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Lee B
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The story has long been told and is known by all the locals:
One fall morning, the revenuers and some deputies for the local Sherriff
came to bust up the still for the Richardsons and Ensors.
They pulled up in their cars at the Grindstaff store
at the base of Hurley Hollow at Sadie, Tennessee.
Knee-deep in the Great Depression, most of the locals
were toiling in the fields and apparently paid them little mind.
The old men who always seemed to hang around the store watched
in silence until their rifles and shotguns came out of the trunks of their cars.
The old men started snickering and immediately knew what was going to happen.
"I wouldn't go up there looking for those boys," the men with badges were warned,
"They's all gone across the water."
The old men, of course, were referring to the Great War in France. They had all
served in the trenches and the locals knew that those lessons had not gone unheeded.
The rifles and shotguns were loaded in silence,
and off the men with the oversized badges went, up into the hills.
Over an hour passed and the old men suddenly heard the staccato echoes of rifle fire.
Lot of it. As quickly as it started, it ceased. An hour after that,
the men with the badges came back, all limping and all injured in some way.
The old men noticed that none had serious wounds,
which they all immediately agreed was intentional.
Those boys up in the hollow had learned where to shoot someone without killing them as
they'd had plenty of experience in the trenches of France just over a dozen years before.
That was just over a decade ago. The moonshine stills are mostly quiet now.
You can't get the 'fixings' for them now with wartime rationing on.
All the young men are off across the water again, this time for a war across both oceans.
Once that gets straightened out, the old men sitting in front of Grindstaff store declare,
they'll be right back at it.
The law hasn't come up here looking for moonshine stills
since that day they tangled with those Great War veterans.
Sometimes the highway patrol comes up the valley,
but nobody is worried to see men with badges.
Everyone assumes they'll get right back at it
once this current war is over.
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-Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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Lee B
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Okay, it's not so much layout related as concept related,
but I decided to put together a uniform for the "Commanding office, 796th ROB",
using a reproduction cotton shirt, original Lt Col and Transportation Corps insignia,
and a shoulder patch I'd made.
When I have layout tours for the National Narrow Gauge convention in September,
I gotta wear this one of those days !
Maybe I'll wear my pistol belt and a sidearm at the same time,
as it'll keep visitors honest !
____________________
-Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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Lee B
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Thanks, John !
Over this past weekend,
I decided to re-write my switch lists.
I'd written a 4-position switch list,
for 4-trains to cycle through the interchange,
whereas it'd reset everything, at the end of the 4th movement.
On previous op. sessions, I usually just run 2-trains,
and that takes around 3 hours or so.
And crews generally want to take photos and BS after that timeframe.
(I'm not one of those guys who wants to make people work
for a long timeframe, as that's too much like real work)
I'd gotten some new cars
(the ET&WNC wood hoppers I'd always wanted)
and re-wrote the list, but it messed the scheme up badly.
It took a while to get it right, by placing cars where they should be,
looking around and making notes or changing positions.
By the time I was done, I think I got it all correct.
____________________
-Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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Lee B
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Recently, I scored a 1930 Model A made by Brooklyn.
Normally they're expensive models (over $100 retail)
but I snagged this one for around 40 bucks with postage.
For what you pay in retail,
they're not worth the extra money, IMHO.
Other than no plastic parts other than the wheels,
they're no better than less expensive diecasts.
That said, it really looks great.
Yesterday, I weathered the thing.
I added a 'B card' gas rationing sticker to the windshield,
removed the side windows,
and added a Tennessee 1943 plate to the back end.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
And afterward, placed on the layout:
____________________
-Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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Bob Westerman
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Nice improvements on the car !
It looks good.
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Bob W
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Lee B
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Bob Westerman wrote:
Nice improvements on the car !
It looks good.
Thanks much.
I like weathering on autos,
especially when you can easily disassemble them.
Brooklyn brand diecast cars are held together with phillips screws,
which came as a pleasant surprise.
I was actually surprised at how they're made,
considering how much you pay for these normally.
I wouldn't dream of paying retail for one of these, as they have no interiors,
the windows are almost made of cellophane, shrink/formed of VERY thin plastic.
But there was something about the overall look of this,
it's much better looking than other Model A 1:43 scale models I've seen.
The wheels, grille and bumpers look very good,
and was well worth what I paid for it
(though NOT for the retail cost).
____________________
-Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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Lee B
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I have WW2 Jeeps on the layout,
I think at least 4 of them on the layout normally at any one time.
One is hidden in the trees in a far background,
no visitors have noticed it yet.
It's a 1:48 scale Ford GPW
(Yes, I CAN tell the difference between a Ford and a Willys Jeep,
even at a distance, so long as I can see the front end well)
with a Solido 1:50 scale CCKW GMC 2 1/2 ton truck.
Yes, I have a REAL one, a 1944 Willys MB.
This is why the Jeeps on my layout have to be correct,
with proper markings for a stateside unit.
On Saturday, I took the MB out for a drive around town.
The Jeep's fuel pump had leaks and the battery had issues,
once I did it's annual 'spring check' before the show season,
and never got back to it as all the shows and events
to which I'd drive it were cancelled for a very long time.
I'm a second generation WW2 Jeep owner,
as my Dad's first car was a 1942 Ford GPW. I have two snapshots of it.
Grandpa sold it from under Dad when Dad went into the USAF in the late '50s.
I'd love to know if it still exists, but the serial number is lost to the family.
Now, the question might be asked, I've developed a very detailed history,
for the fictional 796th Railway Operating Battalion on the layout,
so why not put those markings on my Jeep ?
That thought HAS crossed my mind, but I have decided to get new markings
for the public relations section of the 12th Army Group HQ,
which was responsible for the transportation of civilian war correspondents
(another interest of mine) from the Hotel Scribe in Paris, to any place
in the European Theater of Operations which had something of note going on.
I'm also going to replace the hood markings with the serial number
for the Jeep personally issued by 5th Army to cartoonist Bill Mauldin.
That should happen at some point this summer before the show season ends.
____________________
-Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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Lee B
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The National Narrow Gauge Convention officially ended Sunday, but there
were tours scheduled for me and a few other layouts yesterday morning.
Once the last visitor left after 2PM yesterday,
I was DONE and had a great time.
The only thing I was slightly disappointed at was losing the model photo competition
to someone who submitted three D&RGW themed photos, and took all three prizes.
But I already knew that for many of the attendees of these conventions,
it’s ALL about the Rio Grande stuff and nothing else.
As for my own tours, I set up a table at the front door, manned by my friend
Robert Scott, the best qualified to talk about the layout aside from myself.
I had a double-sided flyer about the layout for future reference:
Inside the room, I didn’t see one look of disappointment.
(I thought I would as many people want to just see the biggest layouts they can)
My tours were for Thursday and Monday (yes, Labor Day).
The last day, I was asked to have tours the morning after the official event was over,
so that anyone driving south could swing by on the way home.
Oddly, several of the visitors weren’t doing that
and were instead heading back to Tacoma afterward.
Though I wasn’t available for tours on Saturday,
I was asked by some VIPs to come by and check things out.
I was more than happy to oblige, so Johnny Graybeal (ET&WNC historian and author),
George Riley (White River Publications) and Chris Lane (On30 Annual editor) came by.
As for Johnny and Chris, I consider them to be THE two people outside my own family,
who’d best understand what I was trying to accomplish with my layout.
I couldn’t have been happier to have them look things over,
so naturally I had to take a photo to confirm they’d been there !
Later at the end of the event, Chris gave me a suggestion for an article
for the 2023 On30 Annual, which I’m already working on !
More photos are here from the venue,
including several of the contest entries here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72177720301823993
____________________
-Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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