Freelanced Model Railroads and Rolling Stock From Home Shops*

 Greetings All,

 Freelanced Model Railroads and 

Rolling Stock From Home Shops LLC

For many years now I've been painting and lettering rolling stock for my freelanced Empire Belt Railroad and my good friend Neal's Atlantic Pacific Railroad using custom made decals and rattle can paints. Below is just one of the many joint projects Neal and I have undertaken over the last ten or so years. Today we'll take a look at Home Shops LLC, the three HO scale 60' boxcars I purchased from them and the railroads they belong to.

Social Media and the 

Freelance Model Railroad Community

Freelanced model railroads have remained popular in the hobby and I've noticed in recent years that a good number of younger model railroaders are trending towards this part of the hobby and using social media to spread the word. 

Podcasts such as Around the Layout hosted by Ray Arnott and The Second Section hosted by Andy Dorsch and Mike Ostertag have been shining a light on the younger generation of model railroaders who have created some really well done concepts, paint schemes and planned operations. Others with limited space focus on shelf layouts and dioramas to showcase their very impressive modeling efforts.

To quote Ray Arnott every model railroad has a story. Some are so well done you'd think they were real. 

Home Shops LLC

Home Shops founder Christopher Palmieri has been a frequent guest on both of the above podcasts and is an avid Freelance Model Railroader himself.  As such he is a member of a number of Facebook groups dedicated to Freelance Model Railroads and the owner of the freelanced HO scale Meridian Speedway.

Permissions and Credits

The below information and the photos from the Home Shops website are used with permission from Christopher Palmieri and all credits belong to him.

Home Shops Company Profile

Mission: The company specializes in creating limited-edition freight cars for the "Proto-Freelance" model railroad community, which focuses on railroads that do not exist in the real world.

Partnerships: Home Shops LLC partners with established manufacturers like Tangent Scale Models to produce its equipment.

Community Focus: The company maintains an "Ambassador Fleet," sending custom-painted cars to various model railroads across the country for photos and videos to share on social media.

Designers: The company's logo was created by graphic designer Scott Thornton with many freight car liveries also designed by artist Hank Stephens. 

About the Meridian Speedway

The Meridian Speedway freelance model railroad concept is Home Shops' Owner and Founder Christopher Palmieri's very own contribution to this niche!  Having grown up in the southern railroad gateway city of New Orleans, he was able to learn much about railroading by watching the eastern railroads and western railroads exchange traffic in the Big Easy!

With the influence of his father Michael who was plugged into both the regional railroading scene as well as the model railroad community, he had exposure to many aspects of the hobby that gained his attention.  Ultimately it would be his experiences on Georgia Pacific's many short line railroads, the transformation of the prototype Meridian Speedway from Illinois Central to Midsouth Rail to Kansas City Southern, and his own professional railroad career that would lead him to go the freelance route!

The art of making a freelance model railroad concept take on a believable persona often involves real-world inspiration.  The Meridian Speedway is no exception.  

Before getting into the more modern forms of social media, Mr. Palmieri created a website at www.MeridianSpeedway.net to showcase the railroad.  There are many there which dive into every detail and is highly worth a visit.

Virginian & Ohio Railroad

A ground breaking model railroad created by the late W. Allen McClelland (1934-2022) that brought model railroading operations beyond the basement. Featured in magazines, books and videos the V&O was a well known layout that modeled a railroad system. 

Permissions and Credits

The below information is used with permission from Bradley McClelland with all photo credits belonging to him and his father W. Allen McClelland.

The V&O as described in part by Bradley McClelland courtesy of the Home Shops website and is used with permission.

The Virginian and Ohio is both the name of a fictional railroad company created by W. Allen McClelland (1934-2022) and the HO scale model railroad he built near Dayton, Ohio featuring this railroad. The V&O is famous in the model railroading world for setting a new standard for freelanced (fictional) model railroads designed to operate in a prototypical manner and was a major influence upon many model railroaders of the time.

He used the words "beyond the basement" and "transportation system" to reinforce the idea of moving freight from shippers and industries beyond the confines of the limited model railroad geography and layout you had in your basement. 

This required the notion of interchange with other (model) railroads as well. The V&O had a short-line railroad on the layout, the KC&B (Kelly's Creek & Bradley, named after his children), to provide a source of interchange traffic.

Operating sessions on the V&O were for 24 hours in railroad time, accomplished in four actual hours using a 6:1 "fast clock". Eight operators were used (minimally six) and followed a Train Procedures book and used car-cards and waybills. The V&O was a bridge route, and most mainline traffic was to and from points beyond the V&O. 30-40 trains per day were needed to carry the V&O traffic.

 An important concept was that the use of walk-around throttles enabled operators to follow their trains from point to point and eliminated the doubling back and running in circles common on other model railroads. The V&O had Centralized Traffic Control (CTC), a dispatcher console, and pioneered the use of command control equipment, starting with the GE Astrac system in 1963.

A photo of the man himself who gave so much to the model railroading hobby. W. Allen McClelland 1934-2022.

For more on the V&O click here and checkout the Virginian & Ohio DVD from Green Frog.

Chesapeake, Wheeling & Erie

The Chesapeake, Wheeling & Erie Railroad is a proto free-lanced line depicting a small class 1 railroad that runs from Erie, PA to coal docks on the Chesapeake Bay created by Tom Patterson of Cincinnati Ohio.

Permissions and Credits 

All information and photos are used with permission from layout owner Tom Patterson with all information and photo credits belonging to him and come courtesy of the Home Shops website.

The CW&E

The railroad was designed primarily as a coal hauler to take coal from the mines in West Virginia and Pennsylvania to the Great Lakes and Tidewater ports. The line runs south from Erie, PA, has a branch that heads west to Wheeling, WV and east to Pittsburgh, PA and then heads into West Virginia. 

The layout represents a portion of the main line that runs from approximately Thomas, WV to an area just east of the West Virginia/Virginia border. The main line then runs through Virginia to the Chesapeake Bay.

In addition to the influence of the Utah Belt, the Central Belt logo references the geographic location of the railroad across the east central part of the country. 

The layout is set in the summer of 1976 just after the Conrail merger. I picked this timeframe because of the variety of rolling stock that could still be seen and the fact that the Conrail merger wouldn’t yet have a significant impact on bridge traffic on the railroad.

For more on the Chesapeake, Wheeling & Erie click on the link.

Model Information

Two V&O 60' boxcars from Home Shops arrived on the layout Christmas Day.

A New York Central depressed center flatcar arrived Christmas morning courtesy of PC Ralph along with the CW&E 60' boxcar.

CW&E 60' boxcar 23111 is fresh out of the box.

V&O 42454 is fresh out of the box.

As is V&O 42419.

Model Review

The Exact Rail / Home Shops 60' Hi Cube boxcars are well detailed with plenty of separately applied parts like grab irons, cut levers, brake hoses and brake rigging. The models come with semi scale Kadee couplers and metal wheelsets which gives added value.

The Hi Cubes paint and lettering is very crisp and the owners have supplied operating information that tells us where the car originated, the loads it is carrying and where to send it when empty. This a nice detail for my car cards and waybill operations.

Getting the Models into Revenue Service

Getting the V&O 60' Hi Cubes layout ready, the 42419 and 42454 both received ACI labels and a shot of Testor's Dullcote along with having their trucks and wheel faces painted flat black.

Both of the V&O boxcars are assigned to the Moraine, Ohio Frigidaire pool as stated in the writing under the Exceeds Plate C label and the ACI label. Knowing what the car carries made it very easy to add consignees to my waybills. 

The CWE 23111 received the same treatment as the V&O cars with the exception of the ACI label which is factory placed. The white box to the left of the door indicates the 23111 return the car when empty to Louisville, KY. Since this is an appliance boxcar I'm using General Electric Appliance Park in Louisville as the origination for this car.

Checking Coupler Heights

Some free publicity in the background as I check the coupler heights.

The three 60' boxcars couplers met my Kadee coupler height requirement. I did add a gray Kadee fiber washer below the coupler to limit vertical play. Be careful if you do this there is a lot of underbody detail.

Underbody and Car Details

As noted earlier the Home Shops / Exact Rail 60' boxcars are very well detailed both top and bottom. 

Separately applied brake wheels, chain, ladders, cut bar and air hose are among the end car details.

The V&O and CW&E First Delivery

The V&O and CW&E are earning revenue for their owners as they deliver Frigidaire and General Electric appliances to Montgomery Ward located in the Terminal Warehouse and Cold Storage Complex on my layout.

B&O Transfer

A B&O Transfer from their 16th Street Yard to Terminal Yard with the V&O and CW&E 60' boxcars in the freight consist.

Conrail Transfer

Final Thoughts and Comments

A special thank you to Christopher Palmieri, Bradley McClelland and Tom Patterson for their permission to access their materials and post them on this blog. Gentleman, this is greatly appreciated.

Christopher Palmieri has taken the freelanced model railroad concept to the next level with the creation of Home Shops LLC. Partnering with layout owners and model railroad manufacturers Home Shops offers high quality, well detailed rolling stock and motive power for some of the best known current and former freelanced model railroads.

If you are interested in the freelanced model railroading world I urge you to check out the Home Shops website. 

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See you soon!!!