Chesapeake & Appalachian Railway

Introduction to the C&A Railway

Brian Donovan — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 04:38:27 +0000

The Chesapeake & Appalachian Railway is a small freight (especially coal and lumber) and passenger line running from the northern Chesapeake Bay through central Maryland and out to the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. The year is 1951 when big diesel power was in its infancy and steam power was struggling to survive in the post war era. C&A motive power is primarily a rag tag group of second hand small steam locomotives with both narrow and standard gauge trackage. The CAR also shares trackage with the B&O, PRR and even an occasional NYC train is seen rumbling through.

The CAR came into existence the Spring of 2006. The plan of the CAR as grown since its inception as a fairly simple two loops of 250 feet of stainless steel track. The CAR runs a mix of 1:22.5 and 1:24 scale narrow gauge equipment along with 1:29 scale standard gauge trains. Spring of 2007 brought westward expansion into the mountains adding 100 feet of track and an additional 10 switches including connecting the inner and outer loops. We run primarily track power but have been adding battery power and hope to soon have mini operating sessions. Here is the current track plan -

The CAR is owned by me, Brian (and technically 50% by my wife, Marge ). When I am not playing with trains, I run my own landscape design/build business in the Washington D.C./suburban Maryland area. It is called alternative terrain and can be found on the web at alternativeterrain.com. I am also active in my garden railway club, the Washington, Virginia, & Maryland Garden Railway Society (wvmgrs.org). I was recently elected President of the club for the year 2008.

Building the C & A Railway

Brian Donovan — Thu, 18 May 2006 18:53:41 +0000

My garden railway was started in the Spring of 2006. The railway was designed to fit into an existing garden in a back corner of our property. It had been mostly planted with a few small trees, shrubs and tall groundcover type perennials. I only had to move two of the perennials. A flagstone patio and gazebo (my garden folly) had already been planned (and mostly built) for the site so it would make a great spot to sit and watch trains run.

Track is down & Running trains!

Brian Donovan — Tue, 30 May 2006 05:23:08 +0000

Track was laid and the power supply hooked up. I’m running track power with a Crest Ultima 10 amp power supply with a splitter to two Crest 10 amp controllers (1 for each loop). Some pics of running trains -

-Brian

C&A Structures

Brian Donovan — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 03:27:34 +0000

My structure section includes short blurbs on my scratch built, kitbashed and some of the more unusual kit buildings on my layouts. None of buildings on my layout are pre-made out-of-a-box!

-Brian

the Railfanning Spot!

Brian Donovan — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 04:09:03 +0000

This patio / gazebo was planned and mostly built before the inception of the garden railway. The patio is irregular flagstone set on concrete sand. The gazebo is set on 4″x4″ posts covered with 6″ pipe painted with a sandstone finish. It is basic frame construction up top. It has cedar shingle siding and roof. It is equipped with electricity with a big three speed fan for warm summer nights and lights.

-Brian

Pennsy Tool Shed

Brian Donovan — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 03:13:50 +0000

This is a 1:24 scale tool shed from PRR standard plans. It is from a Train Stuff kit. The kit is urethane castings that are a bit thin, had heavy flash, and no roofing material is provided. Once cleaned up, reinforced and painted it came out nice. I added a metal chimney, an asphalt roll roof (tread tape) and raised it on a concrete base (painted foam board).

-Brian

Donovan's Pub

Brian Donovan — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:20:25 +0000

Donovan’s Pub is my first scratch built structure. It is basically two building flats (front and back) of pink foam board covered with Precision Products veneers. The roof is 1/4″ hardibacker board also covered with PP veneer. It fits in a town block of Piko kit buildings.

-Brian

O'Brien's Feed & Tractor Supply

Brian Donovan — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 21:49:55 +0000

O’Brien’s is a Colorado Model Structures Virginia Mills Graining Co. kit. It was altered a bit by converting the wood vent stacks into brick chimneys. It sits on top of a section of old concrete sidewalk.

-Brian