The Tie that Binds--Georgia Road

[MitchGDRMCo]

Nice livery on the ACe, is that a C855 turned into a slug in that hump consist?

[georgiaroad]

Here is a cross section of some of the switcher and four axle power on the system. As with the real railroads around here, six axle power is quickly overtaking four axle power in many places. That was the exact opposite in the 70s-80s and 1990s.

I took a page from the CCP on my switcher scheme. They painted their road power red with the green diamond, then the handfull of switchers got basic black. You could always tell the difference with the lack of color. Georgia Road has a fleet of SW and MP units. They are pretty much working the larger yards on the system. In some cases they are being retired or sold and replaced with older six axle power coupled with slugs.



Georgia Road was a NS spin-off in a backward sort of way. Many railroaders were former Southern people. May high short hoods remain, now mostly relegated to yard or road switching. As they are overhauled, much like on NS, the short hoods are being cut down for new crashworthy compliant versions. I am a fan of the NRE kit CSX is using. They are so ugly they are cute. Low short nose units get a standard EMD short hood rebuild- in- kind. The back bone of the Georgia Road fleet is the venerable 40 series six axle unit. I comes in rebuilt forms such as the SD40ME, SD40M-2, SD40-2, SD45M, SD40, etc.



Georgia Road uses cabooses on some locals. They are cabooses and not shoving platforms, though Georgia Road uses some of those too. As crews get smaller, the caboose sometimes gives the crew flexibility in road switching that no having one or having only a platform to stand on does not. The preference is for bay cabs. They bought a lot of ex UP stuff and rebuilt them. The colors are inspired by the current CN-IC treatment of ex ICG cabooses. The late model GP40-2 is a FEC original. It sports the Georgia Road OLS scheme. There are about a dozen units, each with a different slogan where the "Driven to Service" should be. You can get just these OLS decals from Highball Graphics, but you have to ask for them as Georgia Road OLS Add-on. I have the "Red Highway", white crossing gates and "Look Listen and Live" in two sizes. If you look on the Alabama Midland thread, you will see the other version. I decided I wanted something specific to my concepts. The idea was to make a set that I could add on to my standard Georgia Road set to make the OLS units, but have them generic enough that someone else could use them without any Georgia Road parameters, You can call this a shameless plug for Jim at Highball Graphics. The man is good and he has helped me a great deal in realizing my cocept into model form.





This hump slug is built off a old UP turbine frame. It was the remains of the last UP experiment in the 1970s as the three unit coal oil turbine #80. The frame was saved and shipped to an Alabama scrapper for use as a potential bridge. That never happened and the shell sat in a storage track for nearly a dozen years before being discovered by Georgia Road predecessor Georgia Midland RR. They used a lot of ex CSX ne-SCL MATE slugs. The idea here was to build a "SUPER MATE" which was two slugs on one frame in operation. The unit was used for a few years around Atlanta and to pull long cuts of grain cars around the feed mills on the old Gainesville Midland branch in North Georgia. When Georgia Road bought the GAM, the unit was stored. It was later ressurected, its pilots rebuild and put to work at the ex NS yard in Birmingham that Georgia Road purchased, reworked and named its Dale Classification Yard.



Like UP, Georgia Road has its share of RC Road control units. THese work the yard limits and some centralized industrial operations. the RC unit can double as a slug if placed with a mother equipped unit. Otherwise, it allows beltpack operation of what ever unit is coupled to it.

[georgiaroad]

That slug has a story of its own. It is actually built from the turbine frame that the big Alco used to hold it up. I bought an Athearn Veranda turbine for this kitbash. The unit I had to strip everything off the metal frame, and am in the process of building the new hood. I have the pilots and walkways done. This was one of those odd ideas that made sense. The slug is actually two slugs sharing the same frame. Each side pulls power from the locomotive coupled to it, or both pull from one side or the other. A series of switched contactors in the control panel allows the hostler to set it up in one of the two configurations. Story goes that this frame was the remains of the last big UP turbine experiment in the 1970s, the three unit #80. The frame of the middle unit was saved as a posslble bridge and was towed as a core to an Alabama scrap yard. Through wild chance, it was found and rebuilt into the slug you see now.

I will post pictures of it down the road when I get it done...

It is a lot of work!

H

[dave]

You're name is Hank right? I think I've seen your work on rrpa.

[KCSRailfan]

Hank you have inspired me to get back started modeling my Louisiana Northern RR again an to do something with the roadrailers I have bought. Great Work keep it up.

[georgiaroad]

That is me...aka Hank in AL




the reason I post in such detail is to try to inspire and give back what the hobby has given me. I have to admit too that I love sharing my efforts as there are not many modelers and no groups around my neck of the woods. This is how I pursue my version of model railroading---and I am a big mouth as you can see from all the posts...hehehehe

I spent years working on this concept, talking to a lot of good modelers. They taught me a lot about the prototype and how to model it, and working on the rail gave me a whole new perspective. My wish is not only to share all this craziness that I have created over the years, but to give a good blueprint of how to do a life-long protofreelanced concept. I am jealous of those modelers working on their second or third layout. I am still nailing down the first one, and if it sees completion you will not see me tearing it up willingly.

In my opinion, there are not enough Utah Belt, V&O or a dozen other freelance layouts out there. Maybe someone can see my stuff and say," Hey that is not so hard. I can do that". Trust me, if I can, anyone else can. It is a learning experience from the day you decide on a name and route to the day you paint your first piece of rolling stock. I prototype model when I want a rest. This type of freelancing is much harder, since it has to click with the observer.

I welcome challenges and questions alike. I just warn you. I have ten years of scheming over these concepts and I know my history. I have changed, altered, thrown away, got frustrated, give up, started back and just plain did nothing for years. It took me about two hundred concepts just to get my paint schemes the way I wanted.

But I do want all of you to know, I appreciate any questions, criticism or challenge. I have a thick skin. You have to have one to do what we do as proto freelancers. I do my share of prototype stuff. Check out the Southern SIECO pulpwood rack decals at Mask Island Decals. I have done Rock, CofGa and many others. It is fun for me, though I tend to stretch myself out thin. Never be embarassed to post your ideas, concepts and ask questions. It was all the questions and challenges that made my concept what it is. Trust me, you would not recognize it fifteen years ago. It is a learning process. If you choose to stay modern like I do, you never quit learning. Half the fun, as they say is getting there.

[georgiaroad]

If you read my layout overview, I mentioned an interline movement with Jim Walter Industries--Walter Energy. They own several mines, both deep shaft and strip form and plan to open a new one in the next two years. In my concept, this happened already in the form of the SIX MILE RR that runs from Brookwood at the Georgia Road main to a new loadout six miles away and up the ridge. Georgia Road drops off coal trains in the interchange yard and the Jim Walter railroad hauls the cars in partial cuts back and forth until a whole train of 125 cars are loaded. They also dispatch their own train with Jim Walter power north on the Georgia Road into Birmingham at Tarrant City were Walter Coke turns the met coal into coke. The Six Mile operations uses the SD38 series units for the work. Several units are true SD3802 units, while others are rebuilds from SD45s and SD40 deturbocharged and re-rated at 2000hp. These trains use a combination of JWRX lettered hoppers and some USS Cumberland Mine (PA) Ortner cars




The SD38R is a heavily rebuilt SD45 with a replacement fuel tanks and engine...

[MitchGDRMCo]

I've always wondered what it'd be like to have my freelanced creation shared on someone elses layout, I like the looks of the concept as a whole and it does seem you've created quite your own world in the south of the US.

Now, is there space for an iron ore mine on the network?

[georgiaroad]

Funny you should say that. Birmingham is set against Red Mountain, which was mined for iron ore in the 1800s and into the early 1900s when new processes made it easier to extract in the Minnesota range. Birmingham is home to USX Fairfield Seamless Pilpe, which is the last BOF mill in a city that was once known as "the Ptitsburg of the South". American Cast Iron and Pipe CO (ACIPCO) is also there, but I think they use an electric furnace to melt scrap as their input stream. There are a few foundry plants left. Two coking companies remain, Walter Coke (where my idea of for an interline movement comes from) and ABC Coke.

Iron comes from Minnesota via BNSF and from sources outside the US at the Port of Mobile. Warrior Navigation is a barge line that brings the ore up the Tennessee-Tombigbee River to Port Birmingham for transloading into old B&LE ore cars of the Birmingham Southern RR for a 30 mile run south the the USX Fairfield facility. At times, the ralroad has won contracts to haul this ore and to what used to be Gulf States Steel in Gadsden, AL about an hour north of Birmingham, AL. It has closed and torn down now. This is all reality. Mobile has a new steel mill owned by Thysen Krupp, and there is also one called Severcor on the CAGY at Greenville, MS. (Atlas makes their coil car in the CAGY/Severcor scheme). My spelling is off, so please forgive that.

The interesting thing is that in the last fes years or so, WATCO bought the line that I model as its Alabama Southern RR from Brookwood back to the KCS at Artesia. They recently bought the Birmingham Southern RR that gets to Bessemer Jct just inside greater Birmingham. They also bought the switching operation at Walter Coke. This means, if they could talk CSX out of about 40 miles of track from Brookwood to Bessemer, you would have a railroad hauling coal to CSX for export at Mobile and also be able to run its own coal trains from the mines around Brookwood to Walter Coke. Back in the 60s and 70s, Jim Walter Resources ( now renamed Walter Energy) bought US Pipe and its rail operations, called the Mary Lee RR. They ran coal from the mines to the Sloss Coke mill (now Walther Coke), dolomite from some nearby quarries and the finished coke to US Pipe at Bessemer (Called Shops on my terminal map) and foundry products and pipe back the L&N interchange at the time. CSX still maintains the Mary Lee Interlocking below their current ex L&N Boyles yard in Birmingham, but the line now only links to the now closed mill and into Bessemer.




There is a good chance that ore could actually come from your railroad by way of cargo ship to the Port of Mobile. Georgia Road hauls some ore over its Mobile to Bessemer line. It goes and comes as it is hard to beat the barge in terms of cost per ton. Recent droughts in the South have reduced the Tenn-Tom waterway at times and the rail option gets excercised. Ore is hauled in regular three bay open hoppers rebuilt for the aggregate business. Local rail people call the train the "Iron Maiden" and it is the closest thing you will find to your operation. Try 75 cars with units in the front, middle and rear in DPU mode as far as train goes. Nothing compared to the size you deal with down under, but the railroaders say it is a B ;)ch of a train to operate due to the grades and curvature. They tend to pop a few knuckles and occasionally find a bad bolster when the cars are first pulled from aggregate service for this train.

Incidently, here are the models I am working on for the SIX MILE operation. The old NW trainmaster slug is turning out pretty good.

[georgiaroad]

Here is a photo of the old Jim Walther #7 loader. It is out of service now, since they conveyor the coal mined here to the prep plant a few miles north. I took this at Brookwood, AL last year.



Here is the real Alabama Southern RR at Brookwood, Town is behind and to the south of the train, what little there is left. As you can see, the real road is a shadow of what I envision. The idea is to create a third major rail system without significantly taking major components of the Class Ones in the area.



Here is a layout plan for one of the three levels. This is not the one, but close, You can see how the SIX MILE operation works against the Georgia Road main, and see some of the Mercedes suppliers. This is where the L26 local does most of its work. I still have to fit it into the room a little better.




And last, the NS inspiration for my slugs for the SIX MILE RR... This is not my shot, but came off railroadpicturearchive.net

[georgiaroad]

The SIX MILE loader will look something like this, also not my photo, this one from the A&O Railroad in Virgina...



Next is the actual conveyor at Jim Walther #7 going to the #5 mine and prep plant. They decided to do this so they would not have to move the prep plant. It has a balloon track flood loader also



There is a smaller operation that works a strip mine to the north called Twin Pines Coal, working the old Shannon Strip mine site Here is a shot of it. These trains are exported at the Port of Mobile at a rate of four or five a week. The main is CSX headed to Birmingham. If you turned 180 degrees you would be facing southwest and Brookwood would be about ten miles to the south. There is not loop here. The strip mine is about three miles out of site to the south. This will make a great back drop model with just the loader, some Terex dumptrucks dumping and some doziers and front end loaders working the coal pile. CSX uses road power to pull the two cuts under the loader, one at a time. Then they push them out on the main and build the train once all cuts are loaded. It is a very odd track arrangement for a modern coal loadout but it allows the locomotives to pull through, has an escape switch right at the center of the picture so the locmotives can get off the train and run back up the siding to shove in the other half.

[MitchGDRMCo]

Now that's quite an interesting read, I really only knew of the Minnesota and Eastern Canada ore mines. I didn't really know of or think iron ore was mined elsewhere in the US.

I've been tossing up a tie-in with either the Canadian ore miners or starting up an operation in Minnesota and a customer in the south along with ore being exported would make it viable.

[marknycfan]

I've been following you for a while, at the yahoo group and now here. Your work is inspiring; the detail you put into explaining the modified diesel units and rolling stock is above and beyond, allthough I model the late 1950's I do plan on a few modern private road builds and will incorporate what some of what you've done here.

[georgiaroad]

The last of the first batch of QuickSilver Cold models featured here. These kits are Bowser Roadrailer kits with Custom Car Works split tandems from their 48ft roadrailer Mark III kit. Since these old kits are too old for my model, I figured I would use them for the QS Cold. Split tandems simply spread the weight better and cover trailer bridging requirements.

[georgiaroad]

I know most readers have heard of the CSX-UP joint STAX service, aimed at providing a workable pool of 53' domestic containers for coast to coast intermodal customers. From what I gather from reading, more container lines are unloading the 40ft containers into bonded warehouses at the ports where they can be inspected and assessed customs. This frieght is then loaded onto Domestic 53' containers for shipment across the US. The turn around is a three domestic to four ISO containers. This may not seem like much, but it does save space and extra cost of the extra containers.

Georgia Road and the FGC have fielded a similar program as the prototype STAX program in the form of StackFast. It links several mid and western regionals and class ones to the Deep South and Northeast. Here are some examples:

[railfan]

Very nice liveries, mate!

[Randy Earle]

Great stuff! You sure you're not the Hank in Arlen Texas?

[Jack Napier]

Wow, just wow...

Those are some beautiful models, Hank! ;D

[georgiaroad]

I am from Georgia, living in Alabama within a stone's throw of the CSX AWP-WofA Sub.

If ya'll do not mind, I will add a little more background on my concept tonight. If you go back through the thread, you will find references to Twin Pines Coal. Along with the Jim Walter Resources SIX MILE RR that I have mentioned in detail, there is a smaller loadout a few miles to the north that is a recent customer addition to the line In doing research, I found out that Twin Pines Coal is actually a subsidiary of Drummond Coal. Drummond is also based in ALabama, but pretty much moved out of the States to work a coal seam in South America. They have a colorful reputation of being a bad corporate citizen over their history, constantly getting in trouble with envoromental and labor concerns. I think that is why they left Alabama and the states, looking to find dirt cheap labor and no regulation in South America. In the last few years, they were cited by international organizations about how they were taking advantage of local people near the Pribbenow and El Descanso mines near La Loma in the Cesar Department in northern Colombia, the worlds largest open pit coal mine. You can look up the details, but it involved hiring paramilitary to "remove" union leaders to keep the mine under total control. (it is amazing what you find looking around).

At any rate, the Twin Pines operation is a distant subsidiary and I could not find any real info until a meta search turned up this info about ownership by Drummond. Drummond also owns Alabama By- Products, or ABC, their in house coking outfit.

I went to all this trouble looking for a logo for the two units I plan to build for the operation. You can see by the pictures that the CSX coal trains (Georgia Road in my world) bring the train in, break it into two cuts, run around each cut and shove into two spurs behind the loader. There is actually a "sneak out" set of crossovers at the end of the two spur that allows the locomotives to pull the first cut in, slip out and return for the second cut. Then the power uses a connection to the siding to escape the second spur. I think CSX uses its own power to pull the cars under the loader once the mine hauls enough coal from the actual pit several miles south to the load out. This is a scaled down version of what happens in Columbia on their dedicated railroad from mine loadout to port. In the case of Twin Pines, the coal is forwarded to the Port of Mobile, AL for shipment as export coal.

I have a penchant for the RSSX/Railserve LEAF conversions. I thought it would be neat to have a couple of these units acting as the "pull out" power to run the cars under the loadout.
I plan to take an Atlas GP unit and do the conversion, but that is another thread and another day.

Here is the LEAF concept. My original thought was to go with the Railserve colors, then add a vinyl sticker under the cab with the Twin Pines logo.


After finding out about Drummond being the owner, I have to say I like the corporate colors...

This is their export locomotives working in Columbia. The ABC Coke SW units are in a similar scheme.



Here is the Columbia coal loadout. They use multiple trains and balloon loading and unloading tracks for continuous operations. Twin Pines is not quite as big, but the load out configuration is close, though scaled down (great for modeling!)

[georgiaroad]

Here is a picture of the actual RailServe LEAF unit--credit for picture is from Internet Source--not mine