New video series The Virginia Midland industry tour

Here is part one of the new VMID industry tour.  This will cover the east end of the railroad and the following industries: Rappahannock Aggregate, Mid-Atlantic Feeds and Specialized Beverage.  Enjoy!

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The prototype VMID line The Virginia Central

Part two in my travels yesterday, I will show you some of the ROW of the Virginia Central Railroad. This line is what my model railroad, the Virginia Midland Railroad is based on.  The line runs 35 miles from Fredericksburg, VA southwest to Orange, VA. On my model railroad, Fredericksburg or Battlefield Yard is on the upper level and the ride down the helix is my version of heading west to Orange.
More pics can be found here:
Virginia Central ROW pics from Fredericksburg, VA to Orange, VA

The first stop on the lower level is St. Just, in Orange County.  Don't believe me?

Yes, this is St. Just.  A busy point on my model railroad.  Not alot going on here if it ever did.  Milepost 24

Nice name to the farm by the St. Just s.ign.  The ROW is to the right in the treeline in this pic.

The ROW is now a driveway to house way back in the woods.  The tracks crossed this road by the green sign.  The sign reads VA Central Ln.  The pic of the St. Just sign is directly behind me.

Here's a pic of the ROW across a field, east of St. Just.  Amazingly, when the ROW was built in the mid to late 1800's, there were no machines to do this grade, and most of it was like this for 20+ miles!

Rhoadesville, VA is also in Orange County.  As you can see, history is all around the area, from the Revoltionary War to the Civil War.  The ROW in this picture is on the right by the trees.  Milepost 28

The Rhoadesville post office.  The tracks once ran behind the post office.  Pretty sure this was a railroad station also.

Another view of the impressive grade in the treeline, just east of Rhoadesville.

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Magazine article on the Virginia Midland Railroad

About this time last year, I was approached by Stefan Nilsson from the Swedish magazine, Modell Jarnvags Magasinet.  This is the most popular model railroading magazine in Sweden.  He wanted me to write a decent size article on the Midland and even add some pictures.  He gave me plenty of time to do it as the magazine only comes out 4 times a year.  I felt it was a great honor a to be included in a magazine as I always wanted my layout to be able to be in Model Railroader here in the states one day.  It was a lot of fun and Stefan was easy to work with and it turned out very well.  The Magazine was published back in March.

It also shows in great detail how the Midland works and a history of why and how I built the layout.

Here is the front of the magazine.

Here's the first 2 pages of the 6 page article.  Anyone read Swedish?  I did get a English version of the article.  That's below.

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Op Session yesterday and a railroad map of the Virginia Midland

Visited Mike Pulaski's model railroad, the Mohawk and Hudson near Richmond yesterday.  This is the second time I have visited his amazing double decked layout in his basement.  He models about the same time period as me( mid 1990's).  Most of his crew did not show up but that meant more trains to run!  If I were to ever get house with a basement, his layout is the perfect size.  Not too big and not too small.  Did not take a bunch of pictures, but here are a few:

This was a stack train I ran all the way around the layout.

His backdrops set the upstate New York scene.

This is a great looking feed mill on the upper deck.

Gotta love some Susie Q!

Here's a map of the railroads of Virginia.  CLICK ON IT FOR A LARGER VIEW.  The VMID trackage runs west out of Fredricksburg to Orange with the Mine Run branchline in western Spotsylvania County.  The F&NN trackage runs east out of Fredericksburg.  The F&NN trackage is not modeled on the layout.  

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