Signs of the season

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Jun 2002 by Dixon, Tom

This is the last issue many of you will see before our July meeting, and an updated schedule for the Annual Conference is enclosed. Don't forget, you may register online. It's quick and easy-just go to www.chessieshop.com and click on the "meetings" icon.

We are very interested in doing new specially decorated cars and locomotives, but we're having some difficulty in finding available models to which we can apply our special painting/lettering. If anyone has any ideas, please contact us. Remember, we can't have new models made-the best we can do is find existing available models that are accurate-or close to accurate-for C&O prototypes, and then have them custom decorated.

In the accompanying flyer we are again advertising the proposed C&O standard model paint for the three shades of gray used on all C&O structures from 1923 onwards. This will be Scalecoat II paint and will come in two-ounce bottles. This will be the first time that model paint will be available using the best available knowledge of original C&O paint based on color drift cards and other original data. But ... these colors will not be produced unless we receive enough advance orders. Please reserve your paint now to help make the project a success!

Gene Huddleston's new book, Appalachian Conquest, will be here this month. If you haven't ordered one, consider it. It's a great treatment of mountain railroading on the C&O, N&W, Virginian, and Clinchfield, researched and written as only Gene can! It's a fitting companion to his World! Greatest Steam Locomotives (comparing the H-8 with the N&W "N'A" and UP Big Boy) and his monumental work on the H-8: Allegheny Limas Finest. All of these are available from C&OHS. Order now! As always, our revenues from sales will be down in the summer months, so if you see something in the recent flyers you would like to have, order today!

A great deal of interest has been generated among modelers by recent "DS" reprints from the Society. Take a look at recent flyers. People involved in modeling scenes and in operating layouts will probably be interested in the Industrial Directory shippers guide, which comes in two parts and is full of information about commercial operations that bear directly on freight traffic over the C&O in 1950! See this month's flyer for a repeat offer of Part I (DS-01-207) and and all-new offer of Part II (DS-02-222).

We are going to try to get started once again on cataloging, filing, arranging and making available elements of the Archives collection that haven't been worked on in a long time, including photos, drawings, and engineering data. This will require commitment of resources, but we feel that some movement in this direction is required, so that we can better serve you and the history community at large.

Editor Kevin Holland is receiving more feedback, comments, and information to publish in C&O HISTORY, so please feel free to contact him, especially if you have some information that may be of interest to the membership at large. Thanks for your continued interest and support.

-Tom Dixon, Chairman &President