In January of this year, I took my first steps toward building a roster (or at least the start of a plan for one). Using information in timetables from the B&O and P&LE, I compiled a spreadsheet listing the passenger and commuter trains using the P&LE terminal in 1949, including their scheduled times, direction, origination, destination and train numbers. With this information gathered in one place, I determined that the 40 daily arrivals and departures could be simulated with just 14 model trains, like actors playing multiple parts in a play. I was also able to identify how many storage tracks would be needed in the terminal scene and in the east and west staging yards, if all trains were to be modeled. I also decided to plan for two types of operating sessions: a day session for terminal arrivals and departures between 6:00 am and 5:30 pm and a night session for arrivals and departures between 8:30 pm and 4:00 am (there were no trains scheduled between 4 and 6 am). With a 3:1 fast clock, the 11.5-hour, 24-train day session would take about 4 hours, and the 7.5-hour, 16-train night session would take 2.5 hours.
About a year ago, I narrowed the focus of my model railroad plan to the segment of the P&LE main line between McKeesport and McKees Rocks, where I would model the through service of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s named trains, which used the P&LE line, with a possible cameo appearance by the Pennsylvania Railroad line that parallels part of the P&LE in Pittsburgh. Over the past year, I’ve continued learning more historical information about these railroads, which has helped me begin to plan which trains and industries I’ll model, and which locomotive and car models I can purchase that would be suitable for the layout. I also began to practice some basic track planning skills in Adobe Illustrator, to help me visualize how much space is needed for things like loops, yards and stations, which has has prompted me to prepare for the possibility of eliminating scenes from the plan if the space requirements are too high.
Elimination of McKees Rocks & Esplen
I cut the westernmost scene, McKees Rocks, because it’s the site of the locomotive service facility, fabrication shops and a classification yard, which would take up a huge amount of flat, open space, and I’m much …
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 …
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 …
Found this in a P&LE group on Facebook. Could come in handy.
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 …
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 …
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.
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.
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 …