Identifying River Scenes

Posted Sep 18, 2020

While refining the front and back boundaries of the layout scenes using the above diagram, I gave some thought to which scenes will depict the Monongahela River and which ones won’t.

In Homestead, Rankin and McKeesport, the tracks move away from the river as they go around the steel mills. This means that within the boundaries of my scenes, the river would be far enough away that it won’t be modeled in those scenes.

From West End to Hays, just the southern shore of the river will be modeled, along the front edge of the layout. At Hays, it will exit the scene on the front of the layout, and won’t be seen again (south of there) until the bridge between Homestead and Rankin. The river will enter the scene at a slight angle from the front of the layout, pass under the bridge, and disappear into the background. The river crossing is the smaller of two scenes that could potentially feature ship, boat or barge models.

In Rankin, the river will be blocked from view by Carrie Furnace, and the tracks get close to the river again between there and Braddock, before pasing behind Edgar Thomson Works.

Somewhere in …

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Refining Layout Boundaries

Posted Sep 06, 2020
Updated Sep 18, 2020

Back in February, I had focused on a 15-mile segment of P&LE mainline to model, and I was trying to find a way to orient the scenes so that all of them could be viewed from the river shore, which was problematic, because the main line moves from the east side of the river to the west side about half way through. After much consideration, I’m now planning to model the scenes south of that point with the river in the background, and from that point north, the southern shore will be the foreground of each scene. In Mckeesport, the river in the background will be entirely blocked from view by National Tube Works, and it might be partly blocked in Rankin by Carrie Furnace.

While working out these details, I used Google Maps, Google Earth Pro, paper, pencil, and Adobe Illustrator to help visualize what things would look like on the layout. Using the shape of the prototype’s route, which is basically the shape of the river, I created a simplified path that exaggerates the major bends in the river in order to fold the route back on itself. I also represented portions of adjacent streetcar and PRR …

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Scratch-Building a Gas Station

Posted Jul 01, 2020
Updated Oct 02, 2022

One of the photos I saved from the Historic Pittsburgh site was the above photo of an Atlantic gas station on Perrysville Avenue in West View (just outside of Pittsburgh). Its simple architecture stood out to me as a good choice for my first shot at building a model structure completely from scratch. Historic photos of the areas I’m modeling show other Atlantic gas stations, and some quick Googling shows that this was a common style of gas station design, with the enameled metal panels on the front and often the same layout as the building in the photo.

For guidance on how to model the structure, I first looked at the Crafton Avenue Service Station model kit made by City Classics. It’s a little too simplified for my taste, and has a chunky look to it, so I didn’t get much inspiration from it, and moved on. Next, I searched the Model Railroader archive and found a helpful article with plans for building a similar type of gas station (Scratchbuild a Pair of Gas Stations, by Jeff Wilson, November 1993). Prior to reading this article, I wasn’t sure how to make the raised lettering for the front …

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Tube Works Map

Posted Feb 28, 2020
Updated Apr 07, 2022

I had a great stroke of luck this week while searching through P&LE company records on Historic Pittsburgh. After finding a map of all industries on the line and a technical drawing of the station building and platforms, I came across this undated map of the U.S. Steel National Tube Works plant in McKeesport. It was a huge place, and would have to be selectively compressed a lot for a medium-size model railroad, whether modeled in three dimensions or just as a backdrop.

Update from April 2022: Even without knowing what size constraints I’ll be working with when building this layout, I don’t think there could possibly be enough space to include the National Tube Works in any way other than something depicted on a backdrop, maybe with some building flats, smoke stacks and a siding and/or spur for freight operations. As with the rest of the layout, the focus of the McKeesport scene is the B&O passenger trains, which are in the foreground from the layout viewer’s perspective, with the P&LE main and tube works a few blocks back, but still dominating the sky. I’ve recently read about the “Bessemer blow” that would light up the night sky …

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P&LE Terminal Drawing

Posted Feb 28, 2020

Another good find on the Historic Pittsburgh site is this technical drawing of the Pittsburgh terminal, showing the layout of the station building and platforms. I was glad to find this, because even though I’ve already collected several historic photos of the terminal, I wasn’t yet sure how many tracks there were in the station. Apparently there were a total of 13, which is more than I expected. This plan is undated, but it’s probably still good enough to use as a planning reference. I’d like to some day model this building, and this floor plan should be helpful in that regard as well.

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P&LE Industries Map

Posted Feb 28, 2020

Another great find on the Historic Pittsburgh site is this map titled Industries in the Pittsburgh District, published by the P&LE, showing the names and locations of industries along the line. It’s from late 1929, but I think it’s still probably a good reference for my purposes. At the very least, it tells me what on-line industries I can model, and researching the company names may also lead me to additional pertinent information.

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February Progress

Posted Feb 28, 2020
Updated Oct 01, 2022

Sat Feb 1: Began BN SD9 DCC conversion.
Sun Feb 2: Continued SD9 conversion. Decoder was interfering with gears.
Sun Feb 9: On Building 2, painted contrasting brick colors on two sides, plus all window sills and window headers.

Sun Feb 16: Continued SD9 conversion. To make more room for the decoder and speaker, I removed weights that had been installed in the top of the shell. During testing, I noticed that the tiny incandescent lights in the front and rear were getting way too hot. The resistors I chose were based on getting a light intensity that looked about right, but I never tested for heat. Upon discovering this, I decided to replace them with LEDs so that (hopefully) I won’t have to tear this apart to replace bulbs in the future.

Sat Feb 22: UNW Train Show in Monroe. Picked up some 3/32″ heat-shrink tubing for the SD9 conversion, a used book titled “Guide to North American Steam Locomotives” (which includes railroad-by-railroad histories and rosters, which should be a great resource for planning what equipment to use), an old Athearn blue box B&O hopper car kit, an Accurail P&LE hopper kit, a P&LE/NYC caboose (which turns …

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15-Mile Segment Selected

Posted Feb 04, 2020
Updated Apr 09, 2022

Back in October 2019, I decided that the prototype railroad depicted in my next layout will be the B&O from 1938-1948 in southwestern PA somewhere between Meyersdale and New Castle, likely including Pittsburgh. After four months of research and consideration, I’ve narrowed my focus to the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie line from McKeesport to McKees Rocks, a segment that partially spans two divisions over a distance of about 15 miles.

I decided pretty quickly to make my southernmost potential station Connellsville, instead of smaller Meyersdale, since it was a pretty significant station, junction and yard, making a logical end point for operations. Although I don’t know how much space will be available for the layout, the approximately 100 miles between these two points seemed like a lot, so I thought the best planning approach would be to research and document the points of interest that existed along that stretch, and use that information to help me select a shorter segment to model.

My research and documentation started by following the present-day CSX main line from New Castle to Connellsville via Google Maps satellite view, which revealed many former railroad facilities, such as turntables, tunnels, bridges and stations, plus evidence …

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January Progress

Posted Jan 31, 2020
Updated Oct 01, 2022

Sun Jan 12: Completed the painting of four figures. I began a spreadsheet to keep track of all of the figures I’m painting, including descriptions of the figures, a list of paint colors used on each one, and a name assigned to each one, since, after spending an hour or two painting a figure, I start to think of them as characters.

Sat Jan 18 Puyallup train show: Picked up a PanPastel Rust & Earth Weathering Kit, plus separate PanPastels in black, white and two shades of gray. As I was browsing the products, I told the vendor I had been using regular artist pastels that I grind off with a hobby knife, and asked if the PanPastels adhere to plastic better than regular pastels. He said he thinks they use a “proprietary” formula that helps it adhere, possibly containing CA. I spent about $40 on the kit, which contained some applicator tools, and the four grays. Later, I realized I was thinking of Bragdon weathering powders, which I had heard contain some form of CA.

Sun Jan 19: Completed painting of two figures (bald black dude and fat seated woman).

Mon Jan 20 (MLK Day): began prepping …

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