What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[rogruth]

My hometown, Bellaire, Ohio is @ 30 miles south of Steubenville. The road connecting them is SR 7. It wa all 2 lane in the 1950s and went through 9 towns. Most had traffic lights and the speed limit on the open road was 45 or 50 mph. In towns it was 25 to 35. Travel between Bellaire and Steubenville would on a good day take 1.25 hours. It is all 4 lane now and 0.5 is common. In the '50s most people walked to work and lived near their work or went by bus.
This was a great area if you liked trains. PRR, B&O, W&LE became NKP and then N&W, P&WV were the major lines. NYC was not far away. There were also 7 or 8 steel mills that had railroads. The mill at Mingo had standard guage, 3 and 2 f00t NG and a broad gauge line. Some mills were only standard.
Many other industries had railroads also. My grandfather worked in a factory that made enamel ware pots and pans. They had standard gauge sidings into the factory that were powered by a small gas loco that seemed to be home-made. They also had a 2 foot gauge connecting all buildings with a very small gas loco. I think most industry throughout this area was like this at that time.Also you could walk into a factory and ask to watch and get permission. Not so in a steel mill. There were a rather large number of steel connected industries. Wheeling,WV had Wheeling Corrugation rhat made corrugated panels and garbage cans.
In the early 20th century a farm product that was common in the area was tobacco. Mail Pouch and Marsh were made in Wheeling.
Glass factories were found throughout the area that made window and decorative glass.

Remember that I am not from Steubenville but that area was very similar.
Most of rural Kentucky and Tennessee had electric power available in the 1930s. There were sections of Ohio just a few miles west of the river that did not have electric power until the late '50s. Not having electric was not a choice as it was for the Amish. It just wasn't available. In just a few miles you could travel from the most modern of the 20th century almost to the 19th century.
This was a very diverse area.
Another product that was made in several towns was beer. There were several local breweries. There were also some local wine bottlers. They often had wine shipped in by tank car from California.
Almost forgot that most towns had foundries and forges.

[G3750]

Updated 4/06/2019:

I took a shot at putting a passenger siding in at the Steubenville station, but there’s not enough room to make it work. Minimum of 4 18” passenger cars just won’t fit.

Another small industry further west might work. This spur would hold 1-2 cars.

Still TBD

George

[rogruth]

In that time period a lot of furniture was still delivered by rail and there were several large furniture stores there.

[G3750]

In that time period a lot of furniture was still delivered by rail and there were several large furniture stores there.

Roger,

Do you have any information on the Armour Building or Bates Building Supply? I am looking at adding a small industry to the left side of the layout.

Thanks,

George

[healey36]

While I was in college I worked summers at a local building-supply company. Once or twice each summer we'd take in a box car load of one-by lumber from the northwest. The Western Maryland, or what was left of it, would run it down the old mainline and drop it off on our siding which turned out a few yards east of the freight depot. We'd use a lift-truck to shove it the last fifty yards or so to get it under roof behind the warehouse. It would take us a couple days to unload it, then we'd shove it back up the siding where the WM would pick it up. A few years after that the WM abandoned the old mainline, and all the pine lumber came in by truck. Maryland Midland eventually took over the line, but then the lumber company closed.

[rogruth]

In that time period a lot of furniture was still delivered by rail and there were several large furniture stores there.

Roger,

Do you have any information on the Armour Building or Bates Building Supply? I am looking at adding a small industry to the left side of the layout.

Thanks,

George

I'll check with my cousin who lives in Steubenville soon.
I'm fairly sure the Armour building was a meat packing place.

[webenda]

Reference:
https://books.google.com/books?id=mCY8A ... io&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=G_lUr ... io&f=false

612 Adams Street, Steubenville, Ohio


The Armour & Co building is gone and the human-powered railroad crossing gate has been replaced by an electrically powered railroad crossing gate.

[chuck]

Nice research. It's been gone for a while.

Wayback feature on Google Earth has an empty lot back in 1995.

[G3750]

Reference:
https://books.google.com/books?id=mCY8A ... io&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=G_lUr ... io&f=false

612 Adams Street, Steubenville, Ohio


The Armour & Co building is gone and the human-powered railroad crossing gate has been replaced by an electrically powered railroad crossing gate.

Wayne! You rock! Thank you!

George

[G3750]

All:

The location of Armour Packing is prototypical as well. Armour Packing is located on Adams south of Market Street (parallel to it), which fits exactly where I need it on the layout.

Area Map.png (119.79 KiB) Viewed 5956 times

We'll have a bit of compression, but I think this will work quite nicely.

Thanks again, Wayne.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

............ the Armour Building............

Good scratchbuilding article in the making,

[healey36]

George, this might be of help to you...a "catalog" of the businesses and their location, in Steubenville and the surrounding area, from 1911:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=loc.ark:/13960/t2g73pg56;view=1up;seq=7

Some digging required...

[rogruth]

George, My cousin says she remembers the Armour building name and where it was but that is all.
She does not remember the Bates company.
Sorry I couldn't help more. It seems you got some good info.

[webenda]

Wayne! You rock! Thank you!

George

You are welcome George. It is a pleasure to help someone who goes to the trouble to post so many construction details of their railroad construction. For example this little detail.



I just go like this when I see your work. Adjustable feet to elevate and level the roadbed? Your attention to detail amazes me.

[G3750]

Wayne! You rock! Thank you!

George

You are welcome George. It is a pleasure to help someone who goes to the trouble to post so many construction details of their railroad construction. For example this little detail.



I just go like this when I see your work. Adjustable feet to elevate and level the roadbed? Your attention to detail amazes me.

Wayne, you are too kind. I used adjustable feet not because I am picky, but because it was the only way I could think of to level the bridge. I tried to use some blocks of wood but couldn’t get it right.

Anyway, I very much appreciate the high value responses I get over here.

George