What's New on the PRR Panhandle 2.0?

[G3750]

Looks good to me, I like the changes.

Thank you. It took me awhile to realize what needed to be done to make the station area more useful. I guess that's realistic given the other, higher priority areas that have demanded my attention. The engine pocket east of the station along with the spur at Armour Packing should permit a switcher to shuffle a cattle car and a reefer between them as well as take deliveries and departures of those types of cars. I'm particularly pleased with the siding at the station as it more accurately represents the prototype and lets me park a passenger train there.

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0B5oqs3qGyM0J1

George

[chuck]

Nicely done. The prototype was quite a large station!

[G3750]

Nicely done. The prototype was quite a large station!

Thank you! And thank you for the advice with the iCloud photo posting. That is really overly complex stuff, frankly.

Yes, the station complex was huge and included a freight house and a series of ladder tracks. I have no where near the room to adequately depict it, at least in O scale. It's an interesting structure - with a tile roof - in a pseudo-Spanish style (for Ohio??? ). Obviously, I will have to scratch-build it. Courtesy of some other HO Panhandle modelers, I have some additional renderings to work with. I do not have the structural plans.

George

[chuck]

That is really overly complex stuff, frankly.

You got it to work. Congrats and thanks for posting the imagery! Sorry I couldn't provide Windows specific instructions. All of currently working equipment is either MacOS, IOS, or Android. When I was working I had access to Windows as well as Linux system to test stuff and write up instructions/guides. iCloud was mainly meant for sharing with other iCloud users.

If you felt that was bad, you should see how bad/hard it is for other non photo specific sites for "public" sharing, e.g. Google, Box, DropBox, .... It basically comes down to security. It is easier to implement photo sharing if you lock down access OR if you lock down the file types to only allow limited image types. Bad guys are always looking for a way to break in and then roam around a site to gather other info or store contraband.

[rogruth]

George,
Possible that this is a silly question but what use are you planning for your layout?
When I first planned and laid out mine I thought it would be for operation.
Then I realized I would be doing all of the operating and it would be hard to do
anything that would be realistic in any way so I changed to a "running" layout.
My guess is that in your area there are many more that you can "play" with than I.
I am sure that if I were in your area I would be very happy watching it run.
Looking forward to a future OST.

Martin,
I hope not too far in the future cause I'm getting old.

[G3750]

George,
Possible that this is a silly question but what use are you planning for your layout?
When I first planned and laid out mine I thought it would be for operation.
Then I realized I would be doing all of the operating and it would be hard to do
anything that would be realistic in any way so I changed to a "running" layout.
My guess is that in your area there are many more that you can "play" with than I.
I am sure that if I were in your area I would be very happy watching it run.
Looking forward to a future OST.

Martin,
I hope not too far in the future cause I'm getting old.

Roger,

That's not a silly question at all. I am trying to plan (never done this before) a model railroad for operations. I had hopes of doing that with Panhandle 1, but it was too small and things were too close to really achieve that goal. About a year ago, I started attending a monthly operating session at a fellow division member's house. That railroad was HO scale and primarily consists of a long mainline with a set of switching operations. It's very cleverly laid out. All of the (hundreds?) of turnouts are manually thrown and there are a number of small yards / sidings; some are fairly complex. I don't think I've ever seen the layout just running trains. I have tried to learn from it. In that past year, I've made these changes to the Panhandle because of it:

• Added an engine pocket at Weirton Junction that might double as a short freight siding if need be
• Added the spur (and industry) at Armour Packing
• Doubled the sidings at Federal Paperboard
• Added (just now) the passenger siding and engine pocket at the Steubenville station

All of those improvements are a result of attending these operating sessions. And in preparation for operations, I've acquired enough CAB-1 remotes (TMCC) to equip the operating points on the layout, plus some spares. In my preliminary scheme, these are (east to west):

• Staging Area - making up / breaking up trains and exchanges of loads for empties and vice-versa
• Weirton Steel - intra-mill switching and arrival / departure of raw materials / products
• 1-3 mainline trains - passenger, mixed freight, mineral trains
• Federal Paperboard - switching
• Steubenville PRR Station - passenger train switching, freight car
• Armour Packing - stock car & reefer switching (Possibly these last 2 will be a combined effort)

I've also learned some things that I don't want or don't interest me. I am very glad my layout is O; HO just seems to have too many running issues. I am determined to make Panhandle 2 as reliable as possible. And at my age, HO is too small. I can't tell you how many switches in the wrong position I've over-run because it was hard to see the points. I haven't thought about a method of ordering trains, but it will be about as dirt simple as I can make it. I'm not a fan of paperwork for paperwork's sake. God knows I've done enough of that in my professional life and don't consider it a "fun" activity. The concept of a "dispatcher" doesn't do anything for me, either.

I, too will love just seeing trains racing over the bridge and around on the super-elevated curves. At a bench height of 50", I think it will be cool to have a ground-level view.

That's the evil plan.

George

[rogruth]

Sounds good.

I know it doesn't sound but I realized when I first came to Georgia that if it looked good on paper it would be tried.
Even if something had been tried elsewhere and didn't work 10 times it would be tried in GA because the others
probably didn't do it right. So it would be tried for the 11th time and fail for the 11th time.
I hope you understand why I didn't say looks good.

[G3750]

Sounds good.

I know it doesn't sound but I realized when I first came to Georgia that if it looked good on paper it would be tried.
Even if something had been tried elsewhere and didn't work 10 times it would be tried in GA because the others
probably didn't do it right. So it would be tried for the 11th time and fail for the 11th time.
I hope you understand why I didn't say looks good.

I do understand. I have also put things on paper, thought they were OK and then watched them fail. RR-Track is a decent planning tool, but you've got to take it with a pinch of salt, particularly when you consider 3-D aspects (e.g. elevation of hills). I've never gotten it to do this particularly well; perhaps I am not using that feature correctly. To get a practical and workable slope, you've got to leave a bit more room than you think is necessary. Particularly on Panhandle 1, I recall planning an elevated track and then having to back off because it was impractical. An inch of clearance takes on the appearance (with zooming in / out) of 6". You kind of convince yourself that this impossible clearance is going to work.

The area around the station that I modified is particularly tight - close tolerances. That's why I have some track and 18" cars out on the bench work playing with the physical fit of the components. The track farthest away from the backdrop holds two K-Line 18" heavyweight passenger cars (PRR Broadway Limited). The track nearest the backdrop holds a K-Line 18" streamlined car, the observation car from the Spirit of St. Louis 4-car set.

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0B5oqs3qGyM0J1

George

[G3750]

All:

This past Monday I spoke with Domenic Arlia (DJs Trains) who is a CSX engineer and who makes drone videos of steel mills, railroad facilities and bridges. I convinced him to make a video of my favorite bridge (the ex-PRR (now NS) bridge across the Ohio River between Steubenville, OH and Weirton, WV).

That video is now available on YouTube and it is spectacular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPbKF7B1dDk

Enjoy!

George

[rogruth]

Lots of memories from the Steubenville station.
I don't get back to that area very often but the next to last time I was there
there was a station. The next time it was gone.
Obviously it has been a while since I have been there.
I feel sure your layout will bring back many memories.

[chuck]

Wow!!!! Great video. You can see the extended ties (every fourth or fifth one) that formed the support for the old walkway along the sides of the track. No way would I try to walk across the tops of the trusses. Those end struts are too steep, especially to climb back down!

[G3750]

Wow!!!! Great video. You can see the extended ties (every fourth or fifth one) that formed the support for the old walkway along the sides of the track. No way would I try to walk across the tops of the trusses. Those end struts are too steep, especially to climb back down!

Walking across the top would be extremely dangerous. And at the 2:50 mark you can see that one of the handrails is detached and dangling (on the far top truss).

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0B5oqs3qGyM0J1

Not scared of heights, are you?

I am. Plus if I went up there and came down unharmed, my wife would kill me.

George

[G3750]

Lots of memories from the Steubenville station.
I don't get back to that area very often but the next to last time I was there
there was a station. The next time it was gone.
Obviously it has been a while since I have been there.
I feel sure your layout will bring back many memories.

Roger, you wouldn't have any photos of the station, would you?

I have some scanned-in postcard views.

George

[rogruth]

Lots of memories from the Steubenville station.
I don't get back to that area very often but the next to last time I was there
there was a station. The next time it was gone.
Obviously it has been a while since I have been there.
I feel sure your layout will bring back many memories.

Roger, you wouldn't have any photos of the station, would you?

I have some scanned-in postcard views.

George

Afraid not.

[G3750]

Sorry it's been so long since my last progress report, but much has been happening (some of it even train related ).

Updated 8/2/2020:

• After much wailing and scheming and gnashing of teeth, the bridge is back on its piers - this time for good I hope. I have a few pedestals to adjust, but it's in place and strongly anchored. Just for grins, I turned on the power and watched red navigation lights blink on and off.
• The new switches arrive and the western approach tracks are being laid and wired.
• My investigation into the PRR signal bridge for the western side of the bridge continues. I got out my MTH one and learned that while it supports 4 signal heads, only 2 may face in any one direction. I can't get what's needed - a 3 and 1 split. So that product is definitely out of contention for the western bridge. It looks like I'm being pushed towards the Z-Stuff item (pricey ).
• I am carefully looking at the area west of the bridge so as to place tracks, signals, sidings, and the 4th Street overpass correctly.

I've also updated a laptop to Windows 10 (sorry, I won't be needing those Windows 95 disks now Dave ) and added a 1 TB solid state drive and 16 GB memory to my desktop. Tomorrow, it gets upgraded to Windows 10.

George