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History of the Southern Central Railroad |
I am currently building a layout, serving as an officer in Division 2 of the MidCentral Region of the NMRA, and working on a club layout in Morgantown, WV.
My layout is set in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. It represents the Southern Central Railroad, which came under the control of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, eventually becoming part of the LV's Auburn Division. Rolling stock follows LV prototypes as listed in the 1888 Official Railway Equipment Register. Structures currently represent several railroads and locales, but I am moving toward more prototype modeling of scenes and structures from Auburn, NY, where the SCRR and the New York Central crossed.
An article about my previous layout, the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre, was published in the January 2000 NMRA Bulletin, and an article I wrote about building flatcars was published in the April 2003 NMRA Bulletin.
My principal interests are the history and the modeling of railroads before 1900. I enjoy the look of these early trains, and try to imagine them as part of a serious economic endeaver. Modeling this period complements my interest in old homes, architecture, and antiques.
This website shows much of my rolling stock, scenes of my previous layout, and scenes from my new one. Actually, I keep moving things around so the photos are no longer accurate; still, you can see some of my scratchbuilding efforts. I keep adding to my roster and have about eighty pieces of rolling stock now. About 70% of the freight on the Southern Central was coal being transported from the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania to the coal docks on Lake Onterio; I only have two coal jimmies, so need to get building. I'm in better shape with the next most important commodity, lumber: I have lots of lumber cars, both boxcars ("house cars") and flat cars ("platform cars").
Links to Kits and Supplies
B.T.S. rolling stock and structure kits
Bitter Creek Models rolling stock kits and parts
Trout Creek Engineering rolling stock
Labelle Woodworking rolling stock kits
Amesville Shops laser wood and resin rolling stock kits
Sites on Modeling Early Railroads
California Western Locomotive and Car Rebuild Shops Information on modeling, remotoring, and photography; has link to the owner's blog.
Craig Bisgeier's Housatonic RR Not many posts for several years, but I like to troll through past posts going back several years to see some find modeling and insightful commentary on building a late 19th Century New England Railroad.
Richard Senges' Oil Creek Railroad Lots of photos of this Master Model Railroader's work modelling early railroads in the oil fields of Pennsylvania and links to the "Rochester Model Rails" e-magazine, which has a diverse content, including articles on scratchbuilding a sawmill complex.
Historic Railroad Modeling Blogs
Thom Radice's Western and Atlantic RR North Branch
Bernard Kempinski's U. S. Military Railroad (USMRR) Aquia-Fredericksburg line in 1863
Links to Other Sites
These blogs are ones that I enjoy reading, perhaps in the morning or after work, over a good cup of coffee. Although the authors are not modelling the 19th Century, they keep me interested in a broad range of topics through useful information, views, and advice on subjects that include layout design and construction, prototype modeling, operations, scratchbuilding rolling stock and structures, and friendship. They all have a high proportion of good photos and interesting text which I will sometimes re-read.
Perhaps as important, they are all updated frequently. Watching a blog die is sad; I stop checking them after a while.
Lance Mindheim's blog Information on modern operations, track plans, and scenery on small urban switching layouts. Although set in the here and now, there is a lot to be learned for those of us who don't or cannot aspire to a railroad empire. Lance throws in a little philosophy and current events from time to time.
Trevor Marshall's blog Some beautiful S scale modeling. Updated frequently, this blog addresses building an S scale layout of a Canadian National branchline. Trevor has authored many good modeling articles in "Railroad Model Craftsman" and other places.
George Dutka's blog In his own words, this blog "documents the additions and future thoughts for the HO scale White River Division model railroad and to his continuing historical New England railroad research. The White River Division is now in its 11th modeler's season. The "modeler's season" runs from November to April each year. Inspiration comes from the Boston and Maine, Rutland and Central Vermont Railway during the 1950's with additional modeling posts by Don Janes."
Tony Thompson's Southern Pacific blog Another author in the hobby press, Tony has much of value to say about realistic operations and prototype modeling. He has gone beyond car-routing with car cards and envelopes to simplified waybills patterned after the real documents used by the railroads.
Eric Hansmann's blog Eric is very much into prototype modeling, layout design, and operations. His blog documents his current layout construction form benchwork up, with occasional forays into other subjects.