L&N Historical Society Annual Convention - Chattanooga, TN

I attended the convention (my first L&N) Sept 24th - 27th held at the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo Holiday Inn. The convention registration didn't start until 3pm so they had arranged for an open house at a modeler that models the "Hook & Eye" in 1/48" scale. The layout room is over a 2 car garage and features some very nice work, especially the structures (trestles & buildings). It's hard to photograph & show the entire layout.



Here's an example of the fine work on structures, including weathering.


You can't find this trestle in a kit - nicely scratch built.

The evening was filled with talks about different aspects of the L&N and was very interesting; however, I was looking forward to the trains rides on Friday and Saturday. The rains flooded some of the trackage, so some changes had to be made.

Friday's ride was on the famous "Hook & Eye" - just the hook part. It was supposed to leave from the hotel, but we had a little bus ride of about an hour - nice time to get to know some of the people at the convention. We had a couple of photo run-by opportunities and where's a shot of the train crossing the trestle.



Later on in the "hook" portion here's the trestle you first cross over, then under - a very neat experience!

Speaking of neat, I had been chatting with the gentlemen across the way from me when I recognized his voice - Allen Keller of video fame! I couldn't resist showing him a couple of pix of the Richlawn Railroad and he gave me his card and asked me to send him a CD with more pictures. We both agreed that my RR is too small at present to be considered for his productions, but maybe in the future??? Allen is a very nice "regular" guy and very interesting to talk to about railroading.





Here's another photo "run-by". Can you believe the Alco smokes? (ha,ha)

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Day two (Saturday) was a steam day. The train backed right up to the hotel and off we went, only to be delayed about 40 minutes in a switch yard. No problem, it gave me time to have an early lunch and I sat with 3 guys that grew up in Louisville not far from where I lived.



I'm a Diesel guy, but I've got to say that steam is a heck of alot more interesting to look at and to listen to! It rained pretty much the entire trip, so we didn't get any photo run-bys. I was out in the rain with my umbrella to get my shots.


We arrived at Grand Junction and only had a short (40 minutes) layover as the train was late picking us up and we lost time waiting in the yard. I did have time to get a few shots and to see some of the station.


I noticed when our train was backing into the hotel that smoke was coming out of the center of one of the "coach" cars - stupid me! It was a Power Car and was actually pulling the steam engine backwards. You can see the hump on the top of the center of the car.


Here's a closeup look at the controls to operate this thing - notice on the speedometer that we're doing a blazing 10 MPH at the time I took the picture as we were almost at the junction


This was my favorite part of the trip on Saturday - a visit to the TVR Soule Shops. There was all kinds of neat stuff there!

Power, anyone? I wonder if I could stuff that in my new Kia Rio?



There was lots of stuff outside waiting for some TLC. I love these big classy units?
I don't know what this is - kinda looks like something they'd make in Canada (Bob?)

Inside the shop they were working on a steam and an E unit. It's just two guys that work on their weekends and vacations - thank God for people like them!

It looks like this old E could have been the Southern Crescent?

While we were they we got to see the steam engine take a spin on the turntable! By the way, they did a 360 degree turn just for us - no need to actually turn the unit here.

Saturday night was a delicious banquet dinner followed by an L&N employee that had been with them for over 50 years - a very interesting speaker! The night was closed by watching old films of Southern and L&N trains.

I had a great time and plan on attending (God willing) next year when it's in the Frankfort, Ky area.

2 Blu 4 U? Click on pictures for a larger view

Yes, I know it's BLUE....but I wanted a lake like you see in postcards or in dreams...and since it's our railroad, that's what we did! Obviously, it's still under construction as the waterfall has to be added at the edge of the stream and ripples added with the strongest at the point where the waterfall over the dam enters the lake. Oh, and the seams you see in the grass mats on the hills will disappear once I get all mats on and blended together. The lower edge / shoreline will have to be landscaped and loose material added at the seam of the shoreline and lake surface. This loose material will have to be replaced anytime the hatch is removed & put back in place (which I hope won't be often).

The construction of the lake was as follows: 1.) Cover entire top of Masonite with two coats of latex flat paint; 2.) Using an airbrush paint the center area a dark navy blue color created by mixing black with navy blue; 3.) Moving outwards from the center, paint with a translucent blue paint mixed with the dark navy paint; 4.) Continuing outward, vary the mix of translucent blue to dark navy by adding more translucent with each outward sweep; 5.) Let paint dry 24 hours & glue on rocks & sticks using white glue; 6.) Use modeling clay to create a "dam" 1/2" high around the outside of the piece to contain the EnviroTex Lite(tm) high gloss finish; 7.) Level the piece so the coating will be equal depth; 8.) Carefully figure how much EnviroTex Lite(tm) will be required; 9.) Mix according to manufacturer's instructions & pour; 10.) FIND OUT IT WASN'T ENOUGH! - quickly mix & pour another batch; 11.) FIND OUT IT STILL WASN'T ENOUGH...AHHH!! - quickly mix & pour another batch; 12.) Use a propane torch to take out the bubbles (carefully!); and 13.) Let dry (4) days even though manufacturer says 72 hours.

Here we have some swimmers in the water and I'll add some people up on the land to their right. Stay tuned to more pictures as this progresses. My goal is to have this area ready by November 1st for the Piedmont Tour.

New Loco & 1st time consist - Click on picture for a larger view

Loco #914 is a new addition to the railroad that I just purchased from ebay(tm). It's an Atlas RS36 that has a Digitrax decoder and separate MRC sound decoder, all for $89! I already had #911 RS36 that I equipped with a Digitrax decoder. For you old hands it's no big deal, but this was the first time I consisted locos on my layout. The good news is that #911 ran faster than #914 (lead loco), so it was a matter of playing with the CV programming on #911 to slow it down & match the speed and acceleration of #914. It took me about 30 minutes to get it right and I really like the way it looks / runs. I plan on consisting the balance of my locos as it is also more realistic.

Bricked windows details - click on pictures for a larger view

The wife & I were in Copperhill, TN the other day on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway (we work as volunteer car hosts) when I noticed some interesting details about bricked windows. Most often the windows are bricked sometime later from the original construction and with different bricks that vary in color from the originals. The is plainly shown on the picture below.

Something new I noticed was that in some cases besides the colors not matching, the mortar lines also don't match. Notice the mis-match below - the pattern matches at the top but gets

farther off as you look down the window. Not all bricked windows will probably have this mis-match, but a nice detail to model.

The next time I model bricked windows I definitely will make sure the bricked in area is a different color, and perhaps "off" a little on the mortar lines. Thanks to Scott P. for his suggestion to post this to the blog.

News Flash! New motive power added to Richlawn Railroad!

The Mrs. & I were sitting around Saturday with not much to do, so we thought we'd go to a scrapbooking store in Kennesaw,GA she had visited and liked before. Knowing that there's a model train store there that I never visited I was quick to say "yes!". It just so happens that my Google(TM) map put us right at the door of that RR store, and they were having a 50% off sale on EVERYTHING in the store. What should be on display front and center - none other than an Atlas Gold (DCC & Sound!) MP-15DC loco in L&N! Now, I wasn't planning on getting another loco (who is?) BUT when you can get it for around $122 bucks what are you going to do? I didn't have any switcher locos with sound, so the Matthews Freight yard will never sound (or look) better. I've got to add the details to the loco, but I couldn't wait to try it out and it runs / sounds sweet!

Click on picture for a larger view.

Lake hatch work - click on pictures for a larger view

Here I'm working on the lake that will also serve as an access hatch. I used 1/2" plywood and attached it to the existing 1/2" plywood trestle base. I leveled the trim ring and mounted it using risers screwed & glued to the ring and screwed to the bench work.


Two pieces of 1/2" foamboard were glued together with the layers offset so that a lip hangs down even with the bottom of the 1/2" plywood. I contoured the foam using a rasp and sanding block - it's attached to the plywood with foam-safe caulking. The foam ring will serve two purposes: 1.) It will serve as a mounting point to glue the cardboard webbing, and 2.) It will "seal" against the lake surface. I'm using 1/8" hardboard for the lake which will be painted both sides. The hardboard will have plywood bracing underneath to make it strong. The top will be painted "lake color" and be covered with Enviro-Tech Lite(TM).

I've started the cardboard webbing work here and will continue it as far as I can. I say that as I can't complete it until the trestle is permanently affixed, and that can't happen until I rework the trestle (see previous post).

Haven't updated the Blog for awhile, so I just added this picture to show the overall progress with the trestle & mountains in the background. Click on picture for a larger view.

Trestle rework

I was looking closely at the picture of my trestle in my previous post and it became painfully obvious that the shortcuts I took on the cross bracing ruin the look. Instead of individual bracing between each bent, I spanned multiple bents resulting in intersections not landing on a bent. I will remove the cross bracing and rework it to make a better looking and more accurate model.

Sometimes the pictures can be a mixed blessing!

View of trestle & falls as it will appear

So this picture is "mocked up" with my image editing software to add the landscape for areas now bare. Why does it seem to take soooo long to get this stuff done? The waterfall will flow into a lake that will serve also as a removable access hatch. I need some way to change those light bulbs in the mountain area!

**** Click on picture for a larger view ****

Falls Area Landscaping Near Completion

The grass mats have been added to the right of the falls, along with a good coat of cheap hair spray and more landscape material. The area immediately to the right of the falls by the lower rock area is currently darker. I believe that is due to the hair spray being wet. If it is still darker when it dries I'll add more green color to correct the colors.

* Click on picture for a larger view *

To finish this area out I'll add some small trees / bushes and some fallen timber.