Georgetown Branch - 2010: November 2010

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Bethesda Tracks - Part 2

Ben stopped by last week and we went over the plan for Bethesda. Ben has done extensive research on the branch line and his web site is loaded with great photo's and information. Stop over and have a look at http://sluggyjunx.com/rr/gb/

We agreed that the mock-up I had done in Bethesda looked good so this weekend I proceeded to install all the tracks, turnouts and wiring. Everything works well and Bethesda will be able to handle a lot of freight traffic in the near future.

This image is looking towards Georgetown. You can see two industry sidings, the team track beyond those and way in the back the coal trestle track. The runaround will handle a 5'-6" long train.

This picture is looking back toward the Junction. In the background the 2 bricks mark the location were Wisconsin Ave will cross over the tracks.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Trolley Bridge - Part 2

Just a quick update tonight. I worked on the basic scenery around the bridge over the trolley tracks. Not sure if the bridge color is correct, if it is not I made it removable for easy maintenance so I can repaint if needed.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

River Road - Part 3

The sea of pink foam was driving me crazy so pulled out some latex paint and gave the area a basic texturing of ground foam and a few shrubs. The Briggs Filtration building flat looks quite nice. The climb up Landy Lane was well worth the extra construction time.

For the roads I am using a mix of styrene and plaster for Lany Lane. River Road. is built up out of styrene and features curb and sidewalks.

Before the paint and texture went down the track was air brushed with grimy black followed by a touch of rust. Once I have the roads painted and glued in place I plan on blasting the tracks up to River Road. Details and other structures to be added over time.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Tracks in Bethesda

As I started to lay out the tracks my first thought was that I had allocated way to much space to Bethesda.
After progressing through four different track arrangement it became apparent that my original track plan was going to work the best.

At the intersection of Reed Street and Bethesda Ave. looking toward Georgetown.

At the Bradley Boulevard Bridge looking toward Georgetown Junction. The brick in the picture will be Malloney Cement. The Boxcar and Gondola will be the team track and the box cars in the background will be the Frito Lay Plant and a few other industries. Not pictured is the coal trestle near the bridge over Bradley Boulevard.

Map of Bethesda

Dalecarlia Tunnel

Last night I roughed in the Dalecarlia tunnel. The 300 foot long tunnel ran unde MacArthur Boulevard and the Washington Aqueduct.

I left the sides pretty steep for now until I have time to build the tunnel portals. The top 2 layers of foam are removable for track maintenance. For now the foam is painted black inside. The bricks are holding everything in place while the glue dries.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Trolley Bridge - Part 1

Cutting the foam and roughing in the bridge over the trolley tracks. At the fascia I left a gap for the wires to run under foam boards. Brown latex caulk is used as an adhesive.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Dalecarlia Water Treatment Sidings

Before I can complete the west end of River road I need to work out the placement of the Dalecarlia Tunnel, the trolley tracks that ran under the branch, and the Dalecarlia Water Treatment sidings.

Below is a mock up of the siding looking West toward Goergetown.

Below is a prototype picture looking east bound toward Georgetown Junction.

About the Georgetown Branch

Located on the Metropolitan Subdivision of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad the Georgetown Branch line was started 1892. By 1910 the line was completed to Georgetown with regular service starting in July of that year.

The Georgetown Branch parts from the Baltimore & Ohio main line in Silver Spring, Maryland. The branch runs 13 miles to Georgetown located in Washington D.C.

The branch served as a minor freight spur carrying coal, building materials, flour and other goods to local outlets in Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, Bethesda and Georgetown.

The ruling grade was 1.51 percent for a short distance near the Dalcarlia Tunnel. The tunnel passed under the Great Falls conduit that carries water from Great Falls on the upper Potomac River to the water treatment plants just inside the Washington D.C. line.

The branch was home to several unique features such as the Rock Creek Trestle that was 1400 feet long when it was first built in 1892. A site dedicated to the restoration of the Rock Creek Trestle can be found here Rock Creek Trestle Restoration.

The line also passed under a large office building creating a second tunnel on the branch. The Air Rights Building was built in the early 60's.

The branch was in operation until 1985. It has since been been converted to a hiking and biking trail. A complete history of the branch and trail can be found at the Capitol Crescent Trail Web Site.

Ben Sullivan has done extensive research on the branch and has some great information and pictures on his site. Ben is also building a model railroad based on the Georgetown Branch and we have been sharing our information along the way.

Operating the Branch

The B&O had two crews working the branch most week days in the 40's and 50's. One crew worked the Georgetown Branch local out of Eckington Yard in Washington D.C. Another crew worked the the switcher engine that was house at Georgetown Yard.

Prior to 1963 the local train working out of Eckington Yard would push it's train caboose first up the EAST bound track of the double main line until it reached Georgetown Junction in Silver Spring. It would switch the junction tracks and a few other industries there and then continue pushing its train down the branch working each industry along the way until it reached Georgetown.

Once in Georgetown it simply dropped any in-bound cars pick up the out-bound cars and headed back to Eckington Yard, engine first. Trailing point sidings on the branch where switched on the fly!

A switcher engine based in Georgetown would work all the sidings in Georgetown.

Switching cars on the fly poses a problem on a model railroad. It is almost impossible to recreate the rolling characteristics of a real rail car in HO scale and un-coupling on the fly is just as hard to model.

With that in mind I have decided to operate the model railroad with 2 daily runs to Georgetown. Local train #1 will operate as the prototype did pushing its cars toward Georgetown. Local #2 will pull its cars toward Georgetown and switch the trailing point sidings at the Water Treatment Plant and Army Map sidings. Train #2 will then push its cars back toward Ekington yard (staging).

Local trains will consist of 1 locomotive and a maximum of 8 cars and 1 caboose.

Operations on the model will be conducted using the Protrak operations software.

Georgetown Branch - 2010