What's New on the PRR Panhandle Division?

[G3750]

Sorry to hear that George. You have company, after Saturday and Sunday snow removal I could barely move. Sore all over. We got about 26" of snow.

Andy

Harrisburg registered 30" of snow at the airport (about 7 miles from me). I think we had at least 16" on the ground, more with drifts. Thank God the snowblower started.

George

[healey36]

I read that Nev is adding a steel mill to his layout in his "A new adventure is starting" thread over on the two-rail discussion. Should be interesting to follow what he comes up with.

Healey

[G3750]

I read that Nev is adding a steel mill to his layout in his "A new adventure is starting" thread over on the two-rail discussion. Should be interesting to follow what he comes up with.

Healey

I appreciate the heads-up. I've been looking at his thread over the past few days. Very interesting. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

George

[rogruth]

I'm not sure what you can find that Nev has done in the past.
He has had several articles in OST with photos. Always interesting.

[G3750]

Updated 2/1/2016:

• Corrected and clarified about 10 electrical diagrams. I renumbered them, added missing items, and re-worked them for clarity.
• Re-organized the electrical wiring plan (Excel spreadsheet) to reduce the amount of paper and put the useful items together.
• Eliminated redundant areas within the layout manual. It now takes less space and is much more useful.
• Acquired paint for the backdrop artist.
• Cut and painted the poplar bridge supports.

Progress has been slow and sporadic, but I managed to get some minutiae done.

George

[G3750]

Updated 2/7/2016:

Over this weekend, I did a little work on the layout:

• Picked up some Plastruct for the Strip Steel building at Cool Trains.
• Did a little more re-organizing and drawing correction for the manual.
• Showed the layout to my sister and brother-in-law who were in town for a short visit.
• Cut and installed a 12" straight (replacing the 9.5" one) on the Coal Mine Spur. Started working the placement of the curve. As you can see in the photo below, I am going to have to re-align the subroadbed.

W_Rebuild_25_.JPG (45.8 KiB) Viewed 3157 times

Unfortunately (didn't realize it at the time), correcting the position of the bridge approach tracks caused a realignment of portions of both the mainline and the Coal Mine Spur. And it negated all the careful work I did with the templates about a month ago. So I am back to piecing together scraps of plywood to support the Coal Mine Spur. The good news is that both the Spur and the Mainline fit in the area of the curve (no clearance problems anticipated and their 2-track crossings are closer together).

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

So I am back to piecing together scraps of plywood to support the Coal Mine Spur.

Baling wire and chewing gum works wonders,

[G3750]

So I am back to piecing together scraps of plywood to support the Coal Mine Spur.

Baling wire and chewing gum works wonders,

Yeah, I know. But it pisses me off.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

So I am back to piecing together scraps of plywood to support the Coal Mine Spur.

Baling wire and chewing gum works wonders,

Yeah, I know. But it pisses me off.

I don't know. Could be worse, could be raining,

Or you could use strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff,

[G3750]

Updated 2/9/2016:

• Spent part of last night cutting and fitting scraps of wood under the new path of the Coal Mine Spur. There is still a bit more to do on this new sub-roadbed. I hope to finish the cutting and piecing of this during the hockey game (Pens v. Rangers) intermissions tonight.
• Also determined the location and length of the insulated rail that will activate the DZ-1020 & DZ-1020 crossing devices.
• Finished gluing the tops of the bridge shoes into place. All 4 are now ready for installation.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

....the bridge shoes.....

Beige or polka dot socks?

[G3750]

....the bridge shoes.....

Beige or polka dot socks?

Beige spats!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

....the bridge shoes.....

Beige or polka dot socks?

Beige spats!

The polka dot ones will devour you.

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Ah ha! I always suspected that about polka dots, but couldn't quite put it to words.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Ah ha! I always suspected that about polka dots, but couldn't quite put it to words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpb2Aug3mgc

Have pizzazz!