Overview

The Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad’s Shepherd Branch is an urban railroad serving a quasi-fictional, diverse industrial base in southeast Washington, DC in 1958. To improve operational interest, the number of businesses served along the branch were substantially increased. Motive power is first generation road and yard switchers as rostered by the B&O and Washington Terminal.

Layout construction began in 2002. The railroad was operational in time for the 2004 O Scale National Convention held in Crystal City VA.

Track Plan

The modeled portions of this O scale railroad, shoehorned into a 20′ x 16′ basement space, represent Shepherd Junction, Twining City, Uniontown, and Port Shepherd. The rail line linking these industrial centers is the Shepherd Branch. Shepherd Junction guards the connection of the Shepherd Branch to the Alexandria Branch. Shepherd Junction is also adjacent to Benning Yard that is represented by three staging tracks. A switcher from Benning handles the industrial activity at Shepherd Junction and Twining City. The industries include a coal distributor, team track, freight house, and printer.

Uniontown, at milepost 2.7 on the branch, is served daily by the Uniontown Turn, better known as the U-Turn. Uniontown is a complex industrial area with a bulk oil dealer, furniture plant, grocery supply company, warehouse, and a scrap metal dealer. The B&O interchanges coal hoppers with the East Washington Railroad which delivers the hoppers to a coal-fired Potomac Electric power plant (off line).

The branch terminates at Port Shepherd where the B&O serves marine pier 5, a major parts manufacturer, a plumbing supply fabricator, and a marine sand, gravel, and cement facility. The yard at Port Shepherd is undersized which makes switching the port challenging.

Naming Clarification

The track plan for the Shepherd Branch was developed in 2001-2002. Initially, I intended the railroad to be the Potomac & Patuxent Railroad, a name that I had been using since 1985. About 2007, I decided to give the Shepherd Branch back to the B&O where it belonged and only use the P&P on my 3-rail display layout. This is why you see references to the P&P on these track diagrams. Also, the Anacostia Industrial area was renamed Twining City.

Drafting Tools

The track plan was developed using CADRail. The schematic was drawn using Microsoft Visio.

The Plan

The Schematic

Trackwork

The layout features hand-laid code 125 and 100 rail to depict the lighter weight rail used on branches and sidings. There are plastic tie plates and spikes about every 6^th tie (I never went back to fill in the gaps). The track is ballasted. Flex track was used in staging.

The rebuilt Old Pullman turnouts are powered by Circuitron Tortoise switch machines. The frogs are isolated and powered through the switch machines. There is a control panel mounted in the fascia for each switching district.

L-girder construction was used and the railroad stands 60 inches above the basement floor.

Scenery/Structures

The urban scenery is about 90% complete. Backdrop are cutouts and photocopies from various sources. Most structures are kit-bashed to some degree; kits are often treated as a source of kit-bashing parts. Most structures have some degree of interior lighting. A list of sources in no particular order: Ameri-Towne, Crummy Products, Design Preservation Models, Pioneer Valley Models, Clever Brothers, B.T.S., K&P Brick and Building Co, K-Lineville, Walthers Cornerstore Series, Pecos River, International Hobby Corp, and Scale Modelers Industries/Korber.

Electrical

The layout is still running on the circa 1998 Digitrax DCC system. One command station and two 8 amp boosters power the layout. Electronic short circuit protection and auto-reversing are handled by Tony’s Train Exchange Power Shield Reversers. LocoNet Wireless Interface (LWNI) was added in 2024 instead of upgrading to Digitrax wireless throttles.

Operations

Operating sessions began as soon as trains could run and continue to this day. The Shepherd Branch is part of the Anachronistic Region, a round-robin group centered principally in Montgomery County MD. Ninety-minute operating sessions are hosted about every 6 weeks. Manually prepared switch lists are used. Six trains, with one or two person crews, run each session: Port Shepherd, Uniontown (U-Turn), Twining City (TC) Switch, 2^nd Port Shepherd, EWR Coal Extra, and Alexandria Branch Interchange.

Availability

Visits and special operating sessions are available by prior arrangement. Open houses were held during 2004 (Crystal City), 2009 (Baltimore), and 2018 (Rockville) O Scale National Conventions, and numerous NMRA Mid-Eastern Region conventions and Potomac Division events.

For more information, see https://2inoscaledc.potomac-nmra.org/index.html

Photos / Walk Through