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In this Model Railroad Video Plus exclusive layout video, you’ll tour Bernie Kempinski’s O scale U.S. Military Railroad Aquia Line, a model railroad that’s set right in the thick of America’s Civil War. As Bernie guides his battery-powered steam locomotives over the 130-foot mainline run, previously featured in the 2012 issue of Model Railroad Planning, you’ll see exquisite modeling and enjoy insightful history lessons along the way!
Posted 9/26/2019. Great job at duplicating the ARMY Railway. This is a little modeled era in Model Railroading. It looks like O-Scale is fun scale to model, being able to build figures from War Gaming figures. Also your use of electronics’ Dead rail and Arduinos puts this old fashion layout at the forefront as far as a modern layout. Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful layout with great scenery and model detailing Bernard. And I learned a few things!! 🙂 I really enjoyed the tour. Thanks, Andy Keeney
Bernard, your modeling skills – especially the bridge, knocked my socks off.
Joseph, They did have a form of caboose called a conductor’s car, or a way car. The term caboose was just starting to be used at this time. At the time of we made the video, I did not have any, but we have two now.
Wow! This era would never have interested me but what a layout it is. I hope to see your modern port of LA featured on here soon.
Very informative. They say you learn something new everyday and in this case I did. I didn’t know about the stub ended type switches used in the early days of RR. Also very nice job on retrofitting the figures on your layout. Thanks for sharing!
Didn’t see any cabooses in the video. Did the USMMR have cabooses in that time era?
Very Nice, like the instructional things including how the couplers and brakes work.
The signal flags used the the Civil War are different than today. See this blog post for more information
http://usmrr.blogspot.com/2016/07/usmrr-rules-on-signals-on-trains.html
Great layout! Question the flags used. I know current day white is an extra but what do the red flags signify on the train in the beginning?
Great video and layout.. I’m just north of Falmouth so I found this to be very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
This is one of the most inspirational layouts! I love how Bernard marries model railroading with history. What an excellent and inspiring idea! Thanks for sharing the videos with us.
Bernard Kempinski’s layout is outstanding! Incredible attention to detail. I’ve gained a lot of inspiration from this video. Thanks Bernard. 5-stars from me.
Bernard, I’m not usually all that interested in Layout Visits, especially in O as I’m in N. But, I really liked your video. The detail with respect to the Civil was REALLY interesting to me. Thanks.
Thanks to everyone for the positive comments. You can find a current track plan at my blog at http://www.usmrr.blogspot.com
Very, very nice and different than most layouts! I commend you for your attention to detail and choosing to model something out of the ordinary. Is there a layout plan somewhere?
The Civil War layout is awesome! The amount of study in history required is unbelievable. The effort required to operate during that era is outstanding, and the car brakes work. The amount of scale detail modeling is amazing. Thank you very much for letting us see the layout.
Bob Neill
This is a “magical” layout in every sense! Bernie is one of the few true masters of model railroading and doing it in the context of the civil war era, is amazing. So glad MR Video Plus produced this video.
What a great layout!!! The detail is awesome!
Truly inspirational on multiple levels Gen’l Haupt! Such a thorough excursion into the world of this era, your modeling and the different views of the layout and space. Glad to see that you continue to break ground on the possibilities for modeling railroads of the Civil War era. And compliments to the MRR staff who chose your layout to feature, and the crew, in my limited experience, who always puts together high quality videos. ‘Huzzah!’, as they’d say…
Great video and layout. Really enjoyed it.
Absolutely fantastic. I have had a great interest in the War between the States since I very young. (probably Disney’s Great Locomotive chase I watch it over and over). Your layout brings it all to life. Congratulations from Cliff, Bognor Regis, South coast UK.
Awesome layout!
Awesome sauce!!!! I model in O scale/dead rail and Bernie hit some great points as far as figure modifications that I was unaware of. The attention to detail floored me. Ten Stars for Bernie!!!!! – Lee Schamberger
This is a beautiful layout in every sense of the word. The scenery is magnificent to say the least. Historically that was a most important era of railroading as the confederate states never designated a standard gage, This layout depicts that time period beautifully . Looking forward to see the completion of the war area.