What's New on the PRR Panhandle Division?

[rogruth]

Looking good.

[G3750]

Looking good.

Thanks! It was great to make progress on Sunday after the previous day's problems. Saturday was one of days when after 2-3 attempts to cut something with the table saw and screwing it up, you realize it makes sense to just walk away. After all that grief getting the table saw's blade guard off, I tried to cut some of pilings. Well, they are slightly warped so that you can't cut all the way through for the entire length. You're forced to flip them over and hope you are still following the line. After messing up a few (they will end up forming the tailing end of the divider, I came to my senses and did it the old fashioned way - clamping the piling to the workbench and using a Zona saw. That worked a lot better.

Tonight I will work on bending sections correctly - more hot water for a longer period. I suppose you could heat them in the oven, but I'm worried about turning the piling sections into molten puddles, toxic fumes that might escape, and ruining one of the wife's cookie sheets. So we'll keep using hot water to gradually get them into shape.

George

[rogruth]

Have you tried warming them with a blow dryer?

[G3750]

Have you tried warming them with a blow dryer?

No, I haven't. Good suggestion. I will give that a shot tonight.

Thanks!

George

[G3750]

Updated 3/25/2013:

• Using Roger's suggestion (thanks Roger!), I warmed up 4 sections of steel pilings and got them bent to the correct shapes. I will need to paint the backs of these.
• I reconnected the wires to Switch #11 (trailing point lead to Weirton Junction and Standard Slag). Works fine.
• Trimmed up the Vinylbed roadbed for the two spurs in the section. Tested the fit of the compressor tank (on the prototype, this sits at the end of the spur and the compressed air is used to tilt the molten slag ladles) between the end of the spur and the steel piling. It fits and looks OK. Also test fit the steel piling sections at the ends of the spurs - also OK.
• Screwed down track for both spurs. Connected the bridge track section to the mainline.
• Applied power to the section and moved a lighted N-8 cabin car over it. Got some flickering that tells me the connections aren't good enough yet. I might need to apply more track screws to reduce bounce.

Looking good so far. Unlit Lionel track bumpers are now on my list for York.

Once I get the steel pilings in place on Standard Slag, I will stop all detailed landscaping for the time being. The Standard Slag module blocks free access to two areas that require attention - the highway overpass at Crawford's Crossing and the Strip Steel building. Both are partially built (started) and both need to be completed and moved into place before Standard Slag is detailed.

That's the current (crazy) train of thought.

George

[G3750]

Updated 3/30/2013:

Managed to get some work done despite my son's lacrosse game and the Penguin game (15th straight win!). Here's the latest:

• Am filing and fitting one of the upper steel pilings into place. Want to get the ground even enough to support the piling.
• Painted the backs of 6 steel pilings.
• Test fitting the curved pilings. So far so good.

Next steps are to finally cement pilings in place and position the compressed air tank.

At that point, we will move on to the other structures "hemmed in" by the Standard Slag module.

George

[G3750]

Updated 4/6/2013:

• Attended the 2-rail O Scale show in Strasburg this morning. Didn't find much, but did come home with 1 building top moulding and a Life-Like set of city accessories (4 fireplugs, 4 trash cans, 2 blue mailboxes (which will be painted green), and 2 phone booths).
• Have put 3 more steel pilings in place.
• Am bending 5 more pieces of piling.

Photos when I get the chance.

George

[G3750]

Updated 4/7/2013:

Today I added some more steel pilings to the boundary of the Standard Slag module. All walls except the extreme left side are glued in place. Per an earlier decision, no ground cover or slag has been added. That will be deferred to finalization of the layout. OK, as promised here are some photos. I applied power to the layout so you could see the loads in the hot metal cars glow.

First shot is of the caboose track with the steel piling wall in the background.

Std_Slag_W24_033.JPG (101.28 KiB) Viewed 4052 times

Second photo is of 2 hot metal cars poised to dump their loads of slag. Note the compressed air tank at the end of spur used to assist in tilting the dump mechanisms. That is prototypical.

Std_Slag_W24_037.JPG (75.84 KiB) Viewed 4048 times

Third photo is a long shot showing the slag pit, slag cars, and power shovel. The wall at the left is not yet glued in place.

Std_Slag_W24_036.JPG (83.47 KiB) Viewed 4051 times

Next step will be to glue the wall in place and declare victory for the moment.

George

[rogruth]

George,

The difficult part of this,IMHO,is that there are so many specific details to a steel mill.
You can't just put down a few buildings and say here it is.
To make it worse each one was a little different from any other mill.
Starting to look like something now.

[G3750]

George,

The difficult part of this,IMHO,is thatthere are so many specific details to a steel mill.
You can't just put down a few buildings and say here it is.
To make it worse each one was a little different from any other mill.
Starting to look like something now.

Agreed. It's the super-detailing that will make or break these scenes. I finished up these large pieces, placed and glued them, and took the photos. When I looked at the photos, I said to myself "is that it"?

It isn't. I have lots of super-detailing in mind, but now is not the time. There will be ground with lots of minor elevation changes, ground cover, slag, cotton-tails, and other areas of sparse to heavy vegetation (grass). If you recall, I built this module because I needed a removable section to allow access to the other mill buildings.

So, while this is a place to stop, it doesn't represent the final product. I do feel, though, that I've gotten one of the hardest areas done. It was a good primer for the large mountain that will make up most of the Ohio side. This is the first time I ever worked with foam or any type of land-building materials.

Here are a few more shots:

Std_Slag_W24_031.JPG (97.05 KiB) Viewed 4040 times

Std_Slag_W24_032.JPG (92.31 KiB) Viewed 4038 times

Std_Slag_W24_034.JPG (98.49 KiB) Viewed 4040 times

George



George

[G3750]

Updated 4/8/2013:

I have begun work on the overpass at Crawford's Crossing. Prototypically speaking, this is the spot where Weirton's Main Street crossed the Pennsylvania Railroad's New Cumberland secondary track. In the early part of the 20th century, Weirton Steel raised the level of Main Street using an overpass. This is how it looked in 1957.

1957 Crawfords Crossing.jpg (77.22 KiB) Viewed 4017 times

The next photo shows the placement of the overpass between the two mills. This is an old photo, as the Blooming Mill is still under construction, but it shows how the space will be occupied by the overpass.

2011-01-05 006W.jpg (92.9 KiB) Viewed 4016 times

The last item is a blow up of my RR-Track plan for the area. The two mill structures shown in the previous photo are to the right (off camera). The highway coming from the area marked by the "2.0 ft" is the lower end of Crawford's Crossing. I am pleased to note that after test placement of the highway road segment, it matches the plan correctly.

Crawfords_Crossing01.JPG (171.04 KiB) Viewed 4022 times

The next few steps will involve:

• Putting road markings (pin-stripes) on the new segment of Main Street
• Cutting Main Street to match up with the overpass road segment
• Touching up the paint on the Crow River overpass pieces.
• Assembling the overpass itself
• Finding and shaping wood pieces to sit under the Crow River bridge abutments (need about 1" more elevation just to be safe)
• Assembling the bridge abutments
• Final gluing and assembly

Your thoughts?

George

[G3750]

Updated 4/9/2013:

While looking for an opportunity to do the work on the overpass, I've had a chance to think about how to tackle the area shown below:

Crawfords_Crossing01.JPG (171.04 KiB) Viewed 3986 times

Currently, this is open grid benchwork with subroadbed and track. An irregularly shaped table top supports the Weirton Steel mill area just to the right (out of the picture). Some preliminary thoughts:

• At the bottom of the diagram, the area south of the concrete wall will be 1-2" lower than Main Street. A 1:48 figure entering the front of the Quality Control Lab would exit the rear of the building at a lower level.
• As a result, the concrete wall lining the south side of Main Street will have a total height of 4-4.5". The thought is to have a masonite board form the floor of the module and use ribs (like on the Standard Slag module) to support an elevated Main Street. It's not desireable to have the floor cover the entire module because it makes reaching the building wiring very difficult (Lesson learned from Standard Slag). We'll either have to cut big holes or be very selective about what is covered; module strength and rigidity is a factor as well.
• North of Main Street, buildings will sit on another elevated section of masonite. That section will end at the scenic backdrop divider.
• North of the divider, pink foam will be used to taper the hillside down to track level in the Weirton Junction area.
• On the northwest corner of the diagram, a small hill partially encircling the City Building will be blended into the divider.

That's the current thinking on this module. It helps to write it down and get some feedback.

George

[rogruth]

It was probably in the 1960s or 1970s when I last went through Weirton
and think I remember that coming down the ramp it was almost like driving
through the mill.I remember that I would drive slow so I could see the
mill and would get lots of honks from other vehicles.

[G3750]

It was probably in the 1960s or 1970s when I last went through Weirton
and think I remember that coming down the ramp it was almost like driving
through the mill.I remember that I would drive slow so I could see the
mill and would get lots of honks from other vehicles.

Roger, that ramp (Main Street over Crawford's Crossing) is still there, but there is (sad to say) a lot less to see. And there is virtually NO traffic. If you are driving south (towards downtown Weirton and away from North Weirton) and look west, all those steel mill buildings are either gone or being torn down. You can see the river - a view that hasn't been possible in over 100 years. It wouldn't shock me to see apple trees re-planted and the land revert to orchards, as it was when E.T. Weir first gazed upon it.

George

[rogruth]

I have looked at the upper Ohio Valley on Google Earth.I knew what had happened to my home town and found that it is the whole area.

I wonder why anybody stays in the area.Most industry is gone.Mines are closed.What's left?Tourism?There is a little to see and do but not
enough to support the population that was once there.