What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[G3750]

Saw some pics over on the "other" site...the prints and paint job look great.

Thanks! Unfortunately, posting photos here is (at least for me) a true PITA.

We are inching along. It's just a huge project. And the more I've gotten into it, the more I've looked to increase the level of detail. Typical me!

George

[healey36]

I have friends who build armor models that went on to including full scratch-built interiors; I think you have them beat.

Should be spectacular when complete.

[G3750]

I have friends who build armor models that went on to including full scratch-built interiors; I think you have them beat.

Should be spectacular when complete.

Thank you. I feel particularly grateful that the asylum gives me internet access.

George

[G3750]

Updated 3/15/2023:

• The stand for the bailers has been built, painted, and weathered. I'm pretty happy with how this little side project turned out.
• The 3D printed spools for furnace door motors arrived.
• I built the first motor / spool stand as a test exercise. I learned a lot from it and have made some differences in my approach.
• Now building the rest of them as a result of the lessons learned.
• Learned a few more lessons about the order of assembly for this furnaces.
• LED circuits for the remaining ladles arrived. We'll get to these soon

George

[healey36]

Some light reading:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010881517&view=1up&seq=1034

[G3750]

Some light reading:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015010881517&view=1up&seq=1034

Thank you, Healey!

I actually have a copy of this article (it's out on the internet as a separate PDF) and it has been my reference for the bridge effort. In particular, I created my representation of the piers from the drawings in the piece.

George

[healey36]

I've gotten into a habit of reading a few of the old railroad trade journals as they roll over into the public domain. I think we're up to 1927 now, so we're getting into the some of the most interesting stuff, at least to me.

That bridge turns up frequently in the engineering sections, so there was clearly a lot of interest in its construction. Being a continuous-truss design, it seems another example of the Pennsy's engineering (and motive power) departments' practice of using brute force in solving problems. The Old Man, a bridge engineer of some notoriety, once told me that cantilevered designs, while more expensive and more complex, were stronger both in the length of the span that was possible and the load it could support. Than again, the bridge at Steubenville carried a lot of weight in its time and has been in service for nearly a hundred years.

In an era of 40 year-old condominiums collapsing in Florida, this bridge and others would seem fitting tribute to their builders.

[Chris Webster]

I've gotten into a habit of reading a few of the old railroad trade journals as they roll over into the public domain. I think we're up to 1927 now, so we're getting into the some of the most interesting stuff, at least to me.

Are those journals online somewhere?

[healey36]

A good place to start is the HathiTrust Digital Library:

https://www.hathitrust.org/

You can search railroad trade journals such as "Railway age", "Railroad gazette", "Railway review", "The Locomotive World", etc. Under each you can open the "Catalog record"; there you will find a list of all of the scans that are available to read. Here's the list for a search of "Railway age", for example:

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/0 ... 0Age&ft=ft

Scroll down, click on "Full view" on a volume and you will get a compilation of three or six months worth of issues.

You can download pages as pdf or jpeg formats if you want to save stuff. Remember, most of these were printed/published a long time ago, so graphic quality is not the best, and sometimes the student volunteer making the scan didn't do a great job centering the document.

There is an absolute crap-ton of stuff in the HathiTrust Digital Library. The search engine, however, is qwerky, so search hits can be inconsistent. Also, viewing can be, but won't necessarily be limited by public domain restrictions. There's a ton of stuff here that is not yet public domain, but appears here for reasons I don't necessarily understand. Many U. S. Government reports and publications, as well as materials produced at the behest of the government, are found here as they bear no public domain restrictions.

Here's a few examples of cool railroading things I have found here over the years:

Pocket Guide to American Locomotives by Walter A. Lucas https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... =1up&seq=7
100 Years of Steam Locomotives by Walter A. Lucas https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... =1up&seq=7
1950-52 Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... =1up&seq=7
Diesel-Electric Locomotive - 1946 Edition https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... =1up&seq=7
War History of the American Railroads by Walter D. Hines https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= ... =1up&seq=9

Another great repository is JSTOR, found here:

https://www.jstor.org/

There's a ton of stuff here as well, for example most, if not all, of The Railway and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletins. You have to sign up for an account to get access, but up to 100 articles and/or images are viewable monthly at no charge. I've been a free member for nine years. The JSTOR search engine is much more powerful and consistent as compared to that of HathiTrust, but both are great.

Have at it...let me know if you run into any problems.

[G3750]

Healey - thank you for the research material!

Are you headed to York later this month?

George

[healey36]

Hey George, yup, I plan to swing by for a few hours. I gotta run down some prewar Flyer motor parts and a few bits for the 226E I bought A month or so ago. Hondo usually has a few things he’s chasing too. Otherwise, I’ll just run down a few mates (if they turn up).

How about yourself? What’s on the list?

Paul

[G3750]

Hey George, yup, I plan to swing by for a few hours. I gotta run down some prewar Flyer motor parts and a few bits for the 226E I bought A month or so ago. Hondo usually has a few things he’s chasing too. Otherwise, I’ll just run down a few mates (if they turn up).

How about yourself? What’s on the list?

Paul

Getting some switches to accommodate my layout changes, but otherwise not a lot on the list. Selling a bunch of stuff, which I hope to deliver to folks at York. Visit friends. Pretty much the usual.

George

[G3750]

Updated 6/11/2023:

I just realized it has been about a month since I last updated this thread. While it's true that "idle hands are the Devil's workshop", that hasn't been the case around here. There has been a fair amount of progress on a number of fronts:

• As you may recall, I am working on a couple of cranes for my open hearth. The 250 ton transfer crane (used to pour molten iron into the furnace) is finished. It's a flat gray with yellow railings, diamond treadplate walkways, and a 2 winch hoist. Unfortunately, I can't post photos as it may be a candidate for a magazine article. I can tell you that I used pulleys and gears from Stevens International to create pulleys and gearing for the hoist. Some oversized electric motors and brass axles were also involved.
• I surgically modified 3 of the 4 AHM cabeese that a friend bought for me (cheap) on eBay. They were turned into scrap buggies (also used to add chemicals to open hearth furnaces).
• After drilling out the plastic pins in the underframe and unclipping the ladders from the roof, I popped the cabin off the frame. The end rails and ladders were removed by forcing a small flat screwdriver between them and the platform. The couplers were unscrewed from their posts and removed. Then I used the Proxxon saw to cut off the platform, shortening the car to a scale 16 feet long. The two plastic supports for each coupler were removed and the area sanded flat.
• Atlas Extend-A-Couplers replaced the plastic AHM ones. The car got a floor, sides, and ends. Weathering will follow. I also made 12 scrap boxes.
• Did some serious thinking and revision of the crane cab and its relationship to the height of the inspection platform, the height of ingot molds sitting on buggies, and the clearance for 1:48 workers beneath it. Also took another hard look at the photos. Turns out there are 3 stories to the crane, not 4. Working from an artist's sketch and only having one real photograph is tough!
• The design changes include the reworking of the cab dimensions. It’s a bit wider (now 1”) to accommodate the window I'm going to use in front. The side windows are sliders, also from GrandtLine. These seem to match the photo. The openings in the cab sides were enlarged for them. I'm waiting on those as well as an Arttista figure to run the crane.

George

[G3750]

Updated 6/16/2023:

• Got it in gear (for a change) and finished the roof of Furnace No. 12. In fact, Furnace No. 12 is now complete and joins No. 11 on the model's floor, awaiting final positioning, connection of wiring, and installation.
• I've got some momentum and am using it to push myself forward with the remaining furnaces (No. 13 and No. 14). The front wall of No. 13 has been cut and painted. This wall sits behind the set of charging doors and supports them structurally. Only the sides of this wall, which represent the ends of the checkers (gas furnaces) are actually visible.

George

[G3750]

Updated 6/20/2023:

Yesterday was a pretty good model railroading day:

• Spent about an hour speaking (in person) with a gentleman who has provided a great deal of reference material for my Open Hearth mill project. This was at the museum, which was open for West Virginia Day (achieved statehood on June 20, 1863). Very instructive.
• Assembled and weathered the furnace fronts for No. 13 and No. 14.

George