George Bogatiuk from Soundtraxx joins us at the HO scale Western & Atlantic RR, North Branch to discuss installation of DCC, sound and keep alive systems in small steam locomotives by Manuta, AHM and more.

As seen in the October 2020 issue of Model Railroader: https://www.trains.com/mrr/videos-pho... The addition of sound to the W&A is the latest endeavor to bring as much realism as possible to the model railroading experience. It has been a long road to get to this stage. The idea for a Civil War layout had begun in the 1960's with a friend, Dave Eberhardt, also a civil war enthusiast who had begun his own layout but of the Penn Central. The work on this layout started about 1999 when I decided to purchase a house, one requirement being a space for such a project. Fortunately, and eventually, my wife realized this intention of mine was for real and not a Christmas time endeavor around the tree. Many years of research in places such as the Atlanta Historical Society and Georgia State Archives led me to very influencial people. Retired Army Colonel James Bogle was one such person. He was not only an authority on the Western & Atlantic, he was also good friends with a fella named Wilbur Kurtz, consultant to movies like "Gone With The Wind" and Disney's "Great Locomotive Chase". Mr. Kurtz, who I unfortunately did not meet, was married to the daughter of Bill Fuller, conductor on the train being pulled by the locomotive General during the great chase. In the archives there are letter exchanges between Mr. Kurtz and his father-in-law about topics such as length of house cars, the type of brake wheels and the motherload... mention of the color, slate blue. Colonel Bogle also connected me with a model railroader from Michigan, Ken Pruitt. Ken had modeled the W&A and the Chase in particular. He is a terrific modeler who built his layout in the 1980's and many of the structures on my railroad are Ken's which were purchased along with most of his equipment. He unfortunately needed the space for other purposes so the timing of meeting Ken could not have been more perfect. He helped launch my layout.