Allegheny Mountains taking shape

The Allegheny Mountain range as a backdrop for the P&LE is starting to take shape as seen here behind the coal loading facility. First, I cut two sheets of 3/4" pink insulation board freehand and glued them together. A two-inch piece was too thick to allow clearance on the outside track.

Next (below) came covering the insulation boards with plaster cloth, using the Woodland Scenics product.

(Below) Testing the look ... so far, so good. The next step, from a suggestion by professional model builder Tom McKenzie (a member of our Thursday night group, the Gandy Dancers) is to cover the entire surface with dry wall mud. That will be followed by paint, the addition of rock outcroppings, and finally trees, hundreds of trees.

I've got a long way to go, but I'm enjoying finally starting on scenery, and since the reason for the P&LE to exist is primarily hauling coal, the coal facility seems to be the logical place to start.

Signature photo

This photo, which will become the signature photo of the P & LE on the NMRA Gateway Division website, is the result of experimenting with camera settings and some long range help from expert Richard Schumacher, the developer of the website. With the Dean Freytag-built engine house as a backdrop, the photo shows the P&LE engines, engines painted to represent the James Creek Railway (named for fellow modeler David James), and a Buckeye Western engine, from the railroad of the late Dave White. The website is undergoing an extensive renovation by Richard, and while not complete, there is enough finished for him to put it up on the web, and it's outstanding.  The site includes a number of St. Louis-area layouts--complete with descriptions and photos, a long list of "how to" articles by a number of fine St. Louis modelers, listings of events, the division's newsletter, and much more. With its new platform, the website is much more flexible, and becomes more evolutionary. You can access it at www.gatewaynmra.org. Take a look!

Starting scenery at coal yard

Just starting the coal yard scenery with landforms to give a distant Allegheny Mountain appearance. This shows two sheets of 3/4" insulation board carved to represent the mountains on the horizon and then glued together. A 2" insulation board thickness did not allow enough clearance between the wall and the track, and the two sheets together provided the added advantage of allowing for slightly more contour. Next, this will be covered by plaster cloth, painted green, and finally trees and rocks will be added. The plaster cloth and painting will be done off site of the railroad, but trees and rocks will be added when the landforms are in place. It just keeps moving forward.

Coal Yard Installation

Brian Post, who has been working the past several weeks on the electronics of the Paducah and Lake Erie, is helping install the coal yard that is a major feature of the railroad. It will be a four track yard, each capable of holding six coal hoppers, which will be shuttled around the corner to the loading facility. Once loaded, they will be returned to this yard, awaiting make up into the train to be sent out behind power coming from Paducah, Attica Yard, or Ashland Yard. Note, we are using the pink insulation material here.

New Amtrak power on P&LE

Patience pays off. I have been looking for one of these engines for more than seven years, but saw only a very few and all were in the $200 plus range; and I'm not yet ready to pay nearly $300 for Kato's recent release. Tonight ... tonight at the Gateway Division monthly meeting and annual swap meet, this beauty was there. It's an Athearn, complete with decoder, Kadee couplers, slightly weathered, and IT RUNS WELL! And best of all, I paid less than $100 for it. I now have my version of Amtrak's Pennsylvanian running through my southwest Pennsylvania railroad. Yippee!

P&LE Business Car

The P&LE Business Car was a gift from Kenny Heyl and the late Dean Freytag, both of Ashland, Ohio. Freytag, a Master Model Railroader, always said a railroad needed a business car, so the two collaborated to provide the "Sue K. Howard" - my wife's maiden name - for the Paducah and Lake Erie. The car is shown here in front of the Freytag Engine Facility, kit bashed specifically for the P&LE, and thought to be the last structure the internationally-known modeler built before having to go to assisted living. (Photo by Ken Heyl)

Tractors, Tractors, Tractors

Those rail fans who frequent Tom Davis's establishment, The Station Inn, in Cresson, PA will hopefully recognize this scene (minus the benchwork, of course) on the P&LE. A common site on the NS line between Harrisburg, PA, and Pittsburgh are trains with multiple flat  cars of tractors, being passed by the Pennsylvanian, Amtrak's daily Pittsburgh-to-New York City passenger train. The building is an excellent replica of the Station Inn, kit bashed by Kenny Heyl of Ashland. The tractor train is always one that most photographers try to catch as it heads east on almost a daily run. The Station Inn is a B&B that caters to rail fans, and is an outstanding place to stay while checking out the busy railroad between Johnstown and Tyrone, PA. Innkeeper Davis is extremely knowledgable about railroading in general, and railroading in this area in particular; and one will have to travel some distance to find better breakfast fare than that provided by Sandy.

Time for kudos ...

It's been a great weekend. Friends David James of Brecksville, OH, (front) and Ken Heyl of Ashland, OH, have been in town and we've spent a dozen or more hours on the Paducah and Lake Erie, doing all those things one needs to do to make the railroad run as good as it can. Sunday was spent running trains, BUT, making immediate fixes such as getting wheel sets in gauge, couplers changed out from McHenry to Kadee when necessary, tracks cleaned, engine wheels cleaned, appropriately routing of trains - the long juice train, and coal train, have to travel up the helix on the outside track - and just discussing and planning next moves. It's the type of thing railroad friends bring to the hobby, and without which many of us would not have the model railroad we enjoy. I am forever indebted to Ken and Dave for this, and a previous, model railroad.

Power in Attica Yard stands ready for operating session. From the left, UP on the point of a Tropicana juice train belonging to David James and making an appearance on the P≤ CSX in charge of a unit coal train; a James Creek engine at the head of a unit Peabody coal train; and a N&W leading a mixed freight. The James Creek Railway was a branch line on the previous (and larger) P&LE and will work the mine load out facility on this iteration; the N&W came from the late Dean Freytag's South Ridge Lines.

Basic Operating Session

Good friends David James and Ken Heyl, from Brecksville OH, and Ashland OH respectively, arrived Saturday afternoon, and we spent about six hours Saturday evening tuning engines, rolling stock, turnouts, and track in a basic ... very basic ... freelance operating session. As I stated in an earlier post, there is no quicker way to find trouble spots with any part of your railroad than to have a couple of friends over to "run trains". We found a number of issues, primarily in the rolling stock and some older engines, but on balance, the railroad ran pretty well and I was pleased. Tomorrow, we start working in earnest. David and Ken, you may recall from much earlier posts, were absolutely indispensable in building the first P&LE in Ohio seven years ago; they did a lot of the heavy lifting on this iteration with several trips to St. Louis earlier in the project. Above, the Tropicana juice train of David James is on a long siding and being overtaken by a CSX coal train on the lower level of the P&LE.

Time Out for Steam Excursion

Last weekend, I took time off from model railroading to "rail fan" at the Horseshoe Curve area in Pennsylvania and ride the NKP 765 steam excursion. It was a day-long event, going from Lewiston, PA, through Altoona, around the Curve, and through the tunnels at Gallitzin, and back. Great weather, HUGE crowds, loads of fun. The 17-car train had the 765 on the point, with Norfolk Southern Heritage units - Pennsylvania and Conrail - along for an assist. One of the highlights for friends David James and his father Hank, Ken Heyl and me was a stop for water in the middle of Works, the huge engine facility in Juniata Yard in Altoona.

Coal Loading Facility

Ah, finally! The start of the coal-loading facility. As I have stated in previous posts, the P&LE is basically a coal-hauling railroad. This is the start of a four-track storage yard. The flood loader will be located "around the corner" to the right, and have a three-track loading capability as well as a run-around track. The four tracks seen here come off the main line, and combined with the shuffling of cars between here and the loading facility and necessarily using the main line for some of those moves, the process will provide some interesting operational issues. The back of Brian Post is also seen here as he wires some turnouts.

Still Moving Forward

Even though I haven't posted for a few days, we (Brian Post) are moving forward, primarily with the electronics. Pictured here are two Digitrax DS-64's. The problem is that as you can tell from the numbers, there are supposed to be three; one was defective and has been shipped back to the folks in Florida for replacement. The DS 64 is what is known as a "stationary decoder", and hooked together (layman's terms), they can be used to route trains through a series of turnouts. Their application on the Paducah & Lake Erie is routing engines from the main line into one of nine different engine bays of the Freytag Engine House. When third unit is installed, engines will, by the use of two or three buttons on the throttle, be routed from the main line to the desired engine house bay. The numbers seen correspond with the bays.

P&LE has a logo

The Paducah & Lake Erie has a logo. The original artwork was done by Ray Jones of the Gateway Division of the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA). A set of decals for rolling stock and structures has been commercially produced. I am nearing the start of scenery and looking forward to it.

Freytag Engine House

This is the Freytag Engine House, kit bashed by the late Master Modeler Dean Freytag explicitly for the P&LE. After determining that space limitations made a turntable problematic, we decided to make entrance to the facility via turnouts, which is prototypical of the large facility in Paducah. Routing to each of the engine house bays is being done by a series of Digitrax DS 64's. The installation is bring done by Brian Post, who has done a lion's share of the electronic work on the railroad's turnout motors.

Staging / Storage Yard

I've added a 12-track, staging/storage stub yard on the lower level of the 16-feet long peninsula. You will note there are no escape tracks at the far end, but in view of the fact that entrance to the yard is from a "Y", I felt I could get along with no escape tracks. To date, there are no switch motors on the turnouts; I'll wait a while to see if I feel they are needed. The yard is accessible from either side. On each side, there is an unfinished extension coming towards the viewer on the outside track; one side will be an engine fueling and sanding island, the opposite will probably be a small industry.

A brief look back

Briefly below are five photos to bring you up to date. This is the third iteration of the P&LE, the first in St. Louis. Nearly all the track work is done, and most of the turnouts are installed. I use Digitrax controls, and both Tortoise and SwitchMaster slow motion switch motors. The track is Code 100 flex track, the turnouts are Peco. The roadbed is Woodland Scenics foam roadbed - 5mm HO-scale for the mainline and passing sidings, 3mm N-scale for yards and industrial sidings. The road bed is glued with DAP clear drying caulk to either 1x4's or 3/4" plywood; the track is glued to the roadbed with the same material. I have found it holds well, is forgiving when changes are necessary, and easy to work with. The layout is open grid, with basically a series of 2'x8' sections joined together. Buss wire is 16 gauge, and feeder wires are 22 gauge.

It started with a room ...

It all started with an unfinished room. Drywall was added, and then I had substantial lighting installed. It still needs more light, and advice to those just starting, considerable thought as to placement and future function(s) to electrical outlets.

Benchwork came first ...

Here is a portion of the benchwork. The railroad is of two-level construction; the lower level is 30" from the floor, the upper level 48" high. To the left above is Paducah, on a  6' x 8' section; then an 8' run to the back wall. The run along the back wall is 14', and then the longest run (out of sight on the right) is 27'. In view is a 16' long peninsula. The layout is then complete with a 16' run from the right to a 6' square that  holds the helix. The width of the entire railroad is 2' from the wall. Ken Heyl and Bob Gouirand were great help in getting the benchwork completed.

The helix was a weekend project

The addition of a helix was a weekend project that ultimately required five sets of hands, and the expertise of model railroader David James (for whom the James Creek Railway branch line is named) before it ran properly. Helping were Ken Heyl of Ashland, Ohio, and Bob Gouirand of St. Louis; Russ Hachtel, also from Ashland, even got involved when he stopped briefly on the way to an Arizona vacation.The helix is a product of EasyHelix of Milwaukee, WI, and comes in 9-inch sections that have to be assembled; assembly was a bear, outdone only by the adjustments to the tracks. The friendships survived, although strained at times. It runs well.

Heyl Interlocking was a day long project

It took the better part of a day to add Heyl Interlocking, a brainstorm of Ken Heyl, a long-time model railroad friend from Ashland, Ohio, and the owner of the large HO-scale "Cincinnati Southern" railroad. The interlocking, through a series of nine turnouts, allows trains to enter from any of four tracks, and leave by any of those same four tracks. The interlocking plant's Tower Operator will probably be a one-person position on operating sessions.

Attica Yard was added

Attica Yard, a four-track, 16-feet long yard was added on the lower level. This will be a classification yard, with  the P&LE Maintenance building and an engine servicing facility. Ken Heyl did a lot of the track work.