Pacodutaco
Member
It looks good to me.
N&W Abingdon Branch
- Thread starter 2002p51
- Start date
2002p51
Well-Known Member
Thanks. It didn't take as long as you might think. Maybe 3 or 4 hours spread out over a week's time. I found a way I can cover 5-8 square inches at a time. I pull some Poly fiber out into a thin flat piece about 1 or 2 inches wide and maybe 3 inches long and slightly irregular shaped. Then I shoot one side with spray adhesive and drop it, glue side down, into a tray of ground foam. Shake off the excess and glue it down on the hill. Bingo, I just covered 6 square inches in one move! Then I add some random taller weeds and bushes and it's done.
Milwaukee Road 113
Milwaukee Road addict...
Love the old Abingdon Branch...
Nice work mate!
Nice work mate!
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
That is a nice shot!
2002p51
Well-Known Member
Love the old Abingdon Branch...
Nice work mate!
This is one of my favorite photos of the branch. It's a scene that will duplicated on my layout.
I can't get the same exact angle on my camera but I think you get the idea.
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Milwaukee Road 113
Milwaukee Road addict...
Awesome! 
Keep us posted mate!
Keep us posted mate!
logandsawman
Well-Known Member
Smart way to do a prototype!! Thanks for posting!
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
I've got several O Winston Link's photos that I wanted to duplicate, but finally I talked myself out of modeling the N&W.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
I finally had to choose between the 20 or so things I wanted to model. When I finally sat down and prioritized and considered things N&W & the Abingdon Branch came in about 10th. Fortunately I had not accumulated a lot of equipment toward that end.blow the dust off and model on, I'm about ready for a break myself.
2002p51
Well-Known Member
And I don't blame you for that. I have come to the realization that this model railroad doesn't really meet some of the things I've always wanted and so plans are being finalized to dismantle it and begin again in a different direction.
In it's final configuration, I have been operating this layout for about a year and it has become rather mundane. The main feature, the Abingdon Branch with it's only one train a day in each direction doesn't provide enough operational interest. Today's run is pretty much the same as yesterday's and so on.
Plus, like most I suspect, there are things about this layout which I wish I had done better and would like to improve on and some other things that have become nagging problems that limit operation. I intentionally used a too small minimum radius to increase the length of tangent track and that has become a problem. The next layout will have broader curves.
Finally, while the N&W in this part of the country is truly an interesting railroad with a fascinating history, my real interest as always been the Southern Pacific and it's Coast Line that ran from Los Angeles to San Francisco. And so that's what the new layout will represent. Long strings of PFE reefers, the heavy produce traffic in Watsonville and Salinas, the "Overnight" merchandise trains, the Coast Daylight passenger trains will all be represented. (I hope) Obviously severely compressed but building it should be an interesting challenge.
I plan to salvage as much of the track and turnouts from this layout as possible and many of the structures will be saved as well. I've already begun re-painting and decaling some of the rolling stock and I'm heavily digging into the research phase, which I also enjoy almost as much as the actual building.
So thank you to everyone who made positive comments on this thread and enjoyed seeing my progress on the "Abingdon Branch". I can't promise you any specific time when you'll start to see photos of the new layout but I will definitely start a new thread for whenever construction begins.
See you then.
You could turn back the clock to when it was more profitable. One of the reasons I went to modeling 1925 was that the trolley system was still profitable and I only have to stretch the existence of a connecting railroad by 5 years. My 24" radius curves are large compared to the rolling stock I run on them. I might have even used tighter curves to better fit my space.
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LOL! I modeled N&W between 1925 and 1940 for about the same reasons. I like the Y5's best but the smaller power was really unique. The M 4-8-0's and the Z1 2-6-6-2's and the 2-8-0 W's and G's were very special. I have a fleet of the Powerhouse Y3's but my eyesight is starting to go and I found I HATE to do wiring of turnouts and fighting to get DCC into the smallest locos. So I'm selling everything. Luckily, none of the code 83 track/turnouts were soldered or painted.
Here is about as far as I got
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iScOZrQ5yU
Here is about as far as I got
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iScOZrQ5yU
2002p51
Well-Known Member
That would require using steam locomotives and the turns are way to tight for steam. That's one of the problems I mentioned that will be improved on the new layout.
Iron Horseman
Well-Known Member
Yup, that was the main killer for me too. Had I chosen the branch I would have had to unprototypically run more trains a day, or backdate to 1911 when there were 11 (I think) trains a day. Going to 1911 one looses all the really cool late day steamers that make the N&W so enticing to model.
I was also considering the Louisville and Wadley. It has the same issue, and even back dating it there were only 2 trains a day each direction. Its interesting operation would have been in Wadley where it interchanged with the Central of Georgia and the Wadley Southern, so almost a switching layout. Unfortunately in that case I did accumulate about 60 box cars in deep south road names, and a few locomotives that are now sort of lame ducks.
