The Passenger Shelter at Westmoreland
I
am always on the lookout for neat little buildings to use on the
layout. I ran across this little passenger shelter laser kit on ebay.
It was an easy build so I managed to paint, build and lightly weather
the roof in one evening.
The passenger shelter platform was tucked into a narrow space between the mainline and the team track. The platform and street were built from styrene. The coke machine, telephone booth, mail box and benches are from Woodland Scenics.
The area around the platform was leveled and a mix of 2 and 4mm static grass applied. I have a couple of platform lights on order.
The Southern Railway
Over the past few months, I have been steadily backdating the layout. It's now back to the mid 1970's. As a result, I pulled all my CSX locomotives and rolling stock off the layout and replaced it with Central of Georgia and Southern equipment. This was easier than one might think. I have been collecting Central of Georgia and Southern locomotives and rolling stock for about 10 years.
The Central of Georgia actually reached Chattanooga in 1901 when it acquired the the Chattanooga, Rome & Southern Railway. The CofG became a Southern Railway subsidiary on June 17, 1963. In 1971 the Southern formed the Central of Georgia Railroad to merge the Central of Georgia Railway, the Savanna & Atlantic Railway and the Wrightsville & Tennille Railroad. Locomotives lettered and numbered for the Central of Georgia could still be found on the Southern system through the mid 1970's
CofG #202 is a old Southern Proto 2000 SD-9 shell, re-lettered and detailed for CofG, mounted on a more recent Walthers Proto chassis. I replaced the factory sound system with a Tsunami2 and TCS KA-1 current keeper. It is westbound, exiting Tunnel 2 (the helix) just outside Westmoreland.
Here's another shot of #202, along with an SD-35, passing the newly installed passenger shelter at Westmoreland.
Southern #2743 is a Atlas GP-38. Again it is equipped with a Tsunami2 and a current keeper. The Southern caboose is a Walthers Proto bay window caboose. It was originally a Western Pacific version. I removed the Western Pacific lettering and redid it for Southern.
Here's another shot of Southern #2743 working the CEMEX redi-mix plant.
By the late 1970's most railroads had retired and/or traded in all of their F-units. On the other hand, F-units lasted on the Southern until late 1979. These F's are Athearn Genesis models factory equipped with Tsunami2 sound and current keepers. Eastbound #4200 and companions are just outside Tunnel 1 eastbound.
A little further east, the #4200 and companions are approaching the Cumberland River. Although #4200 looks like a F-7, it is actually a late model F-3. The trailing B unit is a F-7B followed by a SD-35.
The Southern purchased over 400 GP-38, GP-38AC and GP38-2 locomotives starting in 1971. GP-38 #2815 is about to pass the dragging equipment detector just west of the Cumberland River bridge.
Starting with this post, I have started using a digital SLR and photo floods to take the photographs. I think there is a noticeable improvement over the cell phone photos I have used up to this point.
