Getting Closer

The layout room is really starting to take shape.  The walls are all finished and painted in a sky blue color, and I'm currently installing the suspended ceiling.  My first choice in lighting was to install track lighting, but with the first sections of lighting track installed, I decided to try out the lighting fixtures.  I recycled the fixtures from our former house when we updated the track lights.  I soon discovered that the fixtures were designed to hold spot light lamps instead of flood lights, and they created the harsh lighting conditions that you can see in the photo.  My next step is to try flood lamps and see if that helps the situation.  If that doesn't work I may just rip out the track lighting system all together and go with florescent fixtures.  I never realized how important lighting is in the layout room.  I just naturally assumed that focused light would highlight the trains and model scenes.  Perhaps for photography purposes, that might be the case, but under normal conditions, I might have to rethink that one.

This is another view of the space with the Southport Yard section of the layout covered in plastic. (I need to quit using it as a catch-all for tools and stuff)  I do like the 2 x 2 ceiling grid and the sand finish that I've chosen.  It makes for a nice finish without looking cheap.  I'm hopeful that I can soon get the benchwork positioned against the wall and start working on finishing this portion of the railroad instead of finishing the room.  Painting the raw concrete floor is next on the agenda.

Please comment on the lighting aspect.  I could really use some help there.

Progress on the Coaling Tower

WOW! I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted anything on this blog.  Some folks have even emailed be to ask if everything is OK, to which I'm happy to report - Yes, all is well.  Sometimes life just gets in the way, and by nature I'm prone to bite off more than I can chew.  And, couple that with a full time job, a part-time business, five children and a couple of grandkids, it's no wonder that I can accomplish anything.

Enough with the excuses though.  As I have repeatedly posted, most of my free time has been absorbed by finishing the layout room. And, I'm happy to report that it is going well.  Most of the drywall work is now behind me and this week I actually applied the finish coat to one of the walls.  I can actually see myself securing the benchwork to the walls in the upcoming months.

So you're probably wondering why the title of this post is "Progress on the Coaling Tower".  I did take a little time recently to work on the coal chutes, which is something that had been troubling me since the project started.  At the big Amherst Railway Society's Train Show in Springfield, MA this January I purchased some HO coal chutes from Tichy.  I was hoping that they could be adapted to S scale and the short answer was "no way".  But they did serve as a pattern for developing the S scale version that I needed to scratch built.  Also, the Tichy chutes are different than the ones used at Southport.  If I was modeling in HO, I wouldn't think it was a big deal, but since I had to scratch build them anyway, I decided to make them as close as possible to the Pennsy chutes.  I had no drawings or dimensions to work with, but there are very good photos of the Southport chutes in a photo by Jim Shaughnessey in Bill Caloroso's book on the Elmira Branch.  It's a night photo but clearly shows the hinged chute in enough detail to create a reasonable model of it.  With that and the dimesions from the Tichy HO chute, I fabricated the two part chute shown here:

I was pleased with the end result and felt that it represented the scale and proportion of the Southport chutes.  But I needed to install them on the tower to see how they looked and make sure that there would be enough clearance under the chute (when raised) and that it was sufficiently clear of the tower.  Here's a photo of the chute attached to the tower:

I think it looks pretty good.  And though it's hard to tell from the photo, there's more than 19-ft. of vertical clearance when the chute is horizontal and the horizontal clearance from the tower compares well to the Southport photos.  What do you think?

Now I just have three more to build and then I can go on to the next challenge of building the hoist mechanism.  Fortunately for me the hoist faces the back of the layout and would not be seen under normal circumstances. 

I'd really appreciate hearing your comments.  For now I have to run off to Home Depot and buy some more wall paint. 

The Southport Coaling Tower

The PRR Pro Modelers Yahoo Group has selected Pennsy Coaling Facilities as their next project.  After seeing the announcement, I thought that a coaling tower is a must have for the layout.  I thought that it would make an interesting next project for my S scale version of the Elmira Branch.  I know that I should probably be spending my time more productively by finishing the layout room, but I thought that building the coaling tower would provide a nice break from sanding drywall.

One of the most prominent features of the Southport Engine Facility is the massive concrete coaling tower used the fill the tenders of all those I-1's.  No one makes anything reasonably close to it in S scale, so scratch building is the only option for me.  That was the first hurdle to overcome.  The second was that I couldn't find plans for it anywhere.  As luck would have it, the Spring 2012 issue of The Keystone Modeler featured a scratch built version of the Northumberland coaling tower by Chuck Cover.  Northumberland was a smaller version of the Southport tower with six legs instead of eight, but it gave me a clue as to how to determine the dimensions of the Southport tower.  Southport is a cousin to the tower at Renovo, PA and the Renovo tower still exists.  Renovo is at best an 8-10 hour drive from where I live, so I knew that measuring it was out of the question.  Even if went to Renovo, there was no way that I could ever accurately measure such a massive structure.

Fortunately, photos of the Renovo tower exist all over the internet.  Just type Renovo Coaling Tower into Google and dozens of images will appear.  So using known dimensions in the photographs, such as the height of a handrail, track gauge, or the height of an average person, you could approximate the dimension of the structure.  With that I created a reasonable set of drawings of all four sides of the structure.  I'm sure that the dimensions are not exact but they look close enough to represent the Southport tower.  In S scale it's impressive measuring well over 15" tall.

The next obstacle to tackle was what material to use to represent the concrete structure.  At first I thought of casting it from plaster, but that would have been a nightmare to try make castings and then try and fit them all together.  In Chuck's article, he constructed the tower using styrene that he scribed to represent the individual boards that made up the formwork of the original structure.  The results were quite striking and when painted it resembled a concrete structure.  So I thought about using styrene, but forms lines would actually be the reverse of scribed material and I felt that in S scale the difference would be noticeable.  So I tried to think of another way of representing this huge multi-surface concrete structure.

Because I'm a part-time artist and I mat and frame much of my own art work, I have literally hundreds of sheets of scrap mat board in various sizes.  Mat board is roughly 1/16th of an inch thick and formed by compressing multiple layers of paper.  It is quire sturdy and could be joined using ordinary white glue.  It's texture is smooth and could easily represent concrete, but I still had two problems to solve - (1) how to I join the sections together without showing the edge of the mat board, and (2) how do I represent the wooden form lines?

The first problem was a relatively simple solution.  I used my mat cutter to cut the edges of the mat board to a 45-degree angle.  This gave the edges a nice clean seamless look.  I was pleased.  The second issue presented quite a challenge.  I experimented a bit and finally cam up with a reasonably good solution.  Instead of scribing the lines, why not do the reverse and scribe the boards?  So using a large triangle and a 1/8" wide flat bladed screwdriver I dragged the tip through the mat board with slight even downward pressure. Then I repeated the process by lining up the blade next to the newly scribed board.  If you leave a slight gap it almost appears that the boards are depressed and the gap is raised, just the effect that you're trying to achieve.  Occasionally you can skip a board to give some unevenness to the the forms.  Here's close up of the corner showing the board pattern:

I think it's pretty convincing.  We'll have to see how it looks after it's painted, but for now I'm happy with it.  Many more problems to deal with, but the basic structure problems are solved.  I reinforced the corners with 1/4" and 3/8' square basswood.  The resulting structure is quite strong and very lightweight.  I wish that I had it easy like the HO guys when it come to coal chutes and the hoist mechanism.  I guess that I'll be doing quite a bit of scratch building in that area.

You can access Chuck Cover's article by downloading the Keystone Modeler at the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society's website at: www.prrt&hs.com and clicking on the Keystone Modeler link.  It's a free quarterly magazine providing outstanding information for the PRR modeler.

I'm also happy to report that progress continues on the layout room as well.  This week painting of the walls has begun and now hopefully before the end of the summer layout construction and commence.

Fancy Pushers

The Elmira Branch always seemed to be the poor step-child of the PRR when it came to motive power.  Some of the last Pennsy steam ran there when other lines had already dieselized.  The same held true with diesel power.  When newer power arrived on the mainlines the older locomotives cascaded down to the branches.  The Elmira Branch was no exception.  At one time even a Baldwin centipede wondered on to the branch and after tearing up a bunch of track in Southport Yard, it was banished from the Branch.  One of the really unusual specimens was the pair of Alco PA passenger diesels that were used as pushers north out of Williamsport in the mid-1950's.  Still in the tuscan red and five gold stripe motif, PA's 5751 and 5757 worked as pair to boost loaded coal drags up the steep grades from Ralston to Snedekerville.  Usually teamed with an I-1, it made quite the sight as the former passenger train varnish provided much needed thrust to the westbound coal trains.

So, in the era that I model, no respectable Elmira Branch layout would be without the PA pushers.  The problem for me is that no one really make a respectable PA is S scale.  The American Flyer version came close, but the body shell suffered from having a flat roof, and the trucks had a wheelbase that was way too short.  About 15 or so years ago, American Models came out with a scale version of the PA and PB, but the shape of the cab and nose was off considerably.  Ironically, the rest of the body was spot on with very detailed side screen and the correct roof curvature.  I tried in vein to correct the cab and nose shape deficiencies, but no matter what I did it still didn't look right.  At one point, I though that it would be easier to reshape the roof of the Flyer PA than to modify the front end of the AM shell. But, then one day it dawned on me, why not use the Flyer nose and attach it to the rest of the AM shell.

Bingo!  It worked and here's the result:

It still has a ways to go.  The cab windows need to be reshaped a bit, but it looks a far cry better than the alternatives.  The trucks and power mechanism is from a Omnicon Flyer re-powering kit that was offered in the 1980's.  The brass, fully sprung powered trucks are well detailed.  The white plastic strip on the roof is where I removed the dynamic brake detail.  With the exception of a few dual service FP-7's and some RS units, Pennsy passenger diesels did not have dynamic brakes.  I've since replaced the side skirts on the AM portion of the shell.  They were too straight and didn't curve inward at the bottom like the prototype.  Now i'm working on the steps and then I'll start on the Pennsy specific details such as the antenna brackets and angled number boards but it won't be long before it's serviceable. 

More Progress

It's been quite a while since I posted anything but I am happy to report that there has been progress.  Not so much on the railroad but on the space that will eventually house the layout.  My previous photos only showed bare studs against the wall, but now the room has walls.  Finally!  The perimeter foundation walls are up along with a sufficient about of insulation to keep the chilly New England air out of the basement.  What a difference that makes.  I'm glad that the layout wasn't too far along before I decided to complete the room.  The portion that I had previously begun, had to be moved away from the walls during construction, so I devised a series of casters attached to horizontal cross braces at the legs of the layout and moved the entire 24-ft yard away from the work area.  Drywall taping has started, but before any sanding occurs the layout will be covered to protect it from dust.  New electrical outlets were added as part of the renovation.  Once the walls are complete it's on to the ceiling and lighting.

Bridging the Gap

What I really like about the Elmira Branch is the interesting topography that the line traverses between Williamsport, PA and Elmira, NY.  This is the portion of the branch that I chose to model.  The rural terrain, sweeping curves, steep grades, and numerous stream crossings give the feel of mountain railroading and will certainly add interest and challenges to the layout's operation.  And speaking of challenges, the modeled portion of the branch had at least four through truss bridges.  The bridges were pin-connected riveted steel single span structures and at least two of them were skewed.  Since I'm advancing the layout from north to south the first truss bridge is encountered just south of Southport Yard where the single track mainline crosses Seeley Creek on a 7-panel, pin-connected through truss bridge.

Now if the layout was being built in HO scale it would be a snap because of Central Valley's beautifully done rendition of a pin-connected through truss, but in S scale it's a different story.  At one time River Raisin Models offered a brass model of a through truss bridge.  It was an accurately detailed single track, pin-connected truss, 175-ft. long and had seven panels.  Nearly ideal, but the top chord was arch shaped and not flat like all of the Elmira Branch bridges.  They are also no longer in production, expensive, and very hard to find.  So, I decided to bite the bullet and scratch build a through truss bridge.

I found a article in an old publication from Kalmbach titled Bridges & Buildings for Model Railroads, first published in 1965.  It was a compilation of articles that appeared in Model Railroader Magazine over the years.  I have no idea how old my copy is but the price marked at the top was $3.00.  I doubt if the publication is still available, but you might still be able to find a copy on-line.

 The article has excellent plans for a 140-ft, seven panel through truss bridge.  The one drawback is that it's not a pin-connected truss, but other than that it has all the features that I'm looking for.  Also, a 140-ft span in S scale is more than 26-in. long.  I don't have quite that much room on the layout, so I chose to shorten the structure by one panel length making it a 120-ft long bridge.  My plan is to eliminate the center panel.

The original article uses strip wood construction, but I chose the fabricate the structure entirely out of styrene for two reasons.  First, I didn't want to sand all that wood smoothly enough so that it looks like steel.  And second, since I'm obsessive compulsive I can impress rivets into the styrene.

The truss members are mostly formed by laced girders for the vertical and diagonal pieces of each truss.  Building these are very tedious but the article shows how to build a template to assist in laying out the diagonal lacing bars. I would have preferred to use black styrene, but some of the sizes and shapes needed are hard enough to find in white styrene.  As a result it will be necessary to paint the girders as sub-assemblies  prior to fabricating the trusses.

Here's some photos of the complete laced girder sections:
 



This is obviously one of the most difficult parts of the structure to build.  The girders shown form the uprights for each truss panel so six of these are required (3 for each truss) the remaining uprights have horizontal lacing which are much easier to fabricate.  It will take a while for me to build this span and I will probably even need a temporary structure across Seeley Creek.  I hope to have some updates on my progress posted here so that you can see how things are going.

John Bortz's Pennsy Decapod

In 1956, most coal trains were powered by the 2-10-0 I-1sa locomotives with one on the point and two more about 100 cars back pushing on the rear. About three years ago I had the opportunity to acquire one of the I-1's scratch built by John Bortz. I know that there are at least two that he built in existence and I'm fortunate to own one of them. I'm not sure of the history of this particular unit, but I know that one of his I-1's won best in show at an NMRA convention in the 1980's. This engine is numbered 4618. It was built using a SSLS mechanism, but everything was scratch built using brass sheet and tube throughout. It weighs nearly 3-pounds and has a large can motor (back then SSLS drives all used Pittman open frame motors) and I must say that it's one of the finest running S scale steam engines that I've every owned - a real testament to John's skills. The video is from the shakedown run after I installed DCC with sound. The only modification that I made was doing the late-era Pennsy headlight generator/headlight swap. I wanted a late model I-1 so while I had the boiler disassembled, I did that modification. She's a real beauty! Anybody know where the other Bortz I-1's reside?