In the summer of 2008 I started with 3 onetrak modules depicting the B&O Old Main in Maryland. I was inspired by my Bachmann B&O Doodlebug and by this website: http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/index.htm . I planned a single mainline which meanders along the river, then reaches a town with depot and some industry, and continues to the right while crossing another stream. The depot has a siding where trains can pass eachother. My wife made dozens of autumn trees and I built 3 modules. Since I am not a fan of woodworking, it took 1,5 years (!) before I made the supporting legs (yep, I made them last week...). In the mean time, I bought some engines (B&O GP30, Chessie SD50) and rolling stock, and I built a few buildings. Searching for specific 'Maryland' kits, I decided that scratchbuilding some of the buildings was the best way and therefore I have started with a small stone house. I also made the rough shapes of the scenery out of foam. The modules are standing in our living room for the moment. I am carving the foam again, because the hills and one of the rivers still were too steep. For all my pictures of these modules, see http://www.mijnalbum.nl/Album=SXFYVWOC
That stone house is going to be really cool. And I LOVE your trees! Just curious: how do you make them?
I use a natural material that looks like this. A Dutch vendor sells this in large boxes, but I buy it from Busch or Woodland Scenics. I spray the 'trees' with glue and sprinkle Woodland Scenics green and/or autumn colored turf on them. After 1 or 2 treatments, you have a nicelooking tree. They are very fragile, but look very good.
I am laying track now. The small stone house is nearing its completion: The roof has been made of wall paper.
I have also started scratchbuilding this small house. At our weekly club evening, I was waiting for the glue to dry on another building project, and during waiting time I started with building this small house. At the end of the evening, I had this as a result:
Very nice! Do you know where that house is/was? I could take a color pic for ya. Lots of stone in the area. Ellicott City Mark
What happened with that house??? Looks like a part is missing? According to the information at the website, my little house is the coachman's house at Hayfields Farm, Worthington Valley, Cockeysville vicinity, Baltimore County (MD). Can you locate this? By the way: what is a 'coachman'?
Thieu: Traditionally, a coachman's house is where the driver of the 18th and 19th century land owners horse drawn coach lived. Cockeysville is not too near the OML, about as far as Den Haag is from Gouda, but the stone is quite similar. A lot of the stone along the OML trackage is limestone, a sandy surface, pale colors and fairly easy to shape. I grew up in Maryland and crossed the OML twice a day for school. Best Woodland Scenics and US N Scale supplier I remember in NL in Gouda, just off the shopping street Turfmarkt 24-26 H&H Modelbouw. They have a lot of US N Scale. Very nice people. http://www.henhmodelbouw.nl Best, Bill
heh, quite a distance from the OML, but in a similar style of course. Apparently the Hayfields Farm is now a country club, hehe. Hayfields Country Club Mark
Thanks for your explaination! Yes, the houses and depot I am building do not have prototypes on the real OML. It is hard to find the right examples, complete with good pictures and drawings. The few depots along the OML for instance are not very popular in the Library of Congress: hardly any pictures, and no drawings. That is why I had to make a choice for another B&O depot, somewhere else in Maryland. The same issue with the houses. But fortunately, the architecture is the same in that area. And thanks to Google Earth it is possible to walk through Ellicot City and take pictures of the streets and buildings: I will try to create such a business district based on those 'walks'. :tb-biggrin: I know that shop in Gouda. A nice and cosy shop with nice owners. But they do not have a lot of N scale anymore. I still visit the shop however, since they have a great assortment of Woodland Scenics and the complete line of Peco tracks. But I do not buy any engines or rolling stock (nor do I buy that at another hobbyshop with a lot of American trains, not far from Schiphol Airport): the internet makes it a lot cheaper for me to order directly in the States.
New update. First picture: the depot that I am scratchbuilding. The original stands in Rockville, Maryland. I am building 3 modules. This is the left one: It has no buildings. But a lot of trees.......... The module on the right has some buildings: The middle module is still too empty to show here........
Thieu, Another place you might try looking for drawings of "historic" structures is the website for HABS and HAER. Keep in mind that in North America, "historic" is sometimes applied to buildings built only 60 years ago. The perspective is different than in Europe because the history of structures built in the European and Euro-American building traditions is so much shorter. Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey (HABS/HAER) (American Memory from the Library of Congress) I am just now realizing that you may have already checked this as it is on the Library of Congress website.
Correct. :tb-biggrin: This site is one of my favorites. Me and my fellow modellers use this collection frequently. It has great pictures and drawings.
Cool. My old (HO) model railroad club used to meet there. The station was moved back in 1981 to make room for the DC Metro (subway). Rockville Railroad Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mark
The OML has succesfully been used on a train show for its first time. In the weekend of 18/19 september, it was part of a oNetrak layout with a total length of 63 ft.
I use Slaters styrene. They have brick and 'garden path' in their assortment. The latter I use for the old stone houses. For more rigidity, I use white styreen for the insides. I glue the Slaters together with the white styreen. The roofs are white styreen with wall paper samples on top of them. Evengreen strips are used for the decoration. Walls and windows come from Auhagen, a German brand.
