Building Three

Building three at "friends corner"is named for good friend Allan Silverberg of Lexington, KY. Note the building name is "Silverberg" and the date of the building is 1938, his birth year. Although Allan and I have known each other only about 10-12 years, through happenstance we found that we were born a year apart in the same hospital in Hammond, Indiana! And to further the irony, we discovered our fathers both worked at Sinclair Oil Refinery in East Chicago, Indiana, at the time.

You should also note the sign for the business identifies "Silverberg Estate Jewelry". Although he spent a major portion of his working life as property developer for fast food chains, in the last few years, Allan delved into estate jewelry, specifically antique cuff links. In my "make believe" world, Allan owns the building. named for his family, runs the business, and lives in the second floor apartment.

Silverberg Estate Jewelry joins "Nancy's Diner" and "Heyl's Classic Cars" at "friends corner". There remains a fourth building on the corner to be named. This corner is just behind Freytag Engine Shops, built by and named for the late MMR Dean Freytag.

"Friends Corner" addition

I outlined in a previous post my thoughts about "friends corner" and started the area with Nancy's Diner. Now comes a second addition to the area behind the Freytag Engine Facility, Heyl's Classic Cars.

Ken Heyl is a good friend from Ashland, Ohio, and largely responsible (or to blame?) for my getting involved in building a model railroad. His first love is railroading, but a close second is classic cars. Ken owns both a virtually-all-original '68 Plymouth Road Runner, and a '40 Buick funeral car which has the body by the Flxible Company of nearby Loudonville, Ohio. He shows one or the other of the cars at "cruise ins" once or twice weekly throughout the summer. Ken is also the "designer" of Heyl Interlocking on the lower level of the Paducah and Lake Erie. Featured in the window here is a '55 Chevrolet Bel Air. Two buildings remain to be named in this small area.

These "named" places join previously introduced James Creek Railway, named for David James, owner of Brecksville Road Transit (BRT) of Brecksville, Ohio. In a previous P&LE iteration in Ohio, the James Creek was a short line to the coal mines. Here, the mines are off line, and the two power units will work the coal tipple and yard.

"Friends Corner"

Like a lot of towns, my version of Paducah has an informal area that is known by a
identifying name recognized by the residents but not shown on any map. It can sometimes be a street, or a block, or even several blocks. Here, it's known as "friends corner", and will have several businesses named after friends. The first to take shape is Nancy's Diner (shown here).

The story behind Nancy's is that shortly after we moved to St. Louis in 2008, Nancy and her husband Bob stopped by on their way home to Ashland, OH from a western trip, and brought to me an HO scale vintage baggage car. In recognition, I wanted to make a diner and name it for Nancy. But, it didn't look right (not enough windows); thus, I got a diner, repainted and changed the signs, and here it is. There is still some detail work and window treatment to go, but it looks good. The baggage car will become a tool shed at CP Tipton (Nancy's maiden name), and other buildings are in the process of being finished for "friends corner."

IntuiSwitch controls

I am changing to IntuiSwitch controls for my turnouts, and am in the process of installing them. This is a product of ESELCO, from Lenexa, KS, (info@intuiswitch) and developed by Sheldon Levy. As you can see from the photos, they are push button operated, and flush mounted directly to the fascia, a primary reason I am making the change. In addition, they come with the route marked, red and green lights indicating the divergent and main routes respectively. They have been relatively easy to install, and early on, I am most happy with them.

In addition to the individual switches as shown above, the company makes custom panels to handle yards or multiple tracks, with the route lighted, once set.

I am using the IntuiSwitch connected both to Tortoise and SwitchMaster turnout motors. Since on the P&LE, I originally had installed toggle switches as controls, the change over was simple, changing just four wires from the original setup. One note of caution, these switches require more power than my original toggles, and I am installing additional power sources (wall transformers) and removing the switches from the Digitrax track buss.

Painted Fascia Adds a Lot

The latest addition to the P&LE is painted fascia, painting thanks to wife Sue. The reason for adding and painting fascia at this point in the project is the pending installation (starting Friday) of flush-mounted IntuiSwitches to operate the turnouts. More on the IntuiSwitches in a future post.

Obviously, there is a great deal of work to do, but we are making progress. We are in the process of completing a diner, named for a friend, and a retail store, also named for a friend. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we'll be ready to show photos of those completed "businesses."

Another view of the fascia; I'm quite pleased with it. While far from finished, it does give the look of a real model railroad. The fascia is Masonite and five inches wide. We first applied an undercoat of Kilz grey primer, and then painted it Hemlock Green. Both coats were applied with a smooth (as opposed to the normal fuzzy) 6" roller. This scene is overlooking the Paducah Engine Facility, and the engine house is thought to be the final major project of late modeling icon Dean Freytag. It was built specifically for the P&LE.

Paducah Hotels Progress

Paducah is starting to take shape.The three hotels in these photos are (from left) Hotel Paducah, Irvin Cobb Hotel, and the Jackson House. None of the buildings are prototype, but the Cobb Hotel and Jackson House names are authentic to Paducah.

This view provides a better look at the hotels themselves, the street in front, and the stone retaining wall. Signs and lights on the hotels, the street and sidewalks, and the retaining wall which is carved into the pink foam material and painted, are all the work of John Ellenbracht. The trees in the park, which for the present is being called Paducah Park (compliments of Ken Heyl) are Scenic Express, and I think they look great. I was aware of the material, but John recommended them highly and about the same time, outstanding modeler Dave Abeles also was most enthusiastic about them on his Onondaga Cutoff. The three hotels are from the late Dean Freytag's railroad; the fourth building obviously needs some work to fit into the scene. People and vehicles are next.

Paducah coming to life

With the efforts of outstanding modeler John Ellenbracht, Paducah is starting to come to life. The first of the four photos shows the "base" upon which the hotels will be placed. The scene includes three hotels and a park in front of them. To the right in the photo are the locations for the hotels, and the area in front is the boulevard (unfinished). In the second photo, John is putting the final touches on the fence. Next, he's placing the fence that separates the park from the railroad and the Paducah Engine facility, and finally, the location on the bench work where this all fits. The hotels are not prototypical, but the names of two -- the Irvin Cobb Hotel, and the Jackson House -- are authentic to Paducah. Signage for the hotels is complete and lights are being added. There are numerous details to come in the park, including a statue of Chief Paduke, for whom the city is named.

Also happening in the progress of the P&LE is the addition of fascia, followed by the installation of Intuiswitches, flush mounted turnout controls. We are moving forward, and finally getting into areas that lend themselves to progress pictures.

It's not all modeling

As mentioned previously in this blog, not all my time is spent modeling, but rail fanning the real thing. A number of us - Ken Heyl, Allan Silverberg, Jim Martin, and Stan Swope - travel to The Horseshoe Curve area in western Pennsylvania two or three times a year to photograph the prototype. We've just returned from such a trip with several unique photos.

Showing up early one morning was this Norfolk Southern heritage unit remembering the Southern Railroad. It's one of my personal favorites. As part of its 30th anniversary celebration two or three years ago, Norfolk Southern painted one each of some 20 engines in the colors of railroads absorbed through mergers and acquisitions. Each of the heritage units is used in regular daily service, and have become highly sought "targets" by rail photographers throughout the NS territory. They even enjoy their own section as a part of the NS website.

We also spent a day "chasing" the Everett Railroad, a short line that originates in Hollidaysburg, just outside of Altoona, and travels to Martinsburg, switching several industries along the way. In the photo below, it's seen returning from Martinsburg via Roaring Spring, and passing the historic Roaring Spring station.

It was a great week, and now back to work on the P & LE.

Adding a small industry

On the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, just across from the famous St. Louis Arch, is this small oil unloading industry. It has the storage/office building of some sort, an oil unloading platform, and a series of storage tanks. It can be seen from I-70 just before the highway turns west back on to the bridge; however, this shot was taken from the St. Louis-Chicago Amtrak train about a month ago.

The second photo is my effort to replicate the facility; the building, oil unloading platform, and storage tanks are placed here simply to check space parameters and perspective. Obviously, there is a great deal of work to do in terms of adding piping, possibly more tanks, painting, detailing, and weathering. But I think when completed, it will make a nice scene in a corner at the entrance to Paducah.

The four white tanks in the foreground are from a Walthers kit; the four large tanks behind are scratch built from Plastruc materials. I may add 2-4 more; undecided right now. The unloading platform and building are from an estate sale.