PRR Panhandle Division

I certainly think so.

As a kid, all the benefit was in the running of the trains.  As an adult, I have a much greater appreciation for the social aspects of the hobby.  Going to train shows with friends, talking and seeing my forum friends, participating in NMRA clinics, and having train operation sessions all contribute to the enjoyment of the hobby.

Doesn't hurt to have people with diverse and superior skill sets looking over your shoulder, either!

Guess it's true:  as ye sow, so shall ye reap.

George

Updated 10/7/2015:

Yes, I do have several things going at one time.  That's how we roll around here.  And yes, it's  .

• First, I am working on the template for the western (Steubenville) end main-line rebuild.  Here's a look at that work in progress.

• I have started the rebuild of the Ohio River surface module.  As you might recall, it is 2.75" too low.  In this photo, I have removed parts of the river surface table.  A new one will go in its place and this frame will be elevated 2.75".

• A few days ago, a reader pointed out to me that while this thread had a lot of views, there were very few "Likes".  I was pretty surprised by that.  I think that's because when I started this thread, the concept of "Liking" a thread wasn't really well known or used on the OGR Photo Forum.  I am very grateful that this thread has the largest number of views on the Photo Forum. 

My request:  If you are "following" this thread, would you do me the favor of "Liking" the thread also?  Thank you! 

As always, I am very grateful for your views, comments, questions, and helpful suggestions.

George

Glad to see you are keeping busy and multi-tasking. You do great work George. This my favorite thread. 

Tom

George,

Thank you for pointing out that I hadn't 'Liked' your topic.

BTW, I am glad to see your progress and found a way to rectify the river height issue.

Updated 10/11/2015:

Ran the Lionel PRR M1a, the most finicky engine I own, over the Hidden Passing Siding at crawling speed without incident.  That indicates that this particular piece of roadbed / track work is level and strong enough.  I believe we can put that piece of track behind the backdrop with a high probability of no issues.

George

I believe we can put that piece of track behind the backdrop with a high probability of no issues.

Oh-oh, now you went and said it!  Don't poke at the gremlins...

Looking good George. 

Thanks Bob - that means a great deal coming from you.

Yeah, I might be tickling the dragon's tail a bit.

You headed to York this fall?

George

Updated 10/14/2015:

While I have the patient on the table, so to speak, I am planning to address a few spots where stalling occurs.  It may be a wiring problem, as they are occurring on the oldest original sections of the Panhandle (before I upgraded my wiring techniques).  If that is not the cause, then I may perform some experimentation with ground plane wires.  Both spots are near yards.

George 

Updated 10/17/2015:

Attended the Strasburg O Scale (2-rail) train show yesterday.  This is a terrific train show with 90+ tables and a wide variety of things (structure kits, detail parts) you typically don't see in a 3-rail show.

Found out that the Keil-Line of detail parts has been purchased by Scale City Designs (www.scalecitydesigns.com) and that they are going to continue manufacturing these items.  That's a big deal.    Earlier in the week, I arranged with them to make some station and tower signs for me.  I think they also do B & O and NYC custom signs.

While at the show I also managed to pick up another N6b cabin car.

"One can never be too rich, too thin, or have too many cabin cars." 

George

George,

  Very nice, but where is the picture of the cabin car???!!!

  Yes, you cannot ever have enough of them.

Tom

Boy were you right!   I decided to back up the M1a through the Hidden Passing Siding and found a low spot.  So we are fixing that now.

George

Updated 10/19/2015:

Regarding the low spot on the Hidden Passing Siding - removal of the riser I added (a bit too high) fixed the situation.  However, that siding isn't really level and I'm going to put it back in place with a slight adjustment to the height.

Also played around with some fixes to TMCC performance trouble-spots.  I plugged the TMCC wall wart into an extension cord and then straight into the wall socket.  That improved things - less headlight flicker and no slow speed stalling.  That seems to leave me with two choices:

1. Find a new power strip without any surge protection and plug ALL my transformers into it.  Can't say I like that choice, but...
2. Look into adding ground plane wires where the locomotives tend to stall.  That's a better choice but more work.

Every time I work on getting that bridge into place, the To-Do list grows!  I seem to be going backwards here.

I have a couple of days (tonight and tomorrow night) before York, so I'm going to try and take advantage of the time to actually make some forward progress.

George

Updated 10/19/2015:

Fixed the low spot.  Ran the M1a back and forth a number of times without problem.

In the process of adding some ground planes to the trouble spots.

George

Updated 10/22/2015:

Had a fabulous 1st day at York.

We have our B6sb back!!!  I had TMCC, small steam sounds, and front/rear electro-couplers installed by All Aboard Trains.  It sounds and operates great!!! 

Also got some great deals!

• Someone was blowing out Pecos River box cars 4 for $100.
• 2 MTH PRR TrucTrain flats w/ dual trailers.
• An Atlas PRR X-29 box car
• Some detail parts

George

Hi George,

   That is a fine looking switcher. Is that by Williams? If yes, I have that one, too.

Thanks for posting the pictures. 

Tom 

Thanks Tom!

Yes, it is the Williams B6sb brass model #5200.  It's a great runner in conventional, made even better under TMCC.  All Aboard Trains did the work and I couldn't be happier with them.  They managed to get small steam sounds into it and it sounds and runs great!

Do you run yours conventionally or has it had a command-control upgrade?

George

Hi George,

   That is one of my few "modern" steam switchers. The only other one was an MTH PRSL A5 switcher from the 1990's (if I remember correctly).

   All run in "old school" conventional mode, which is fine by me.

Tom

Updated 10/23/2015:

Fall York proved to be very successful.  I went there with the idea of acquiring a number of K-Line PRR Coil cars but learned two things about them.  First, they are early 1960s vintage - too late for my time frame.  In fact, all covered coil gondolas are too late for my era.  Second, they are ghosts.  Apparently they are very scarce.

But that turned out to be OK.  I decided that the older method of using open gondolas would be the best and most prototypical way to ship coils.  So I managed to pick up 4 MTH Premier gondolas (a few with junk loads) for a ridiculous price - $110.  I am going to sell off the junk loads.  In their place, I will install floor strips and populate the cars with Atlas coils.

I also acquired 4 Pecos River box cars (3 ATSF, 1 Cotton Belt) for another great price - $100.  That was the deal of the show, IMHO.  A PRR X-29 (gotta have another of those), some tools, a few Tichy windows, and a PRR crane car rounded out the catch of the day.

I really didn't intend to spend that much.    But the prices were excellent and sellers were eager to make deals.

George

Are your open gons going to be sagging and battered like most were ??

I don't know about sagging, but definitely heavily weathered and rough-looking.  Typically, a steel mill would have some in-house gons that weren't fit for road service.  But the ones I bought are for shipping purposes, so they will be in better shape.  But "better" is a relative term. 

George

Updated 10/25/2015:

Work proceeds on the western mainline rebuild.  Below, I'm trying to get the subroadbed to fit around the existing Coal Mine Spur track work.  We are close, but I needed to take a break.

Still got some fiddling and trimming cuts to make before it all fits.

George

Updated 11/1/2015:

You know when your wife says she wants to change the wall paper in the powder room and it turns into a $20,000 renovation?  

I don't think I'm on quite that track, but...

As I worked on the Western mainline subroadbed for the big curve around Steubenville, I noticed some deficiencies in the subroadbed that connects to it.  One thing led to another, and I've decided to replace that as well. I'm referring to the wood with the screwdriver on it (below). 

Actually, my reason for doing that is pretty good.  It's very difficult to reach that stretch of subroadbed.  And it is not well supported.  It makes more sense to replace it with a correct thickness of wood, attach it to the curve, and then connect it to subroadbed in the corner.  That piece is easier to reach and well supported.

There's another good reason to replace it - I need a long slot between the wall and the edge of the layout to support the insertion of a Masonite backdrop.  As you can see by the piece currently in place, that slot is not there.  I tried to cut it in place, but I can't get a tool in there to do the job.  That, along with the other reasons, makes the case to replace it.

George

Updated 11/2/2015:

OK, I think we're done de-constructing.  Here's the western end with the last piece of subroadbed out.

George

Updated 11/3/2015:

In what was a very short work session last night, I did manage to get the circular subroadbed piece trimmed to fit.  I also glued some spacers in place so that under the table joiners match up.  I also traced out the remaining piece of subroadbed.  Will look at getting these 2 pieces joined before attempting to mount them back in place.

George

Updated 11/12/2015:

It's been slow, but I finally got the cuts made on new replacement pieces of sub-roadbed.  Having to re-do this piece at such a late date was a total PITA.  There just isn't much room down here right now and there are finished scenery items that could get damaged.

The next time I have a crazy idea about making lightweight sub-roadbed out of thin plywood, I'm going to bang my head against the wall until a) the idea goes away or b) I pass out from loss of blood. 

I still need to get this mounted on the layout, but here it is.

Ran out of steam tonight.  I will try to get to the installation over the weekend.

George

George,

  Don't get discouraged. You are still making progress! Looking forward to your next bunch of weekend photos.

Tom 

Thanks Tom.  I have a whole list of things to do / avoid for the next version of the Panhandle (when / if I retire). 

I actually did make significant progress last night.  It's not really apparent in the photo, but I trimmed up the left edge of the larger piece to create a slot for the backdrop.  It should drop into place. 

Getting this section of sub-roadbed into place requires that I squeeze myself into a small access hole in the middle of the benchwork and then stretch my arms to the wall.  You can see the issue in the photo in the 11/2/2015 update.  It's a hard lesson in prioritizing tasks (backdrops first, strong sub-roadbed second) and believe me, I've learned it well.

I am looking forward to finishing this on the weekend.  I'm kind of fed up with the current state of things and really want to get this done.

Again, thanks for the encouragement.

George

Updated 11/14/2015:

Got going this afternoon.

First, I made sure that the big curved piece of sub-roadbed fit the narrow piece that will go along the western wall.  As I will have to install it separately, I added some alignment markings to make it easier to fit.

Next step was cleat and riser construction.  The larger one will support the wide part of the sub-roadbed at the back of the layout (Northwest corner).

Right after that, I cut spacers for the old sub-roadbed.  The old sub-roadbed was 11/32" thick.  In order to match up with the new 1/2" (16/32") sub-roadbed, I added a 1/16" (2/32") spacer and a 3/32" spacer.  Remembering (and finally using) my math for fractions, we have 16/32" or 1/2" for both the new and the old sides of sub-roadbed.  (Yes, there was a quiz.  And I passed it!!! )  You can see the spacers just lying roughly in place.

Glue!  Has anyone actually been able to get wood glue to flow out of those twist applicator tops?  Unless the bottle is brand new, for me the answer is no.  I had to use a craft stick to get it out.  All the spacers are glued to the underlying 1"x4" supports.  And then I threw some books on them!

I'm going to give things a chance to dry, take a short rest, and then try to hit it again either later tonight (but the Penguins are playing) or tomorrow.

George

Updated around 1:30 PM 11/15/2015:

Well, watching the Penguins last night was a huge bust.

So far this afternoon, I've managed to get the two new pieces of sub-roadbed attached to each other and to the old sub-roadbed.

Here's the first test fitting of the narrow section of new sub-roadbed to the existing piece.  Note the clamp holding them together.

Here's entire new sections clamped in place.

Here is the clamped junction near Switch No. 1.

This was taken just prior to lining up the narrow section with the big curved piece.  Notice that they are not aligned.

But now they are!  And I drove in the screws to make it permanent.

Here's a shot of the western side of the new area.

I still need to screw together the area near Switch No. 1 and then level the whole section.  But first I need to see how the Steelers are doing against the Browns.

More later today, perhaps.

George

Looks good George.

Looking forward to your first locomotive running on this section after your roadbed and track are in place.

Tom

Thank you, Tom.  Yes, I am also looking forward to this event.

George

Updated 11/16/2015:

Got back in touch with the artist tonight.  She's coming to paint another backdrop on Saturday. That will #1; she already did the center one, #3. No. 1 will look roughly like this:

I roughed out the dimensions of the major landscape items on a prepared 4' x 8' piece of masonite.

I also cleaned up a bit from the weekend's efforts.

Later in the week I plan to start on the river module.

George

Updated 11/17/2015:

Cleats!  Risers!  Sub-roadbed!

Got those installed at the Western end of the layout.  Also did a test placement of the tunnel portal.

Just after this photo was taken, I added another riser / cleat pair just about where you see the Euro-style terminal strip hanging down.

George

George, 

  Looks mighty sturdy! Did you run any locomotives on it yet? 

Tom

Thanks.  No, I am going to install the backdrops first before restoring the roadbed and track.  That will prevent any damage to track or anything else.  Those 4'x8' backdrops are going to be a bear to maneuver without destroying anything.  I've got to have someone hand them to me and curve them so that I can fit them into the slot between the table-top and the wall.  It will be tricky enough without track or signals to worry about.

George

Updated 11/18/2015:

Last night's effort was centered around a minor cleaning of the train room in preparation for the artist on Saturday.  I put away tools, stored extra boards, and generally cleaned up.

The other task, in the spirit of "measure twice and cut once", was a re-check of the calculations for changing the river surface module.  As you may recall, this module must be elevated a bit more so that the bridge piers actually make contact with the bridge.  They will not be bearing much, if any, of the bridge's weight, but they have to look good.

I found some 1/8" thick black rubber washers (spacers) that I'm going to place between the painted river surface and the glass "water".  The glass is difficult to slide across the painted Masonite without rubbing paint off.  The washers might also add some visual depth or at least create an optical illusion to the effect.  I added the spacers to the height calculations and re-checked everything.  I will re-check again tonight.

George

Updated 11/19/2015:

My re-check last night confirmed the recalculated figures were correct.  Nonetheless, I'm planning to get another pair of eyes on the height calculations.

Saturday, while the artist is working on the backdrop, I want to be re-building the river surface module.

George

Updated 11/22/2015:

"The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry" - Robert Burns

And so it was this weekend.  Life intervened and no work got done on the layout.

On a bright note, I did get to take my grandson (2.5 years old) to the Toy Train Museum in Strasburg.  He absolutely loved it!  We also drove through the grounds of the Caboose Motel and past the Strasburg Railroad (Thomas was in town) and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.  He also likes the Amish horses and buggies.

It was a pretty awesome Saturday afternoon!!!

George

Updated 11/28/2015:

In keeping with the guidance to "measure twice and cut once", I measured the distance from roadbed top to (existing) river module surface on each side of the bridge.  The western side is higher by 1/4".  This is not a huge difference but we will have to lower the western side.  We have already lowered the eastern side and worked out the elevation kinks in that roadbed, so we do not want to mess with it.  This will be a little tricky, as we will need to decide if we are going to decouple the support for the Hidden Passing Siding from that of the mainline or simply maintain the elevation of the Hidden Passing Siding separately.

Hopefully, the photo below shows some of the intricacy of the operation.

My artist friend made significant progress on Backdrop #1.  She managed to rough out the landscape forms and sky.  In her next session, she will work on adding detail and adjusting the tint of the sky.  The unpainted area on the right side of the backdrop will be covered by the styrofoam mountain.

George

Updated 11/29/2015:

Ever have an epiphany?  One of those insights that comes to you in a flash?

Well, I just did regarding the support at western end of the bridge.  In the previous post, I had discovered that the western end of the bridge was 1/4" higher from the river than the eastern end.  We had already done work on the roadbed at the eastern end and raising it by 1/4" was out of the question.  At that point, my choices all looked pretty bad.  They were:

1. Split the subroadbed at the back of the layout into two pieces - 1 track for the hidden passing siding and 1 track for the northern bridge track.  Each part would have a slightly different height and require its own riser.  That promised to be major work and require the Hidden Passing Siding track work to be redone.
2. Lower the entire western end of the layout (just before it met the bridge) by 1/4".  That would create a low spot on all 3 tracks.

The epiphany:  I will keep the bridge and both supports at their current heights.  To accomplish this I will:

• Use the slightly taller bridge pier (by 1/8") at the western end. 
• Place a shim under the western pier to raise it the required height.

This should prove easier and save significant effort without endangering previous work.

George