Model RR layout, stateside 1943...

[willysmb44]

Okay, this is a little stretch, but I hope people will forgive it anyway as I think some of you might want to see this...

It was suggested on another section of the forum that I post some stuff here on my O scale narrow gauge model railroad layout here.

It takes place in Eastern Tennessee, circa summer of 1943. It takes place in the valley my parents grew up in (they grew up very close to one another). The only railroad that had run there was abandoned before either of them were born, but I took an 'alternate reality' stance for a fictional branch line of a real 3-foot gauge railroad that lasted nearby until 1950. In the summer of '43, my Mom and dad would have been 7 and 6, respectively. This layout is in honor of them and I only hope they'll get to see it someday (I live on the opposite corner of continent than they do). Eventually, I plan on making O scale figures based on what they looked like as kids...

While there was no real life military presence other than the 101st AB passing over the valley on their way to the 43 Maneuvers, I have placed a small Army presence there as justification to include scale Jeeps and trucks and a few GIs.

Almost all the photos I have are on that photo sharing service that this forum won't allow anymore (don't get me started on that). So, feel free to check out my site which shows more detail:

http://www.freewebs.com/willysmb44/modeltrains.htm

 

Above are a few photos that are at sites that can be posted here. Just keep in mind that the scenery hasn't been started yet but that's next on the agenda...

[warroom1]

Great ideas love Ho Trains don't stop take your time and use your imagination.

[RustyCanteen]

Very nice Lee. Looking forward to seeing more as you progress.

 

It also makes me want to work on dusting off an old project I put off a long time ago.

 

RC

[BEAST]

Lee, great idea for a post! I've been wanting to make a WWI ambulance train for many years; hopefully this will help get me motivated. Your layout is O scale? What do you use for vehicles (jeeps, etc.)? O is a little bit bigger than the 1/72nd scale models, but can you tell? Or have you found some vehicles that are O scale?

[BILL THE PATCH]

I love trains!!!, been meaning to get a set for myself.

[willysmb44]

Lee, great idea for a post! I've been wanting to make a WWI ambulance train for many years; hopefully this will help get me motivated. Your layout is O scale? What do you use for vehicles (jeeps, etc.)? O is a little bit bigger than the 1/72nd scale models, but can you tell? Or have you found some vehicles that are O scale?

 

Yes, it's O scale, but the tracks are narrower than standard gauge. Normal RR tracks are 56 1/2" wide. Mine are 30" wide (representing a 36" gauge and using the width of HO scale track). Within the hobby, it's called On30 gauge.

If you look at the link I posted in the start of this thread, it'll show you several photos of the vehicles and structures I've modified along the way. This forum won't allow photos from photo bucket dot com, so I can't post most of my photos here. I have a small number of civilian vehicles, all with correct 43-dated Tennessee license plates (each with a different number and most for the county the layout takes place in). I have yet to figure out how to make scale gas ration stickers for the windshields, but I'm working on that.

I have three Jeeps, a command car, and 3 GCCW 2 1/2 ton trucks (with the hard cabs). Sadly, the GCCWs are 1/50 scale so they must be way in the back. I might wind up selling them as they just don't look right alongside everything else. All the vehicles are heavily weathered.

The only things that I've used right out of the box are a few pre-painted figures and the track.

The problem there is that while technically, O scale is 1/48, it's actually more common to use 1/43 scale figures and vehicles.

It's way bigger than 1/72, you'd spot the difference right away. You could, I suppose, use that scale for background stuff for forced perspective if you did it right.

I have the following left to do:

• Make the terrain forms for the undulating ground (probably from foam and cloth covered in caulk)
• Background shapes of mountains covered in ground foam to represent far off hills
• A 'flat' of a large wood industrial structure alone the tracks.
• Put down all the representations of trees and grasses
• A section of Marsten matting which will represent a Army RR operating Battalion's HQ
• Plating a O scale cornfield (I have a couple of hundred scale corn stalks made, just need to make the furrows to plant them on).
• I even have real dirt from the exact place the layout takes place in, which will be used in the scenery construction.

[Proud Kraut]

Lee, thank you very much for sharing your project here! Looks great so far. O-scale RR is rather uncommon over here (the prevalent scale is HO) so I'm very interested to see what comes next... Interestingly 1/48 scale military model kits seem to be more common over here than 1/43 ones.

[willysmb44]

Interestingly 1/48 scale military model kits seem to be more common over here than 1/43 ones.

 

Here, too. 1/43 is a common size for diecast cars here, though...

 

[B229]

You sure lucked out that Bachmann did the ET&WNC ten wheeler in On30. I'm assuming you're modeling the Tweetsie since I can't think of another narrow guage in East Tennesee.

 

Tamiya has a bunch of 1/48th models, including a CCKW: http://www.tamiyausa.com/items/plastic-model-series-20/1-48-scale-military-miniatures-10500/us-2-5-ton-6x6-cargo-truck-32548

A fuel tanker with a closed cab: http://www.tamiyausa.com/items/plastic-model-series-20/1-48-scale-military-miniatures-10500/us-airfield-fuel-truck-32579

And a 1942 Ford sedan: http://www.tamiyausa.com/items/plastic-model-series-20/1-48-scale-military-miniatures-10500/1942-u-s-army-staff-car-model-32559

[willysmb44]

You sure lucked out that Bachmann did the ET&WNC ten wheeler in On30. I'm assuming you're modeling the Tweetsie since I can't think of another narrow guage in East Tennesee.

 

Yep. Not only lucky they made it at all, but in the very paint job I wanted; the black with trim paint they had from 1943 until soon after WW2 was over.

I got out of model trains when I was in HO scale in the 90s. I was in a module club in Tallahassee, Florida where everyone builds a small section and put them together at events. I had a horrible experience with them that I won't go into detail here, and swore I'd never get involved with anything like that again. Having moved away from there for the Army, I dabbled in G scale when Bachmann made the same locomotive in G scale. But having stored a lot of equipment and realizing I'd never have the room or money to build my dream layout in that scale, I sold it all off in 2007. I had actually given up model trains completely a few years before I sold it all. Bachmann, soon after, decided to make a ET&WNC ten-wheeler in wartime black in On30. I bought one to put in a display case, but over time I decided to build a short switching layout along one wall. My wife allowed me to move some stuff in my 'toy room' into the large closet in our master bedroom, which freed up the space I needed.

My parents grew up just outside of Elizabethton, TN about mid way along the 3-foot line. Once they yanked the 3-foot tracks in 1950, they maintained a standard gauge line as far as Stateline Hill, just past Elizabethton. My parents don't recall ever seeing the narrow gauge stuff running but they saw the standard gauge steam locomotives plenty of times (they traded the steam engines for diesels in 1967, very late to be still running steam). The North American Rayon plant had a 'fireless' 0-6-0 switcher than ran into the 1990s.

ET&WNC coach # 23 was still in existence as the "Tweetsie Diner" in Newland, NC but long out of business when I saw it in 1981. I burned down a few years later, but I still have a photo of myself as a kid standing in front of it.

Growing up in Florida, we'd go up there at least once a year so I saw plenty of the area growing up. We rarely ever went to Tweetsie RR in Blowing Rock which has the last surviving ET&WNC 3-foot gauge locomotive (that sort of ticks me off now as a kid I didn't realize that it wasn't all that far away). We went there in 2005 as there were rumors that the park might have to relocate, but thankfully it's still running there. I have two photos of me in front of # 12, when I was a little kid and on that 2005 trip. Most of these photos are on my site, as linked above.

 

[BEAST]

Yes, it's O scale, but the tracks are narrower than standard gauge. Normal RR tracks are 56 1/2" wide. Mine are 30" wide (representing a 36" gauge and using the width of HO scale track). Within the hobby, it's called On30 gauge.

If you look at the link I posted in the start of this thread, it'll show you several photos of the vehicles and structures I've modified along the way. This forum won't allow photos from photo bucket dot com, so I can't post most of my photos here. I have a small number of civilian vehicles, all with correct 43-dated Tennessee license plates (each with a different number and most for the county the layout takes place in). I have yet to figure out how to make scale gas ration stickers for the windshields, but I'm working on that.

I have three Jeeps, a command car, and 3 GCCW 2 1/2 ton trucks (with the hard cabs). Sadly, the GCCWs are 1/50 scale so they must be way in the back. I might wind up selling them as they just don't look right alongside everything else. All the vehicles are heavily weathered.

The only things that I've used right out of the box are a few pre-painted figures and the track.

The problem there is that while technically, O scale is 1/48, it's actually more common to use 1/43 scale figures and vehicles.

It's way bigger than 1/72, you'd spot the difference right away. You could, I suppose, use that scale for background stuff for forced perspective if you did it right.

I have the following left to do:

• Make the terrain forms for the undulating ground (probably from foam and cloth covered in caulk)
• Background shapes of mountains covered in ground foam to represent far off hills
• A 'flat' of a large wood industrial structure alone the tracks.
• Put down all the representations of trees and grasses
• A section of Marsten matting which will represent a Army RR operating Battalion's HQ
• Plating a O scale cornfield (I have a couple of hundred scale corn stalks made, just need to make the furrows to plant them on).
• I even have real dirt from the exact place the layout takes place in, which will be used in the scenery construction.

 

I'm really looking forward to seeing this layout grow! Thanks for the information on the scale of O. For some reason, I thought O was 1/64th scale. I've seen several 1/48th scale military kits, but unfortunately the majority seem to be German armor.

 

I still have my Lionel O27 trains packed away. I thought about setting up an HO scale layout, but maybe O27 maybe more fun to work with.

[willysmb44]

I've seen several 1/48th scale military kits, but unfortunately the majority seem to be German armor.

 

Yeah, there's not much US stuff out there in that scale for plastic kits. I guess German stuff is where the money is.

A lot of die-cast stuff is out there for O scale, a few companies have made some decent WW2 items, but almost all are lettered for ETO units with invasion stars, which is no good for a stateside layout. I'd spent more than a little time doing re-painting, stripping and decaling with non-surround stars and CONUS unit markings (I actually made my own for a fictional RR operating unit, done on solid white front bumpers).

[Backtheattack]

Great idea. As there where only a few "US Railroad Trains" around here in Germany in the hand of fans I like the work you did. Looks great, and the background idea is very nice.

[willysmb44]

Many years ago when I was thinking of doing the same concept in G scale, I was going to focus on the military RR operations and half the layout would be the ET&WNC in Tennessee in 1943, and the other half would be somewhere in Bavaria at the end of WW2 (most likely the narrow gauge line near Garmisch). That way I could use the German LGB equipment and figures/vehicles showing a war-torn Europe (yes, I know that area wasn't so badly damaged when the war was over, I have been there when I was younger).

But I gave up on G scale due to its size and expense.

[BEAST]

Many years ago when I was thinking of doing the same concept in G scale, I was going to focus on the military RR operations and half the layout would be the ET&WNC in Tennessee in 1943, and the other half would be somewhere in Bavaria at the end of WW2 (most likely the narrow gauge line near Garmisch). That way I could use the German LGB equipment and figures/vehicles showing a war-torn Europe (yes, I know that area wasn't so badly damaged when the war was over, I have been there when I was younger).

But I gave up on G scale due to its size and expense.

Lee,

 

Are European style model trains made in 110 volt? I've looked on line, but haven't found any. As I mentioned before, I would like to do a WWI French ambulance train layout, but can't find the proper engines, cars, etc. that will run here.

[willysmb44]

Lee,

 

Are European style model trains made in 110 volt? I've looked on line, but haven't found any. As I mentioned before, I would like to do a WWI French ambulance train layout, but can't find the proper engines, cars, etc. that will run here.

 

Whatever scale you run, it's the voltage to the tracks you need to focus on, and that's usually the same in any given scale. The only difference is how the voltage comes into whatever you're using to run the trains from.

[Johan Willaert]

 

Yeah, there's not much US stuff out there in that scale for plastic kits. I guess German stuff is where the money is.

A lot of die-cast stuff is out there for O scale, a few companies have made some decent WW2 items, but almost all are lettered for ETO units with invasion stars, which is no good for a stateside layout. I'd spent more than a little time doing re-painting, stripping and decaling with non-surround stars and CONUS unit markings (I actually made my own for a fictional RR operating unit, done on solid white front bumpers).

Would US Army vehicles as depicted in your timeframe already have had the Service Command insignia or were those only introduced later?

[willysmb44]

Would US Army vehicles as depicted in your timeframe already have had the Service Command insignia or were those only introduced later?

 

I'm not sure I follow. Do you mean bumper markings?

In 1943, a stateside vehicle would have had, at the most:

• Simple star, without the surround, on the hood and back two corners of the side of the body (single star on the tailgate for larger trucks)
• Bumper front and rear markings for the unit

Generally, that would have been it.

[Johan Willaert]

Many stateside vehicles carried the insignia of the different Service Commands during WW2..

Was just wondering if vehicles in the TN area would have been marked accordingly..

 

Here's an example from another SC a quick internet search turned up...

[willysmb44]

Ah. I get it now. I have seen a few photos of vehicles in other parts of the state during WW2 and most had the single non-surround star by 1943.

Keep in mind that my model railroad takes place in an extremely area which had no actual permanent military presence (or even electricity for most homes) during WW2 but I am taking an 'alternate reality' stance, like many model railroaders do.

[siege1863]

I have a few photos of the vehicles used at the Clinton Prisoner of War Camp in Mississippi. They all wore the Fourth Service Command insignia. Being that Tennessee was part of this command, the vehicles would be similarly marked.

[willysmb44]

I have a few photos of the vehicles used at the Clinton Prisoner of War Camp in Mississippi. They all wore the Fourth Service Command insignia. Being that Tennessee was part of this command, the vehicles would be similarly marked.

 

No, they probably wouldn't. The vehicles on the layout are attached to a (fictional) Railway Operating Battalion. They were usually assigned to different command levels as most were transitioned to overseas duty after they'd proven themselves in the states. They were rarely tenant units unless their operations were to run railroads on a specific base. And even then, once they proved themselves and got their training requirements done, they normally got ready to do the same thing 'across the water' (which is what the locals called anything outside the US).

[Trooper B.A.R]

Nice . Dang, run into you on so many forums. Capt Lee Bishop, always enjoy your post. LOL