Notes on the August 12, 2023 Meeting of the Atlantic Division

If you couldn’t make the August 12th meeting, you missed a lot. The Division begin to gather at Easterby’s at 11:00 A.M. Several models were on display and there was a lot of talk about model railroading. The Division set a new attendance record of 18.

At 11:30 food orders were placed. A lot of delicious fried shrimp and fish were consumed. Rick Gartrell started things off with a talk about Repurposed Rolling Stock. This focused on using old box cars along right-of-ways for business offices and other purposes. The railroads had plans for how cars should be modified for this purpose, and Rick shared several of these with the group. He went on to say that the plans were rarely followed. If you plan to model this on your layout, you have a great deal of latitude. Rick also brought a diorama that contained an example of a car utilized in this manner.

After Rick’s presentation, a short business meeting was held. There had been no change in the status of the Division’s finances as reported by Treasurer Tom Sullivan.

Unfortunately, Alan Mole had to resign from the Division Board for personal reasons. Nominations were sought from the floor and Eric Schrowang was unanimously elected to fill the empty position. With the election concluded, the business meeting was concluded.

Casey Bartman then presented his discussion on Adventures in Modular N-Scale projects. This primarily focused on T-Trak and Free-MoN modules.

Copies of Rick's and Casey's Power Points are avaiable via the respective links.

Lloyd Blooms then presented his clinic on the building of his N-scale Port Royal and Augusta Railroad, which ran between its two namesake cities. In 1896, it became part of the Charelston and Western Carolina Railroad. The following year it became a subsidiary of the ACL, and was fully absorbed into the Atlantic Coast line in 1959. Lloyd discused the history of the railroad including its roll in serving the Paris Island Marine base. Lloyd also talked about compromises that have to be made when building a layout from a prototype, such as incorporating a turn table instead of a wye to save space.

To close things out, Doug Scott presented some of his excellent photos of CSX action in the Lowcountry.

Following the formal meeting, it was off for layout tours. Dave Pitcher, Rick Fulkerson, and Tom Sullivan opened their homes and layouts to the Division, and the Charleston Model Railroad Club was also open at the Citadel Mall.

As the time was getting late, I chose to visit Rick’s layout. I can say his layout demonstrates just how much operations can be achieved on a shelf layout. An added bonus is that Rick hand laid all the track as well.

Make sure and watch this site and our Facebook Page about our next meeting. It will be in Kingsland Georgia in early November. Until then, to quote Danny Harmon from Distant Signal on YouTube, See you out there on the high iron.