The 'Scout' arrives, cannons, and warehouse

It's been a very long time since the last substantive update here, so I'll give a few with photos. The pandemic has been difficult here in North Jersey. We were one of the first hot spots in the nation. Our county saw the state's first death. I've been working remotely from the office since March, though the second job remains in-person, as it's essential. That would normally be a formula to get plenty of work done on the layout, but not so much in this reality. The boys are home from school, too, meaning all our extra time is devoted to working with them and other parental duties usually reserved for only non-school hours. Still, I've managed to get a few things done.

The 'Scout'

The Scout.

I've been waiting a long time to finally dive in and re-letter an engine. The PRR 1510 was the first candidate since I already painted over its old letters and numbers. Now it's the locomotive Scout, and I must say it looks very handsome in its new digs. I don't believe there's a prototype photo for Scout, so it's really up to the modeler with this one.

It retains pretty much everything from before, including the Rogers style smokestack and strap iron cowcatcher. I did add another coat of bright red paint to the cowcatcher to better align with the nameplate and tender letter accent color. Needs a little more detail work, but for now it's a great improvement. Next up will be one of the B&O twins.

Bring up the guns! And new warehouse.

In my effort to avoid doing difficult track work or layout redesigns, I've focused on fleshing out the scenery and miniatures. This round brought six 3-inch ordnance rifles and caissons, three barbette rifles and platforms, and three stacks of cannonballs.

I thought I took some closeups of the barbette guns, but will have to come back with those later. Right now I have no place for them on the layout, but there is a photo of those guns in Alexandria guarding the port. They're definitely for use in prepared fortifications. I don't have anything like that on the current layout. If I make any major changes to it, maybe I'll add some kind of fort. Otherwise, these guns will have to hibernate until I can build the new layout next year or the year after.

The six-gun battery of 3-inch ordnance rifles are lined up in storage at the yard. This is one of the best reasons to model in N scale: volume. In most larger scales, six cannons and caissons would be a major expense. In N scale, this entire battery cost less than $100.

At first I was going to use the Parrott Rifle barrels, but decided to use the 3-inch ordnance since they were far more common during the Civil War.

In the background, you'll see a small coal shed kit I picked up, too. With a little weathering, it's the kind of building that adds necessary detail and depth. 

Probably should've cropped this photo better, but it is what it is. The new warehouse is the Micro-Trains Grain Co-Op kit. It has all the right lines for a structure of the Civil War era. And with a sharp coat of dark green paint with white trim, it fits very nicely. It's also the first two-story building on the layout.

I liked this one so much, I bought another a few weeks later super cheap on eBay. I obviously can't paint it the same color as this one. I'm still working out what I want to do there. Also under consideration is a bit of a modification to make them look a little more different, but again, still thinking about it.

The USMRR Armored Train Set

Below you'll see a couple photos of the U.S.M.R.R. Armored Train set from Micro-Trains Civil War Era line. This arrived a while back, but after I took a break from posting. So with all the catching up, I wanted to make sure these got into this post. The set is very nice, as is nearly all of MTL's stuff.

However, I'm a little disappointed in a few things. The first is that they included a conductor car / caboose, when a standard box car would've likely been the better fit. Next, the armored cars are decently detailed, but not as much as I'd hoped. A little weathering will go a long, long way with these. Lastly, the two Dictator mortars are nothing but plastic, when I was expecting either GHQ-quality or similar. The bores don't even extend far enough into the miniature so you can't see where it ends. They look very toy-like, rather than model quality I've come to expect from MTL. But overall I have no regret purchasing the armored train set. It'll go very well in a vignette on the layout somewhere.

I Miss Reenacting

Note: I've been saving this post, waiting for a good time to publish. I've not had much time to work on the layout during the outbreak, since we're two working parents with two young school-aged children. This seems to be as good a time as ever.

I Miss Reenacting

Me and my father, not sure which event, but sometime in 1999.
Feels almost as long ago as the real Civil War.

About 155 years ago, I was a Civil War reenactor. At least that's how long ago it feels now looking back on it all. It was a natural fit for me. I loved World War II, as did many in my generation of grandchildren, and had been wanting to be a soldier much of my life. Then I saw the movie Gettysburg. Then we went to Gettysburg. The next summer we saw our first Civil War reenactments,  also at Gettysburg. I used the plural because there were two reenactments that summer, similar to how things have been lately, with the organizations competing against one another like children. And within weeks, we were suiting up for our first event at Museum Village in Monroe, NY.

The next five years it seemed everything was about the Civil War. I loved every minute of it, and it made the other difficulties in live just a bit more tolerable. At the same time this was going on in the mid-90s, I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and my parents were having difficulties, at one point separating for a few months. But around when the photo above was taken, things had gotten much better. My Crohn's was more under control and my parents had settled many of their issues.

Soon, though, Civil War reenacting faded out. I can't really remember any events after 1999. I'd have to check photos. But if there were any in 2000, the memories of them have also faded. Possibly it was that none of us believed there would really be anything better than the 135th anniversary events like Antietam 1997 or Gettysburg 1998. Just as the real battle was deemed the Confederacy's High Water Mark, that 1998 Gettysburg reenactment was definitely the High Water Mark of the hobby. 30,000 soldiers. Nearly full-scale battles each day, including the only truly full-scale Pickett's Charge ever reenacted.

That's me in the circle. We built those breastworks
about an hour before the battle. 

In the official 135th Gettysburg video, you can see me for about 1.5 seconds during the battle for Culp's Hill. I highly recommend watching the full video to get a real sense of how mammoth that reenactment truly was...

We started by joining the 40th New York, Co. D and later Co. F--"Mozart Regiment," or "Constitution Guard." After a collapse of that unit for a number of reasons (mostly immaturity), we then moved to the 11th New Jersey, Co. H. Most of the old members from the Mozart Regiment with whom we wanted to continue reenacting helped build out the ranks. We found a niche as one of the few units to portray a Color Guard. At the 135th Gettysburg, we fielded a full 16-man Color Guard and were probably the only unit at the event to do so. In fact, I've never seen that anywhere else.

During our time with the 11th, our unit joined as an affiliate unit with 7th New Jersey, Co. A, part of the 2nd New Jersey Brigade, under the umbrella organization of the United States Volunteers (USV).

I miss it more than I have in a long time. For a good 10-15 years, I was so busy with college, starting a career, starting a family, that reenacting was just something we'd think about very little. There was no more money for that kind of hobby, and definitely no more time.

But now, I guess, that my boys are getting older and our family is maturing, I've been thinking about how much I'd love to get back into something like reenacting. The problem is that I'm concerned my memories of it are warping my view of what it'll be like if I returned. If nothing else, the political landscape today would make it almost unbearable sitting around a campfire for hours on end with those guys, even the Union reenactors.

Still, it'd be interesting to give it a shot, even if not right away. It would be wonderful if I could get to an event before my dad is too old to participate, and have my own boys there with us. But that would be another five years at least before they're both old enough.

So for now, I'll just have to enjoy the memories of what was a great period of my life, and--little did I know it at the time--closest I'd ever get to joining the army.