PRR Panhandle Division

Updated 7/28/2013:

Last night I ripped up the mill end of the Strip Steel spur.  I poked around in my workshop and came up with some shorter cut GarGraves straights that will let me start the curve (into the building) a little sooner.  It looks like I won't have to even cut any track!  Because the table supporting the spur is wide, even the new track location should fit properly. 

I starting installing the new roadbed curve using the old Vinylbed.  I anticipate getting the spur re-installed tonight (as long as I don't get any interruptions).  If all goes according to plan (cue Murphy!), I'll try to post some new photos.

George

Hey there!  I live up on Marland Heights.  Small world, huh?  When you're ready, drop me a line here or at 76erfan@comcast.net .  I'd love to see what you're up to. 

Also, we have a small o-gauge club here in the valley.  No dues, no formalities, just a few great guys who get together once a month at each other's place to run trains and/or help each other out with building their layout.  Let me know if you're interested.  We'd love to have you.

Paul Buffington

Paul, I very much appreciate the offer and will try to look you up when I get back in town. 

George

Updated 7/30/2013:

Right on cue, Murphy invoked his Law and I didn't get to spend very much time working on the Strip Steel spur.  However, in about 15 minutes I did manage to:

• Assemble track pieces that result in a spur that fits within the available space.
• Reposition the Vinylbed track roadbed and track and begin the process of fastening it down.
• Verify that the end-of-track occupancy circuit (insulated rail) still works, run the wires, and find a spot for a terminal strip.
• Work out a location for the light triggered by the above circuit.  It will illuminate a corner bay or hanging gooseneck lamp (over a man-door) at the extreme left side (as you look at it) of the building.

All I have left to do test fit the front of the building again and then screw down 2 pieces of track.  Hopefully tonight.

George

Updated 8/4/2013:

Since I last updated this thread, I have revised my thinking on several fronts and gained some insights into what I want to do with the Strip Steel building and the City of Weirton module:

• First, the spur modification seems to be correct.  As currently laid, the spur will enter the building inside the 2nd "bay".  If anything, I may need another 1/4" somewhere, but that is easily "fudged".
• Second, I have been looking at 1950s photographs of North Weirton to get ideas for sidewalks and telephone poles.  From those photos, I decided that the entire length of the overpass (Crawford's Crossing) had to have sidewalks.  I was planning to use 1.5" (6 scale feet) wide Crow River sidewalks.  For awhile, I thought that might screw up the spacing of the completed mill buildings and the Strip Steel.
• Fortunately, I decided that the overpass could live with 1" (4 scale feet) wide sidewalks (2x) and managed to find an extra 2" in the spacing of Open Hearth.  I will be using the Ameritowne sidewalks for that.  I think we're going to be good there.

Next steps are to figure out how much of each sidewalk will be needed and order.  We will also need to engineer a support mechanism for the sidewalks and the road that will align the Crow River overpass sides properly.

George

Updated 8/5/2013:

I started a Survey of O Scale Sidewalks thread on the Scenery forum.  In the process, I began adding up costs for 33' (132 scale feet) of sidewalk.  Holy  !!!  If I executed the original plan, I'd be spending more than $200 just in sidewalks (and that doesn't cover the Steubenville, OH city area).  I will use my existing Crow River pieces on the North Weirton portion of the module and explore other home-made options for the rest.  Wooden yardsticks may be a reasonable choice.

George

Updated 8/26/2013:

I updated the introduction.

George

Updated 9/19/2013:

There has been some activity on the layout, mostly in the form of research and acquiring pieces and parts:

• Decided that I would use hardwood boards (1/4"x 1.75") for large number of sidewalks required in the city modules.  It's cost effective and should look good when scribed and painted.
• Researched the look of North Weirton in the early-mid 1950s.  I now have an excellent set of photographs that show me the buildings, telephone poles, businesses, traffic lights, and street clutter that I want for the layout.
• My trip to Weirton in late August yielded some photographs and measurements for the poured concrete wall that runs along Main Street.  I plan to build a section and make numerous castings from it.
• Also during my Weirton trip, I got some photographs of the Strip Steel roof.  That will allow me to proceed in building it.
• I placed orders for about half of the telephone pole components (transformers, LEDs) needed.  Also acquired a jig (courtesy of a friend's father) for bending 3/32" tubing into arms to hold street lights.  Still waiting on suppliers for the remaining pieces needed to build these.
• Did some research on the appearance of downtown Steubenville, OH in the 1950s.  Got some photos from the library.  I did order a street lamp that looks pretty close to those in the photographs.  That, coupled with my 2001 era photographs of existing architecture, should give me some neat buildings to construct.  Right now that project is way down the priority list.

George

Updated 9/30/2013:

Over the past week or so, a number of telephone / utility pole components have arrived.  Transformers (Keil Line, Berkshire Valley, Crow River), hardware (Keil Line), and other detail parts (Crow River) have been delivered.  I am still waiting on a number of Weaver poles.

Plans for the types of utility poles have been finalized.  There are 7 different variations of poles planned for downtown Weirton alone. 

The immediate next steps involve a reset of the trainroom and workshop:

• Updating my inventory spreadsheets with the detail parts received.
• Organizing and placing all required parts into project bins (my usual way of keeping things straight).
• Cleaning up the train room.
• Straightening up the workshop (cleaning & tool replacement).

Things have gotten a little out of hand and I want to get some serious layout work going immediately after York.

George

Updated 11/3/2013:

• Finally got the workshop cleaned up.
• Spent some time with my EE friend working on the circuit design for the Open Hearth animation.  Created a parts list.
• Ordered most of the parts for the animation. 
• Still researching some fuses.  Will order the fuses, an 8 ohm speaker, and some miscellaneous parts soon. 

George

Updated 11/17/2013:

Things have been a little slow while I recover from my arthroscopic knee surgery, but I did get a chance to work on a fun little project - my Crow River electromagnet. 

• Used a pin vise to drill the 3 holes for hooks.
• Installed the hooks.
• Painted the electromagnet with Ruddy Brown primer.
• Slathered it with a lot of Grimy Black weathering powder, followed by DullCote.
• Glued a round magnet into the bottom cavity.
• Installed some fine black chain using the hooks.

Will get a photo posted up soon.

George

Here's the photo as promised.

George

Updated 11/30/2013:

Currently focused on getting the yard switches for the hidden storage area back into good working order.  I am retracing and repairing some wires.

George

Updated 12/1/2013:

I attempted to debug the operationg of the 5 switches on my hidden storage yard yesterday without luck.  Previously, I had identified some wires that were loose and had gotten 3 of them operating via pushbutton.  I had less success with TMCC remote control.  The next morning I tried again and none would work consistently.  After e-mail discussions with Dennis Zander, these DZ-2500A switch machines are on their way back to Z-Stuff for replacement with the "C" revision.

These were originally supplied as part of my purchase of Ross turnouts.  The "A" version switch machines on the rest of my layout operate properly.  I suspect these were part of a bad batch.  I know Dennis had some trouble with the "A" version.

Anyway, I have removed all 5, packed them up, and they are on the way.  Because of the way I wired them, removal was easy (about 5 minutes each).  The real PITA will be getting the spring back in place.

In the meantime, I am hoping for some warmer weather (50 degrees) so that I can get into the garage and paint the wooden bridge floor.

George

Updated 12/5/2013:

The weather did cooperate last night.  I think we got to 57 degrees, although it was misty / raining.  I managed to get the bridge floor painted, although I did not get to the track support members.  I will have to paint them another time.  The paint was applied with a small roller.  At first blush this morning, it looks OK.  Lighting in the garage was poor.  I will inspect the bridge floor more carefully this evening.

Also spray-painted a number of Crow River highway overpass components with a camo color (surprisingly decent simulation of concrete).  Most of these were touch-ups.  Didn't get to all of them and some will need touched up again (hard to see in the bad lighting).  I plan to do those tonight at a friend's spray booth.

The opening in the weather immediately slammed shut.  Temperatures falling today into the low 40's with rain.  Rain / snow mix expected overnight. 

More when it happens.

George

Updated 7/7/2013:

Here's a photo of the painted bridge floor.  There are a few places that need a touch up (hard to see in a poorly lit garage).

Also managed to get a bunch of Crow River overpass pieces painted / touched up at a friend's spray booth on Friday night.

George

Updated 12/9/2013:

Today it felt like having your nose pressed up against the candy store window (look but don't touch).  Lots of stuff to work on, but domestic and parental duties interfered.  To wit:

• My five new DZ-2500C switch machines arrived.  They need programming, but there was no time available to get the Command Base, DZ-2001 Data Wire Driver, and 15 VAC power supply set up.  I need to get these programmed, tested, and verified before I go through the grief of putting them back on the layout.

What I did get done was:

• Cleaned up (removed flash and sanded) some additional Crow River overpass components.  They are ready for painting later this week at my friend's paint booth.
• Researched and designed the "penthouse" structures on the roof of the Strip Steel mill building.  From the photographs I took in the fall, I was able to determine the correct proportions of the structures.  Now I have a good idea how to construct the roof properly.

Inching forward.

George

Updated 12/10/2013:

Got some disappointing news today - the last potential vendor for my bridge has declined the work.  It's back to the drawing board to identify an alternate plan of action.  This seriously sucks.

George

Updated 12/14/2013:

Yesterday, thanks to prompt service by Ross Custom Switches , my DZ-2001 Data Wire Driver arrived.  I used it, my spare Command Base, and a K-Line PowerChief 120F transformer to program my five new DZ-2500C switch machines (numbered 17-21).

Here's Switch No. 19 immediately after successful programming.  I will try to get these on the layout soon.

George

Updated 12/22/2013:

I took advantage of the 65 degree weather today to get some painting done.  I opened the garage doors and made some progress.

The first 4 shots show my Crow River overpass parts that will make up the Crawford's Crossing highway overpass (bridge).  I used the Krylon Fusion #4291 Khaki color.  Makes a pretty good concrete color.

The next 2 photos show my bridge floor and track supports.  The supports, which are just on the bridge floor but not in their positions, were painted today.  I used 1.5 cans of Walmart Color Place black.

George

Updated 12/27/2013:

Got back yesterday from a wonderful Christmas visit with my parents, sister, brother-in-law and their kids in Erie, PA.  We left Tuesday and got back yesterday.  Didn't do any model railroading during the trip, but did get some thinking and planning done regarding the highway overpass at Crawford's Crossing (see photo below).

That's not a great photo of the overpass, it is too far away and much of it is hidden by the pipe bridge next to it and the mill power line towers.  I'm planning to simulate the look with Crow River highway overpass components.   This photo shows the rough placement of the highway between the mill buildings.

What I had been struggling with was how to organize the structure  - add sidewalks, telephone poles, and the Crow River railings and joint components and have it all hang together.  Plus the highway must be 4 lane and the overpass must descend from a level height of 6" (between the mills) to the module floor into downtown North Weirton.  (NOTE:  The drawing doesn't show the upright bridge supports and wooden block necessary to achieve a 6" clearance.).  I solved that puzzle during the trip.

A triangular support made out of 1"x 4" pine board will be used to ease the descent.  There will be one of these at each side of the road.  Disguised screws will be attached through the sidewalk into the support.  The roadbed will then be bent downward to mate with the module floor.  Screws will be inserted from the underside of the module floor into the supports to anchor them and achieve the downward slope.

I'm cutting a number of wooden components (sidewalks, underlying masonite) tonight.  Hopefully, I'll get to paint and scribe the sidewalks this weekend.

And the DZ-2001 buss work is still to be done.  That is also this weekend, assuming real life doesn't intervene! 

George

Your making good progress

Thanks Charlie, but pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!  LOL.

I'm glad to have figured out the overpass structure, but the real work of assembly seems to go ever so slowly. 

George

Updated 12/29/2013:

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men....sometimes get derailed.  Didn't get everything done like I wanted.  In fact, I've got a number of projects stalled for want of one thing or another.

Assembly of the Crawford's Crossing highway overpass is waiting on the sidewalks.  The 1" (4 scale feet) sidewalks did not get cut on Friday.  When they are cut, I will need to scribe their expansion joints and then wash them with an India ink / isopropyl alcohol wash.  In the meantime, I have been thinking about the location of those expansion joints.  Here's what I'm planning:

Any thoughts on this?

George

Updated 1/6/2014:

Not a whole lot moving in this very cold weather, but some progress:

• All sidewalks for the Crawford's Crossing highway overpass have been cut to their 1" (4 scale feet) width.  The sidewalks need to be painted, scored for expansion joints, and washed with the India Ink/isopropyl alcohol mix.
• Underlying masonite "floor" for the overpass has been cut to the correct width to support the cross sections of 2 railing pieces, 2 sidewalks, and the roadway.  See diagram 2 posts up that illustrates this design.
• Construction crane parts, specifically the boom and remaining cab and chassis, have been painted.  Still have to do all the smaller parts (wheel hubs, support arms and feet, etc.).

George

Updated 1/12/2014:

Interesting week or so:

• Was held up by the cold weather (unable to get out to paint).  A friend helped me with the use of his paint booth.  He also did a lot of painting for me.
• Got all the sidewalks for Crawford's Crossing painted.  Scoring them will be saved for the upcoming weekend.
• Got all the parts for the Lionel Construction Crane kit (6-19200) painted.  That kit was finally assembled and mated with my electromagnet.  Next steps are the application of decals, Dullcote, and some weight under the truck frame. 

Photos follow:

Naturally, comments and questions are welcome!

George

Updated 1/13/2014:

Tonight I tested my jig for cutting a straight 6" line in a Weaver telephone pole.  I used my MicroLux table saw to make the cut.  The slot will hold a very thin wire and 3 VDC LED light.  The fact that this worked means that my plan for making lighted telephone poles is a "GO".

This is a big step forward for modeling lighted telephone poles.

George

The latest PRRT&HS magazine, KEYSTONE, had a fine article on about the Panhandle Division

Hi Charlie,

You mean the one about Panhandle traffic?  Yeah, I saw it.  The author, Bill Neale, has one of the best Panhandle layouts (in HO) I have ever seen (only in magazines).  I met him at the last PRRT&HS annual meeting.  Very nice guy and very informative.

George

Updated 1/20/2014:

Today's effort was on constructing telephone / utility poles.  I still have a bunch to do, but here are 8 that are pretty far along.  They will need a little putty to fill in the holes and some paint, but are otherwise done.

These are Weaver poles with Keil-Line 3-wire standoffs.

George

Updated 1/23/2014:

Spent some time last night making styrene "standoffs" (simulating wood) to go between the pole and a large Crow River transformer.  Found out I don't have the correct color of paint (among all those Testors bottles ) and will need to get a dark wood or brown.

Two steps forward...

George

Updated 2/2/2014:

Happy Groundhog Day everyone!

While the excuse for a drinking party has been going on in Punxsutawney, I've been working on utility poles.   Over the past week or so, I've:

• Investigated some touch-up paint for the poles
• Assembled two of the more intricate variations of poles
• Painted 6 of the 10 light pole arms

Excluding the final puttying of holes, sanding, and touch-up painting steps, we are 50% done.

Here are some photos:

Enjoy.  Comments and questions welcome!

George

Nice

I need to make about 6 for my Mifflintown.

When installed how many inches will the cross arm be above grade?

Charlie,

Thank you! 

I am using the 9" Weaver utility / line poles.  The have spaces (holes) for 4 cross-arms.  From tallest to shortest:

• 8.75" (35 scale feet) above sidewalk or ground
• 8.25" (33 scale feet) above ground
• 7.75" (31 scale feet) above ground
• 7.25" (29 scale feet) above ground

Note that Weaver also makes a 6" pole as well.  Check out the Weaver website for all the variations.

I can't say enough good things about these poles.  They are well made, look great, and are easy to work with.

Hope this helps.

George

Updated 2/17/2014:

I finally assembled a few lighted telephone poles and tested them.  Below are a few photos.

Power is supplied by 2 AA batteries (3 VDC).

Next steps involve:

• construction of the remaining 7 lighted poles.
• application of putty to all holes and slots on all poles
• painting of all poles w/ touchup paint.
• cutting my painted sidewalks to fit the Crawford's Crossing highway overpass
• scribing expansion joints into the sidewalks
• assembly of the overpass itself (2 sidewalks, 2 side rails, roadway, and support masonite)
• drilling of holes for telephone poles
• insertion of poles and attaching wiring to buss
• cutting, painting, and assembly of large triangular ramp support
• installation of Crow River overpass uprights

I hope to get to some of this over the weekend.

George

Updated 2/26/2014:

I got the last 3 of this class of poles with double cross-arms, light arms, and two 3-wire stand-offs done last night.  Unfortunately, it was late and I didn't get a chance to photograph them.  Hopefully tonight, I will get the last 2 poles for the City of Weirton module done tonight.

Of those, the first is a 3 transformer job with standoff.  I find that drilling parallel holes in a pole to accomodate the transformer to be the hardest task.  Invariably, the holes are not completely lined up.

The second is a pole with criss-crossed insulator cross-arms (90 degrees to each other) and a light arm.  That shouldn't be too much trouble.

After that it's putty time.  All poles need to have their scars and extraneous cross-arm holes filled with squadron putty and then sanded and painted.  The telephone pole touch-up paint from Weaver arrived two days ago, so we're set.

George

Updated 2/27/2014:

Didn't get a lot of time to work on the layout last night, but I did:

• Manage to glue 3 transformers onto the one utility pole.  Aligning them was harder than I thought and they're not perfect.  But they will have to do.
• Screwed up making a wiring groove in a pole for the final lighted one and had to remake it.  Looks a lot better.
• Selected a piece of wood for the diagonal end of the overpass ramp.  This part is referred to as the abutment in the diagram below.  That will be cut tonight.
• Collected all the upright supports that will be trimmed tonight.  These are 1"x1"x12" wooden blocks that sit under the Crow River bridge supports and add height.  They have been painted to look like concrete.
• Confirmed the total height of the overpass.  The highway upright, with the additional support, will create a height of 5 7/8".  Subtracting the height of the Vinylbed (3/8") and track (0.45"), we're looking at a net clearance of slightly more than 5" from the top of the rail head to the ceiling of the overpass.  Good thing I'm not running double-stacks, vista-domes, or giraffe cars, eh?  
• The height of the abutment will be 3.5" tapering to the module floor.

George

Updated 3/23/2014:

I have finished assembling 28 of 28 utility poles for the North Weirton / Crawford's Crossing portion of the layout.  Now I am puttying the grooves in the lighted ones.  Will soon be painting.  Next steps are assembling the Crawford's Crossing highway overpass and installing the poles. 

In the meantime, I have started another (small ) project - a Weirton Steel caboose.  It is based on the PRR N5.  Awhile ago (2000-2001?) I bought a Weaver "Northeast" caboose lettered for PRR.  After becoming disenchanted with the Weaver crummy (lack of accuracy to the prototype), I decided to re-paint it.

The Weaver caboose looks close enough to an N5 to be made into the Weirton Steel caboose.  Unfortunately, disassembling it was difficult.  So I bought an unfinished, unassembled one from Weaver last month.  The new one has been painted and styrene panels have been added to hide the extra windows.  See below.

It will be numbered "4" and will get the Weirton Steel logo just between the windows.

George

Updated 5/3/2014:

With the buzz of April's York meet and the PRRT&HS Annual Meeting winding down, it's time to take stock of Panhandle projects:

• I managed to pick up another N6B cabin car at the York meet.

• Also saw the bridge built by East Coast Enterprises - we are discussing a few details, but I'm tempted.

•  Found a vendor at the PRRT&HS meeting that sells PRR hairpin railing sets (for on top of the bridge)

• Met another Panhandle modeler (in HO) at the PRRT&HS meeting and exchanged some interesting information and tips for the layout.

• Picked up some more Tichy 20-pane industrial windows for my Strip Steel building.
• Painted a few more telephone poles.  Need to finish that project.

That's the latest.

George

That is one handsome bridge!

Peter