty gas pump which may or may not be in use there in the yard. Perhaps to fuel up their delivery trucks. I plan on modeling part of this on my layout. Obituary for J.R. Enright Jr. Also of interest here is the access to the yard with the small crossing over the yard tracks. In the distance is Maloney Concrete:

Maloney Concrete, barely visible in the distance.

Speaking of Maloney Concrete, here is its mixer pouring ready-mix for the B&O freight station footers:

Maloney Concrete, truck no 48. If only someone would offer an HO scale model of this style mixer, I would be a happy camper!

And lastly, it’s hard to ignore all of those lovely late 30s – early 40s automobiles, but since I’m no expert, I’ll focus on just one. The up front and center 1940 Pontiac Torpedo Coupe:

Well, I hope you enjoyed the photo and the details herein. What are some of your favorite finds? What did I miss?! I have many questions such as what was all the stone for? What cranes were in the yard and during what years? How did Enright Oil receive their fuel? When did Eisinger Lumber expand and who were they renting the yard to? Also of note, the buildings along “Bethesda Row” had yet to be built. And to think, roughly seven months after this photo was taken, the USA would enter into WWII, further pushing the area to develop and grow. And yet, still no one has explained the greatest mystery of all; why did the Bethesda freight house never have rail service? The design is a curious one, with a garage for storage yet no rail service. That’s a discussion for another time.

1955 Car Crashes at Brookeville Rd. Overpass

History, News, Prototype

A member of the Friends of Forest Glen, Maryland Facebook Group recently posted a couple newspaper clippings from the Washington Evening Star which show two separate car wrecks that occurred at the Brookeville Road bridge crossing the Georgetown Branch. I suspect that slippery road conditions contributed to both. Pretty interesting!

Washington Evening Star, August 13, 1955
Washington Evening Star, November 11, 1955

I knew that the old Linden Ln. overpass across the Metropolitan Branch just North of Georgetown Jct. was considered one of the most dangerous bridges in the country (!) at one time, but I did not know there were troubles with this smaller bridge just to the west. For reference, here is an image I scanned many years ago which was shot by W. Duvall, ca 1966:

http://gallery.sluggyjunx.com/railroad_and_industrial/georgetownbranch/gb_prototype_photos/20041129-wm_duvall_collection/12_wm_duvall_scan

Talbot Ave Bridge Girder Concept Art

History, News

Some will recall that the Purple Line folks intended to preserve and display the old girder(s) from the Talbot Ave bridge. They have just posted an artists rendering of what the old girders will look like at the Lyttonsville Station. Pretty neat. I’m just glad they were preserved!

Public artwork will enhance the #PurpleLineMD’s high-quality stations, aesthetic treatments and landscape designOne of…

Posted by Maryland Purple Line on Thursday, May 14, 2020


Layout Update 4/27/2020: Bethesda Nearly Complete

Model RR, News

After another marathon weekend of working on the layout, I’ve made some great progress. Nearly all of the tracks in Bethesda are in. All of the drops are wired and nearly all of the turnouts have Blue Point manual switch machines installed. I cleaned off the table to get a look at the overall layout:

To orient you, the view is from the south end of Bethesda, looking Northeast. At the top are three turnouts with sidings going to Griffith Coal & Consumers, assorted warehouses, and the long passing siding. From the passing siding, the first turnout goes to Maloney Concrete & Frito-Lay. The second track which extends through the yard is the team track as well as a siding servicing Devlin lumber. On the right is a short siding serving Einsinger Mill & Lumber Co.
A B&O track chart to assist. Note: some tracks don’t appear here, as they had been removed as they were taken out of service. You can see their “ghost” if you look closely, though!

I couldn’t resist doing a bit of operating. Man, this felt good!

Additional Projects

One thing that has really struck me is that over the span of eight years working on this project I have accumulated a lot of stuff to put this layout together. Much of it is piled beneath and around the layout itself. As I work, stuff gets shifted around. I’m at a point now where I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone to try new things. Some of these things include simple things like soldering feeders to the bottom of the rails instead of the sides up to more complex things like hand-building complex curved turnouts. I couldn’t do this without help and encouragement from friends and family who push me forward and answer all my stupid questions.

Lately I’ve been learning how to install turnout machines. I mentioned above that I used Blue Point switch machines in Bethesda. This decision was primarily based on the fact that I owned five already (that I had in a box of turnout stuff) and I realized a fascia would be nigh impossible with the way this section of the upper deck of my layout is built. There is no real room above or below it for toggle switches, I don’t want to cut big holes in the benchwork, and I don’t want to protrude out. Solution? Blue Point turnout machines. They use a push-pull rod/handle and can sit right on the fascia with minimal intrusion. Perfect. I’m quite happy with how they have been working for me. Bonus, I can wire the turnout frogs right to the machine.

Another project that has been in the hopper for a while are eight Iowa Scaled Engineering MRServo-1 units I purchased a couple years ago. (unfortunately, this product has been discontinued!) These nifty little things use a board that controls a micro servo mounted to a 3D printed chassis. Wiring up a DPDT switch and attaching to a power bus gives you a nifty little slow-mo turnout controller. They have a few different bases including a slim profile one to allow for remote installation in tight spaces. The MRServo units came in three types with additional features. This is the most basic of the three, featuring only turnout motor control. For now, it’s all I need. I plan on adding a Frog Juicer eventually to handle the frogs. These MRServo-1 units will be used on the upper deck from Chevy Chase all the way up to Georgetown Junction, as there is ample space below the track to install a fascia with toggle switches.

Power bus wires were run throughout the upper deck, both sides. I picked up a bag of inexpensive terminal blocks via eBay a few years ago and they are tremendously useful for projects like this. They can easily be trimmed to fit whatever size you need and held in place with a screw.
I made a temporary fascia panel for the switch mount.

I am progressing my way through projects that have loomed over me for years. It feels great to burst through and make real progress on this layout and I’m learning so much along the way. I ran a train all the way from one end to the other with no issues whatsoever. Like so many things, when you break a project into smaller pieces it takes away some of the mystical difficulty, making it a bit more manageable. I have been crushing these small hurdles left and right. I am hoping to have a video in the next few weeks showing off the progress.

And then, once the upper deck is done… it’s on to the lower deck! Woah!! But first, I gotta do something about all that JUNK! (ha)

Pic from January but it looks virtually the same. The price of progress. Some day that will be Georgetown!

Layout Update: April 25, 2020 – Tracks To Bethesda

News

It has been a busy last week of working on the layout. Last weekend I spent much of the time getting the three curved turnouts that lead into Bethesda in place and working properly. This involved quite a bit of work; test fitting, cutting ties, staining them, painting the turnouts, installing tie templates, installing ties, sanding, laying in the turnouts, fitting them, cutting them to length, attaching feeders and drilling holes for them along with holes for the switch machines. Once in place, lots of sighting and adjusting was done with the tracks in Bethesda before spiking things down and testing some cars on the track. A bit of filing here and there and we are in business.

First step was to align the turnouts and mark their locations on the roadbed. I had to really tweak these to get them where I wanted. There is limited space, and having the turnouts end and begin in logical places to allow for operations was a challenge.
More fitting. Tracks were laid loosely in place to get a feel for where sidings would lie.
Preparing to paint the turnouts.
Painted the turnouts with Rustoleum Camoflage Earth Brown paint. Overall, a nice effect.

Beginning to install ties. Each bay in that box holds a set of ties for a turnout. I cut them all on the workbench using The Chopper, stained and dried them. I then laid them out in order (seen here) and installed with wood glue, one by one. Ties were weighted down as I went along.

The three turnouts are sized as follows from top to bottom: #8 50″ outside radius, 35″ inside radius, #8 60″/40″, and #10 60″/46″.

And here we are with all three turnouts finally laid in place. Rails have been trimmed and now I will fit the rail joiners and solder feeder wires where needed. Getting there!
I just love the way these look. I left the last few long ties off because I wanted to see where I would need to join the adjacent tracks to the turnout and wasn’t sure if I would need to trim the rail back.

Soldering Feeder Wires

Some folks have asked me how I do feeder wires, so here is a quick illustration. A good friend, Matt R., convinced me to solder feeder wires to the bottom of the rails instead of the sides. This method leaves a clean look with no unsightly wires poking out, globbed onto the rails. It does take a bit of extra work, but once you get into a rhythm it goes fast. Here is my setup:

From right to left: My soldering station, a red Sharpie for marking drop locations on the rails and hole locations on the layout (for drlling), small needle-nose pliers, an X-Acto knife, “Helping Hands” vice for holding wires in place, flux, Irwin self-adjusting wire strippers and 22 AWG stranded or 20 AWG solid feeder wires. In the foreground is a small piece of solder.

I will typically mark the locations on the roadbed where I want the feeders to drop. This is done by marking each side of the rail and then the tops of the rail. Remove the piece of rail and drill a hole for each feeder. Flip the rail over. With the X-Acto, snip the small plastic spacers between the ties where you will solder the feeder. Strip about 1/8″ of insulation from the end of a feeder and bend it 90°. Using a micro-applicator, put a tiny bit of flux on the wire and the bottom of the rails. Straighten the wire and clip it in the helping-hands, positioning it so that the bare end is just barely pressed onto the rail. Now, using your soldering iron, place a tiny bit of solder onto the end of it. Then, press the iron and your solder into the joint and release after it flows onto the rail itself. This should only take a few seconds, most. You don’t want to melt the ties!

Once done, they should look like this. Ready for feeding through the roadbed.
A close up. This is Walthers/Shinohara Code 83 rail. Also note, the feeder on top is stranded wire, and the feeder on the bottom is solid. Some days you just gotta run with what ya got!
Here is what Bethesda looked like in the middle of this past week. The mainline was in place and the siding was tacked down.
Trains in Bethesda. By Friday night here is the progress that has been made. The mainline and passing siding are complete. The lift-out bridge is operational. I installed a small spring switch on one end that kills power to the short length of track at the edge to prevent locos from creeping off the end if the bridge is not in place.
It felt great to finally be able to bring a train around the bend into Bethesda! Hoping to complete the rest of the yard this weekend.
One other project I took on was in Chevy Chase. The team track siding originally swung to parallel the mainline. This caused it to have a really sharp curve and I didn’t like the way it looked or caused trains to flow awkwardly. I widened the curve a bit and gave it a bit more room.

2017 Visit to the B&O RR Historical Society Archives

History, News, Prototype

Back in 2017 Matt R. and I took a trip to the B&O RR Historical Society Archives in their wonderful new home in Eldersburg, MD. I used to frequent the Archives about 15 years ago when I was really getting into researching the Branch, but once my kids were born, things changed and I was unable to make time to get out there. Matt wanted to check it out, so we hoofed it out there to check it out.

We were rewarded with some awesome finds. Me, well I snapped a bunch of photos for reference and wanted to share them now, since my intentions to write articles and updates for the blog never really materialized nearly two and a half years later. So here they are:

http://gallery.sluggyjunx.com/railroad_and_industrial/georgetownbranch/gb_prototype_photos/Oct-21-2017-BORRHS-Archives-Visit

Some of the highlights include plans for the original freight house in Georgetown (ca 1910), track arrangement in the “old yard” ca 1940, some modern Rock Creek trestle drawings and the best finds of all, some dispatcher sheets showing train movements in 1959. Now, if only I could find some waybills and rosters! Enjoy!

April 2020: Winter/Spring Layout and Modeling Update, PART 2

Model RR, News, Uncategorized

OK FOLKS, here is Part deux of my update on what’s new in with my model RR progress, and more! Who else is finding lots of spare time to work on your layout and hobbies?

Being socially distant in the layout room.

C&O Canal Bridges

I scaled and printed some blueprints of the three bridges across the C&O Canal on the Georgetown Branch. These were printed and had been laying around for the last couple years. I finally got some time and made mock ups using foam core and 3M spray adhesive. The goal is to get as prototypically accurate as possible when recreating the bridges, but I know some selective compression will be necessary, as I simply do not have the space. I have already done a virtual mock-up, and in the near future I hope to do a physical one.

Scale mockups of the 3 C&O Canal bridges.

Bethesda Update

A lot going on in this area of the layout as I completed the backdrop, painted it and removed tracks to do mock-ups.

This was the state of the Bethesda area prior to the latest work.
I cut a piece of Masonite to fit the gap. I mounted the short pieces of lath wood to the wall to match the other panel, which sits about 1/4″ proud due to the shelf brackets.
New sheet installed, spackling done.
Overall view.
Covered the remaining two tracks with painters tape (the only ones left that were spiked down, and funny enough, would be ripped out later that day.) and painted the wall with ceiling flat and wall flat paint. (using what I had laying around.) In the future I will paint the sky color and clouds on.
As you will recall, I built four custom curved turnouts to facilitate the East end of Bethesda. I had never finished these so I set about cutting the gaps and cleaning the turnouts of the oxidation with a wire brush. This was tricky and eventually I used a cut-off disk in a Dremel tool, as it worked a treat. Next, I will solder feeder wires for the frog and other rails.

The three turnouts are sized as follows from right to left: #8 40″ outside radius, 30″ inside radius, #8 50″/35″, #8 60″/40″, and #10 60″/46″.

Now that the backdrop is in, I can get back to mocking up the track arrangement. Overall I am pleased with how it’s looking but I will need to tweak a few things. Feedback is welcome.
East end of Bethesda. The bridge on the right is Wisconsin Ave. The Griffith Coal Co. trestle is in the center.
I think I am going to build a small bump-out for the Bethesda Freight station. I want this to be a centerpiece of the scene and without the extension it will be stuffed in an awkward spot. I really want to give it a bit more space, so a small shelf will be in order here. There is plenty of space.
A higher perspective view of the three turnouts all lined up. The templates will be glued down allowing me to glue ties in place which I can then spike the turnouts to.

Modeling Update

I have also been busy with various modeling tasks. A couple years ago I bought a large lot of HO scale vehicles, mostly die cast, some resin. In retrospect, I think I bit off more than I can chew and what I purchased are models that are going to take a lot of work to get where I want them for the layout. I’ve been prototype research on the vehicles in the hopes I can do some better paint jobs than the previous owner did. Here is one example:

The paint is all wrong, details are a bit coarse. It could be better. I set out to make this happen.

After consulting with my model RR Club, the consensus is they are Wiseman Model Services (ex Walker Motor Works) International KB-11 trucks. These models were made back in the 70s, I believe, and have gone through various iterations over the years. They are made up of several parts, are really fragile and don’t have a ton of detail. I did some research and decided to try some Super Clean for stripping these metal frames. The results were fantastic. Not only did the cleaner strip the paint, it also dissolves the glue after a few days, which allows me to get the models back into their parts form for reassembly and detailing.

For reassembly, I’ve been using the ZAP PT-36 Z-Poxy Quick-Shot 5-Minute Epoxy. This stuff is fantastic, old-school epoxy. Squirt out a bit from both tubes, mix and apply. The VERY nice thing, for this application, is that being 5-min epoxy means that it’s just enough and it gets just tacky enough to allow for me to put the truck cab parts together and rearrange them carefully as I go, until I’m satisfied, at which point it hardens. Once set, it’s rock-hard. I find that with CA, you kind of set it and forget it, with little room for adjustment as you fit things together. I ordered some BSI Insta-Set to help with getting the CA to cure quicker where I need it to.

Workstation.
Here is one of the chassis being reassembled. Here I’m mounting the rear axle/wheels and driveshaft. FIDDLY BITS.
Parts bins. You can see just how many pieces are in each kit.
That truck does not go with this bed, but both are in process of reassembly. The shorter bed truck will hold a small tank. The wooden bed was originally painted brown. I primed it with the intention of painting it. But, when I drew a file across it, the weathering effect was fantastic! I decided to use coarse sandpaper and a file to scrape and scratch the paint away. A bit of dust and grime will finish it. I think I will use it as a barrel-hauling rig for the Waring Barrel House in Georgetown!
This is a long flatbed trailer. I sanded it down and repaired the side rails by replacing the styrene strips. I am masking it so I can paint the metal and then weather the nice wood deck. Unfortunately the model is missing its axles so I will need to figure out a replacement.

Airbrush Tune-Up – About a year ago I did an overhaul on my old Badger airbrush. I took it apart and checked all of the parts. Cleaned everything carefully and reassembled it. I decided to add a regulator to the compressor. I noticed a bit of a clunk when operating the compressor under load, so I took it apart. Inspected all of the gaskets and parts and found no issues. I reassembled it and adjusted the bleed valve. A friend from my model RR club, Greg (who you have seen here before) gave me his old air tank which I will press into service soon. I need to figure out what piping/tubing I will need. I have also been upgrading my paint supply with some proper thinners, new paint and other goodies.

Testors 1:72 Stuka Model Wrap-Up – Another interest I have is military aircraft and armor modeling. I have many unfinished projects, but this one has been floating around my workbench for about 12 years. I decided it was time to wrap it up.

Masking complete, gloss coat on, now it’s time for decals.
But first, let’s airbrush that yellow stripe that you forgot to paint! The airbrush worked well, but I noticed the brush “dried up” rather quickly, that is to say the paint stopped spraying after a short while. This may be [VERY]old paint (Tamiya) or improper mixing/technique. Probably all three! HA
The 20-some year old decals did not play nice. I had to be very careful with them to not break them, and they were extremely cloudy. I picked up some Micro-SET and Micro-SOL recently and gave that a go. Not only did it get the decals to lay flat, but after a few applications of the SOL solution, the cloudiness disappeared. REALLY amazing results.
Sealed with dullcote and a tiny bit of chipping. I am waiting for some panel wash to arrive and I will then do some light weathering and finish this out!
You can see just how well the decals laid flat. Really pleased. Also, the flat coat did a great job as well. I used Tamiya flat clear out of a rattle can.
Next up! Dad got me an incredible birthday gift last month. WOAH. I just got paint delivered today. This is going to be a project with my son and I and I really can’t wait!

Hope you enjoyed these updates. I know it’s just a lot of rambling, but it feels great to make some progress on all these things. There are so many other items I’ve checked off lately, and really the layout room is coming back alive after being dormant for about a year. I am reinvigorated to get moving and hope to have more updates later this month. Anyone else out there getting stuff done these days? Sound off in the comments.