So, did you ever complete your project?

Quote from: old pilot on June 28, 2025, 06:17:55 AM...since Gettysburg was created circa 1895 and my layout time frame is the late 1890s, I am going to have Jeb rebuilding the caissons to their original composition of mostly wood with some metal parts.

You're talking about 30 years after the war was over. While I'm certain there were no guns sitting out there on their carriages, there were still plenty of original carriages outside, but they'd be starting to deteriorate badly by then in that severe climate.
That said, you could model them with complete carriages and just weather the living heck out of them and be very historically plausible for your concept. I'd have fun with that if it were me, I'd model the carriages starting to collapse and a few with the wheels collapsed and the axles and trails lying on the ground.
In Bainbridge, GA, not far from where I grew up, there was an original civil war 6-pounder on the remains of what might have been an original carriage as late as the 70s still outside in the town square. The wheels were long gone and the axle sat on pillars. It's been since rebuilt with some original parts and new wood and sits where I saw it back then, today.

The park service uses iron carriages for outdoor displays, not wood, as only a fool would place a wood carriage outdoors for a prolonged timeframe.
Prior to the 1950s or so, you wouldn't find many carriages on any battlefield. They made a big deal about getting representations of carriages on the battlefields before the Centennial in the 1960s. A few went in before WW2 but I can't find photos of carriages in place before after WW2.
I have a "war of Nothern Aggression" memorial on my own layout in O scale, made by my late Father.
This is the last representation of an artillery piece my Dad ever made, a Napoleon (M1857 12-pdr) barrel in O scale. I made the pedestal.

He's made amazing guns of various scales since the 1960s, up to full scale.

His 1/6 scale James Rifle sits atop the counters in our kitchen right now. I took this as par of a series of photos soon after he made it, one of which made it in Finescale Modeler magazine.

Quote from: Fred Klein on June 01, 2025, 04:09:51 PMP51, with the quality of modeling I've seen in your articles, all I can say is that I hope your hands stay steady and your eyesight clear because I've been inspired by your work and look forward to lots more inspiration.

Thanks very much, Fred.

Quote from: Fred Klein on June 02, 2025, 01:31:01 PMI'm really not too much into scenery but since I'm modeling a portion of the FEC Kissimmee Valley Extension which happened to run just a couple of miles from where I live (long before my time - the right-of-way was abandoned in 1947) and this is part of Florida's prairie, I don't have to worry about mountains and all that.

That sounds really interesting, as I have not even heard of many people modeling any lines in Florida.
I grew up along the old Seaboard mainline through North Florida (a very uninspiring place to grow up as a train buff) and I have never heard of anyone modelling that. Piney scrub flats would be really tough to model for scenery anyway, I'd bet.

Quote from: Fred Klein on May 30, 2025, 01:11:30 AMI also have used the bamboo skewers in the past and keep a couple of them on the layout. They work OK but tend to be somewhat "fiddly", at least for my shaky hands.

Fair enough. I'm sure I'll be there myself someday.

Yep, it rocked and was worth the wait. I just need to think of something to write about for the 2026 one. I'm getting Annual withdrawls!

Bamboo skewers have never failed, with Bachmann, Kadee or even Accurcraft couplers.

Quote from: ScottyB on March 04, 2025, 07:58:47 PMI've got em all. Might as well keep the streak going!

Yeah, once I got into On30, I went back and got the old ones, too. I've been lucky a few years with author's copies as these things are NOT cheap!
I also have a few of the HOn3 ones as well, the ones with ET&WNC articles.
Still, those annuals aren't cheap, but I contend they're worth every penny.

If you have model train shows nearby, I'd go there first and then eBay next. I usually see at least one of the Bachmann coaches at each model train show I go to.

I will always contend that an Army S118 2-8-2 would be a home run for Bachmann. Many were built in WW2 and used all over the world. Several are still running.
I'd also love to see (Lee Riley's favorite) ten-wheeler get put back in production...

It's either Peco or Micro Engineering as it is right now.
  *Peco is very sturdy but generally considered toylike
  *Micro Engineering looks great but it's amazingly fragile when you install it
I'd love a third option between the two (even though it's far too late for me as my track has bene in place for 10 years and it's not going anywhere).

A few decently noted modelers have passed recently.
Let's face facts; this is still an 'old man's hobby'.
I was born in 1969 and when I go to model train events, I'm usually the youngest there by many years.

Here's the only other ten year apart shot on the layout, of the first run of the mainline. The turntables weren't in at that time.
This is the same locomotive and cars.

Quote from: Fred Klein on August 15, 2024, 12:21:58 AMLee, your layout ranks among my top favorite layouts, right along-side with David Popp's Olympia, Dave Meek's Thunder Mesa and Garry Beatty's Puerto Borracho. I always enjoy seeing pictures of your layout and it continues to inspire me even after 10 years. Looking forward to seeing more articles.

Thank you very much, Fred. That means a great deal to me.

Maybe I'm risking a jinx, but oh well...
On August 12, 2014, I ran the very first movement of a locomotive on my layout, using ET&WNC # 12 on a small section of the layout with a spur in place. My friend Robert Scott and I started laying track from one end to the other and had maybe gotten 4 feet of mainline in at this point, on plywood bench work. I didn't have a lot of confidence in my modeling ability at the time, having been out of the hobby for many years. I didn't think much would come from this other than a way to have fun running my own trains instead of waiting for op session on other layouts.
Within two years of this photo, scenery was in place and I've been improving stuff ever since.

Ten years later exactly, here's the same locomotive. This area is more of staging area with scenery. But had someone told me the layout would be in almost two dozen magazine articles, three commercial videos (including a Blu-Ray) and many dozens of visitors over the years, I'd have told that person they were nuts!

It's been an amazing journey to get to where it is today. I am continually surprised at how well my work has been received over the years.