1943 model train layout

Question and opinion regarding modeling
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Lee Bishop
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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Mon Jan 25, 2021 10:13 am

I added this to the wall over the weekend:

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It's an aluminum casting made by the Age of Steam Roundhouse museum off their original. I drilled attachment holes and painted it to match how it'd look in service in WW2. It's hanging on the wall of the train room. I used clevis pins attached to picture wire from behind to hand it on the wall.

THEN, I put my GoPro camera down inside the Grindstaff store with the roof on and took shots with the app on my cell. They're not the best shots as the camera wasn't made for this kind of thing, but once I ran them through some filters, they have a feel like "someone with a Speed Graphic" took them in the summer of 1943. It was neat to see it from the perspective of a O scale person:

Image

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Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:


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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by GPW1263 » Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:41 am

Lee, I'm curious. Do you consider yourself to be more of a diorama guy or more of a scale train guy?

Clearly, the lion's share of your work is to the matter of creating the background for your train set.

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Lee Bishop
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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Mon Jan 25, 2021 12:19 pm

GPW1263 wrote:
Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:41 am
Lee, I'm curious. Do you consider yourself to be more of a diorama guy or more of a scale train guy?
Scale train guy, no question.
Think of it this way, I assume you have a GPW, so when people see it, would one ask if you're a gearhead, history buff or like to focus on the driving and operation? We all know people in the MV hobby who are one of those things and not the others.
I'm a WW2 Jeep guy, but for many reasons. I'm a living history enthusiast, former Army officer, history buff and I also just love old vehicles. There's not just the one thing, there.
Same thing with my layout. I'm an artist, history buff, train fan, and a bunch of other things. I certainly wouldn't consider myself a 'diorama guy' though, as I have never been really interested in dioramas. A model railroad is a scale representation of stuff in motion (which is why all my figures and wheeled vehicles are never modelled in any dynamic poses), and for me, it was always about building as good a representation of the dream concept I have had since I was a kid, of a specific narrow gauge railroad running where it never did, near where my parents were born and raised.
It's a 1/48 scale representation of what I dearly wish could have happened (and that I could have visited); a place I used to dream of as a kid all the time.
GPW1263 wrote:
Mon Jan 25, 2021 11:41 am
Clearly, the lion's share of your work is to the matter of creating the background for your train set.
I mostly include that stuff as it's the primary thing that has any application here on a WW2 Jeep thread. The layout takes place during the war, so I assumed that most people could at least appreciate the details I put in for the 40s.
If I went on and on about the electrical work, the bench work, the digital controlling of the individual locomotives, my real-wood ET&WNC hopper cars, or the detail work I did on my Baldwin ten-wheelers and the box car I recently scratch built, I think many people on this forum would say, "Meh," and I wouldn't blame them for that.
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by GPW1263 » Mon Jan 25, 2021 6:57 pm

Well, as you already know, a lot of us a very impressed with your passion for the details.

Cheers,
GPW1263

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Thu Jan 28, 2021 10:49 am

GPW1263 wrote:
Mon Jan 25, 2021 6:57 pm
Well, as you already know, a lot of us a very impressed with your passion for the details.
I really appreciate that, thanks.
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Thu Jan 28, 2021 1:37 pm

Looking down Stoney Creek Road on a sweltering summer's day in 1943 while waiting for the next ET&WNC train:

Image
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Wed Feb 03, 2021 9:49 am

FYI, a photo of my layout is in the Trackside Photos section of the March 2021 Model Railroader.
I goofed when I added the caption with my cell, it auto corrected my first name to "Ashley" instead of Lee, but otherwise it's all there.
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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Thu Feb 04, 2021 8:13 am

Yesterday, I realized I had the right kinds of pilots for my ten-wheelers they carried in the 30s and 40s, in the spare parts package. I hadn't known that before and was pondering scratch building the right kind of wood pilot they carried in the war and pre-war years. Clearly, I was happy I didn't have to do that, and also angry I didn't know that earlier. An hour of paint and weathering, and now ET&WNC 9, 11 and 12 all have the right pilots!
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Here, you can see what they'd carried up to yesterday, boilertube pilots that were correct for the final days of the narrow gauge era on the RR:
Image
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Mon Feb 08, 2021 10:38 am

My layout is now on Trainmasters TV, if you know anyone who's a paying member:
https://trainmasters.tv/programs/mylayo ... goryId=228
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Wed Feb 24, 2021 2:29 pm

My presentation to a NMRA affiliated group on Friday, was edited down to this in case you might be interested:
https://youtu.be/AztpmExwYrE
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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:09 am

I finished a 3D print of a ET&WNC hopper car, which is coupled to a wood kit of the same type of car. These are great looking cars and I'm looking forward to ordering and completing two more of them:
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Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:15 am

Over the weekend, I decided to do something about hopper car 44 which had issues on one turnout, it’d often ‘split the switch’. I thought it was the turnout itself (and dreading the very idea as of course it's the least accessible) but then it occurred to me that one of the axles might be out of gauge. I swapped the wheel sets on one truck and sure enough, that seems to have done it.
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Here I am pushing it back and forth, coupled to 36 (the new 3D print from Western Rails) which sailed through with no problems.
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by chibobber » Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:34 pm

Lee,
Always good to see your attention to detail.
Bob

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Fri Apr 23, 2021 7:34 am

Last night I finished what I think will be the last new hopper cars for the layout. These are 3D prints made by Western Rails.
I found that the plastic molded 'coal' loads for Bachmann gondolas will drop right into these cars if you break off the spacer tabs from underneath and cut notches into the underside of each end. I then covered them with real scale-sized coal.

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I already had five of these types of cars from laser kits from On30IMA, and now I have eight of these cars which were very common on the ET&WNC.
These are numbered 36, 43 and 1. All are numbers of hopers that were running on the line to the end of operations in 1950.
36, because that's the birth year for both of my parents. 43 because it's always 1943 on my layout, and 1 because you hardly ever see any freight cars with that number, so I had to have it.
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:

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Re: 1943 model train layout

Post by Lee Bishop » Thu Jun 17, 2021 2:45 pm

My article in the On30 Annual from White River Publications just came out, will be in better hobby shops everywhere soon!
A big surprise came in the mail yesterday, an ET&WNC spike recovered from work on the right of way just before you get to the first tunnel and covered Deck Bridge while heading toward Hampton from Elizabethton, just shy of milepost 13 on the old 3-foot gauge line. The man who sent it to me is with the crew clearing the old railroad right of way to extend the hiking trail from Elizabethton (I assume with new bridges eventually). That line never had standard gauge tracks on it, so now I know for sure I have a 3-foot gauge spike from the ET&WNC!
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I had bought a couple of badly-worn spikes a few years ago from when they ripped out the tracks downtown Elizabethton, and I was surprised to see those matched the one I just got. Clearly they came from the same batch. While I assumed the other two (which I had cleaned up and painted) were from the steam era due to how badly pitted they were, I know for sure this one is as it came from a spot that was nowhere near the dual gauge and was ripped up in 1951.
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Front to back:
1. Spike recovered from the Doe River Gorge from the 'Hillbilly World' tourist operation
2. ET&WNC spike recovered from the right of way between Valley Forge and tunnel one heading toward Hampton
3. ET&WNC spike from downtown Elizabethton
4. Modern sample spike, chromed
This shows the two ET&WNC spikes I painted with my latest narrow gauge one:
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As I had no way to know if the first two were around the narrow gauge era (as they came from the standard gauge tracks in Elizabethton when they were ripped up in the early 2000s), preservation wasn't that big a deal to me. But this known narrow gauge spike, there's no way I'll paint it.
I'm looking for something to mount it to so I can hang it on the wall in my ET&WNC layout room.
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former US Army Captain and REMF :mrgreen:


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