Sunday, May 3, 2015

Operating the Virginia Midland


Yesterday had a great time operating Steve King's Virginia Midland in Germantown, Md. 
For many years we've gently kidded Steve for the …uh, "lack" of VM painted locomotives. In fact he ran the railroad for many years with a fleet of undecorated locos, which he jokingly refers to as the "Appalachian Stealth" scheme. 
There is one VM-painted Appalachian Lines locomotive on the roster, shown here. 
Over the last few months Steve has gotten 46 locomotives painted in the VM's own olive green scheme. 
There's even a little bit of scenery on the railroad. 
I was too busy having a great time running trains to do a lot of photo, but I did manage to get a photo in one of the staging yards showing the original VM "paint scheme" (on the left), the Appalachian Lines unit, and the two VM units in the original VM second generation scheme. 
Steve operates the railroad using Timetable & Train Order, which he is an expert at. 
A great time with good friends. 

1 comment:

Blane Pebesma said...

I wish his layout and efforts were covered more in the model railroading press like those of neighbouring Allegheny Midland and Virginian & Ohio. Given its rarity, I've been curious to learn more about it.