Time for a review
14/03/23 10:06 Filed in: Plan/Design
Time has past, things have changed. It may be a good time to get reaquainted with the project.

Alberene Stone, Schuyler, Va. - Google Earth
What was the Davis-Murdoch Stone Company?
Davis-Murdoch was bare, unpainted cinder blocks and stone slabs, rusted corrugated metal, old drums, broken pallets, cinder piles, broom sedge, scrub cedars and gum trees. The smell of coal smoke and heavy lube oil. Tan, rust, gray. Not well marked, very easy to miss.
Where was the Davis-Murdoch Stone Company?
Davis-Murdoch was somewhere in a region bounded roughly by Bremo Bluff to the east, Gladstone to the south, Piney River to the west, and North Garden to the north.
What remains of the Davis-Murdoch Stone Company today?
A general impression of Davis-Murdoch can be developed by visiting:- Alberene
- Arvonia and Bridgeport
- Bremo and New Canton
- Cartersville
- Cohasset
- Columbia
- Dilwyn
- Esmont
- Gladstone
- James River State Park
- Lovingston
- Norwood
- Schuyler
- Scottsville
Is there information available related to Davis-Murdoch?
Operations like Davis-Murdoch are referred to in:- Heartbeats of Nelson, Paul Saunders
- Soapstone Shortlines, Garth Groff
- Alberene Stone reprints, Kierk Ashmore-Sorensen
- Trade publications from the 1920s related to the stone and quarry business, Google Books
Rattling Through Town
19/11/21 11:36 Filed in: Plan/Design
The full sized plan is good for mocking up scenes

I have always enjoyed visting small towns along the James River. Their primary attraction for me is the railroad running nearby, but many of them predate the railroad to the old canal days before a railroad was built on the towpath. They serve as the inspiration for this little scene I am mocking up on the full sized track plan. A scene I would love to run up on driving in Nelson County; a few company buildings at a crossroads with the weedy quarry tram running up an alley.
What scale is this?
21/10/21 09:05 Filed in: Plan/Design
My current Davis-Murdoch layout is a revision of my previous On30 layout.
Something occurred to me while I was ripping out sections of the old Piedmont & East Blue Ridge layout.
The Piedmont & East Blue Ridge layout never made it this far
In all the time I built and operated the P&EBR, construction never advanced to the point where anything on the layout indicated what scale it was. Being On30, it could easily have been mistaken for an HO standard gauge layout. I had plenty of opportunities to remedy the situation but never did. Whether that insight is significant or not, it is affecting my approach to building Davis-Murdoch. I hope to define Davis-Murdoch as an O scale layout early and often.
Full Size on the Floor
09/10/21 10:48 Filed in: Plan/Design
I take a sketchpad on vacation.
My wife has a much greater tolerance for sitting in sand on the beach than I. While she is out at the breakers I am back at the cottage scribbling away on track plans.
Last summer I enlarged one of my beach projects to full size and printed it out in about 2.5 by 3 foot tiles. I made registration holes in the ends of each tile so they could be assembled into larger sections using brass fasteners. I really like this perspective on the layout, it is definitely worth the effort to produce and assemble.
Layout Revisions
24/12/18 17:55 Filed in: Plan/Design