What's new on the Old Line Corridor

Junk and vehicles add life to the big factory

Signal heads and right-o-way clutter

More signal heads, dumpster bodies and a port-a-potty

Piles of stuff 

More stuff

And even more stuff.

Michael Murray’s Classic Photo Take on Modern Electric Action

Amtrak ACS-64 639 leans into the superelevated curve at Newport as it overtakes a Norfolk Southern tank train near Wilmington, Delaware on November 11, 2019 in this excellent photo made by Michael Murray, who originally posted it to the Amtrak Northeast Corridor Railfans Facebook group. Michael’s dramatic photo is reminiscent of the Pennsy-era photography of that famous chronicler of electric railroading, William Middleton. When this image surfaced in my Facebook feed earlier this month, it inspired me to reach out to Michael, and now I look forward to seeing his photos on the regular. Photo used with kind permission of Michael Murray

New Takes on the Ol' Helix

The World's Lightest Helix on display at the recent train show in Timonium, Maryland. The subroadbed and vertical risers are laser cut from Gatorboard, making this helix very light and dimensionally svelte. The smoothly operating helix sports 11" radius curves and an approximately 2 percent grade, and is roughly the size of a laundry basket.

Track helices and multi-level layout plans have always seemed too complex for my typically minimalist approach to model railroading. I'd never seen one in real life until I visited fellow Rockville Model Railroad Society member Ben Sullivan's Georgetown Branch layout, and his helix confirmed what I had noticed in the magazine depictions helices: they typically require what is arguably among the most elaborate and dense possible benchwork of any layout feature. Model Railroader magazine's recent N scale Canadian Canyons project layout--which features a helix--required such complex benchwork that the project went over the magazine's production schedule. In short, a helix seemed like a daunting prospect, with a very specific payoff in terms of modeling satisfaction. As a result, I was cool to the idea of ever incorporating a helix into my own layout construction.
But helices have repeatedly worked their way into my model railroading ideation over the past few months. Most significantly, Ben pointed me to an innovation that addresses the complex and dense construction challenge of a helix: the use of digitally-cut Gator Board for helix construction. Ben passed me a link to this entertaining video demonstrating a compact HO helix built from Gator Board, which also links to the makers of this helix. Then I encountered both the HO and also an N scale version of the "World's Lightest Helix" featured in the video on display at the train show in Timonium, Maryland. The light, elegantly constructed, and reliably operating helices have caused me to reconsider how I might actually incorporate a helix into a future layout.

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MIBA Special 122 - "Pro-

jects with Flair" image 

courtesy MIBA/Verlag

Gruppe Bahn

Meanwhile, Trevor Marshall planted another helix idea in my head during a conversation on my growing interest in European narrow gauge, specifically the electrified Swiss narrow gauge Rhaetian Railroad, or the RhB. He mentioned that he had helped a friend plan a multilevel RhB layout, but that the multilevel concept was ultimately shelved due the complexity of helix construction. RhB operations, with short-ish trains and mountain goat-like locomotives, would have been particularly well-suited to small, steeply graded helices.

Further helix inspiration surfaced in a recent special edition of the German-language model railroad magazine MIBA. In an article that would be right at home in Kalmbach's long out-of-print Creative Layout Design by John Armstrong, MIBA detailed a layout concept featuring a scenicked vignette or stage flanked by two helices built into a Schrank, a large wall cabinet/book case console very common in German living rooms. The helices, and a yard below the vignette stage, would serve as staging tracks.

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Ilustration from MIBA showing the multilevel vignette/stage
concept image courtesy MIBA/Verlag Gruppe Bahn

A minimalist helix might be in my future as a I contemplate my post-retirement model model railroading. For example, perhaps the stage or vignette could be sized to fit T-Trak-compliant modules. The maker of the World's Lightest Helix is currently planning to offering the Gator Board product commercially, but perhaps modelers could produce their own custom-sized helix components with a Cricut or similar digital craft cutting machine. I look forward to seeing the product and design concept evolve in the years to come.

Old Line Corridor on Facebook

Facebook users, I've set up an Old Line Corridor Facebook page. I will be crossposting over there, and also sharing interesting and relevant Facebook-based content. Hope to see you over there!

Quick Snaps: Finishing Touches on Old Line Corridor Scenery

More trees, weeds, vegetation, signs, vehicles. Hard to believe I have finally reached this level of completion on the Old Line Corridor.

More trees and vegetation, plus signs and weeds. 

Looking down the road on the street side of the substation. Trees and weeds and a railroad

 A weedy, swampy area under an embankment, instead of just scrubby lawn

Under the expressway

Another view of the cattails and swampiness under the expressway

Heritage Units...WITH PANTOGRAPHS!

NJ Transit has jumped on the Heritage Unit bandwagon with Tuscan-and-Pinstripe ALP electrics. Intriguing meeting of old graphics and new lines. Go read about it at Railway Age.

611 Sighting at Strasburg

Norfolk & Western 611 on the nose. The J-class streamliner is doing a "residency", kind of like Celine Dion in Vegas, for the months of October and November. Rachel had railroad business at the Strasburg kickoff event and I tagged along. 

611 oriented the right direction, tiptoeing back into the Strasburg station. This extended visit to Strasburg is reportedly her first venture north of the Mason Dixon line.

The 'other' N&W locomotive that lives at Strasburg, 475, with a string of cars approaches the station/shops complex.

Whirlwind Work Travel + Trains + Interesting Light

CSX action in downtown Nashville at night, captured with my iPhone. I had been cursing the crack-o'-dawn flight that cut short an evening of Broadway honky-tonking, but this scene put a smile on my face. The iPhone excels in low-light scenes like this; I'm surprised at how well this image turned out. 

The destination of my zero dark thirty flight out of Nashville was the New York city area, where a meeting ended late in the afternoon. The Long Island Rail Road was my path back to Penn Station, but the off-peak inbound schedule is thin, occasioning a wait of over an hour for a train. During my wait at Westbury, a dozen or so LIRR trains swooshed past in the beautiful late afternoon light, including these MUs.

In the quickly fading light, a DE30AC screams past with bi-levels, headed to the island's non-electrified territory. Had never noticed that LIRR's DE30ACs and bi-level cars had a more-or-less matching profile, giving these trains a European look. With memories of my trip to the Netherlands still fresh, the look and feel of Long Island railroading is reminiscent of how they do things on the Continent.   

Renewed Man-Crafts Campaign

The Old Line Corridor needed another couple of dozen trees, so I made a few dozen Supertrees. (Some rules of model railroad trees: you will always need more trees than you think; your trees are probably too small) The weather has been particularly nice, so I worked outside. I also used matte medium to bind the foliage instead of 3M spray cement--much neater and more pleasant smelling, as the spray cement seems to get everywhere and is extremely difficult to cleanup and deodorize. The Aqua-Net super duper hold is a final coat to mitigate the inevitable "shedding," and imparts a vaguely hair salon-like whiff to the undertaking.

More N Scale Electrics: A Little Joe!

Click through to http://milwaukeeroadtrainshop.com/home to see an actual N scale Milwaukee Road Little Joe electric locomotive in action. Not sure if this guy is custom making these models, or what, but his model looks great. Reminds me of the persistent--and to my ear, dubious--rumor that Kato is/was contemplating an N scale Little Joe to go with its Hiawatha passenger set.

All Things Must End: Last Days of Black Mesa Electric Ops

Black Mesa & Lake Powell, the Four Corners robot coal carrier ceased operations late last month. Apparently, the railroad's sole "customer," Navajo Generating Station, is a notorious emitter of greenhouse gases, and has long been a target for closure. BM&LP was essentially a sort of large-scale conveyor belt between the Navajo Generating Station and a large mine 80 or so miles away. Thanks to YouTube user SouthShoreTrain for the video, which he shot--impressively--with a smart phone and a drone.

BM&LP's closure draws to an end the last electric freight operations that resemble--after a fashion-- what big Class I electric mainline freight ops would look like, if we had that sort of thing here in North America. Indeed, when the BM&LP opened in the mid-70s, around the time soaring diesel fuel prices prompted UP, Conrail, and others to contemplate mainline electrification, it and other single-purpose electrified coal haulers in the Southwest and Ohio were seen as glimpses into a electric railroad future that ultimately never came to pass.

The first HO electric loco model I ever owned was a BM&LP E60CF by American GK, and an early post to this blog featured some of my own photography of the BM&LP from 2005. Sad to see one of my great electrified railroad inspirations reach its end within my lifetime.

N Scale Electric Scratchbashing in Railroad Model Craftsman

High-fidelity N scale electric modeling made a rather auspicious appearance in the August 2019 edition of Railroad Model Craftsman. The monthly RMC/Dremel Kitbashing Award went to Bryan Busséy's excellent New Haven EP-3 model. The model is exemplary: it is a zero-compromise representation of this steam-era electric box cab, notably reproducing the gnarly, steampunk-ish running gear and end porches. Bryan also posted this video of his EP-3 in motion:

Although Bryan's kitbash is based on Kato's excellent GG-1, which shares its 2-C+C-2 wheel arrangement with the EP-3, it is not as simple as fitting a new shell to the Kato drive. Bryan used 3D printing and photoetching to not only build a new shell, but also a new split frame, truck sideframes, and end porches.  I look forward to seeing more of Bryan's work in the future.

Old Line Corridor Progress and New Photo Lighting

With trackwork and catenary in a relative state of completion, it was finally time to add trees and vegetation to the corner southwest corner hill of the Old Line Corridor in the upper lefthand corner of this photo. The 'canyon of trees' effect is similar to the Stemmer's Run or Odenton areas of the Northeast Corridor in Maryland. I used a new photo lighting set and backdrop for this photo; this photo was a kind of test shot taken with my smart phone. Will try some similar photos with my 'serious' cameras in the near future. 

Over in the northwest corner of the OLC, structures and associated parking areas are finally installed. Not particularly loving the big factory building; may be replacing it with something better but not sure what that might be. Final scenery details--shrubbage, weeds, road signs, etc.--are next up. Will need to whip up a few dozen new Super Trees to fill in these edges and marginal areas. Note also the backdrop and lighting.

Another view of the new structures and parking areas. Lots of opportunities for weeds, shrubs, and other scenery details, as well as man-made detailing to add life and character.

Especially enjoyed building and finishing the tractor supply in the rear and the grungy fence in the foreground. That hillside behind the buildings will be covered with vegetation and shrubbage.

Recent ESU ECoS Mugshots

I think we can all see where this is going . . .

Netherlands: the whole country is a hot spot!

That most iconic of Dutch trains, a Koploper, slowing for the station in the mid-sized city of Amersfoort, Netherlands. Rachel and I visited the Netherlands in early June for a rail safety conference. Steps away from our hotel in Amersfoort, 15 or 20 minutes of trackside loitering yielded eight or so trains in glorious late afternoon light. We rode a train very similar to this directly from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to Amersfoort.

A Bombardier TRAXX locomotive in the colors of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, the national railway of the Netherlands) pushing a passenger train out of Rotterdam station. I liked the NS TRAXX so much, I bought Arnold's N scale digital version as souvenir, along with a suitcase full of Gouda cheese.

A tram in Rotterdam, just outside the train station. Rotterdam boasts beautiful green spaces, modern architecture, and like the rest of the Netherlands, bicycle paths and lanes everywhere. Tram right-of-way in Rotterdam looks like lawns with rails and overhead wire.

A westbound Koploper enters the Amersfoort station. Nary a hassle or second look from security personnel or passengers while photographing Dutch trains. 

In the Amsterdam Centraal station, a Thalys high speed train bound for points south in Belgium and France. By the way, I didn't go out of my way for any of these photos--Rachel and saw trains, trains, and more trains just minding our business as tourists.

Across the station, a Germany-bound ICE train, jointly operated by the DB (Deutsche Bahn, German railways) and NS. Both the Thalys and ICE arrive on special tracks equipped with high-voltage AC catenary. The NS system runs on 1500 VDC--like the South Shore!--and as a result, it's unusual to see electric locomotives from other AC-equipped European railways on Dutch rails.

A Valleylijn Stadler car departing Amersfoort. Valleylijn is a private railroad operating branchline passenger service in central Netherlands--a kind of latter day interurban. Had we a few more days in the Netherlands, we would have ridden the Valleylijn to Arnhem and Nijmegen to see the sites of the WWII Operation Market Garden, the allies's ill-fated push across the Rhine in September 1944, immortalized in Cornelius Ryan's book A Bridge Too Far and David Attenborough's epic film of the same name.

A Belgian TRAXX drags a grungy freight through Amersfoort. Note the four pantographs; this a dual-mode AC/DC locomotive. One of maybe three freights I saw during a week or so of intensive train riding and observation.

The purpose of the trip was an international rail safety conference, and NS staged a tour of notable grade crossings around the Amersfoort area. This particular grade crossing is a rat's nest of safety challenges: it cut through an active station, is adjacent to a school and an al fresco restaurant, and the roadway has motor vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian lanes. NS is using some sophisticated sensoring and AI-enabled video to appropriately monitor and signal this crossing. But that wasn't what interested me most--I was intrigued by those cement arch catenary towers, which appeared to be unique to this line. Our NS host explained that this line was built in the middle of WWII when steel was in short supply, so these concrete arch bridges were used. They are currently considered 'heritage' architecture, which means that when one of them was damaged in a recent traffic incident, NS had to replace it with a custom made structure using WWII era techniques and materials.

The older iconic NS electric MU, the Hondekop, or 'Dog Face', on the museum track at Amersfoort. The banner on the side is leftover from a fan trip sponsored by Pijp-Lines, a major Dutch hobby shop. I bought Piko's N scale edition as a souvenir.  

The Hondekop is such an icon of Netherlands' beloved railroads, that this cartoon 'Dogface' is a stand-in for NS workers. This statue adorns the entrance of the NS training facility in Amersfoort, where Rachel' rail safety conference was held.

Trains I See, Delmarva Edition

We're spending more time out on the Delaware shore, and our drive out is crisscrossed by a number of short lines. Here are two Delmarva Central MP15ACs idling under an elevator at Seaford, Delware.

Judging by the number boards and offset headlights, these are ex-SP units. The air conditioning units on the cab rooves add more gnarly visual interest to these handsomely liveried MP15ACs.