| The Georgetown Branch : News I will try to keep this page up to date with my progress, and other interesting related things. Newest stuff is on the bottom of the page. |
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| 2003 News Archive Created posted: 01/06/2004 |
All of the News items from 2003 have been moved to the Archive. Please CLICK HERE to read them! |
| A New Year... PUT UP THE WALLS! posted: 01/06/2004 |
Well, it's been exactly a year since I began ripping out the walls in the train room. I'm a little disappointed in my progress as I wish I was further along, but at least I've made some great headway and I'm still moving on strong. The last couple weeks have been good - I finished painting all the cinder block walls, bought more supplies from Home Depot (including all my drop ceiling materials), and the paneling has started going up on the wood-framed walls! It feels good. So one big decision is that I will not be puting up new furring strips on the cinder block walls. Instead I'm going to leave them as-is, painted white. This came about after a conversation with Kelly who encouraged me to leave it alone and just get that benchwork started! My reasoning is along the lines that the room itself is not good for much else than a workshop, storage room or model railroad layout room! So, why not leave the walls alone? I also decided to leave the electrical box alone. I am not planning on any upgrades to the home in the next several years, so I can't rationalize doing a heavy-up right now. That will save me about $1400 for the time being. SO... in this new year I am off to a good start. I feel confident that the room will be finished and a lot of the benchwork (hopefully all:) will be up before this winter is done. Hooray! Pics of the progress are up in the Gallery. |
| Wood paneling is finished posted: 01/12/2004 |
Bruce came over again and helped put up the rest of the wood paneling. It went well with only minimal planing and adjusting. Overall it looks great and I'm so psyched to have the work done! Check out pics in the Gallery. |
| Trim, Spackling, Insulation Foam & Conduit posted: 01/20/2004 |
I put up most of the trim around the room, did some spackling on the ceiling around the main house support/duct, put up some insulation foam and hung the 4 outlets & conduit on the cinder block walls. Pics of the progress are up in the Gallery. |
| Website maintenance posted: 02/05/2004 |
Just a few things. I reconfigured the Gallery page, added the second part of the Georgetown Branch Notes in the History section, made some typo corrections here and there and added some more pics to the Gallery. |
| Ceiling goes up & some additions to the site! posted: 03/08/2004 |
The drop ceiling installation has begun, pics are in the Gallery. I added a long list of articles from the Washington Post newspaper in the "Sources" section on the History section. I added a few photos from the collection of Matthew G. Vurek who was generous in allowing me to share the photos here on my site. In the Gallery! I also made some spelling/textual changes here and there to the site. Enjoy! |
| More work & some updates posted: 03/18/2004 |
Got some new pics up in the Gallery. Also, my site was recently listed on the Abandoned Railroads site. Check it out! I'm also working on a diagram of the track at Georgetown Junction which indicates what the signal arrangement was. |
| Signal & Landmark Map posted: 03/24/2004 |
Added to the History section. Provides info on what the signal layout originally looked like at Georgetown Junction. This layout changed in 1996 with the MARC/Amtrak accident in the Geo. Jct. area. |
| Gallery update posted: 04/08/2004 |
More work in the basement - new pics in the Gallery. |
| Gallery update posted: 04/12/2004 |
More work in the basement - new pics in the Gallery. |
| History & Gallery updates posted: 04/19/2004 |
I picked up a "Car Service Circular No. 4" at the last B&ORRHS Sorting Session. There is a small mention of the GB in it, so I scanned and posted it in the History section. Matthew G. Vurek was generous enough to lend me 3 more photos of his! They are really great, so check them out in the Gallery. Work in the layout room is on hiatus right now as I am building a brick walkway in the front yard, a retaing wall in the back yard and a walkway 'round the side of the house. |
| It's a BOY! (oh boy) posted: 09/07/2004 |
Well, to whoever reads this, you may be wondering where I've been. Last update was back in April and a lot has happened since then. First of all, I'm a DADDY! His name is Kyle Thomas and he weighed in at 8lbs 5oz, 21" long and was born on 6/23/04. Mom & Baby are both currently doing fine. We've been spending all our time with baby so no time for layout work, really. We also just got back from an annual trip up North to Cape Cod and are just now getting back into the swing of things. Which means, I will finally have a little time for the layout. So, progress report: I have updated some of my trackp plan, a new version coming soon online. I'm desperately searching for a Precision Scale brass model of a B&O Q-1c 2-8-2 which is the class of #4320 which ran the GB local often email me if you have one for sale! I explored deeply the possibly of using an Athearn USRA Light Mikado as a starting point for a Q-1c, and thanks to many on the Yahoo B&O list, I've decided not to do it. Just too much work for me at this point. The model and the prototype are so different in several key areas, most notably the boiler jacket which has 5 courses on the Q-1c and 6 on the Q-4 (which the Athearn is most like). I'm tidying up a few things here and there around the site, like adding some more sources to the History page, etc. I'm saving up to purchase the DCC system and preparing to get down to the basement to get that benchwork going! Check back soon for more updates. |
| Tour down the GB from Little Falls Pkwy. to Georgetown! posted: 09/28/2004 |
I finally got around to taking some photos of the GB on my commute to work. There are many survivors of the GB, all still where the B&O left them. I have wanted to take photos for a long time now, and this really helped me to get a feel for some of the details along the r-o-w, like bridges, alignment, terrain and other details. Visit the Gallery for a trip on the GB! |
| GB Photos: The Wm. Duvall Collection posted: 11/30/2004 |
I recently was lucky enough to scan the negatives of Wm. Duvall, a Chevy Chase local. He allowed me to post them to my site. They are absolutely fantastic photos and give one a really fantastic glimpse back to when trains once ran on the Georgetown Branch. His photos cover from the late 1950s through the 1970s, with a few 1940s (and earlier!) shots thrown in. They are in the Gallery. I also completed installation of the fluorescent lights in the layout room. I have also been doing tests and planning on the helix which will go under the stairs to connect the two levels. I have tentatively decided on the heights for the two layout shelf levels as 36" and 57". I am 5'6" tall. I continue to refine the track plan and hope to have an updated copy up soon. Pics are in the Gallery. |
| Some Layout features posted: 12/13/2004 |
Posted to the Layout section are two new items. First is a documentation of how I built a Helix using Cadrail 7.11. This was a learning experience and turned out better than expected. Second is a list of my DCC System purchase considerations. |
| GB Photos: The E.L. "Tommy" Thompson Collection posted: 12/29/2004 |
At a recent B&ORRHS Archives Sorting Session, I scanned some pics from Tommy's albums. These photos depict the Georgetown Branch from 1948 - 1951. Primarily they are of Georgetown Junction, on the Metropolitan Branch, where the Geo. Branch began. There is also a series from the 6/6/1948 MSME Excursion trip down the GB pulled by Q1c 4320. Pics are in the Gallery. |
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