What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[G3750]

Sounds do-able, but you better have three or four folks handy to help you manhandle an eight-foot roll of material up onto the wall, not to mention apply the paste. I would imagine it will be heavy...hopefully it will have some sort of vinyl or plastic coating to keep it together when you're working with it.

Should be sharp once you get it up there...

Healey

The backdrops are made of polypropylene and coated to protect them from solvents and scenic material. I plan to have at least one other person help me. And I watched an installation video.

I've got to get the Staging Area in gear.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

The backdrops are made of polypropylene and coated to protect them from solvents and scenic material.

How thick and what do you use as an adhesive to mount them that binds to that material w/o damaging it?

[G3750]

The backdrops are made of polypropylene and coated to protect them from solvents and scenic material.

How thick and what do you use as an adhesive to mount them that binds to that material w/o damaging it?

I'm not sure how thick they are. They are not light-weight.

Step 1 is this primer: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Zinsser-Peel-S ... gJ2NPD_BwE


Step 2 is this adhesive: https://www.menards.com/main/paint/wall ... 993176.htm

George

[rogruth]

George,
A curious question, why one from Lowes and the other from Menards?
Dothey not carry both? Better prices?

[G3750]

George,
A curious question, why one from Lowes and the other from Menards?
Dothey not carry both? Better prices?

No rhyme or reason. The links were given to me. To my knowledge, I don't even have a Menards here in the Pittsburgh area.

George

[chuck]

Home Depot carries both. It looks like Lowes favors another brand of adhesive. Zinseer "Bullseye" is pretty popular brand. I see it at the local hardware stores (few that are still around) and at WallMart/Meijers (what Wallmart was patterned on).

[G3750]

Home Depot carries both. It looks like Lowes favors another brand of adhesive. Zinseer "Bullseye" is pretty popular brand. I see it at the local hardware stores (few that are still around) and at WallMart/Meijers (what Wallmart was patterned on).

Thanks Chuck. We will be getting those soon.

George

[G3750]

George - Saw a mention in Alexander's history of the Pennsylvania Railroad as follows:

Perhaps the first of the "long-span" bridges was that at Steubenville over the Ohio River, built in 1863 and 1864. The channel span was 320 feet in length and largely of cast iron.

Your bridge seems unlikely to have been built in 1863/1864...is it a replacement for that earlier bridge?

Healey

Healey,

Here's that drawing of the first railroad bridge across the Ohio at Steubenville.

First Bridge.jpg (200.98 KiB) Viewed 2825 times

Here's a photo of the present bridge under construction.

1926 Bridge Construction.jpg (77.98 KiB) Viewed 2825 times

Several interesting things of note:

• The second bridge is operating during this time while the 3rd bridge is built around it.
• Traffic was only interrupted for 8 hours when the change occurred.
• At the left and right ends of the bridge are crawler cranes that moved along the top of the superstructure.

George

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hi George, Thanks for those "Interesting things of note" which helped me see with more understanding.

[G3750]

Hi George, Thanks for those "Interesting things of note" which helped me see with more understanding.

I think I was thinking faster than my fingers could type. Or the peculiar phrasing was straight out of the department of redundancy department.

[healey36]

Thanks for that, George...helps understand the evolution of the crossing. The bridge has some serious height off the river...is there stuff moving that requires that much clearance or was this more for high-water/flood stage purposes? Probably both, I guess...

Healey

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Hi George, Thanks for those "Interesting things of note" which helped me see with more understanding.

I think I was thinking faster than my fingers could type. Or the peculiar phrasing was straight out of the department of redundancy department.

You did fine.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Here's that drawing of the first railroad bridge across the Ohio at Steubenville.

What RR is that going across the bridge way back then?

[G3750]

Here's that drawing of the first railroad bridge across the Ohio at Steubenville.

What RR is that going across the bridge way back then?

From my friend Dennis Jones' post:
"In 1857 work was begun on the bridge by the Pittsburgh & Steubenville Railroad Co. - A pier in the median of [Ohio State] Route 7 still has the plaque marking that date 1857. Work on the bridge was continually halted due to opposition by the Virginian Government and the outbreak of Civil War. In 1860, the Holliday's Cove Railroad Company was incorporated and entered into an agreement to complete the bridge in 1863. It would not be until after the Civil War in 1865 (5 months after Lincoln was assassinated) that the bridge would be completed."

After a number of other changes, the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad (P.C. & St.L) is formed. It is taken over by the Pennsylvania Railroad.

George

[G3750]

Thanks for that, George...helps understand the evolution of the crossing. The bridge has some serious height off the river...is there stuff moving that requires that much clearance or was this more for high-water/flood stage purposes? Probably both, I guess...

Healey

Both is the correct answer. The 2nd bridge was put in place to deal with the increased height of river traffic (steamboats, etc.).

Today, the main channel of the Ohio is (I think) 22' deep, so large vessels can navigate it. Typically, you see the push boats and barge traffic that I have photographed in the past. But in the past there were significant problems with flooding and water level changes.

Here's a photo of Steubenville from the infamous 1936 flood. This is taken from the PRR bridge looking north on the Ohio side.

wsf37.JPG (93.13 KiB) Viewed 2800 times

Weirton or its lower altitude neighbor, Holiday's Cove, fared no better. The "cove" was so named for an inlet of the Ohio River that extended back towards the town. In fact, Holiday's Cove / Weirton sits on an ancient river bed of the Ohio. At some point in the past, the land rose and the river took the course we see today. Until effective flood control came into use, the river would occasionally reclaim parts of the old river bed.

http://www.laurelhollowpark.net/weirton ... d1936.html

George