What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[G3750]

Updated 4/29/2019:

I received my 2 traffic lights from Greg Leonard. They are very good looking. For some reason, I'm having trouble uploading a photo.

Regardless, they are here.

George

[robert.]

try now. I deleted some photos

[G3750]

try now. I deleted some photos

Thanks Robert, but I think the issue was more with my computer.

TrafficLights_001_.JPG (146.46 KiB) Viewed 5889 times

George

[G3750]

Updated 5/8/2019:

After a whirlwind of distracting activity over the past couple of months (the RPM-East meet, April York, the NMRA Division 2 Jamboree, and NMRA MCR Convention), I have finally been able to turn my attention to working on the Ohio River module – bridge, track, and scenery. Completion of this module is first step to working on the remainder of the benchwork and the layout. Here’s the area in question.

River Module & Approaches.jpg (180.45 KiB) Viewed 5863 times

I’ve been thinking about what I need to do and decided that I must focus on these items in this order:

• Construct the benchwork at the extreme eastern end of the segment. This will help me place the eastern approach to the bridge properly.
  In cross-section, the 4’ or so piece of track just east of the stone arch will look like this.
  
  

  

  Table 21.jpg (216.92 KiB) Viewed 5863 times

  
  
• Construct the section of track west to the arch. I was struggling a bit with how I would transition from that cross-section to the arch itself. I came up with the use of wing walls. See the overhead view.
  
  

  

  Table 22a.jpg (148.72 KiB) Viewed 5863 times

  
  
• Slope the ground from just west of the arch down to the river. This sketch shows the arch from the side and beginning of that.
  
  

  

  CCI_000001.jpg (175.58 KiB) Viewed 5863 times

George

[chuck]

Wing walls are a reasonable solution, very prototypical. I appreciate your attention to detail and fidelity to the prototype. You can't be 100 scale/accurate given the size of the original material without having an abandoned K-Mart or movie theater to house the layout. All of the things you have been working on provide a great feel/flavor for the place/time you are modeling. Really nice work and thanks for taking the time and making the effort to share it.

[G3750]

Wing walls are a reasonable solution, very prototypical. I appreciate your attention to detail and fidelity to the prototype. You can't be 100 scale/accurate given the size of the original material without having an abandoned K-Mart or movie theater to house the layout. All of the things you have been working on provide a great feel/flavor for the place/time you are modeling. Really nice work and thanks for taking the time and making the effort to share it.

Thank you, Chuck. I appreciate the encouragement. At the moment, I am struggling with the 3-dimensional aspects of this piece of scenery. I am creating a more detailed set of drawings. In the process, I hope to work through some of the problem areas, e.g. the drop in height and the relationship between the scenery and the fascia. This is all new territory for me.

George

[chuck]

Cardboard is pretty cheap, local grocery store may have some produce boxes you can get for free and use those for mock ups. Drawings/CAD is great but you can't beat seeing a rough approximation in real 3D. You can even mock up the slopes with some cardboard bulkheads and the cheap "masking" tape from a dollar store for "stringers" to get a feel for the slopes. I wouldn't use that stuff for anything else, especially not masking for painting unless it was a job I was doing for someone I really, really, really didn't like

[healey36]

I agree with Chuck...get some bits to play with and start fashioning a few alternatives. I think that will lead you to a solution/look that you'll be happier with rather than trying to lay it out on paper. The layout's the canvas, right...if you go with something and you're not happy with it, no big deal to pull it down and try something else. Plaster and foam is cheap.

Just my two cents...

Healey

[healey36]

Anything happening on the Panhandle? I'm living vicariously through the Panhandle, as I haven't been down to the basement in months, maybe longer.

[rogruth]

Anything happening on the Panhandle? I'm living vicariously through the Panhandle, as I haven't been down to the basement in months, maybe longer.

Healey,
Are you like Murph? Have a great layout in the basement and don't "play" with it anymore?
I don't run mine much anymore but I still try to run a train around several times at least once a week.
When I was young ( oh yes I was once ) I liked to get down by the track and watch them go by.
I think we all did that.
I can see moving away from the collecting and "operating" of trains but to just let them sit would be very hard for me.
It will probably be necessary for me to take down my layout in the near future because none of my family really wants
it. They are just interested in what amount of money they might get from my stuff.
They will be surprised at how little that will be. I have NOTHING valuable.
I'm still going to play with it now and then as long as I can.

[healey36]

Roger, the layout is waiting for me to get back to it, and I’m eager to get back to it. The problem is I’m a terrible “multi-tasker”, and until I button up another ongoing project I won’t get back down there. It’s actually proved to be somewhat of a gut-check, and I’m realizing I’ve accumulated too much. When I do get back to it, I’m going to purge some stuff and start doling out some sets to family (if they want them).

That said, I enjoy watching the creative process of layout building. Panhandle, and George’s approach to it, is intriguing. He clearly has a vision of what he’s working toward, and the process seems to be one of gradually filling in the bits based on a comprehensive plan. Very cool...it’s fun watching it come together. Building something that represents a snapshot in time is pretty cool...it’s very different from what I do, basically fiddling with old toys on some track nailed to a table.

I do hope Murph hasn’t “lost” it, but instead is taking a respite.

[chuck]

Roger said:

I have NOTHING valuable.

Wrong!!! You have a lot of value, experience, memories, skills that built it....

If all the others are concerned about is how much can I get on E-Bay, that's their loss.

[G3750]

There is a reason I post here and you guys are it.

George

[Rufus T. Firefly]

There is a reason I post here and you guys are it.

And here I thought it was all about the huge financial rewards,

[G3750]

There is a reason I post here and you guys are it.

And here I thought it was all about the huge financial rewards,

Oh wait! That’s really it!!!!