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akimmons
Fireman
Premium Member
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 Posted - 12/04/2007 : 2:09:42 PM
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November Fifteenth, Nineteen Hundred Fifty-Six
Royal and Edisto Railroad
Front Street
Royal, South Carolina
Dear Sirs,
The Royal and Edisto Railroad was founded in the late 1890s by three Lowcountry businessmen, including my grandfather, Luther. They envisioned a 100 mile mainline between Charleston and Savannah that would link Port Royal Harbor with inland South Carolina and Georgia. They expected their local ownership and business contacts would woo many customers away from the Atlantic Coast Line and the Seaboard Air Line, both of which had existing lines along that route.
Unfortunately, their perceptions of their standing in the community were, shall we say, exaggerated. That, combined with the difficult economic times, led to slow growth, high debt and an uncertain future. (The mainline rails never made it to either Charleston or Savannah. In the East they terminate at an interchange with the Seaboard at Coosaw; in the west, at an end-to-end connection with the Southern Railway’s line out of Columbia at Edisto, near the ACL’s mainline.)
But fate intervened in the Nineteen Teens as the country prepared for war in Europe. The tiny port facilities along Port Royal Sound were expanded and improved to handle the overflow from the already crowded ports at Charleston and Savannah. By now, my father was running the railroad and he made the most of the circumstances. The RnE prospered right up until the Big Crash in ’29.
During the Thirties the railroad struggled just to make payroll. Despite his heroic and often desperate efforts, my father was forced by his creditors to sell a majority of the shares in the RnE to a consortium led by the Southern and the Central of Georgia. Both roads had long sought a route to Port Royal to compete with the ACL’s subsidiary Charleston & Western Carolina. My father was successful, however, in preserving the Royal and Edisto as a stand alone business and remaining as its President.
With war again looming on the horizon, business began improving in the early Forties and was booming by the end of the decade. My father retired six years ago and passed the leadership of the railroad to me.
The Royal and Edisto remains a profitable enterprise today though our best years may be behind us. The construction of the interstate highway system and the growing use of trucks by smaller shippers have created new competitors for us. Of course, hardly anyone travels by train anymore and we discontinued passenger service a few years ago. This has led us to trim costs wherever possible. Our right of way may not be as handsome as some of the bigger roads and all of our locomotives are hand-me-downs from our corporate big sisters. Yet we have survived, which is an accomplishment many other short lines can not claim. And we continue to offer outstanding service to you, our valued customers. We thank you for your loyalty.
Humbly submitted,
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Arnold Kimmons
General Manager
Royal & Edisto Railroad
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19182 |
Country: USA
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ChrisS
Section Hand
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 Posted - 12/04/2007 : 5:12:03 PM
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Sounds like an interesting railroad. Can't wait to see more!
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leeflan
Fireman
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Posted - 12/04/2007 : 6:33:25 PM
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Great introductory story, Arnold! Look forward to hearing a lot more about the line.
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Country: USA
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MarkF
Engineer
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akimmons
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/05/2007 : 11:15:01 AM
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Thanks for the postitive comments. Here's an overview of the layout and the trackplan.
The Royal and Edisto Railroad occupies an 18’ x 16’ room in my basement. The room was finished with a drop ceiling, painted floor (carpeted in the future) and coved corners. I plan to build the railroad in phases with each phase being completed and detailed before moving on to the next one. To me there are two main benefits to this approach. First, I can have a completed model railroad (though partial and small) sooner. And second, this will break up some of the monotonous but necessary tasks like benchwork, tracklaying and wiring into smaller chunks. The downside is that once the first phase is complete, the room becomes off-limits to saws, drills and other dust-creating tools.
Phase One consists of a four track, double-ended staging yard in my shop, connected on both ends to a 22” x 16’ shelf in the layout room. One leg of this loop represents the end-to-end connection with the Southern Railway at Edisto. (I offer my apologies to the good folks of Hardeeville SC, which is where the Southern line out of Columbia ends in the real world, for renaming and downsizing their fine town.) The other end is an interchange track for the Atlantic Coast Line. The RnE works a spur in Edisto that services two small customers. The RnE mainline heads east from Edisto toward Port Royal Harbor, the town of Royal and its eventual terminus at Coosaw.
I am building the layout in sections that are movable in case I have to relocate in the future. Phase One is seven sections -- three for the staging yard and four for Edisto and the surrounding area. Benchwork is standard open grid with risers supporting ¾” plywood subroadbed. The scenery base will be 1” insulating foam. I believe this combination will give me the best of both worlds -- the strength and quiet operation of plywood with the ease of scenery construction on the foam. Both the plywood and the foam will be sealed with primer or paint to minimize expansion and contraction. In addition, I have installed a dehumidifier in the basement which helps keep the summertime humidity under control.
The track plan shows how I envision fitting the railroad into my layout room. Phase One (roughly the area with the green trees) is accurate in terms of track location and structure choices. The rest of the plan is just a general idea of where the mainline will go and what I want the scenery and structures to look like. I like the overall benchwork plan (though I am open to changing it as building progresses) as it has mostly generous aisles and a large operating pit where two or three adults can stand or sit comfortably. I may add another staging yard under the scenery along the continuous run connection beyond Coosaw.
That’s enough (maybe too much ) for now. The trackplan will be in the next post.
Oh, BTW, there’s an ulterior motive behind the name of the railroad. I’m sure one of you riddle-meisters will uncover it quickly.
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Arnold Kimmons
General Manager
Royal & Edisto Railroad
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19182 |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1354 |
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akimmons
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/05/2007 : 11:24:50 AM
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Here's the RnE trackplan. It's a little (OK, a lot  ) crude but I think you'll get the gist of it. The turnouts in the undeveloped sections are TBD. Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.
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Arnold Kimmons
General Manager
Royal & Edisto Railroad
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19182 |
Edited by - akimmons on 02/12/2009 1:40:16 PM |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1354 |
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akimmons
Fireman
Premium Member
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MarkF
Engineer
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Posted - 12/05/2007 : 12:12:50 PM
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Ok, I'm first on this one Arnold. The riddle... RnE, sounded out like 'arnie', as in Arnold?
I really like your track plan. Sounds like you've thought this one out clearly and everything is well planned. I can't wait to see some construction pics.
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Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Country: USA
| Posts: 9327 |
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brakie
Moderator
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/05/2007 : 4:26:57 PM
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Sounds good..The layout looks good.
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Larry
Engineman
Slate Creek Rail.
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Country: USA
| Posts: 6979 |
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akimmons
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/05/2007 : 6:19:15 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by MarkF
Ok, I'm first on this one Arnold. The riddle... RnE, sounded out like 'arnie', as in Arnold?
Mark, you got it. Wasn't very hard I know but my wife likes it and she's the Comptroller of the railroad if you get my drift.
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Arnold Kimmons
General Manager
Royal & Edisto Railroad
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19182 |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1354 |
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MarkF
Engineer
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akimmons
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/07/2007 : 08:33:56 AM
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Hey there Crew,
Just in case y'all thought the RnE was all marketing blah blah or Carolina hooey, here's pics of some real work! The phase one benchwork and track are finished, except for the spur which is really scenery anyway. The staging yard wiring is done, all that's left is the main layout.
This is what you see when you open the layout room door
Here's a shot from across the room
Moving left to right (west to east)
The 4 track staging yard in the workshop
And a couple of trackwork pics
Time to fire up the soldering iron and drop a few leads so we can run some trains!
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Arnold Kimmons
General Manager
Royal & Edisto Railroad
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19182 |
Edited by - akimmons on 03/10/2009 7:49:11 PM |
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Tabooma County Rwy
Fireman
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Posted - 12/07/2007 : 10:24:40 AM
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Arnold, that is some very substantial, good looking benchwork! And your backdrop looks good too....what did you use for the backdrop material?
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Country: USA
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leeflan
Fireman
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Posted - 12/07/2007 : 10:45:29 AM
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WOW! That's really lookin' good, Arnold. Smooth solid benchwork, nice backdrop, good looking trackwork. Look forward to seeing more.
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Country: USA
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k9wrangler
Fireman
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Posted - 12/07/2007 : 11:09:26 AM
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I'm in awe of the room and finish carpentry around the layout sections, excellent!
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Karl Scribner
H.M.F.W.B.I.C.
Kentucky Southern Rwy & Associated Lines
Sunfield Twp. Michigan
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Country: USA
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akimmons
Fireman
Premium Member
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Posted - 12/07/2007 : 1:40:45 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Tabooma County Rwy
Arnold, that is some very substantial, good looking benchwork! And your backdrop looks good too....what did you use for the backdrop material?
Thanks Al. I'm fortunate that started with an unfinished basement and was able to build the layout room so that most of the backdrop is (are?) the walls. For the coved corners I used a peice of Formica. It's thin, flexible and tough. It's fairly expensive but I was able to use one sheet to do all the corners. Using a level as a straightedge I scored the wallboard where I wanted the Formica to fit. Then I peeled away about 6" of the paper and sanded/filed out a notch/trough to the depth of the Formica. It took a little trail and error but in the end the coves just snapped into the walls. I glued them in with Liquid Nails but I'm not sure it's necessary if you get a tight fit. A little tape and joint compound on the seam and you're done.
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Arnold Kimmons
General Manager
Royal & Edisto Railroad
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=19182 |
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Country: USA
| Posts: 1354 |
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