The Bay Coast Railroad (reporting mark BCR) operates the former Eastern Shore Railroad line from Pocomoke City, Maryland, to Norfolk, Virginia. The Bay Coast Railroad interchanges with the Norfolk Southern Railway at both Norfolk, Virginia and Pocomoke City, Maryland. BCR has three distinct operating areas. The 64.1-mile (103.2 km) northern portion of its rail system connects with Norfolk Southern in Pocomoke City (north) and the system's car float in Cape Charles, Virginia. A car float, crossing 26 miles (42 km) of the Chesapeake Bay from Cape Charles to Norfolk, comprises the middle portion. The southern end of the system is a terminal track around Little Creek, Virginia, connecting with Norfolk Southern Railway, CSX Transportation, and the Norfolk and Portsmouth Belt Line Railroad BCR uses two tug boat-guided railroad car floats of 25 and 15 car capacity to link the 26-mile (42 km) water route across the Chesapeake Bay between Cape Charles and Norfolk — using the north and south terminals of the now defunct Little Creek-Cape Charles Ferry. This car float operation has been in continuous service since April 1885, and is one of only two remaining in the United States. Hope to you see you back soon ...........
Outstanding modelrailroading ! I'm always puzzled with these modules I already had time to admire in AZL forum... Dom
Lovely model of the GE Ingersoll Rand boxcab, the original Diesel Electric locomotive. The others are fantastic also, but my heart is with the GE/IR.
This is amazing! Your scenery is some of the best I have ever seen - I'd never guess it was Z scale! Amanda (your nearby neighbor in Limburg, Netherlands)
Thank you, Amanda, Why don't you visit us in Germany? We are members of http://www.fde-burscheid.de And do a lot of HO as well. Best, Dirk & Sven
For the Niles Canyon project, to match the typical vegetation with its cork oak trees on round hills is very important for us. This backdrop variations should illustrate our way forward. A lot of effort went into the design of the cork oak trees and the corresponding sun-burned yellowish-brown grass. The center of the layout is the depot and the small yard of Sunol: Both, the Western Pacific as well as the Southern Pacific railroads did run through Niles Canyon. However, the WP is barely photo-documented on Z-tracks.......... ;-)) - to be continued - Have a nice WE! Best, Sven
The connection between Niles Junction to Sunol goes through the lower part of the Niles Canyon. Here are some shots of the Espee line on the right side of the Canyon: A Daylight GS-3 pulls her train down over the small river...... Looks like a little fishing competition is going on!! The railroad is not dominating here ;-) In the Canyon: And then passing some meadows before entering into the next tunnel...... Layout built by Karl Sinn. http://www.spur-z-atelier.de/referenzen/niles-junction/ Hope you enjoy it. Best, Sven
One of the most frequently to the public shown fully functional diorama is this one: I put some Chessie Cats on it...... Wouldn't that be the perfect addition to your living room, too?
Thank you, Dom, If you want to see to what Dom is referring, please follow the link: http://azlforum.com/thread/497/chesapeake-bay-modules-all-module Best, Sven
By Dirk Kuhlmann and Sven Rohmann Visit us at http://www.helenensiel.com/ If pictures touch our heart, then mostly because they match with some good memories with positive vibrations, e.g. summer vacation at the sea. We would like to introduce today a Z-scale layout, that could have been the location of your summer vacation when you had been a kid, playing at the beach watching some trains go by in the mist between the dunes. Today we are more grown up and things have to be more specific; details matter a lot for adults – So, which beaches, which trains, ....? Well, if you are from Scandinavia you may recognize it as Brusand in Norway, if you are from Germany you may associate it with islands in the Northern Sea e.g. Amrum, Föhr or Sylt, but when you are from America the location has to be at Chesapeake Bay, or? More specifically, how about Deal Island and White Haven? Deal Island is one of the last Bay type water and land mosaics on the East Coast left unblemished and untouched by the sprawl of modernism. Deal Island, Maryland - 6 mile long, 3 mile wide neck of small town living surrounded by the Chesapeake Bay and tributaries in Somerset County of Maryland's eastern shore. And there is a tiny connection to Little Deal Island. Our layout combines sand dunes, a special flora and fauna, water, sun, ships, a little harbor with a little side branch of the Chessie System (formerly a WM/PRR line via White Haven to a deep water pier) with the laid back atmosphere of a great summer day. Take a look at the vegetation on, around and before the dunes, such as beach lyme grass, sea lavenders, sea purslane, sea wormwood, dune heather and other sea/beach/dune typical plants. So come closer, make a journey in time and space and beam yourself to the starting point. You arrive at the harbor by boat. Look around, not very busy here. You better go to the crab fishers and ask for directions. Ok, here is a little map for your orientation: Well, in real life, this looks like this:
Close to the mole lives a population of sea lions..... ..., well protected and observed! Usually the mole is empty and one only hears the wind blowing If nothing happens here, take a look at the dunes....... ....and the summer flowers!
However, every now and then the mole of White Haven can become quite crowded and busy, As this picture documents: Yes, there was a tug boat named “Chessie” !! The marine operations C&O and B&O were the tugboats since they were in use in Chesapeake Bay, New York and Baltimore into the 1970s. The Tugboat Enthusiasts Society of the Americas lists nine types of tugboats such as docking tugs, harbor tugs, canal tugs and seagoing tugs. Railroad tugboats are defined as a separate type with the following definition: Railroad Tugboats were built in a variety of sizes and configurations depending on the towing tasks they were intended to handle. The most widely recognized railroad tugboats are those which were built to handle car floats (barges with railroad tracks on deck) in harbor service. These tugs have a number of distinctive features including high pilot houses for visibility over railroad cars on the car floats, rather flat sheer with low freeboard forward and very heavy hull construction to handle the compressive load operating between floats. Many railroad tugs were originally equipped with gasketed dutch doors that allowed leaving the top section open for ventilation when standing alongside a pier, rather than watertight doors. They were also virtually all “day boats,” manned in shifts, and fitted with locker rooms for the crew to change from and to street clothes rather than having sleeping quarters. As railroad car floating was phased out in the 1980s, many railroad tugs ended up in ship docking service, often with their pilot houses and stacks reduced in height. Some of the larger railroad tugboats were originally designed for coastal coal barge towing at a time when coal was still being widely used in home heating and power generating applications. A number of railroads used their tugs for ship docking work at the company’s piers, and a few railroads had tugs that were designed specifically for ship docking. I like this little yellow crane!! But quickly, there is silence again -- you only hear the ever hungry seagulls crying........ See you next time here: Good night!
