The Georgetown Branch

Wow! Great shot of the Georgetown local in May 1982 taken during the day. (The local was normally nocturnal so photos are rare) This pic shows B&O GP30 6960 with a Chessie caboose in tow passing under the Aqueduct Bridge remains. The really neat thing about the photo is the small red warning light mounted in the coupler on the head end.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=318379

A really nice article about the Georgetown Junction, focusing on the history of  the fatal February 1996 wreck involving Amtrak & MARC trains. Some really nice photos including some showing the remaining tracks on the Branch!

http://fullertography.blogspot.com/2010/03/return-to-georgetown-junction-march-19.html

One of the other GB nuts, Kelly, has been doing some track planning of his own after having to clear out his old Georgetown Branch layout. (RIP) The plans for the new one are under development and look great as of their first iteration! You can see all his progress on his blog, here:

http://georgetownbranch.blogspot.com/2010/03/georgetown-branch-2010.html

The recent addition of the Bethesda got me thinking that having some aerial views would be nice. Well, luckily there are some online resources for this. Here’s a link to Microsoft Terraserver showing an aerial photo ca. 1988. I know that much of the RR was wiped out by then, but it’s a start to gain some perspective on the city since online resources are so scarse.

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=18&X=1592&Y=21583&W=3&qs=|bethesda|md|

A really great story about an AAR worker who had the chance to ride the GB from Eckington to Georgetown and back.” It remains the only time I took a train to a fast food restaurant.” Love it!

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=64270

I finally got around to starting roughing in the electrical system. It’s great work, and nice to finally have it going. Spent a lot of time on Sat-Sun sketching and scheming and consulting with Dad about it, and finally got underway. I made good progress. Read about it in the Gallery.On another note, my layout planning is going well. I have decided (at this time) to go back to a 2-level layout. I have room for a helix and I really can’t seem to fit all that I want to fit in only 1 level. So, I’m going for it. Layout plans should be posted soon.

Two weeks ago I spent a couple hours tearing out the remainder of the wallboards in the layout room. Now the walls are all ready to be scraped & sealed. After that I can proceed w/ the electrical installation. I was on vacation last week and spent an entire day poring over the Georgetown Branch track charts, sketching track configurations, and plugging the ideas into Cadrail. I’ve decided to go with a 1 level layout as opposed to 2 for simplicity’s sake. I will post a new trackplan soon. I also updated the EQUIPMENT & HISTORY pages. Check them out!