Model Railroading > The O scale A&O

After nearly a decade of basement construction, bench work building, track laying, wiring, testing, ctc system design and installation... the first significant scenery has begun!  Her is a shot from the Kayford branch.  An Appalachian and Ohio GP35 pulls a short coal local out of a tunnel and across a bridge.  The A&O is a freelanced coal hauler modeled by my good friend David Stewart.  Set in 1969 and the mountains of West Virginia, this is a 2 rail O scale layout.

If you have a moment, or are interested in 2rail O scale, take a look: www.aorailroad.com

 

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/16 09:49 by rnb3.

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Congratulations on reaching this significant milestone!   Great work by the entire A&O 2.0 crew.  Can't wait to see it in person.... 

John Parker
Longmont, CO
BNSF Fall River Division

bnsfbuff Wrote:
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> Congratulations on reaching this significant
> milestone!   Great work by the entire A&O 2.0
> crew.  Can't wait to see it in person.... 

John, Thanks, we can't wait to show it!!!!  Bob is getting very close to having the CTC finished, meaning op-sessions can't be far behind!  

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO

Beautiful looking work.Is this the same layout that appeared in print some years ago ,or a rebuild.Looks fantastic.
Regards,DK

Was it you that several years ago had a video of an A-B-A set of EMD F7's on a coal train with fantastic sound effects? If so, I hope that footage is still around - I'd love to see (and hear) it again.

Congrats on the layout - love OS2R.

Bob

ATSF100WEST......Out

DKay Wrote:
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> Beautiful looking work.Is this the same layout
> that appeared in print some years ago ,or a
> rebuild.Looks fantastic.
> Regards,DK

DK, thanks for your comments!  David's first full 2 rail O scale layout was in the May 2006 Model Railroader.  The plans for the new layout where in the 2009 MR Planning.  This shot is from the new layout; we call it A&O 2.0!  There have been a few individual shots of 2.0 in MR Planning over the last few years.

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO

ATSF100WEST Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Was it you that several years ago had a video of
> an A-B-A set of EMD F7's on a coal train with
> fantastic sound effects? If so, I hope that
> footage is still around - I'd love to see (and
> hear) it again.

That is the efforts of another from our modeling group; Bob Sobol.  He is a real artist with anything electronic!  He also has done an amazing job finishing several O scale locomotives including that A-B-A set of F7s.  At the A&O website and forum, he has a couple different threads about the sound in those locomotives as well as a few others.  We have a group of about a dozen or more who regularly work on the layout or projects for the layout. 

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO

You need a UP SD50 or a CNW SD50 for the real A&O .And throw in an ex BAR GP38.

GRS

bridgeportsub Wrote:
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> You need a UP SD50 or a CNW SD50 for the real A&O
> .And throw in an ex BAR GP38.
>
> GRS

Yeah, the thing is, the model version of the Appalachian & Ohio predates the real world version by nearly 2 decades!  David started his freelance model railroad back in 1978.  Around Y2K, David started to get job applications from people looking for work.  One day he got a phone call from the Canadian Pacific RR asking if he would be submitting payment for freight car usage!  As it turned out, people with real world business with the up-start real world A&O where miss-understanding the contact info on David's model railroad A&O website.  Of real interest to us is that these people would have had to actually look at the cover page of the website to get David's contact info, as actually the wording is a picture to prevent robot searching and harvesting.  This contact info picture is below a picture of David standing next to his model layout!

At one time, the up-start real world A&O asked David to give up his web address!  David said no (its part of David's son's business)!  We were amused when the upstart real world A&O painted their locos, they used a diamond shaped logo that was VERY similar to David's version! 

We have had a lot of fun because of this up-start, and David has elected to view it as a honor to his original concept.  In model railroading, the idea is to make a believable scene; I guess you have succeeded when an actual railroad copies it!

Rick Bacon
Windsor, CO

Very interesting. When the A&O first opened up it was a Watco operation. Now its a Paducah & Louisville operation. With the coal business about gone,the only power is 6 GMTX GP 38-2's. If you ever need more A&O info ,let me know. I'm only about 20 miles from it. When the Watco A&O started up they left the UP shields on the locomotives.. The FRA then got on them and told them they had to put A&O on them . They then used the UP shield with A&O replacing the UP. Then the UP got on them and then that when they went to the diamond logo.

GRS



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/16 09:58 by bridgeportsub.

ATSF100WEST Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Was it you that several years ago had a video of
> an A-B-A set of EMD F7's on a coal train with
> fantastic sound effects? If so, I hope that
> footage is still around - I'd love to see (and
> hear) it again.
>
> Congrats on the layout - love OS2R.
>
> Bob
>
> ATSF100WEST......Out

There were two videos shot of the P&D F3s running on David's previous layout. These units have since been converted from Soundtraxx DSX to Loksound V4L decoders for cleaner sound. I have 6 more waiting to be built.

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-TcL8J2Z/0/640/i-TcL8J2Z-640.mp4

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-9NWpwn7/0/640/i-9NWpwn7-640.mp4

All the best.
Bob

Rick's story about a prototype railroad trying to collect car payments from David's O-scale A&O is literally true. He's also received offers for financing, car and locomotive cleaning, and employment resumes. In my opinion one interaction with the CN "takes the cake."

Back in 2006, David started receiving emails from a certain person at CN identified here only as "B", for monthly Car Hire reports since 2005 in the amount of $73,718. It was at first an innocent mistake. In one email David replied:

Good Morning "B"
I received your inquiry regarding outstanding Car Hire as pertains to the A&O.  I am afraid my model railroading budget does not quite cover such an amount. All the rolling stock I possess is currently packed away in the basement, and I don’t recall any CN cars in the group. You may wish to inquire of Watco’s A&O for this debt. I’m sure their pockets are deeper than mine.
Sincerely,
David Stewart
www.aorailroad.com

Alas this was not sufficiently clear for the CN. And to be fair, the email was also CC: to an email address at Watco, the operator of the A&O at that time. To get David's email address, it would necessarily to view his model railroad's home web page, which clearly showed a photo of him operating an O scale train, ignore the text about this being a model railroad, then click on a link at the bottom of that page.

To make a very long and at times a stressful story short, after the CN became even more concerned and threatened with collection agencies, I sent following email, again with a name removed.

To: “B”@cn.ca
Subject: Re: Car Hire payments

“B” -

I confess that I and other recipients of this email have received no end of enjoyment from the CN"s difficulties of receiving timely payment from the Watco Company. This is not to say that any recipient of your email believes that a debt should not be promptly paid by the debtor. Nor is it to in any way demean any dedicated person such as yourself who wishes to do business according to honest principles.

Our enjoyment comes because CN wishes to collect Car Hire payments from a model railroad (toy train) instead of an actual railroad company.

To be clear, David Stewart IS the President of the Appalachian & Ohio Railroad Company, a model railroad empire and has been so for very many years. And he the rightful owner of the web site www.aorailroad.com on which he is listed as President.

But the problem is, this is a model railroad empire that he created very many years ago. Long before before Watco negotiated a lease for part of the old B&O in West Virginia, David was running a model Appalachian & Ohio model train layout in HO scale and then in O scale in his basement.

You can see photos of the O-scale A&O model trains in the May 2006 issue of Model Railroader, which should be available at your local library. Or you can direct your web browser to http://www.aorailroad.com, and look at the photo of David running a model train on the front page.

Now as for car payments:
In a recent time, the short line operator Watco negotiated with CSX to run a former B&O branch and they also chose the name their new lease the Appalachian & Ohio Railroad. And it was probably Watco that received full-size cars from the CN, not the 1:48 scale model railroad empire operated for decades by my friend David, because the full-size couplers on CN cars would never couple with the model 1:48 reduced size couplers on David's models.

I can personally vouch that no CN rolling stock could ever successfully fit inside David's model railroad basement nor his garage, and that there is no way that he could have leased cars from CN because there are no interchange tracks between his model O-scale railroad and any full-size railroad.

May I suggest that we all enjoy a long and hearty laugh before redirecting all the payment requests and collection agencies to Watco?

Unfortunately, David has not received any copyright payments from Watco for the use of the Appalachian & Ohio trademark name. Do you have any advice, or should we contact the Union Pacific's lawyers and talk to the "experts"?

Have a great day, and a fun laugh.
----------------------------------------------
Bob Sobol

A light bulb turned on and "B" replied:

Thanks, Bob - this is hilarious. Obviously I didn't quite understand the reply from David - it makes sense
now that you explain it!!!

Have a good day.
"B"
CN Car Accounting

The truth is out there.

Bob