I like that your trackage is bumpy and not perfectly smooth… It shows a realism to the time and resources.🚂👍

Beautiful work Nick! Thanks for sharing!

What no "sherman bowties" ?

This THE BEST HO presentation I have ever seen! Congrats on the incredible History lesson and artistry devoted to this layout!

Fantastically detailed, period - accurate modeling! 😊 A few things specifically caught my eye; the stub switches, link and pin couplers, and accurate recreation of Civil War structures (I just finished reading a book on railroads in the Civil War and recognized a lot of the structures & scenes. Out of curiosity, who made the 4-4-0 on the train that the video followed? I noticed just prior to the end that the motor was tender - mounted, with a drive shaft into the locomotive cab; it wasn’t obvious until a close- up shot just prior to the train entering the final train shed. Again, absolutely SUPERB model work!

I always immensely enjoy watching Videos of this Fabulous Layout. Best Civil War Layout in the World.

My model railway, the Bonesborough Latissa & Gravesfield coal railroad, would’ve started operating around 1859 with a fleet of five Baldwin-built coal-fired 4-4-0s. They were modern for their time, featuring 190 psi boilers (later upgraded to 200 psi in 1916), experimental feedwater heaters, and cast steel cabs. Only the first of the class, number 1, survived into preservation, and had a long career of 86 years. It was retired in 1945, following the end of World War II.

Wonderful story telling too! I would love more videos like this from ANY era, but this one is amazing. Are there more folks doing this too? Narrating their history while doing operations? I LOVE this. A documentary style story with live action graphics.

Hiked kennesaw and my friend lived on peach tree where I heard a cannon one night early in the morning hours. We had a mist and phone draining experience on our hike too.

They are pictures of W&A equipment you may not have seen.

Thom, Please send me your email address so I can send you some interesting pictures.

hi thom got a delivery service fail using the email address provided . appreciated your help,

hi what colour of grey are the two box cars please ?

Absolutely incredible presentation and amazing find. Coincidentally, Bachmann Trains announced a 19th century 4-6-0 in n-scale a while back. One of the locomotives they are hoping to represent is Pennsy #417. A little birdie tells me that one of the color illustrations from Mr. Ott’s aforementioned repository is that very locomotive. Might it be possible for him to pass this information along to Bachmann? The locomotives are still in early production and I am sure that a period accurate livery reference would go a long way toward that particular PRR offering…

What an amazing find.

Very interesting video. Thanks for sharing. Dave

Hello, I have a book "Popular Mechanics Picture History of American Transportation",edited by Edward L. Throm. On page 114 there is a picture of Pennsylvania Railroad mail car. It looks like the Lionel Mail car for the General train sets.

Do appreciate y'all putting this on. Skimmed through it today, will watch through later. And y'all have a good Thanksgiving.

BEST LAYOUT ERA TO MODEL 1860-1920/30ish. Back when small steam still was the main motive power, no cars but wagons and no roads just trails. If I EVER relocate and finish my main layout based in 1910-1930 Id build a fourth deck for the 1860-1880 era indianola railroad, and would have the entire Texas county of Calhoun entirely modeled as I model 2 of the branches that existed or still partly do, and another just a bayou, barge canal, and river over. To me this era especially is underrepresented in at least model rail layouts on KZbin and I come back to tour videos like this one time and time again year after year as it’s just such a simple and yet beautiful time for railroading in the states

Here is what I say. I quite like those Civil War Era box cars. I would love to compare those old Box Cars with box cars that are 40ft, 50ft, 60ft, and 86ft railroad boxcars.

What a fabulous opportunity to see, at least her remains. Glad they didn’t use it in the GLC film

The General went on tour 1962 - 1963 for the Civil War Centennial. I was 7 years old when my father and I went to see it on display at the Gettysburg Centennial, July 1963. She had been altered dramatically from her 1862 appearance, and had even been converted to burn oil.

I love CW Trains. There is a replica 4-4-0 that runs on the Northern Central in PA. For many years the B&O Train Museum ran a CW era engine. Can i ask what color you use on the passenger cars' trucks?

Would you mind sharing what make of Civil War era locomotive you use/display and if more than one, all of them?

Several of these guys appear to have worked on the original locomotives 🚂

I love these types of steam trains, and I’ve got a layout with these trains and scene

I didn't know that their was c/w layout I hope their is more tobe shown also I wonder is their anymore c/w layouts out there very enjoyable nice one Patrick Quinn IRL

This is just wonderful. I would love to see this in person some day if you allow the occasional visitor.

I have enough trouble with modern day knuckle couplers, these prototypical for the era ones would drive me insane. I've done lots of ops sessions, but never thought about having an old hardware store type apron like that. I'm always misplacing cards or paperwork, pens/pencils, skewers.

I love your layout. Being a Civil War fan it’s interesting to see a Civil War themed layout.

1863 Steam Locomotives, had a Steamboat Whistle?

Does Nice Kane do custom work for other people?

very nice and artful ,,however ,,it would be nice to see a video of this layout without all the people in the way ,,,it destroys the feel for the scale detail

So I have a friend who's looking to get a one off brass model made of the 4-10-0 El Gobernador of the CPRR. Any chance you guys might be able to help us out? We have a lot of the drawings for it to be built from.

Wonderful replica of a rarely modeled era.

Hello. I am one of the friends of Daniel and Bob. Liking you guys a lot and being able to show you the virtual realm we have nowadays with Simulators is pretty incredible. What kinda made me chuckle a bit was quite a bit of the game mechanics were not explained in that much detail in my opinion. There are quite a few nuances to the Trainz simulators too and/or quirks you do have to deal with. The game's coding and whatnot is still built on code that was originally written in 2001 and new game code has been added on top of that code. More or less the company, N3V Games, who owns the franchise adds what I would call "universal solutions" to various things they want to add, like the actual rocking of the trains as seen. Your dealing with something that hasn't been upgraded internally for over 20 years so it can maintain backwards compatibility with old assets. Backwards compatibility means that content from older versions of the simulator can work in newer versions...usually with some fixing needed though. The reason for such things as the game's quality completely relies on the content itself, when it was made, what tools were available for creating it, who the author was and their own skills, etc. The content nor the game was ever created with the purpose or intention of having equipment have proper physics or suspension as an example, so that is why N3V added those generic and seemingly odd game mechanics of the entire asset moving around. The Texas and General were originally made in 2004, but function properly in the latest versions thanks to the backwards compatibility. They now get an improved and enhanced look due to the game's graphics engine, DirectX 11(graphics engine means what rendering software is being used to render/display the game itself. Otherwise you would have no picture and would only be able to hear the game as, the game will still run, but not show itself). There is quite a bit of weird and kinda tragic history to the game itself too that I will not go into for the sake of not making this the size of a dissertation, which I more or less have already it seems. But in short, not everything is all "sunshine and roses" all the time. I've also owned at least 1 copy of Trainz far longer then these guys have and have seen it all to say the least. I myself am a 15 year Trainz Veteran with about 6 years of me having an online presence in some capacity. I, like many of you, owned MSTS, but for me it was as a kid...then my father crashed my computer when I was about 5 years old (2005) and I did not see a replacement until 2011 with my Uncle building one rather cheap one for me. One day I saw Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006 in a Walmart in 2012 and had my dad purchase it for me and that is how it all started for myself. With that too, I have also seen the franchise take a rather large turn from what we thought it might be with N3V Games acquiring the original company, Auran, which coined the game itself in 2001. Auran's picture was much different to N3V's and needless to say, a very different outcome would have been the case if Auran still owned it.

Real nice presentation. I have Bachmann's new version of the "General " and "Texas". I would like to do the chase but can't figure out what DCC to install in the "Texas". The "General" came already equipped. Any suggestions?

I love the fact that the locomotives have Soundtraxx!

Absolute work of art, Nick. Thank you. Look forward to anything you two share in the future. Thank you, Thom.

THE most interesting 19th Century Model Railroading discussion I have found. I worked in California a couple years and never knew there was so much railroad history. I knew there was some, just not THIS much. Thank you.

Thom, Outstanding presentation. AndyB

I have gotta say, that is about the smoothest running 4-4-0 I have ever seen. Great looking railroad and great history. I am looking forward to seeing more. Well Done!!

Outstanding presentation.

I have watched TONS of model railroading videos. And by far this was one of the most enjoyable. Great job on the scenery. Liked the countryside feel and history. Vs jam packed with buildings and track like most. Would be great to see a cab ride! I very seldom comment but this layout and video deserves recognition!

I'm very glad that your channel showed up in my recommendations! Great video! Thanks for the quick visual history lesson! Sincerely, your newest subscriber!

Beautiful modeling, and so much character. Truly more people should take a whack at period modeling. If you do another layout or extension, you may want to consider code 55 rail. It would perfectly set off the light rolling stock.

Interesting. Though it is HO scale is it Southern, or broad gauge track?

This is fantastic!! I wish the were more Civil War layouts

Arty expert ___ Paulson was unsure of the gun in the black and white picture taken after the war was ended, but I think he thought it may have been a Columbiad using a friction-slide system. Confeds swapped the Brooke Gun (good for naval duels against ironclad ships) out for a Columbiad, which likely had better anti-personnel performance (exploding shell).

Recoil system for first iteration of the car used block and tackle to absorb recoil on a stake bed car. Gun had a naval/garrison carriage. Car had seven axles, and I've seen mention of Lee bldg. it on a car with seven axles.