AAAARGH! Just when you thought you had it all...

[wm3798]

So I climb into bed and click on a video... Vignettes of the Western Maryland.  I commented to the wife that I was in grade school when most of this was shot, and I enjoyed watching grainy footage of my favorite Lost Lenore.

Earlier, I had been digesting Ed's commentary about minimalist scenery, and a lot of the images I watched really stood as testament to his line of thinking.

Then they covered Hagerstown.

Oh Mah Gawd.  There was so much going on...  dozens of cabooses lined up, BL-2's and slugs shoving cars around the yard, and the ready track.  My jaw dropped.  The ready track, if observed through blurred vision, could have been mistaken for Enola in 1977.  There were so many paint schemes present.  Or more accurately, the action resembled that of a busy airport, where planes of a hundred different lines come and go, connecting, doing hub service, what have you.

At any given moment Hagerstown could have any of five railroads represented.  By 1974, the WM alone provided three of the color schemes (stately black speedlettering, red white and black "circus", and of course, Chessie the Knife.  On top of that, Reading Company SD's Geeps and Centuries were regulars on trains to and from the east, Norfolk and Western came in from the south and west, and the B&O Weverton Branch terminated just east of the WM roundhouse.  Just north of town, and actively interchanging with the N&W was the Penn Central.

Sorry, Ed.  That kind of stuff is what floats my boat.  But then I came to a startling realization...  I've got a quite a shopping list to fill!

On the WM, it astonished me to see some of the power lashups.  Oh sure, I'd seen the pictures, but to see 4 chopnosed GP-9's together with an F-7B, an RS-3 and an SD-40 all working together to move freight over the Allegheny Front, well, it's amazing on a 19" screen... I can only imagine standing there track side!  So, in order to improve my power utilization, I'll need to add at least a half dozen F units (A-B sets that is), plus another half dozen GP-9's.  These were the Utility Infielders of the WM fleet, the everyday players.  I figure one more set of SD-40's should do the trick for the heavy hitters, the next set in RWB.  I also need to add another 4-5 RS-3's, and I'm going to have to break down and make one of them into a hammerhead.  And if Atlas ever does their S-series Alco switchers in N scale, Katie bar the door.  Okay, so that's close to 30 more locomotive units just for the WM.

Now, about those connections...  I feel pretty good about my B&O roster, which includes an SD-35, a pair of GP-35's, a GP-9 (which may get chopped and painted black...) an H-16-44 that is currently waiting for a brain transplant, and an FB-2.  I'd like to do a pair of B&O F-7's in the solid blue scheme... there's just something brutish about that look to me.  I also have this sick urge to get a B&O passenger train to run over the WM, a nice E-unit and a handful of those streamlined heavy weight cars.

My Penn Central connection is handled nicely by a U-25B, and a GP-30.  The new LifeLike SW-8 has me thinking wicked thoughts, though, and I really like the looks of the Life Like C-424.  There's not nearly enough traffic there to warrant doubling the PC fleet, but it's always a good idea to have some back up power in the stable...

Then there's the N&W.  I have exactly two NW engines, a GP-9 that is currently awaiting a decoder, and an SD-35, both in the post-1971 block letter NW scheme.  In the video, Satan tempted me with a brace of high hood SD-45's running long hood forward in the blue "hamburger" scheme.  I'd only need three...
More likely I'll get my hands on a couple of the Atlas SD-35's that were done in the blue and call it a day.

The one that will really break the bank, though, is the Reading.  And the worst part is, these trains will only run between the staging yard and Hagerstown, about 8 lineal feet.  Then the power will be cut off, turned and serviced, and pointed back over the 8' to return to staging.  At least the N&W equipment will have the run of the layout!  Anyway, to flesh that out, I'm looking for a pair of GP-30's, a pair of GP-35's, a couple of C-630's, and another SD45 to go with the one I already have.  I'll also need another RDG caboose, preferrably a NE-style steel one.

This doesn't even mention freight cars.  I'll have to go into that later after I've had a chance to study the videos and make some notes about what I see.  I know there's a lot of intermodal in my future.  By the early 70's the Alpha Jets were basically TOFC\COFC trains.  But the variety of road names and equipment was also fascinating.  Being primarily a bridge route, the 50% home road equipment theory doesn't really stick.

Oh well, better get some shut-eye so I can dream about spending money that I haven't earned yet!

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol, I love it. A real counterpoint to what I was talking about, but it makes just as much sense.

[Mark5]

At any given moment Hagerstown could have any of five railroads represented.  By 1974, the WM alone provided three of the color schemes (stately black speedlettering, red white and black "circus", and of course, Chessie the Knife.  On top of that, Reading Company SD's Geeps and Centuries were regulars on trains to and from the east, Norfolk and Western came in from the south and west, and the B&O Weverton Branch terminated just east of the WM roundhouse.  Just north of town, and actively interchanging with the N&W was the Penn Central.

Now you know where the now archaic term for Hagerstown came from (Hub City). Hagerstown was the closest local thing to "Mecca" for me back then (1970s).

More likely I'll get my hands on a couple of the Atlas SD-35's that were done in the blue and call it a day.

Atlas didn't do these in blue, since N&W didn't do them in blue. The SD35s were delivered in 1965 (in the 1963 "half moon" herald scheme), which is black. The first (new) blue units were the SD40s in 1966. I'm not sure if any were ever painted in blue (I never saw any) as the blue was very short lived.

[Mark5]

BTW, IIRC the Weverton branch was largely abandoned in the 1960s.

[Bob Bufkin]

Just think - if you modeled a few years earlier.  PC mixed with PRR, NYC, NH units.  F units from the same roads, various Alco's, etc. 

And yes, those were great times for a railfan.  Spent many hours in Hagerstown getting rides on various locomotives and even got a chance to run a few within the yard (with a pass, of course). 

Bob

[asciibaron]

i need to stop watch train videos - they undermine my minimalist attitude.  in 1967, PRR ran some oddball power lashups - on point an SD40 followed by an F7, then a GP9, and then a UP GP30, or an Alco 425, GE U25B, and an EMD GP35.  i guess that could be the complex part in a minimal scene - the trains are the overstated part.

-Mr. 1967

[POVC]

Hey Lee,

I see Walthers just announced another run of the new RS-2; this run includes WM, I think it's in speed lettering but I haven't seen a good picture yet.

These look like pretty good locomotives; frames look like the more recent releases from Atlas and Kato.

Tim

[brokemoto]

The WKW RS-2s will be in the fireball scheme, #182 and # 183, the same two numbers that I did on the Katos.  Funny thing, this prompted me to take a look at my pair and I realised that I am not as happy with the results on the cab as I was when I did them a few years back.  I am still happy with the results on the hoods, but the cabs need to be redone.  This is a good excuse, I guess #181 and #184 are in order, I still have enough of the fireball decals.  These must have been amoung the last RS-2s built; they showed up in 1950.  #180 showed up in 1947, I wonder how much different it was from the other four.

E-R offered sharks in the 1959 scheme and LL offered FA-2s in the 1959 scheme, but most. if not all, of the sharks were traded in by the mid 1960s and most, if not  all, of the FAs that were left received the dip-job by then.  I can not recall ever having seen a photograph of a shark in dip-job.  As the F-7s did not require major shopping as frequently as did the others, there were even some in the as delivered scheme out there in the 1960s as well as some in the 1959 scheme.  Most did eventually receive the dip-job as well.  I have to find the magazine, which I still have, but there was a Model Railroader issue that had an essay on the B&O F-units.  It also had an essay on SP tiger stripes.  SP and B&O are probably the two railroads that I rode the most, so I kept that issue.

C-C has revived the B&O HWs and if you look, you can still find the C-C corrugateds out there in B&O.  By the 1960s, there would be a mix of smooth and corrugated sides and a few C&O cars, as well.  There might still be a few HW head-end cars, epsecially if you modelled #29 and #30, which were mail/express.  They carried a rider coach or combine, and even if they were not on the public timetable, they would accept any passenger that was willing to pay for  ticket.

Yes, both Hagerstown and Dickerson Run were busy places.

[wm3798]

I saw that... I'm waiting to see what paint scheme they've got before I pull the trigger, though.  If they're in speed, I'll be adding a pair to work the Thomas Sub along with my RS-3's.

(edit) Maybe some undecs, then?  I've got plenty of speed decals!
Lee

[Bob Bufkin]

I was in Tommy Gilbert's about a month ago and he has some WM heavyweight and lightweight cars in stock.  Bought one of the lightweights.  Good looking car but doesn't match up window wise with the ex C&O car the WM had and it now as the B&O museum.
Bob

[wm3798]

Yeah. WM Heavy Weight Passenger cars had the windows evenly spaced down the length of the car.  Most models follow the PRR/Pullman version with groups of two windows with wider mulls between them.

The ex-C&O car at the museum was purchased by the WM around 1970 and painted red/white/black (pretty handsome!) but it was never used in revenue passenger service, which ended with the last mixed train to Durbin in 1958.  It was included in many excursion consists, but was primarily used as an office car for inspection trips.

Lee

[Mark5]

I was in Tommy Gilbert's about a month ago and he has some WM heavyweight and lightweight cars in stock.  Bought one of the lightweights.  Good looking car but doesn't match up window wise with the ex C&O car the WM had and it now as the B&O museum.
Bob

HO I assume?

[Bob Bufkin]

Yeah. WM Heavy Weight Passenger cars had the windows evenly spaced down the length of the car.  Most models follow the PRR/Pullman version with groups of two windows with wider mulls between them.

The ex-C&O car at the museum was purchased by the WM around 1970 and painted red/white/black (pretty handsome!) but it was never used in revenue passenger service, which ended with the last mixed train to Durbin in 1958.  It was included in many excursion consists, but was primarily used as an office car for inspection trips.

Lee

Road that car on a couple excursion trips.  Have some photos I took out the window of the car.

[Mark5]

Nice. I think I gotta have one in N scale. Any good pix of that WM car about?

[brokemoto]

The Walthers website shows them in fireball, #182 and #183, the two numbers that I did.  Someone on another forum wanted them in speed lettering.  I added a post predicting that they would be in fireball and #182 and #183, as those were the numbers that I did.  It was either the next day or a couple of days later that someone specifically addressed me and told me that the numbers would be, in fact #182 and #183.

My era demands fireball for RS-2s; speedlettering only on FAs and the F-3s that came back as F-7s.

As I am not quite happy with the cabs, I will do them again.

Someone made a LV hammerhead RS-3 by cutting up two shells and building up the short hood.  That was how I was going to do it until I moved.  I did find the project in its box the other day, so I will have to resume it at some point.  The s/g stack resembles the exhaust stack on a GP-18 or late phase GP-9, at least that is what it looks like from the shots that I have seen.  I have never seen a good roof shot of a hammerhead RS-3.  I think that I have enough fireball decals to re-do the RS-2 cabs and to do two hammerhead RS-3s.  I hope that MicroScale did not discontinue the fireball sheet.