1943 model train layout

[HankII]

Why is it called Carsiding?

Car siding is wood paneling scored with a V-shaped groove. Its original use dates to the heyday of the railroads in the mid-19th century, when this treatment was used to line the insides of boxcars, particularly those that hauled produce.

[Lee Bishop]

Last night, I finally mounted original pieces of ET&WNC caboose 505 and boxcar 434 into a shadow box frame. I attached them to the back board with short wood screws screwed in from behind. I then printed out photos of each car onto cardstock and glued them in place with rubber cement. I took down some stuff that was hanging above my chalkboard and placed the finished frame there. You'd see them upon walking down the hall headed into the room.

I still have that 19” long piece of the 434, so I think I’m going to run a wire behind that to hang on the wall over the original spike I also have framed.

[Lee Bishop]

Been taking more photos this weekend, and most of you know how I like recreating period photos…
Train time at the ET&WNC's grade crossing for Stoney Creek Road at Sadie, Tennessee on a sweltering August in 1943 as number 12 brings in a coal train:

[Lee Bishop]

Just finished this yesterday, a water tank made from a Bachmann On30 2-6-0 tender shell and a water plug set with some other detail parts.





The nozzle for the locomotives on the far side, facing away from the people looking at the layout.

[chibobber]

Lee,
Your detail pieces and weathering are excellent. As they say, "It's in the details."
Hope all is well,
Bob

[Lee Bishop]

Thanks, Bob!

A couple days ago, 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:

[Lee Bishop]

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

https://youtu.be/jJDCkd0Sc3M

[Lee Bishop]

Everything has a history.  Take this water tower for example:

The Stoney Creek Southern, the company which owned this line before the Tweetsie bought it out, had a few aging 4-4-0s. When the ET&WNC brought in their ten-wheelers, out came the torches. 
Here we are, in the late summer of 1943. 
When the men of the 796th Railway Operating Battalion (a fictional unit, I wrote the history of that, too), they found number 3 sitting rusting away, where it'd last been used as a backup. The soldier/railroaders hoped to get it running again but found the flues and cylinders in terrible shape, along with a collapsed dry pipe. Once word came that three former WW1 'trench' engines would be regauged at the shops in Johnson City, out came the torches.
There's a low gondola filled with the rods, a few drivers and other parts. There are some wheels and axles still sitting in the weeds from #s 2 and 3, waiting to be lifted onto a car once a crane shows ups. In this timeframe, there are very few metal items rusting away, as everything has gone off to wartime scrap drives. There are even rumors that the civil war cannon barrel at the war memorial nearby will be melted down for shell casings.
The tender for #3 was in halfway decent shape and the soldiers needed a water tank.  They badly wanted the water car hauled on a platform, but the ET&WNC still had use for it. So, some metal patches were riveted in place along with a metal plate to cover the top. 
They had no paint and little time, so they used the remains of a water column and quickly erected a platform from materials left over from a bridge they had just completed near Carter, TN. It worked just fine for Army # 5069.
The only other remains of the SCS's 4-4-0s is the former tender from #2, which was turned into a water tank in 1936, after the locomotive was involved in a nasty grade-crossing accident near Speedwell. It was one of the last pieces of equipment that was lettered for the SCS.