Model Train Journal

Happy Friday!

Running some F units this week.











NS 20T skirts the banks of the Conemaugh River in Johnstown, PA


The Penn Central heritage SD70ACe leads Rutherford, PA bound 204 under some of the last Southern era signals on the Piedmont Division at Lowell, NC


NS SD60E 7014 (ex NS SD60 6682) leads 19G through Summerhill, PA while a thunderstorm brews in the background


NS ES44AC 8091 acting as a DPU, lends a hand to eastbound 23G as it crosses the South Fork Roanoke River in Elliston, VA


NS Dash-9 9523 leads 21V under the PRR signal bridge & Route 53 in Cresson, PA

Christopher
Your layout building expertise is quite impressive. How many layouts have you had ? taken them down and rebuilt at another new home. I think it would be interesting if you put together a photo show of all the layouts you have had and when you had them.
Robert

Really like the shot of Johnstown. Almost looks like an old school post card, hand colored.

chuck wrote:Really like the shot of Johnstown. Almost looks like an old school post card, hand colored.

Yes, I think that shot is really extraordinary. Is that a funicular in the backround?

Roy wrote:

chuck wrote:Really like the shot of Johnstown. Almost looks like an old school post card, hand colored.

Yes, I think that shot is really extraordinary. Is that a funicular in the backround?

It's an inclined plane. Always wanted to get a shot of it & a train at the same time. Hasn't worked out yet!

HONDO74 wrote:Christopher
Your layout building expertise is quite impressive. How many layouts have you had ? taken them down and rebuilt at another new home. I think it would be interesting if you put together a photo show of all the layouts you have had and when you had them.
Robert

I lost count at this point lol. It's fun really. each one you learn something new & can apply it to the next one
I plan on either modifying this one or rebuilding it completely next year. Kids want to add some stuff & idk if I can do it w/ the existing track plan. Have to do some planning & come up w/ some ideas.

HONDO74 wrote:Christopher
Your layout building expertise is quite impressive. How many layouts have you had ? taken them down and rebuilt at another new home. I think it would be interesting if you put together a photo show of all the layouts you have had and when you had them.
Robert

This one of Christopher's layouts was my favorite.

Originally taken Thursday, August 24th.

After speaking to the Weirton Museum BOD, I drove north past Weirton Steel. I turned left onto 4th Street for a peek at No. 4 Blast Furnace. Unfortunately, it is feeling the bite of the scrapper's torch.



Not twenty feet in the opposite direction, nature has taken back almost all of 4th Street and areas north (all the way to County Road at the top of the hill). I spooked a deer and its fawn.



George

I don't think that people who have not been around a steel mill realize how large even a small mill can be.
Some of the size can be seen in the photo that George posted above.

rogruth wrote:I don't think that people who have not been around a steel mill realize how large even a small mill can be.
Some of the size can be seen in the photo that George posted above.

Someone made an amazing statement at the last Steel Mill Modelers Meet in Bethlehem a few weeks ago. I can't quote verbatim, but in effect he said that the Walthers HO steel mill buildings were actually correctly sized for N scale layouts.

Think about that for a moment.

My set of plans for a blast furnace (1930s-1940s) are HO sized and it is HUGE.

George

Yes, steel mills are HUGE. Open hearth units were typically around 1/4 mile long. A classic blast furnace (ones that look like a giant kerosene lantern) about 300' long and the main furnace about 180' tall, aka around 6 ' long on O scale, 3 1/2' tall.

Open hearth would be 24' long in O scale.

chuck wrote:Yes, steel mills are HUGE. Open hearth units were typically around 1/4 mile long. A classic blast furnace (ones that look like a giant kerosene lantern) about 300' long and the main furnace about 180' tall, aka around 6 ' long on O scale, 3 1/2' tall.

Open hearth would be 24' long in O scale.

Well, just for sh*** and giggles, think about my Ohio River bridge for a minute. When you scale the prototype down to O gauge, it comes out to 44 feet long. Given my 47 foot long room, if I were to put it in place against the back wall, that would leave 18" of space at each end. The result would be a scale bridge using O27 curves as approaches. Lionel post-war here I come!

I'll get right on it.

George

Let's see now, how long is an mile in O scale feet?

rogruth wrote:Let's see now, how long is an mile in O scale feet?

OK,
5,280 ft/mile / 48 = 110'

Right?

I believe the bridge is somewhere in the vicinity of 1,901 feet long according to the April 2, 1927 Railway Age article.

Therefore, dividing 1901 / 48 = 39.6' (My bad, I said 44' previously).

Well! This is much better! This leaves me 7.40' of room total or 3.70' at each end of the layout. By my calculations, I have just enough clearance for O72 curves at each end of the bridge. Woohoo!!!

OK, I guess I better really get to work on my bridge (with attached layout).

George

Was it John Armstrong that devised a system he referred to as "Smiles" for measuring his model railroad?
I don't remember the system but it made sense.