Back Bay Railroad

The Back Bay Railroad an Adventure in 3/8’s modeling.  The area that I model exists somewhere within the confines of my creativity but it certainly exists in bits and pieces across our vast country.  So, for the sake of this story, let us bend the rules just a bit and place the locations along the Chesapeake Bay close to the Maryland-Virginia borders.

The Bay, as we Marylanders like to say, is full of seafood ripe for the harvesting, many types of fish, crabs, oysters and fresh water clams just to name a few.  It is this bounty that created a need for the little Back Bay Rail Road, a twenty five mile long railroad that connects three small, non-descript villages.  In the village of Ridgley is the fish processing plant and ice house, owned by the Harper Brothers, they are also the owners of the railroad. The railroad operates between Ridgley, Turners Landing, and Muddy Creek Forks hauling the seafood, other by products, and whatever comes in or goes out by boat and barge.

You can get here by car and truck but depending on what season it is, travel might be quicker by boat, since the road system here is nothing more than packed and tamped dirt and gravel.  It was the lack of good roads that convinced the Harper Brothers to build a railroad, the land was fairly flat, labor was in abundance and cheap, and purchasing of used equipment and rail made it even cheaper. 

The Boys found out a small South American country was converting all of the railroads from narrow gauge to standard gauge and everything was being sold for pennies on the dollar, such a good purchase should not be missed.  So, after determining what they needed they sent a telegram and a bank wire, and next thing they knew, they were now in the railroad business along with seafood.

Turners Landing is the one and only harbor in the area, so whether it comes in or goes out it has to be here.  The pier and railroad were built and paid for by the seafood business, so the shipping rates for the folks of the area is minimal, it covers the cost of the crews and the fuel. There is also one other unique feature about this railroad, only at Turners Landing is the railroad electrified, this due to the pier and all of the wooden buildings. 

Finally, there is the village of Muddy Creek Forks, a busy place for its size. The major employer here is the Mill, which process’s the fish bits with meal to make a fish meal for animal feed.  There are the local businesses that meet the needs of the villagers and the surrounding homesteads and then there is the railroad.  MCFs is the home of the railroad with its small shop and yard.  It is here where the two internal combustion locos get serviced and fueled and any repairs that need to be made to cars is taken care of.

I would have to say that life here is pretty good and the villagers have a good quality of life, not too bad.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE RAIL ROAD

I decided many years ago to try building in 3/8’s something I had never done but always wanted to try.  I took the concept of On30 and up scaled it. The railroad lives in a separate building on our property that is 11’ x 25’, it is heated and air conditioned, with LED shop lights.  I used O standard gauge mechanisms and built everything else in 3/8’s, much like the idea of building in On30 , using HO mechanisms and parts.  I use KD O Scale No. 805 couplers, Athearn Arch Bar trucks, and code 100 rail on hand cut ties of either cedar or poplar wood.  My freight cars and cabin car are either totally scratch built or I have laser cut car frames and box car frames made by Ed and Tim Fillion at Deerfield River Models. Because there are few 3/8’s car detail parts I have to use O scale parts that look correct.

The locos have an interesting pedigree, the little box cab electric was originally a K-Line 4 wheel Plymouth Diesel.  I removed the super structure and scratch built the body and added a MTH pantograph on top.  The center cab diesel is based on the frame of an Atlas 3 axle diesel, with a scratch built drive train by the late Gordon North.  It has a Delrin chain drive with a micro motor, which produces’ a very slow and even motion.  I used two cut down Atlas hoods and a scratch built cab for the super structure.  Finally, the third loco was also a K-Line 0-4-0 Porter tank loco.  I removed the super structure and cylinders and converted it into a side rod diesel.  I used the hood from the original K-Line switcher and added a scratch built cab and additional detail parts.  All of the locos are battery powered radio control, using the Del-Tang system, a most reliable low cost unit.

All of the structures are scratch built using a variety of textures, the windows are mostly Grandt Line or Tichy O scale windows, the doors are scratch built as well.  The people, animals, and detail parts are from the 1/35 military side of the hobby.

Layout Photos