What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

What are the red areas? Pop up access or........... There are a lot of sidings that I'm not sure of purpose other than guessing that they relate to prototype demands?

Is there any way to "see" how the current version of your plan fits into the footprint of the room?

Do you need some "inspiration"?

[G3750]

What are the red areas? Pop up access or........... There are a lot of sidings that I'm not sure of purpose other than guessing that they relate to prototype demands?

Yes, the red areas are pop up access or hand holes.

The large number of sidings, especially in the Weirton Steel area (I believe you are referring to them) are required by the different operations:

• Blast Furnace: Empty slag cars in / Full slag cars out. Empty hot metal cars in / Full hot metal cars out.
• Open Hearth: Empty ingot buggies in / Full ingot buggies out
• Blooming Mill: Full ingot buggies in / Empty ingot buggies out. Empty slab cars in / Full slab cars out.
• Strip Steel: Full slab cars in / Empty slab cars out. Empty coil gondolas and box cars in / Full coil gondolas and box cars out.

Is there any way to "see" how the current version of your plan fits into the footprint of the room?

Boy I am glad you mentioned this. I rechecked the dimensions of the room and the terrain differs from the map, so to speak. The left half of the room is actually 13'6" wide, not 14'. At 20'10" from the left wall, it narrows to be only 12'8" wide all the way to the right wall. So, I am in the process of tweaking the layout a bit to fit those dimensions while retaining adequate aisle space along the front of the layout. Thanks Rufus!

The good news is that we can make the adjustments while preserving the general shape of the layout. This will work!

Do you need some "inspiration"?

Actually, I think I'm good there.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Is there any way to "see" how the current version of your plan fits into the footprint of the room?

Boy I am glad you mentioned this. I rechecked the dimensions of the room and the terrain differs from the map, so to speak. The left half of the room is actually 13'6" wide, not 14'. At 20'10" from the left wall, it narrows to be only 12'8" wide all the way to the right wall. So, I am in the process of tweaking the layout a bit to fit those dimensions while retaining adequate aisle space along the front of the layout. Thanks Rufus!

The good news is that we can make the adjustments while preserving the general shape of the layout. This will work!

Glad to be of assistance then; good to know that the pieces fit.....

Do you need some "inspiration"?

Actually, I think I'm good there. [/quote]

Well, if you're sure........

[G3750]

Updated 5/16/2017:

I have rendered, as best I could, the train room and the layout's placement within it. Yesterday, I took a number of detailed measurements of the room and created a Visio drawing of it. Then I placed a JPEG of the RR-Track layout on top of it. It's not perfect, but it should convey the main idea. Anywhere you see solid white or gray areas are aisles. I couldn't extend those to fit the odd shape of the areas, so I created blank spots (bluish-gray) and labeled them as aisles as well. The spaces are actually, in fact, contiguous. I think we end up with aisles that are minimally 30" (maybe 34") wide.

The leftmost door leads to the workshop. The center door opens to a closet under the stairs. The rightmost door leads to the roughed in powder room / furnace room. The stairs lead up to the main floor.

Train Room4.jpg (666.62 KiB) Viewed 16036 times

Your thoughts please,

George

[healey36]

Looks like an outstanding plan to me, lots of options for scenery, good operational variability there to keep things interesting. Lots of access. The freakin' bridge looks like it won't aesthetically overwhelm the layout...very nice. It's probably way more than I would bite off at this point, but that's just me.

As a tinplater I would make one recommendation from a track-plan perspective - make sure you have at least one loop where you can grab a cup of coffee or a beer and just let them run. There's something deeply soothing in doing that at times.

Healey

[G3750]

Looks like an outstanding plan to me, lots of options for scenery, good operational variability there to keep things interesting. Lots of access. The freakin' bridge looks like it won't aesthetically overwhelm the layout...very nice. It's probably way more than I would bite off at this point, but that's just me.

As a tinplater I would make one recommendation from a track-plan perspective - make sure you have at least one loop where you can grab a cup of coffee or a beer and just let them run. There's something deeply soothing in doing that at times.

Healey

Thanks Healey!

It probably is a bit much, but I'm going to go for it! It should keep me out of trouble for quite a while!

The mainline is a folded dogbone. Realistically, I could probably run at least 3 good-sized (10-15 cars) on it simultaneously or a train continuously without operator intervention.

George

[rogruth]

I assume the main scenes are still the Weirton Steel complex, right?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Coming along nicely - when does the truck of lumber arrive?

.........a closet under the stairs.

Your thoughts please,

Great place for clowns to hide until ~3 am when they come out looking for where you keep the rope and cleaning supplies.....

[G3750]

I assume the main scenes are still the Weirton Steel complex, right?

Yes, the eastern end of the layout will focus on:

• Weirton Steel - blast furnace, open hearth, blooming mill, strip steel
• North Weirton - businesses, intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue, County Road, and Main Street, Mill Admin building, Honor Roll.

And the western end will feature Steubenville:

• North 4th Street with a victorian house or two
• Intersection of 4th and Market Streets - S.S Kresge, Richmond Brothers, other businesses as space permits
• Market Street - maybe get The Hub onto the layout
• Seedy side of 4th (south) - Imperial Hotel (it was really on 6th but mrr license)
• River Route, coal mine, Gould Tunnel

George

[G3750]

Coming along nicely - when does the truck of lumber arrive?

Thank you! The initial truck of lumber is some weeks off. I've got to get the lighting sorted out in the workshop and the train room first (not to mention the rest of the house). The first load of lumber will be dedicated to construction of the staging area and the backdrop.

.........a closet under the stairs.

Great place for clowns to hide until ~3 am when they come out looking for where you keep the rope and cleaning supplies.....

Uh, no. Killer cats are on patrol.

100_1614.jpg (781.59 KiB) Viewed 16020 times

This is what I feed them when they can't get Clown for dinner.

George

[rogruth]

Your scenic plan sounds like the best of the area.
Any plans for passenger trains? I have forgotten
the years included. If you do passenger remember
that PRR ran commuter type Stuebenville to
Pittsburgh. I don't remember when that ended.
Point is you don't need long passenger trains.

[G3750]

Your scenic plan sounds like the best of the area.
Any plans for passenger trains? I have forgotten
the years included. If you do passenger remember
that PRR ran commuter type Stuebenville to
Pittsburgh. I don't remember when that ended.
Point is you don't need long passenger trains.

Thanks Roger, I am really trying to focus on more scenery in this version.

As for passenger trains, I think you just gave me an interesting piece of information. I am currently planning on running the Spirit of St. Louis, trains 30 and 31. That is a through train. I have the somewhat rare K-Line 18" streamlined aluminum cars for that purpose. However, the idea of running commuter trains to/from Steubenville is a good one! I will have to do some research, but I might as well ask you:

• Would the locomotives used in this time frame (1953) be a G5s? Or perhaps an RS-1 or RS-3?
• What would be used in the way of passenger cars? 60'? Heavyweight?

Please tell me your recollections.

Thanks,

George

[rogruth]

It has been a long time. Probably a G5 or less likely an E6.
The only diesels I saw through that area were on named passenger trains.
I remember the cars seeming to be shorter but they were probably P70s.
The Steubenville-Pittsburgh train was short, 3 or 4 cars(?).
I rode with my aunt and cousin in the late 1940s maybe three times.
I recall rather quick pick-up leaving stations.
What was nice about these short trips is that they were in daylight.
I don't remember what towns we went through or stopped in but
think Weirton was one of them.
Most of my trips were to Chicago on the B&O and I left home about
7:00 PM and arrived in Chicago about 7:00 AM so didn't get to see much.
But that was OK. I was riding a train. Always rode coach. Could not
afford Pullman.Never ate in a diner. Same reason. The coach I rode had a
snack bar with great ham sandwiches that were made when ordered.
Cost 15 cents (?).

[G3750]

It has been a long time. Probably a G5 or less likely an E6.
The only diesels I saw through that area were on named passenger trains.
I remember the cars seeming to be shorter but they were probably P70s.
The Steubenville-Pittsburgh train was short, 3 or 4 cars(?).
I rode with my aunt and cousin in the late 1940s maybe three times.
I recall rather quick pick-up leaving stations.
What was nice about these short trips is that they were in daylight.
I don't remember what towns we went through or stopped in but
think Weirton was one of them.
Most of my trips were to Chicago on the B&O and I left home about
7:00 PM and arrived in Chicago about 7:00 AM so didn't get to see much.
But that was OK. I was riding a train. Always rode coach. Could not
afford Pullman.Never ate in a diner. Same reason. The coach I rode had a
snack bar with great ham sandwiches that were made when ordered.
Cost 15 cents (?).

Wow, priceless memories! Thank you for sharing all that good info.
I'm guessing, because of the timeframe, the locomotive was a G5. They were specifically built for commuter service. The E6 (Atlantic) was also pretty good with short trains, but might have been in use farther east (according to Pennsy Power). I think I have 3-4 heavyweight coaches that might be a good train for a G5.

Thanks again,

George

[rogruth]

I Have all three Pennsy power books and think they are great but I did see several E6s' on the Panhandle.
Even saw K4s on freight trains. Even have a memory of a T on a freight but that might be a fantasy memory.
I never saw any of the S or Q classes but did see just about everything else the Pennsy had post war.