Hi Helmut
I am planning the same thing; had two truck-loads of quite large rocks delivered last week to form the basis of a mountain with water feature. I only have two steam locos at present, both AHM plastic kits. Being a complete miser, I have assembled and bench-tested a rudimentary radio control system using electronic speed controllers and 2-channel transmitter/receiver sets designed for RC cars. These are bulky but that's not really an issue with O-scale, and control is fully proportional so they are no worse than the expensive purpose-designed systems from a control point of view - I am not concerned about not having sound, and I can use the other tx-channel controlling a servo to activate 'functions' such as uncoupling and lighting.
You might be interested in my 'prototype', the South Penn railroad. It was started building by anti-PRR interests in the 1880's but abandoned before construction got very far. It was to run 200 miles between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg but high construction costs ultimately sank it. Nevertheless, most of the proposed tunnels were completed and the formation was eventually sold to the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and used to build a four-lane highway, the I-70. The highway more-or-less follows the original route, with a few alignment changes here and there, and by-passes of some tunnels made fairly recently. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...ennsylvania_Railroad if you want to know more.
I am a NYC fan, and the NYC influence behind the South Penn means I can freelance while still including a lot of NYC equipment. The South Penn was to connect with the P&LE at its western end, and the Reading RR at its eastern end, so I can justify a lot of equipment from those railroads too. There's a facebook page set up by a very clever bloke who is overlaying scans of original South Penn survey maps over aerial photos, so it is possible to get a very good understanding of what the railroad would have looked like. I can hook you up if you are interested.
Regards, Paul.
