ACW railroads (2 Viewers)

WBritain

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I built this small Civil War diorama a few years ago specifically to display a large scale 4-4-0 American that I was going to rebuild into something much closer to a wartime locomotive. I only took a few photos when a friend talked me out of it to display his train, so it looks like I will just have to revisit the subject when I finish my loco. That in itself is a long drawn out project, but I am still hopeful. I used Atlas nickel silver rail designed to be used with 1/48th and spiked it to ties I made from hedge trimmings trimmed flat on two sides. Using the Atlas rail gave it a pretty acceptable scale profile for the track. The ballast was made from sifted mason’s sand to simulate the ballast in period photographs. The winter huts and the Sibley tent were converted from W. Britain scenics. The rest of the figures and limber are also W. Britain items I sculpted for the company. The next time around I hope to design it as a module so I can set it up with additional sections, with the thought that I might be able to run the train through the scene a few feet from time to time... fingers crossed!
 

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I built this small Civil War diorama a few years ago specifically to display a large scale 4-4-0 American that I was going to rebuild into something much closer to a wartime locomotive. I only took a few photos when a friend talked me out of it to display his train, so it looks like I will just have to revisit the subject when I finish my loco. That in itself is a long drawn out project, but I am still hopeful. I used Atlas nickel silver rail designed to be used with 1/48th and spiked it to ties I made from hedge trimmings trimmed flat on two sides. Using the Atlas rail gave it a pretty acceptable scale profile for the track. The ballast was made from sifted mason’s sand to simulate the ballast in period photographs. The winter huts and the Sibley tent were converted from W. Britain scenics. The rest of the figures and limber are also W. Britain items I sculpted for the company. The next time around I hope to design it as a module so I can set it up with additional sections, with the thought that I might be able to run the train through the scene a few feet from time to time... fingers crossed!
This looks great, building a working railroad within a diorama is very challenging especially when there is limited "off the shelf" offerings. This all looks amazing to me and the level of detail you are putting into it gives it that added sense of realism. American and Atlas are great in the larger scale. Do you have any images of the in-process locomotive? Model trains are another collecting passion, and I just cannot see enough of them. Good luck with this and I hope to see it running someday soon.
 

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