Notes from Quarantine

Last Saturday, we got back from a nice trip to Alabama to visit family over Thanksgiving. Then on Sunday, my son and daughter in Kentucky had a baby girl, Ruka Kotone Foster Kempinski. That makes our second grand daughter. All are doing fine.

I spent the first part of the week getting my new band saw set up. Unfortunately, I got sick yesterday and tested positive for COVID this morning. So far it's not too bad, but I am taking things easy. I have been staying in the basement and hope to get back to work on the layout.  

The Tug Boat 

I wanted to test out the new bandsaw. So I started building a 1860's era tug before finishing the Pungy. I figured the Pungy and its rigging will take some time, so I wanted to do a simpler boat in the meantime.  

The lead photo shows a group of three tugs in the James River. These appear to be typical screw propelled tugs from the era. One of the key features of those tugs versus later tugs is the squared-off deck and pilot house. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any plans for that style tug. There is a photo of Tug No. 6 in the James River that is nearly a broadside view. So I using that to generate plans. 

I made the hull from two pieces of basswood glued together. Basswood is a great material for modeling due to its very tight grain. The band saw is necessary to cut the sheer line across the beam of the model. That was the first cut I made. Then I trimmed the over head view to create the overall shape.

I used my Rotex sander to shape the stern and bow.  The waterline model of the tug has a fairly simple shape. All the complex curves are under water and will not be visible in my model. Just a portion of the rudder is visible. 

Next I added laser cut pieces to the top of the deck to create the camber of the deck. I planked these with individual pieces of 2 ply maple veneer that I cut on the laser. If I do this again, I will make a thin template to glue to the deck. That would have slots to precisely locate all the camber pieces.

I stained the maple pieces with dark teak colored stain before glueing them on the hull.

The next step was to cut the bulwarks. I made them about 1/8th inch taller than it needed to be. I used that extra height to glue it to the hull.  Then I added the waterway and bulwark frames. In the future, I think I can integrate those frames into the camber pieces. That would make it easier to glue the bulwarks on.

I primed and painted the hull. Then I glued on the rub rail as I thought it would remain a natural color. So I used pins and PVA to glue then to the hull. However, I now plan to paint them the same color as the hull, and then weather them heavily. I cut the grating on the rear from basswood in a couple thicknesses. I like how that came out.

Next is the deck and pilot house. The pilot house appears to be an extension of the deck house, so that is how I made it. 

Hopefully, I will feel well enough to finish it during my quarantine time.

Records of the Alexandria Railroad Wharf at the Archives

I was rereading a copy of the Records of the Alexandria Railroad Wharf I found at the National Archives in 2010. As I have stated in the past, there was generally one car ferry a day from Alexandria to Aquia Landing. Most of the time in the month of May they were transporting supplies for the railroad. But this one caught my eye, on May 2, at 5:20PM, they shipped 6 pairs of Shad Belly Trusses on cars 46, 140, 217, 158, 240, and 245. All of those are flat cars. I have never seen any proof that these bridges were actually used, but that they were a cargo on the USMRR line, means that I need to make some as  flat car loads.

In June they started the evacuation. They hauled all many of supplies to Alexandria from Aquia Creek. That is in accordance with Haupt's statement in his book that they evacuated all that they could have versus destroying it all like happened in October 1862 under Burnside's orders. For example,  On June 15, 1863 they hauled two locomotives, Gouvernment and General Burnsides, and tenders plus three more cars with tents, baggage and lumber. Most of the return trips were empty. 

If I get time, I need to transcribe this document as it is very interesting to me. 

The Lone Pine Tree at Falmouth - new photo "found"

 

It is always a treat to find a new picture of the Aquia Line. That happened tonight as I was surfing the National Archive Website of Matthew Brady photos. and came across this photo. I was examining the picture when it occurred to me that the tree in this photo was very similar to the "famous" lone pine tree in the well know picture of an infantry company at Falmouth as shown below. 

The caption of the second  photo clearly states it is at Falmouth and we can see a line of box cars in the background. If you compare the lone pine and the tents in front in the two photos, you can verify that the location is the same.  So the second photo is also at Falmouth. 

The second photo gives me some additional ideas for detailing my Falmouth scene. I have no idea what the two mud columns are for but it will be fun to model them. The soldier doing his laundry is also a fun detail.

There is a bit of controversy on the identity of the unit in the second photo. The National Archives caption says the infantry company is from the 6th Maine. The 6th Maine was stationed at Falmouth at the time in question. However, others say it was 110th Pennsylvania. Thanks to General Hooker and his corps badges, we can trace this unit to the III Corps, as their badge was a diamond. You can see the diamond badge on the kepis of most of the soldiers in the photo.  The 110th PA was assigned to  2nd Brigade, 3rd Division, III Corps, Army of the Potomac, from Sept 1862 to  June 1863.  The 6th Maine Infantry was assigned to the Light Division, VI Army Corps from January 1863- to the end of the war. The  VI Corps badge was a cross. So we know this is a III Corps unit, probably the 110th PA as there were other photos taken of that unit around that time. 

VI Corps

III Corps

Telegraph Problems - now and 159 years ago

Steve Williams, Amby and I had a zoom conference today to discuss the fix to the telegraph stations on the longer cables. They came up with two simple solutions that should work. We will try them next Monday.

We also briefly discussed possible upgrades to the software. We will sort that out further once we have some operating experience.  I was thinking it might be fun to have the random messages lead to things that the dispatcher would have to react to and not just for ambience.  That would require  the dispatcher to translate the random messages and decide what to do. 

I have been listening to the random messages as I work on my computer. They arrive suddenly and often I miss the first sentence as I prepare to copy.  To make that translation easier, the random messages should have a preamble like the others. W-W-W - EoW is perfect.  Also, the message would have to be repeated until acknowledged. 

If we do this, I would need to compose messages that need action. Others can just be for ambience and or information.

The type of action the dispatcher could take include, order out an extra, such as the General’s special, set up a meet, tell a train to pick up a certain car , etc. Since the telegraph system is one way, the DS would write the message on a paper message slip and place it manually on the layout for the conductors to pick up.

We will see how hard it will be to upgrade the software. I am sure Steve could do it, but how do we get the new code into the installed stations? We may have to learn how to program the Arduinos. That looks more complicated that I want to take on, but every journey begins with the first step.

Meanwhile, we are not the only Aquia Line telegraphers to have problems. I found this letter while going through my files. I believe this letter was in a book in the Library of Congress that contains many of Herman Haupt's letters transcribed as well as some seemingly original, or at least hand written messages, from Haupt's records. Those messages were donated to the LoC by one of Haupt's sons well after the war. This is a link to the citation https://lccn.loc.gov/mm73025296 

If you can read this, you can see that W.W.Wright is complaining to Haupt about being unable to get reliable service from the telegraph. I believe this was because regular Army traffic was monopolizing the telegraph. This was after the battle of Chancellorsville and the Army was actively campaigning. 

 Letter from W.W. Wright to General Haupt

In that same batch of letters was this one from Haupt to Wright discussing how trains own the Aquia Line  were delayed to pick up wounded. The Army medical officers were using an ad hoc system to load wounded that was delaying the USMRR trains. Haupt would not have that!

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Florida - Part 2 Cape Canaveral

On Monday my brother and I had an appointment with Bill Paul, a curator of the USAF Space and Missile Museum. Bill and my brother are in the same model club, so we were able to set up a visit to the USAF Cape Canaveral Museum archives even though they are closed on Mondays and are very limited in visiting due to security and COVID concerns. My purpose in visiting the archives was to find plans for the mobile launch pad, also called the transporter, used at Launch Complex 41 (LC 41) to move the Titan Missiles from assembly buildings to the launch pad.  I want to build a model of this facility as I think the juxtaposition of rockets and trains is really cool. 

Current mobile launch pad
LC41

If you have my book, "45 Track Plans" you would know that I wrote about how United Launch Alliance (ULA) currently uses trackmobiles to push their mobile launch pad at LC41.  See photo at left. 

Before ULA took over operation of LC41, the USAF used LC40 and LC41 to launch numerous Titan III and Titan IV missiles.  In the Titan era, they also used a mobile launch pad but it was pushed by SW-8 locomotives.

The locomotives are actually US Army Korean war veterans that the USAF employed here. One of them is on display at their museum at Cape Canaveral (see photo above). The arm on the engineer side of the loco allows the operators to connect two locos so they can be operated at the same time, i.e. to MU them. 

Alas, we were unable to  plans for the mobile launch pad. We did find some photos that would help. 

But the best photo I have is from a friend's collection.  You can't see how the boom is deployed in this photo. Note the charring on the tower from exhaust from previous missile launches.

This is an example of the scene I want to model. Titan III on the transporter (aka Mobile launch pad)

This photo shows the boom extended.  Anway, I am hesitant to proceed without a better set of plans. I may be able to draw some based on photos, but for now this project has moved down on the "do-list."

 

One of the artifacts on display at the archives was this Atlas Mercury missile signed by the Mercury astronauts. I got to handle it too! It needs some repairs, but to say it is very valuable is an understatement. 

After looking through the archives, we made a visit to the USAF Museum Annex where we got to see the missiles on display in their protected environment. The missiles look great and being protected from the sun and salt air will certainly help preserve them.  

We also got a peek at Blue Origin's launch pad and the Cape Canaveral light house. 

Some of the missiles on display at the Missile Annex

One of the unusual missiles on display at the museum 

As we were driving around the base, we had to yield to a SpaceX missile transporter that was heading to the port to retrieve a used booster. As an added treat, I got to see that SpaceX booster being recovered from their barge at the Port of Canaveral. I was lucky a couple years ago to see a SpaceX launch from my in-laws' condo in Daytona Beach Shores.  See video below.

Stay tuned for part 3 of our amazing week in Florida. 

SpaceX Booster being recovered at Port Canaveral Hmm, I do have an HO scale model of that crane.....the mind boggles.

More Archives of Civil War Era Photos

Front quarter view image of Locomotive Leach at the UMBC Digital Collection. Note the lanterns
hanging from the light bracket.

In doing some research for an article I am writing, I came across two archives of civil war photos that I had not seen before. Those archives have some images that are new to me. There are not that many photographs of the civil war in comparison to later wars, so when you find some undiscovered images it is a treat.  Especially when one is germane to one of your modeling projects. 

The first archive was at the University of  Maryland Baltimore Campus Digital Collection. They have several photos I had not seen before. But the best discovery for me was the photo of Engine Leach from the front quarter view (see above). The link to the image is here. I did not have a nice clear image of the front of the locomotive. This image answers a lot of questions I had on the front details. This image is now the fifth image I have of this locomotive. The caption at the UMBC archive says this note was hand written on the back, "A Famous locomotive in the Virginia campaigns fought for, taken and retaken, disabled and recuperated."

The second  archive was on website for  The Met, which is the nickname of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have an on-line collection of civil war photos. This image at the left of Culpepper, VA is part of the collection. I don't believe I have seen this image before. There is the link to the image. I did see some captions that were incorrect, so be careful when you read them. 

Year in Review 1861 American Railroad Journal

 I was reading some past issues of the America Railroad Journal during the time period of the civil war on the Linda Hall library online archive. The excerpt below is the American Railroad Journal's  summary of the effects of the first year of the war on railroads and American business is general written at the start of 1862.  I found it very interesting. It mentions the grain rush that northern railroads were experiencing as well as new track building. It is surprisingly optimistic in those dark times. Note some of the text was missing from the original scanned document, so some sentences may have missing words. 

American Railroad Journal.

 New York, Saturday, January 4  1869. 

Railway and Financial Review for 1861. 

The year just closed has been, by far, the most eventful in our history. A disruption of the country has taken place, and whatever may be the future, still continues. Nearly one-half in area, and one-third in population has practically disappear-ed from the circles of business as well as of personal intercourse. Almost complete, non-inter-course exists, and with it a vast change in the mate-rial condition of the country. 

In one point of view, consequently, we cannot display with our usual complacency, the vast material progress of the country during the year that  was just closed. The customary exhibit shows an increase in the mileage of our railroads to have been only 631 miles, against the usual average of over 2,000 miles for several years past. The small extent opened was in the early part of the year. In the Southern States, we presume that there is not a person employed upon new works. In the Northern, but little is doing, the great contest absorbing the whole attention as well as the means of the country. The cessation of the work of construction is of very little consequence, for present, as there is hardly a section of the try that is not now well accommodated by new lines. 

The change in the political condition of country there has been a corresponding one in commerce. Before the outbreak of the rebellion last cotton crop had very fully gone to market, and its value been realized. The threatened political troubles had, in the meantime greatly diminished commercial transactions, so that the importations into the country for the calendar year have been only about one-half the amount of 1860, or say $180,000,000, against $360,000,000. The fortunate circumstance of a large demand for breadstuffs and provisions, occasioned by droughts in Europe, lead to shipments of these on an unprecedented scale, bringing the balance of trade so largely in our favor as to cause an importation in gold to the amount of nearly $60,000,000, within the year, against an export of an equal sum for 1860. For the first time, the exports of domestic produce from the port of New York have largely exceeded the imports of merchandise. Notwithstanding that cotton has disappeared from our exports, these still continue largely in excess of our imports, excluding specie, a really wonderful phenomenon, considering that the value of cotton exported, for several years past has averaged nearly $200,000,000. This fact is striking testimony in favor of the resources of the country, and the capacity of our people of instantly adapting themselves to an altered state of affairs. The causes referred to have averted a great commercial revulsion, for although the Banks have recently suspended specie payment, the step was not caused by any lack of specie, or capital in the country, but to a disturbance in internal exchanges, for the want of a proper system of taxation, to return to the centres of trade the loans made in these on account of the war. 

The year has, on the whole, been a very favorable one for the railroads of the Northern States. Their earnings the present season greatly exceeded those for 1860. Their traffics have immensely increased, to supply the foreign demand for breadstuff's. Their operations have not in a single instance been interfered with on account of the war, which has been carried on exclusively on Southern soil. Whatever may be the result, there is no probability that any Northern State will become the scene of hostilities. It is, consequently, a somewhat remarkable fact, that in a period of civil war, the value of railway properrty should have improved, while that of all other kinds has greatly deteriorated. We see no investment so little liable to be injured by it, as in railroads. The closing of the Southern portion has had a tendency to increase the traffic of great lines reaching inland, which for the wi(??) will show a great increase over 1860. 

While the general retrospect for the past y(??) is not encouraging, and while we do not chose to indulge in speculations as to the future, it is small consolation to point to the great interest which our JOURNAL is devoted, as the one which  remains unaffected, unfavorably, by the war, and whose prospect for the future is most encouraging. The internal commerce of the country has been and remains most active, and the works over which this is carried on, most prosperous. Every year is likely to add to the traffic, showing that investments in them promise for the future to make up in a considerable degree for the losses and annoyances of the past, and to prove a stay and support when everything else is sinking from under us, or yielding greatly diminished returns. 

Military Traffic on Northern Railroads

Over the last several years I have been trying to determine how much military traffic was carried by the northern railroads during the civil war. I have found bits of data here and there, but never got a complete picture. I recently found this table in the American Railroad Journal, March 8, 1862 when it was  cited by Thomas Weber is his book "The Northern Railroads in the Civil War 1861-1865." (I have been doing a lot of reading and rereading of civil war books in the past month.)
This table lists the total bills presented (and presumably paid) by the United States Government for U.S. Army Transportation for a 10 month period from April 1861 to Feb 1862.  There are 73 railroads listed in the table for a total charge of about $1.8 million dollars (or about $47 Million in 2020 dollars.) It is interesting to note that the top three, and 7 of the top 10, are eastern railroads.
The next step would be to combine this data with the railroads overall revenue to get a sense of the percentage of military business each railroad did.  Also, it would be nice to find this data for other years in the conflict. but this gives a nice snapshot. 
One of the reasons that western railroads are under represented in this data is that a large portion of military traffic in the western theaters was carried by steamship. But that is a subject for another day. 

	The following is a statement of all bills presented by railroad companies, for transportation for the United States Army, from April 1, 1861, to Feb. 1,1862:
1	Baltimore and Ohio	$567,922.55
2	Pennsylvania Railroad	$255,534.82
3	Northern Central	$223,610.24
4	Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana	$110,321.00
5	Cleveland and Pittsburg	$105,852.00
6	Phil., Wilmington and Baltimore	$69,389.73
7	Cumberland Valley	$62,661.00
8	Camden and Amboy	$48,110.70
9	New Jersey Railroad	$32,438.00
10	Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien	$30,851.93
11	Portland, Saco and Portsmouth	$26,177.32
12	Connecticut River	$25,611.00
13	Erie and Northeast	$18,654.86
14	Bcston and Providence	$18,169.60
15	Elmira and Williamsport	$17,554.91
16	Fall River Railroad Line	$14,387.50
17	Detroit and Milwaukee	$14,022.19
18	Kennebec and Portland	$13,221.59
19	Philadelphia and Erie	$13,135.18
20	Old Colony and Fall River	$10,779.60
21	Cincinnati and Chicago Air Line	$10,103.40
22	Boston and Worcester	$10,011.53
23	NY and Erie	$9,618.18
24	Cleveland and Toledo	$9,232.43
25	Norwich and Worcester	$8,207.40
26	Androsroggin and  Kennebec	$7,084.00
27	Androsooogin and Kennebec	$7,081.80
28	Annapolis and Elk Ridge	$5,780.00
29	Western Railroad	$5,662.64
30	St. Louis, Alton and Chicago	$5,660.44
31	liannibal and St. Joseph	$5,556.00
32	Hudson River, Troy and Boston, Rutland and Buriington	$5,370.00
33	Dayton and Michigan	$4,518.00
34	Hudson River Railroad	$3,923.38
35	Philadelphia and Reading	$3,850.44
36	Buffalo, New York and Erie	$3,684.00
37	Lake Shore and Michigan steamers..	$3,454.08
38	Lafayette and Indianapolis	$3,000.00
39	Milwaukee and Chicago	$2,860.00
40	New York and New Haven	$2,475.05
41	Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago	$2,315.84
42	Iron Mountain	$2,314.00
43	Rutland and Washington	$2,050.00
44	Allegheny Valley Railroad Company	$1,802.00
45	Chicago and Milwaukee	$1,437.00
46	Allegheny Valley Railroad Company .	$1,302.28
47	New York Central	$1,283.79
48	Eastern Railroad	$1,191.25
49	Chicago, Bnrlii-cton and Quincy	$1,138.00
50	Worcester and Nashua	$1,105.20
51	MIchigan Central Steamers 1 026	$1,026.24
52	Central Ohio	$831.64
53	New York and Boston Express	$739.48
54	North Pennsylvannia	$564.46
55	Terre Haute and Richmond	$370.58
56	NY, Providence and Boston	$201.68
57	Indiana Central	$193.66
58	Chicago and Northwestern	$186.00
59	Little Miami, Columbus and Xenia	$177.00
60	Keokuk, Fort Des Moines and Minnesota	$127.50
61	Cleveland, Colunilins and Cincinnati ..	$77.00
62	Indianapolis and Cincinnati	$70.25
63	Columbus, Piqua and Indianapolis	$65.38
64	Troy and Boston	$51.78
65	Buffalo and State Line 43 88	$43.88
66	Boston and New York Express Co.	$14.18
67	Stonington Line Railroad	$8.48
68	La Crosse and Milwaukee	$8.00
69	Lackawanna and Bloomsburg.	$7.90
70	Hailford, Providence and Fishkill	$7.85
71	Cleveland and Mahoning	$5.96
72	Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton	$1.40
73	Naugatuck	$0.84