Pittsburgh Independent Hi-Railers at Kennywood Holiday Lights 2023

Andy and all the gang, I hope I can attend this season.  If not I will look forward to photographs and videos!  Make sure no one injures himself.  I saw more white hair on Saturday than I recalled!  None of us are getting any younger!  

Andy, I really look forward to this thread every year, thank you and the group for doing this!

John

Here is a little preview of lights in the park:

From the fifth day:

By the end of the fifth day, most of the major mainline track work was done, most of the main yard modules are up and on their legs, and the engine yard is up and together.  This year, the engine yard features a new Ross transfer table in addition to the Ross and Atlas turntables (all will be operational).

The sixth day (Saturday) was spent hauling in scenery items, cleaning track and working on yard modules.  We have been doing this event since 2011, and it still feels weird driving our personal vehicles inside an amusement park:

The seventh day (Sunday) was spent setting up scenery, testing lights and accessories, cleaning "water" modules, and attaching the main yard to the layout on one end.

The new main yard entry module is now installed and attached to the mainlines.

Much more remains to be done before opening day this coming Saturday.  We are currently constructing a new power and control cart (our previous control panel was always borrowed from a member, as were transformers), and we will be constructing a module to connect the main yard to the other end of the layout and make it a run-through yard (this may not happen until after the event opens depending on how quickly the new cart is ready, and how the train testing goes on the layout).  This layout is bigger than last year, as we are using more of the front space and changing up the entry queues and exit.  Next year, we expect to max out the layout with two more modules that will need to be constructed in the coming year.  Yes, we are making it even bigger next year; after that, Kennywood will just have to take out the equipment behind the false walls or put an addition onto the building if they want it bigger...

Andy

Looks great!!

Amazing, as always, Andy. Your thread is one of my annual favorites - can’t wait to see if you’ve any new whimsical scenes!!! And now a question… just how big is this year’s layout. It is giving me long train envy of the 21” passenger car variety

@Apples55 posted:

And now a question… just how big is this year’s layout. It is giving me long train envy of the 21” passenger car variety

I will be collecting the statistics later this week.  And yes, 21" passenger cars look good running on this layout.

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

I will be collecting the statistics later this week.  And yes, 21" passenger cars look good running on this layout.

Andy

Well I do hope that, in deference to the less fortunate, you won’t be posting any videos of (to coin a phrase) “them long trains runnin”

@Apples55 posted:

Well I do hope that, in deference to the less fortunate, you won’t be posting any videos of (to coin a phrase) “them long trains runnin”

I can't make any promises in this regard...

Andy

We accomplished a rather wide range of tasks on day 8 of setup.  To help the Kennywood staff out, we set up and decorated the Christmas Tree for our space.  We also had to pull two corners and swap them as they were in the wrong positions (one of the corners is specifically designated to go under the On30 section and it was in the wrong place).  We also found a spare 4' module, so we decided to add it in at the end of the horseshoe curve in the middle area, so now we are also building a new 4' module to go on the other side.  Scenery work continues at a rapid pace, and the yard track got its cleaning last night as well.

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

I can't make any promises in this regard...

Andy

Santa: “lump of coal for Mr. Hummell”

Andy thanks for the pictures. I know I won’t be there Myrtle Beach is just a little too far away. You guys are doing a great job and I’ll be looking forward to seeing the pictures. Have a great Holiday Season.

@Andy Hummell,

Have y’all thought about doing an agreement with Kennywood about making this a permanent display?

@Apples55 posted:

Santa: “lump of coal for Mr. Hummell”

LOL!  Perhaps Santa should reconsider the lump of coal for us train guys... we will just turn it into loads for our coal hoppers...

Andy

@texgeekboy posted:

@Andy Hummell,

Have y’all thought about doing an agreement with Kennywood about making this a permanent display?

While we would love to have a permanent layout, the building we are in contains video games, basketball games, skee ball, etc. during the regular season, and that is a revenue stream for the park (it is used as one of the haunted houses for their Halloween event - Kennywood Fright Nights).  They are not going to give up that revenue stream.

Also, there are not enough of us to operate a 10-plus-hours-a-day, seven-day-a-week layout during the regular operating season (some of us still work day jobs, too).

Andy

Andy

I enjoyed your pictures and noted the Johnson Brothers layout sign on the 7th day post.  To save others from searching it said  "YOUR WIFE IS HOT.....  Time to get your A/C fixed!".

I would love to see this years Kennywood layout but my days of going to Pittsburgh for Christmas are over as my folks have pasted away.

Charlie

@Choo Choo Charlie posted:

Andy

I enjoyed your pictures and noted the Johnson Brothers layout sign on the 7th day post.  To save others from searching it said  "YOUR WIFE IS HOT.....  Time to get your A/C fixed!".

Thanks Charlie, this sign gets a lot of attention (and laughs) at our layouts.

Andy

You guys are amazing! I know from personal experience the hard work that goes into your set up. Bravo!

Peter

@Putnam Division posted:

You guys are amazing! I know from personal experience the hard work that goes into your set up. Bravo!

Peter

Thanks, Peter!  We also admire the work your club does!  

Andy

Before today's group of pix, here are some preliminary statistics:

• The layout occupies a space that is roughly 62.5' wide by 73' deep (the layout is asymmetrical)
• This year we used 68 modules for our mainlines, 10 more than last year
• Our mainline is roughly 356 feet, 32 feet longer than last year -- this is roughly 3.24 scale miles
• The total amount of track used for our mainlines is roughly 1,424 feet -- this is 0.27 actual miles of track (the final number will be a little more once I calculate the extra track used by the 4 curve in/out straight modules)

The yard track has not been tallied yet.

And now for the pix:

Over the years, Kennywood has sold custom run cars made by MTH in their gift shops, and we like to display the ones we have on the layout.  Here are mine:

This year is Kennywood's 125th year, so this car is now 25 years old!

Earlier this year, I manage to pick up the rarest Kennywood car, so it now becomes the first and only example to spend time in the park.

This is an approximation of Kennywood's Noah's Ark attraction.  It started its life as a 1970's giveaway premium from ARCO gas stations.  It was one of my favorite toys as a kid (not this one, mine is long gone, so I got a new one on eBay and painted it to resemble the one in the park).  The car is a custom made by a local police supply business.

At the end of day 10 of setup, the outside curtains and some of the plexiglass is now up.

Many scenes are finished or nearing completion, and a lot of new details are being added.

And since many of the trains we run here and scenery items were sold to us by @jim sutter, we think it is only fitting to have Jim's Train Shop represented on the layout.

Andy

Thanks Andy. It was always a joy to have you fellows as customers.

Andy,

Thanks for the update! Love the stats and pictures!

Chris

LVHR

Andy, I too appreciate your updates.  I check in regularly.

Opening weekend finally arrived!  We probably had the smoothest opening we've ever had -- no track tweaking required.  We had one small hiccup that we discovered Sunday though -- several of the modules were not plugged in, but the pins conducted the power through them well enough that we didn't even notice.   We had 1780 visitors the first night and 1404 the second night (football game days usually mean lighter attendance).

Here are the latest pix and the first video of the season:

First up, a couple of shots from Friday night after the interior curtains were put up and last-minute touches began:

We always have new stuff in and on the layout every year, and the biggest new addition this year is our new power and control cart.  It performed better than we expected, so much so that we didn't need to extend the antenna above the cart.  We probably will still have that capability when the top of the cart is finished (we will be installing two programming tracks -- one each for Legacy and DCS -- on top to be powered by the unused channels on the transformers).

Here is the exterior of our building one hour before opening, and a few shots of the interior.

A new module making its debut at this event.

The engine yard now has a transfer table.

And just like the old days in Pittsburgh, there was often a cloud of smoke over the engine yard.

We had a couple of custom run locomotives running this weekend (both can also be seen in the video below), including this Appalachian & Western from @ericstrains.com,

And this UP #4000 Big Boy from @MrMuffin'sTrains.

And here is the video.  It features the longest train we have ever run publicly at KHL, with 7 powered units (3 head end and two sets of 2 distributed units) pulling 55 long scale cars.  Throughout the whole weekend there were between 11 and 13 locomotives pulling up to 7 different trains on the layout.  We do like to go big!

Andy

Congratulations to all!!  That’s an excellent opening weekend!  You put on a great performance for the visitors!!

Another awesome year is ahead!  That Polar Express must get a heck of a workout!

Very nice!

Great work again this year Andy.

What is this tanker? Never seen one before????

@RSJB18 A club was selling them at/around York, they popped up in a bunch of the York videos on Youtube this October.

@MartyE posted:

Another awesome year is ahead!  That Polar Express must get a heck of a workout!

Very nice!

Thanks!  I remember both Mike Reagan and Dave Olson mentioning at various time that Lionel has a way of determining mileage on Legacy locomotives, and I wish there was an easy way for me to find out because the mileage on my original PM 1225 with PE tender has to be in the high double digits if not already into triple digits of actual miles it has been run.  Some of the other guys in the club joke that the odometer has to have turned over by now.   This year I replaced the pickup rollers because they had deep grooves worn into them.  I have been running this engine at Kennywood for 10 years now, 4-7 hours per night, 10-12 nights a season (and sometimes more now that Kennywood has stretched the HL operating days and hours out as much as possible), and I ran it a lot before Kennywood as it was my first Legacy engine.  And ever since I got the 10th anniversary PE, it has been seeing equal track time with the PM version, first as a double-header, then, when the snow-covered passenger cars came out, as a second consist -- and I tell people who ask why they are different that one is North-bound (black roof), and one is South-bound (snow covered roof).

I had an amusing experience on Sunday regarding the two PE's.  On my North-bound consist, I have a "hobo" Minion figure riding in a PE Railsounds boxcar.  A little girl going through the line spotted the Minion right away and pointed it out to her family.  When the South-bound train came by, she was a little confused and asked her family where the Minion went, and her family seemed confused, as well.  Then, when the North-bound consist came back around, she spotted the Minion again and again pointed it out to her family.  Then her father said, "Wow!  That must really be a magic train!"  And the smile on the little girl's face was just priceless!

Andy

@RSJB18 posted:

Great work again this year Andy.

What is this tanker? Never seen one before????

Naresar is right.  The cars were custom made and sold by a member of the Lower Susquehanna Valley RR Club (don't know if they have any more for sale or if they are making more, but their contact info can be found in THIS THREAD or on their FaceBook Page.  I bought mine at their open house this past York.  It is a real attention-getter.

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

Thanks!  I remember both Mike Reagan and Dave Olson mentioning at various time that Lionel has a way of determining mileage on Legacy locomotives, and I wish there was an easy way for me to find out because the mileage on my original PM 1225 with PE tender has to be in the high double digits if not already into triple digits of actual miles it has been run.

Andy

Andy

If you have the LCS WiFi monitor you can check it there.  It does all sorts of "unadvertised things".  You can get it in this post.

@MartyE posted:

Andy

If you have the LCS WiFi monitor you can check it there.  It does all sorts of "unadvertised things".  You can get it in this post.

Thanks Marty!   We haven't installed WiFi into our system yet, but it is on the to-do list.

Andy

@RSJB18,

I saw a tanker just like that last month on the UP lines in Houston. I was going to ask a question on OGR about it since there was no dome or bottom port, only a cylinder, but never got around to it. I wonder what they carry.

@texgeekboy posted:

@RSJB18,

I saw a tanker just like that last month on the UP lines in Houston. I was going to ask a question on OGR about it since there was no dome or bottom port, only a cylinder, but never got around to it. I wonder what they carry.

Not to hijack Andy's thread but I found this link.

Thanks

@MartyE posted:

Andy

If you have the LCS WiFi monitor you can check it there.  It does all sorts of "unadvertised things".  You can get it in this post.

Marty,

After watching your video, it dawned on me that my PM 1225 is too old for this method as it was made before they came up with the sensor track.  I guess that engine will remain a mystery, although I should be able to extrapolate a little when I can look at the odometer of my PE 1225.

By the way, is the Legacy odometer in scale miles or some other unit?

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

Marty,

By the way, is the Legacy odometer in scale miles or some other unit?

Andy

According to Dave Olson who answered some questions while making this video, it's scale miles.

Here is the latest batch of photos and the some video from weekend number 2.

We had a work night Wednesday night, and also spent some time unboxing and testing some new Vision Big Boys.

This custom car was done by one of our members way back near the beginning of KHL and can occasionally be seen running at Kennywood:

We also like running nostalgic cars like this convention car from the time we did the LCCA convention in Las Vegas, NV.

And here are a few more "insider" photos of scenes on the layout.

Someone here *really* likes die-cast cars...

Here is the video of some of what we were running this weekend.  It includes some footage of our carnival scene with two CoasterDynamix roller coasters running.

Andy

Y'all's layout is impressive!

Would love to see close ups of that walk through module and the leg system y'all use.

@Texas Eagle 77 posted:

Y'all's layout is impressive!

Would love to see close ups of that walk through module and the leg system y'all use.

Thanks!  I'll try to get some pix in the next batch.

Andy

Last night, Kennywood hosted its first "Spectrum of Lights" event for people on the autism spectrum in partnership the The Autism Employment Network.  We have a number of autistic kids as fans that come to see us at many different shows, and we were happy to see some of them again last night.

Due to the nature of this event, there were no large crowds to entertain, but we got many repeat visitors and even a few local celebrity visitors, including a few anchors from WTAE News, and perhaps the biggest celebrity of the night -- The Pirate Parrot, mascot of the Pittsburgh Pirates:

The evening also allowed for me to get some pix of our two walk-through or lift-gate modules for @Texas Eagle 77:

This is the oldest of the two, and the one we use the most during this event.  We only use them before opening and after closing, and never while trains are running.

And this is our newest:

And here are some shots of our leg system:

This is an old leg, but is still operates the same as our new ones.  Our legs are constructed with eye-bolts on the bottoms for leveling and height adjustment, and at the top pieces to hold the weight of the module on the cross-support (on newer legs, the legs are held together with plywood that also serve to support the module.  On the modules themselves, the legs are held by a floating clamp mechanism that consists of a floating board held to a cross-support with two bolts with springs separating the floating board from the support, and wing nuts on the bolts on the other side of the floating board to tighten or loosen as needed (the spring helps in the rapid release of the legs when removing them.  All of our legs are interchangeable, with a few exceptions for some of the more elaborate modules.

Andy

Hey!  The Pirate Parrot visited!  👍🏻 🏴‍☠️

Construction looks great!

Here are some pix from this weekend.  Saturday, the weather was rather warm, so the crowd was huge.

During this event, we are constantly adding new details for our repeat visitors to find.  Here are some of them -- bonus points for those who get the reference in the third shot (desert scene).

Here are some shot of this years' versions of some of our most popular scenes.  "Santa tangled in the Windmill" seems to be the all-time favorite every year.

And a few more shots from around the layout.

And a few shots from out in the park.

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

During this event, we are constantly adding new details for our repeat visitors to find.  Here are some of them -- bonus points for those who get the reference in the third shot (desert scene).

Andy

With all that work, the bunch of you are mad, Andy… mad, mad, mad!!!!!
P.S. great scene from a great movie!!

Kudos for the "Mad Mad Mad Mad World" reference!

John

Here is this week's batch of photos:

Thelma and Louise have been spotted on the layout...

We don't think that the Union Railroad ever pulled a Circus Train, but the colors do match...

We have a number of darkly humorous scenes.  Kids love this scene with the alligators.

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

Here is this week's batch of photos:

We don't think that the Union Railroad ever pulled a Circus Train, but the colors do match...

Andy

I see the Batmobile is towing the "Bat Boat"?

@Andy Hummell posted:

nothing like looking into your rear view mirror and wondering if your car will be run over or 'forced into the wall'

as always Andy, the club has outdone itself again.

walt

Any Clark Bar or Alcoa signs?

@MartyE posted:

I see the Batmobile is towing the "Bat Boat"?

Correct.  You can see the tail end of the "Bat Boat" in the Mobilgas station photo.  Maybe he is racing to save some people from alligators with his "Bat-Alligator-Repellent"? 

Andy

@texgeekboy posted:

Any Clark Bar or Alcoa signs?

Some of us have these signs, but not on this layout.

Andy

As to the URR orange and red pulling the circus train; the look like they were made for it!!  Excellent scenes!!

Here is the latest batch of photos, and a little more trivia.  We kept track of our hours during setup and this year setup took 437.25 man-hours over 12 days.

New arrivals, just in time for Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Andy

Andy, Merry Christmas to you and everyone in your club. I hope all of you have a great Christmas.

@Andy Hummell, simply magnificent; astonishing; mind-blowing!!!

What an undertaking: 400++ hours to install. Not to mention the labor of loading, unloading, assembly, testing, etc.

How many members did the installation?

Thanks for the many photos, descriptions, and stats.

So many great scenes!

Hopefully, next year I can make the trip to the Allegheny West home tour - fingers crossed that the DeSantis collection will be open again - and visit the Kennywood display.

@Andy Hummell I love the great variety and uniqueness of the loads that your club has created!

walt

Gabe had a great time there on Sunday. He kept diving in when the rain hit 🙂

@Andy Hummell posted:

Here is the latest batch of photos, and a little more trivia.  We kept track of our hours during setup and this year setup took 437.25 man-hours over 12 days.

New arrivals, just in time for Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Andy

Andy.......you fellows do amazing work and are great ambassadors of our hobby!

Peter

@Pingman posted:

How many members did the installation?

The majority of the work was done by 8 of us, with some additional help and modules from our remaining members.

We dug out last year's numbers and this year's layout only took an additional 15 minutes to set up despite being bigger.

Andy

Thanks for all the kind words, everyone!

Andy

Andy, Merry Christmas! Thanks for all of the amazing posts, pics and vids! You guys are the masters of the modular Christmas train display.

How awesome is it that you all have four new Vision Line Big Boys!!!

And as a parent of a special needs kid I can really appreciate the quiet crowd event with cool guests! These events have long lasting, positive impacts.

Oh yeah, and you guys have 356’ of mainline! Over 1,400’ total! Man, who on here hasn’t dreamed of having that size layout at home! That’s what’s so great about a modular club, the ability to stretch out those train lengths.

Keep ‘em coming!

Andy the vignettes you guys come up with and even just some of the little scene stealers like Thelma and Louise cruising Main Street are incredible.  The thought that goes into every detail of the layout almost surpasses the amount of time and effort to produce "The Show". Thanks for sharing every Christmas.

"Why that's it! Look!  It's the Big W I tell you.  The Big W."

More pix and videos will be coming soon, but in the mean time, check out THIS VIDEO from PghTrainFanatic.   (Thanks Nick!).

Andy

Nick did a great job capturing the wonderful layout!

Here are the last batch of photos for our KHL season.  From the beginning of November through the first half of January we spent 52 days working on and operating our layouts (this includes the two Greenberg shows we did at each end of KHL).  Every year, we use a counter to tally each night's attendance and present the final totals to Kennywood for their internal use.  This season, we counted 40,303 visits to our layout.

Here are some shots from out in the park, starting with the cafeteria building, which was host to our layout for the first few years of KHL:

And for some last looks, here is a shot of all my scenery, tools,  and two Polar Express consists packed up and ready to leave.

And this was the second to last trailer load about to be hauled off to storage.

Andy

Great pics Andy.  I was most impressed with the model display of Kennywood's Noah's Ark.  How old is that structure?  Do you know who made it?  I have a very nice hand sketched version of the Ark hanging in my house, along with some other sketches from Kennywood.  I don't recall the artist, my sister bought them.

Ooops, never mind.  I just realized that's a pic of the real thing!

Andy, following this thread every year is so enjoyable.  I said it before, so many incredible scenes that deserve comment.  Now that it's over for another year I will comment on the final batch.

Are these Plasticville trees?

This one made me laugh out loud.

His Jeep at a Jeep Rodeo, his pink Cadillac at a motel; like the song says, "Elvis is Everywhere!"

Hawkeye and Trapper John giving Frank Burns to the Aliens.

That's one Mad, Mad, Mad, backdrop to the layout.

Just a fantastic repurposing of the MTH Operating Fire House.

What an incredible model of an incline.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the shout out about Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.  I didn't pick that up!

The Big "Dubya" was included in one of Andy's earlier posts and was noticed by quite a few Forum members.

@coach joe posted:

Andy, following this thread every year is so enjoyable.  I said it before, so many incredible scenes that deserve comment.  Now that it's over for another year I will comment on the final batch.

Are these Plasticville trees?

According to the owner, they are kitbashed from parts of unknown origin and are made of a very brittle plastic.

Andy

I could tell they are plastic that's why I thought Plastcville.  They do look good in that scene.