Model Train Journal

As you may know, I have decided to re-think the Steubenville side of my PRR Panhandle 2.0 layout.

The best way to get ideas about what to put there involves:

• Researching the area via the internet, libraries, and other physical or on-line sources.
• Photographing the prototype in an effort to capture what can be transported back to the 1950s and used.

Below are a sample of the 150 photos I took of the area today.

This is a structure I found on North 6th Street, just about 1 block south of site of the PRR station. It is the Schwaben Beneficial Society.


Check out the gargoyles!


And the angel at the center.


Very cool and intricate brick work!


This is a neat brick house at the corner of N. Court and Clinton Streets. It is near the Historic Brownstone District.


The swankiest hotel in town used to be the Ft. Steuben at the corner of 4th and Washington Streets. It is now an apartment house.


Here's a close-up of the front entrance.


This is the side of the hotel.


Here's a closer look at some of the brick work up top.


Next installment coming soon!

George

A nice example of the grandeur that was:



Probably the home of an upper-level manager or executive of the steel company, or perhaps a banker...now it looks like a crack-house.

Healey

healey36 wrote:A nice example of the grandeur that was:



Probably the home of an upper-level manager or executive of the steel company, or perhaps a banker...now it looks like a crack-house.

Healey

Yes, this was definitely in the posh section of Steubenville and once the home of a prominent citizen. Some of the homes in this area have been maintained. Others, not so much.

I like the house. It's a candidate for construction as is this one just a block away.


There were also some nice houses on Market Street. These were located up the hill (to the west) as the bottom of Market Street intersected (or passed over on the Market Street Bridge) with Water Street, the red light district. Here are a few.



George

G3750 wrote:I like the house. It's a candidate for construction as is this one just a block away.

Frame and clapboard Victorian - that one interests me. More pictures of it from other angles / sides????

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

G3750 wrote:I like the house. It's a candidate for construction as is this one just a block away.

Frame and clapboard Victorian - that one interests me. More pictures of it from other angles / sides????

Rufus, I don't think I have any. But I do plan to be back in Steubenville soon. I want to check out the Gould tunnel near Mingo Junction and I have some library work to do.

George

G3750 wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

G3750 wrote:I like the house. It's a candidate for construction as is this one just a block away.

Frame and clapboard Victorian - that one interests me. More pictures of it from other angles / sides????

Rufus, I don't think I have any. But I do plan to be back in Steubenville soon. I want to check out the Gould tunnel near Mingo Junction and I have some library work to do.

Perhaps you might be encouraged to re-visit that house and capture photos of it from many directions and angles such that one might consider a model to be built as being a possibility?

G3750 wrote: I want to check out the Gould tunnel near Mingo Junction and I have some library work to do.
George

Any idea what the tunnel's naming related to? George Gould had some railroad holdings in the Pittsburgh/Wheeling region, but I don't know of any affiliation to the PRR Panhandle route or its predecessor...

Curious.

Healey

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

G3750 wrote:

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

Frame and clapboard Victorian - that one interests me. More pictures of it from other angles / sides????

Rufus, I don't think I have any. But I do plan to be back in Steubenville soon. I want to check out the Gould tunnel near Mingo Junction and I have some library work to do.

Perhaps you might be encouraged to re-visit that house and capture photos of it from many directions and angles such that one might consider a model to be built as being a possibility?

Be happy to do that. But be careful. The area is like a candy shop - lots of tasty options.










Careful what you wish for.

George

G3750 wrote:Be happy to do that. But be careful. The area is like a candy shop - lots of tasty options.


Careful what you wish for.

Brick and cut stone ones and routine; I'm eyeing up the clapboard ones.

I confess however that there is zero available space on my layout for any structure. I spent a good part of yesterday hacking a hole in the plastered hillside at the far end of the room to install a support platform for a building that I really had not intended to use that now eliminates a different structure that was planned to be built. I now have the kit that I was going to work from available for sale along with 5 more tubs of cars and structures -----> Strasburg!

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:

G3750 wrote:Be happy to do that. But be careful. The area is like a candy shop - lots of tasty options.


Careful what you wish for.

Brick and cut stone ones and routine; I'm eyeing up the clapboard ones.

I confess however that there is zero available space on my layout for any structure. I spent a good part of yesterday hacking a hole in the plastered hillside at the far end of the room to install a support platform for a building that I really had not intended to use that now eliminates a different structure that was planned to be built. I now have the kit that I was going to work from available for sale along with 5 more tubs of cars and structures -----> Strasburg!

I'll see what I can do about a visit to Steubenville in the next couple of weeks. E-mail me your list of structures (with footprint dimensions). I am hoping to be at Strasburg.

George

healey36 wrote:

G3750 wrote: I want to check out the Gould tunnel near Mingo Junction and I have some library work to do.
George

Any idea what the tunnel's naming related to? George Gould had some railroad holdings in the Pittsburgh/Wheeling region, but I don't know of any affiliation to the PRR Panhandle route or its predecessor...

Curious.

Healey

I found this link. http://thecourier.typepad.com/alongther ... -home.html

One of the comments indicates that the tunnel is named for the Gould family (no relation to Jay) that owned the farm land used. The tunnel was built by the PRR and used (as far as I know) as part of the Panhandle. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong).

George

The Gould Tunnel was No. 5 on the Panhandle. There were 10 tunnels on the Panhandle. The N6b cabin car (caboose) had an inward leaning cupola designed to fit in these narrow 19th century tunnels.



George

Thanks for that, George. Very interesting stuff. I need to get me a decent map of southeastern Ohio so I can understand how all of these lines interconnect. Been doing a bit of reading on the W&LE and how Taplin planned to connect it with the Western Maryland.

Healey

Healey,
The area is really east central Ohio. I 70 and old US 40 split the state into north and south and go right through here. Steubenville is @ 25 miles north.
Many of the towns in this area have buildings similar to those in Steubenville and as George pointed out a well maintained one can be next to one in great disrepair. The neighborhoods that were well to do are usually still discernible by the style of the buildings.

The SPV Railroad Atlas, Great Lakes East has very good maps of this areas railroads.