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.