Passenger Geep No. 8551

One of my favorite locomotives is PRR GP-7 no. 8551. The 8551 along with its sister locomotive 8552 were two of only three hood units that the Pennsy ever ordered with roof top air tanks. These two units were assigned to Williamsport to protect passenger train service on the Washington-Buffalo trains, but most of the time they could be found hauling local freight trains.  As a result, they spent a lot of time on the Elmira Branch. 

In the mid-1950's they provided power for the skeletal remains of the Williamsport-Canandaigua passenger service hauling the last remnant of that service in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  By 1956 all passenger service was eliminated on the Branch.  In the era that I model (Fall of 1956) all passenger service was gone and 8551 hauled only freight.  [Though I plan to use some modeler's license and run some form of passenger service.]

The above photo shows the 8551 on the fill slope approaching the Seeley Creek Bridge and Kendall Tower can be seen just to the right of the scene. No commercially produced GP-7 currently exists in S scale. So if you're trying to model a GP-7 you can try to find one of the brass versions imported by Sunset Ltd. many years ago (with really bad running mechanisms), or convert one from an American Models (AM) GP-9.  I chose to do the later.

The AM GP-9s are fairly good running locomotives with a proven drive system. Several years ago Des Plaines Hobbies (DPH) started producing an exquisitely detailed GP-7 long hood, which really facilitated the conversion. But rather than describe the conversion process here, it's better to refer you to the article on the conversion that I wrote for the S Scale Special Interest Group.  You can find the article here:

http://sscale.org/782/volume-1-no-11-converting-gp9-to-gp7/

I did the locomotive conversion about three years ago, and like many things I do (admittedly), its was about 95% complete. I installed DCC and it was running around the layout, but it still needed lights, window glazing, numbers in the number boards, marker lights and a crew. The glazing and the crew were not an issue, but the number boards were.  It seems that the decal set didn't include enough of the numeral "5" to letter all of the number boards. With four number boards, I needed eight 5's and the decal set only included two!  There was no way hat I wanted to purchase 4 decal sets to letter one locomotive.  So I had to consider another alternative.

I scanned the numerals from the set and created the 8551 number board in Photoshop.  When I was satisfied with the scale of the number board, I printed a bunch of them on glossy photo paper as shown below:

Next I trimmed the number boards and outlined the edge of the photo paper with a black Sharpie so that no white was showing. The DPH shell is recessed in the area of the number boards so the thickness of the photo paper fills the recess nicely.

The lights were a bit of a challenge as well.  Neither AM or DPH makes an clear plastic insert for the twin sealed beam headlights.  I really wanted to have individual bulbs anyway and they had to be LEDs if I were to insert them into the headlight openings.  Bulbs would generate too much heat and potentially melt the superbly detailed casting.  Recently, I found some small diameter clear incandescent looking LEDs that could slip into the twin headlight openings and they are called "tower LEDs" by Minitronics.   The LEDs have a small (2mm) cylindrical projection, or tower, that can fit inside the headlight housing.  It's possible to glue the two LEDs together, wire them in parallel, and mount them to the inside of the long and short hoods.  With the decoder that I used, each LED needed a voltage limiting resistor, but even with that the twin LEDs are really bright!  It will be neat to watch this unit cast its headlight beams around the layout with the room lights off.

I now consider this project complete, though if I wanted to be completely accurate, I would install windshield wipers and sunshades above the cab windows.  I may do that some day but right now 8551 has some cars to pull.

Layout Room Access

I've reached the part of layout construction where the bench work meets the access to the room.  I've been going back and forth in my mind for some time now over the various options of how folks will get into the layout room at the point where the alignment crosses the door opening.  I had one hard and fast rule - NO DUCK UNDERS!  I'm not getting any younger and neither are my guests so that option was ruled out quickly.  Beyond that there are a multitude of options and I needed to choose one that best suited me.

My first obstacle was the fact that the track alignment is on a curve at this location, and there was no way around that.  Plus I wanted to have some scenery on each side of the track so that it blends in well with the adjacent segments of the layout.  The first option that I considered was a roll in/out section.  It would resemble a rolling cart and would slide in and out and roll out of the way when access to the room is needed.  This option would enable me to fully scenic the top of the cart and when in place it would look like it was part of the layout.  This idea really appealed to me but the drawback is that it would be supported on casters rolling on an uneven concrete floor and alignment at track level could be challenging.  Besides, someday I may want to install carpeting and further adjustments would be necessary.

I then considered a swinging gate.  These have become quite popular and I really gave it a lot of consideration, but the curved track alignment was what convinced me to look at other alternatives.  Next, I considered a lift out section, but with a 26-in. span the section would be quite heavy and I wasn't sure where the section would go when it wasn't in place.  Most likely it would just stay there and it would by default become a duck under.

So that left the classic hinged drawbridge.  I first considered a bridge that would lift up, but that would require something to hold it in place when it's in the upright position.  In addition it would need some counterweights or locking mechanism so that it didn't swing down with all its weight and possibly hit someone.  I ended up with a hinged drop leaf section:

The bridge section is hinged and drops down to clear the opening.  It's constructed from 3/4" cabinet grade plywood and secured to two sections of 2x2's underneath to give it plenty of rigidity.  When hanging down all of the weight is supported by the hinges and when its raised two sliding dead bolts lock it in place and provide sufficient indexing to keep the rails in alignment.  A curved facia helps the section look less like a bridge and more like a piece of the layout.

Here's a photo of it in the raised position:

The photo shows the sliding dead bolt that holds the bridge section in place.  This is the second set of dead bolts that I installed.  The first set was a cheaper version called a barrel bolt.  It seemed that the barrel bolt housing had a lot of slop to it and didn't provide enough indexing to keep the rails in alignment.  I quickly removed them and installed two of the dead bolts shown in the photo on each side of the bridge and when locked in place, the bridge is very secure.

This photo shows the gap at track level:

I secured the track to the roadbed and then cut the gaps in the rails.  Next I'll remove the ties on each side of the gap and install PC ties with the rails soldered to them for a little better protection at the ends.

There's no power on the bridge section yet but I did back a train over the gap and alignment was very smooth.  I'm really please with how well this turned out.