No this is not
me. This was my late cat Bonnie doing her best Chessie pose.
March 19, 2023
Hello Fellow Chessie Fans:
I have
been modeling Chessie seriously for about 30 years now and
continue to work on modeling the East End: the Cumberland
Sub-Division. I built
the railroad in sections, so have about a
dozen 6 to 8 foot sections with
foam and track. They were originally in
my old house and most have since been replanned
and reassembled in the new house.
The
roster of locomotives and freight cars is to
a point where I am just adding a few special cars. I
have about 250 cars complete and ready to run on the layout.
I would like to add more locomotives
and get some more accurate B&O bay window cabooses on the line as time
permits.
I shoot for about 85%
accuracy. You can go for 100%, but I have found that
nobody really knows the difference. To some out there
every detail is important, and that is fine. But, if you
go for perfection, you usually end up with 3 or 4 nice cars a
year. I try to put out on average about 10 a
year. Recent years have seen less gross numbers as I
have been spending a bulk of my time on getting the layout up
and running, which are needed more than more freight cars.
My plan is to have a functioning railroad,
not a railroad modeling museum. I go for practicality
more than perfection. Compromises are unfortunately a
part of this hobby. There never is enough time or space
to do exactly what you want.
I model
in proportions, which I believe is unique. I plan on
having about 50% Chessie (B&O, C&O, or WM) freight
cars and 50% from other railroads. Of the Chessie
freight cars about half will be in Chessie paint and half in
the predecessor paint. That proportion approximately
represents the middle of the Chessie Era. I also
proportion each of the type of car. Coil cars are about
50/50 between C&O and B&O (there were none for
WM). Coal cars are 50% C&O, 40% B&O, and 10%
WM. Boxcars are 40% C&O, 40% B&O, and 20%
WM. Covered Hoppers are about the same as Boxcars.
Locomotives are more slanted to the home road. B&O
60%, C&O 20%, WM 20%. Cabooses
should be more along the lines of the locomotives to be
accurate.
Thanks
for visiting. Come again.
Jeff
jeffreyhanke@sbcglobal.net
PS- I would also like to take this opportunity to thank John Whitmore and Matt Foltz for all of their guidance. Both are/were members of the Chessie System Historical Society (like I am) and have taken way too much of their time to teach me about Chessie.
PPS- I would like to thank Dean Heacock, without his permission much of this site would be without prototype pictures. Thanks Dean.
PPPS-Thanks too, to
Trainweb for letting me put this site up for FREE! Gotta
love a deal like that.
