Hard to believe, but it’s been over a year away from any serious modeling or blog posting. As any follower of the blog knows, this hasn’t been the first time for a break in the hobby for me. Thanks to several friends’ modeling efforts though, model railroading has never been too far away.
Recently, while cleaning up dust bunnies on my modeling desk, I pondered why over the last two decades have there been so many starts and stops to various projects. A stroll through past blog posts can easily confirm the many starts and stops. I never did find an answer to the frequent stops and starts, besides there seem to be many factors that caused me to stop one project and move on.
One contributing factor was not have a place to put the layout. Any layout was always being moved around in the basement, I decide to fix that issue by working on framing out my basement and creating an area for my woodworking, model train, and board game hobbies. Having a dedicated work area is a must.
I’m doing all the work myself, in my limited spare time. Everything means just that framing, wiring, insulation, Sheetrock, and painting. Takes time when you have 15 to 30 minutes here and there, but I’m getting there. I’m almost at the end of a 40 foot long wall, and almost to the pivotal corner at the back of our basement.
The good news, that long wall is going to be home to my model trains, and the work areas for modeling. So stay tuned, a new modeling project is coming soon!
Through the last quarter of the 19th century, the Northern Maryland freight revenues increased. Inbound coal, both anthracite for home heating and bituminous coal used by the railroad and online businesses were a major part of the increase. Slate products from northern Hartford county and wood to and from the various mill were also major online freight products. Moving agricultural products, the reason the railroad was built always brought money to the balance sheet. To move all of this, the railroad relied heavily on its three Moguls. At times, they even were used in passenger service to cover for one of the two Americans. The addition of the ten-wheelers in the late 1880s caused a reshuffling of motive power with the Americans only handling the Westminster to Manchester passenger and freight service. One mogul worked the Manchester to Hanover turn, one handled the Manchester to Bel Air turn, and one handled the Manchester to Parkton turn. By 1914, the Manchester to Parkton turn had become a mixed train following the Hanover to Parkton morning passenger train. The mixed ran six days weekly except Sundays. The freight varied daily, but the combine and L.C.L boxcar were always part of the train.
In 1914, both second number one, a Baldwin 8-22D, and the rebuilt Cooke Mogul were used on the Parkton Branch mixed. Let’s take a look at a similar prototype and potential models for the Baldwin Mogul.
I have always liked the rebuilt Nevada County Narrow Gauge Mogul #5, featured on the dust jacket of Gerald M. Best’s Nevada County Narrow Gauge. I have always liked John Hugh Coker print and use it as the prototype of the Northern Maryland’s mixed train that served Beckleysville. The engine is currently preserved at the Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad museum, which you can visit online here. The museum has a brief history of the engine’s long and storied work life. As for models of this little engine, I am not as fortunate. I could only find that it was made in On3 by Iron Horse Models. Here is a photograph of the model on the Brasstrains.com website. I have never been able to find this model though or I would have considered building Beckleysville in O scale. Fortunately, Railmaster Exports has a generic Baldwin 8-20/22D kit which I purchased with some extra parts to create a similar version of the rebuilt “5”.
Before I go any further, an explanation of Baldwin Locomotive Companies unique classification system. I found an excellent explanation at the SOuthern Methodist University’s Degolyer Library. If you are interested in learning more, go to this website. Below is a section that I accessed to make it easy to understand.
Baldwin Class Numbers:The Baldwin Class number was a rather complicated classification system initiated in 1842 and used until some time around 1940. For example, The class number for the Nevada-California-Oregon Railway can be described in the following manner.
10-24 D 35
35 = Indicates the 35th locomotive in the class.
D = 3 pairs of driving wheels
24 = Number representing size of cylinder
10 = Indicates a total of 10 wheels
a. The initial number is the total number of wheels of all kinds under the locomotive. The second number indicates the cylinder diameter in inches, the cylinder diameter being obtained by dividing the classification number by 2 and adding 3 to the quotient. The above classification number of 24 indicates a cylinder diameter of (24 ÷ 2) + 3 = 15.
A fraction, 42/68 indicates a compound locomotive having two sizes of cylinders.
c. The letter designation indicates the number of pairs of coupled driving wheels.
“A” = special class of high speed geared locomotive with one pair of driving wheels. Also rack railroad locomotives.
“B” = one pair of driving wheels.
“C” = two pairs of coupled driving wheels.
“D” = three pairs of coupled driving wheels.
“E” = f our pairs of coupled driving wheels.
“F” = five pairs of coupled driving wheels.
Double letters = articulated locomotives having more than one set of coupled driving wheels.
Now if I use the Baldwin classification system correctly, the NCNG 5 has cylinder size of 13×16 inches. This makes it an 8-20D. It has smaller cylinders than my Railmaster Export models, but I can live with that difference of 2 inches.
Next post, I want to spend some time discussing the Northern Maryland’s lone non-Baldwin engine, a Cooke Mogul.
Northern Maryland’s Baldwin Moguls
Picture of a finished Railmaster Export 8-22D kit attached to my box.
Model Railroad Imagineerings 