Piedmont Pilgrimage Layout Tours

Greetings All,

The 2017 Piedmont Pilgrimage billed as the 15th annual tour of the Atlanta areas great model railroads is well under way. The event is sponsored by the NMRA / Piedmont Division SER of the NMRA and Scale Trains.com. For more on the event click the link 
www.piedmontpilgrimage.com

Two new layouts were on the tour this year that were close to my house so on a Saturday afternoon with a little free time I made the move and went layout visiting. 

The first stop was the home of Patrick Parker to visit his Ocmulgee River Belt Line. Upon arrival I was greeted by Patrick's wife and either mother or mother in law. Both were friendly and after signing in was directed to the train room on the second floor of the home. Once upstairs I was greeted by the host, Patrick and his friend Walt Liles who was manning the throttle(s) and keeping the trains rolling. Both men were pleasant and took time to explain the insight of the layout, modeling techniques used, engaged visitors in conversation and answered all questions cheerfully and in detail. This was a good layout to visit and I enjoyed my time here.

The Ocmulgee River:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocmulgee_River

Here are some photos from Patrick's Ocmulgee River Belt Line;

A Georgia Central Hi Hood U23B leads a freight train on the O.R.B.L. The Georgia Central is a railroad in southern Georgia. The 3919 has a 1:1 GC counterpart.  http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=5442

Plenty of SCL/LN Family Lines power at the engine terminal. At least some of these engines were sound equipped and they were idling away the afternoon nicely.

Much of the rolling stock on display was nicely weathered like this Georgia Ports Authority boxcar. Patrick uses chalks and acrylic paint washes to achieve these results. 

 A close up of SCL #7055 and a rare SCL BQ23-7

A local freight shoves a string of cars towards a large industry at the corner of the layout. The area being modeled is the east coast of Georgia with it's marshes and river ways.

An SCL U18B with an SCL GP7 leads a freight train on the Belt Line.

 Another nicely weathered train in the freight consist.

 I tip my hat to Patrick and Walt for their hospitality and camaraderie. These are model railroaders you can easily spend time with shooting the breeze about trains and modeling. Thanks guys!

My next stop was a layout that I will withhold the name of located a few minutes away. Upon arrival at the house's basement I was greeted pleasantly by family members. I was offered one of the nicely made brochures for the layout and after signing in I was directed to the train room. Upon entering the 13' x 21' train room I noted two guys running trains on a mostly plywood layout, the layout owner and one other visitor. No one so much as looked up as I entered and the owner and his operators went out of their way to avoid any and all eye contact or acknowledging that I was in the room. The other visitor was trying in vain to engage the owner in conversation but getting mostly useless one word answers.

After about five minutes of watching the operators derail their trains thru closed switches and being ignored I took my leave. The only conversation I remember from my visit here was one operator asking the owner how much longer they would have to be open. This only one hour into the tour!

So this visit was a total bust. Why the owner agreed to host an open house is a mystery. It was clear he and his operators were totally disinterested in having visitors. 

Thankfully Patrick, Walt and The Ocmulgee River Belt Line had given me good memories to contemplate on my drive home.

Thanks for reading!