I recently realized it’s been over five years since I started using this blog to document the planning of my next model railroad and thought it was time for a written summary of my current vision for the layout. I remember thinking in the beginning that I could easily spend over five years researching and planning this model railroad, gathering prototype photos and information to paint a mental picture of what the layout would look like. I’ve gathered more information than I expected by this point, thanks to resources like Historic Pittsburgh and many books and special interest publications from Model Railroader and Classic Trains magazines. I’ve organized the information and photos in albums, spreadsheets, Google Earth and Google Maps, where I’ve been marking the locations of buildings and industries as they existed in 1949. So far, I’ve added building locations to three of the four key scenes. There’s quite a bit more research and planning to do, but after five years of it, I have a much clearer picture in my mind of this future layout.
In some areas, it feels like I have just about all of the information I need, and perhaps the next five years will be a slower trickle of findings as I fill in the gaps, and spend more time modeling, and a little less time researching. I’ve tried a couple of track-planning apps, which was helpful in reminding me how much space is needed for various track configurations, and I think I will continue that practice, and possibly work out a minimum space requirement for the Terminal scene and staging areas in that way.
The Prototype
My main interest is modeling the B&O named passenger trains that ran through Pittsburgh in the 1940s, on the south shore of the Monongahela River. To do that, I have to model the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, because the B&O operated those trains on the tracks of the P&LE, a more direct and level route through the city.
The segment I’m interested in contains a total of nine potential scenes, spanning a distance of 15 miles or less from Walnut Street in McKeesport to the West End Bridge in Pittsburgh. I don’t expect to have space to model all nine scenes, and I’ve prioritized four key scenes, as shown in the table below.
The east and west borders in the table are the limits of the areas that could be contained in each scene. The specific parts I end up modeling would fall somewhere within those borders. So far, McKeesport and Terminal are the only scenes that I’ve given enough consideration to determine where I think the actual scene borders will be.
There were steel mills in five of my nine scenes, but if I model any of them, I think it would be just a small portion of the J&L mill in the South Side scene. The P&LE main line went through a tunnel under the mill, which would be a great way for the tracks to disappear backstage before reemerging in the next scene, possibly on another level. I’m still open to a single or double-deck layout.
The Time Period
I decided early in the process that I wanted to model the 1940s, but narrowing the period to the summer of 1949 took a few years. It was ultimately decided in March 2020 after Rapido Trains announced their gorgeous new models of the P&LE’s Alco PA-1 diesel locomotives, which arrived in April 1949. Choosing that year also accommodates my desire to model some of Pittsburgh’s PCC streetcars, the second generation of which debuted in 1948, and the B&O’s heavyweight and streamlined lightweight equipment in the blue and gray scheme, with both steam and early diesel power. I went with summer because, to me, it’s the most appealing season in model railroads, and some of the advertisements posted on my derelict storefront are for July 4 events.
The Rolling Stock
A full roster for the B&O operations (including joint service with The Steel King) consists of 40-50 heavyweight cars, 16 lightweight streamlined cars, and 12 locomotives. I currently have 14 of the heavyweight cars and 6 of the locomotives (two Pacific steam engines, an F3A, F3B and two P&LE/NYC PA-1 diesels).
The passenger operations will be supplemented with some local and through freight operations, pulled by P&LE/NYC Mikados. I currently have 10 boxcars (including a set of six PRR X31 A boxcars from Rapido), 3 gondolas, 18 hoppers (including 3 ore hoppers) and a caboose. I have three P&LE/NYC Mikados to pull the freights, but I think I might need one more. Ideally, I’d have a coal train, an ore train, a mixed freight and a local freight. Maybe a limestone train, too, if there’s room.
For switching in 1949, P&LE was using Alco S-2 and EMD NW2 diesels, and I think I’ll need at least three of them on the layout for use at the terminal and staging yards.
Most of the trains in the daytime operating session are P&LE commuter trains, consisting of Pacific steam engines and a few heavyweight coaches per train. I’m still working out exactly how many of each I’ll need, as I found errors in my initial attempt last year.
Rounding out the roster is four PCC streetcars for use in the scenes of West End, Terminal and McKeesport. I’ve already obtained one signed “53 Carrick” to use on Carson Street, another signed “Kennywood” that could be used in any scene, one signed “6 Brighton Rd”, which I’ll either replace or re-letter as “68 McKeesport”, and a Los Angeles MTA streetcar that I plan to strip and repaint to model a “Smoke Must Go!” promotional paint scheme that appeared on one car in the late 40s, with “50 Carson” on its destination sign. I think that car was only used on the 22 Crosstown route, which didn’t go through any of my scenes, and it was an older PCC model, not the version depicted by my model, but I want a streetcar emblazoned with Smoke Must Go! more than I want total historic accuracy. I think it looks cool, it’s interesting history, and it’ll help set the time and place of the layout.
The Scenery
Dirty and dark urban scenes will be a defining feature of the layout. In 1949, Pittsburgh and Allegheny County were just beginning to clean the notoriously smoky air by regulating coal smoke from homes, trains and industries. Authentically modeling the area at that time requires a lot of grime and layers of fine black dust on anything that’s not cleaned often. In addition to heavily weathering structures and rolling stock accordingly, I hope to capture the look of smoky skies on the backdrops, and experiment with a fog machine for photography.
Most of the B&O passenger trains passed through Pittsburgh at night. That will require illumination in a lot of the structures and on the streets, with overhead lighting that can be adjusted in color and brightness for both day and night operating sessions, with emphasis on night ops. Given the city’s propensity for smog, even some day sessions would be only dimly lit.
The Operations
The operating sessions I’ve been planning require a two-track main line with hidden return loops and staging at both ends, so that trains can turn around behind the scenes and re-emerge as their opposite-direction counterparts later in the session. Arrivals and departures between 6 am and 5:30 pm comprise the day session, the night session is approximately 8:30 pm to 4 am. Given the real-time duration of those sessions, I imagine I’d use a 3:1 fast clock in order to condense each one to 3-4 hours.
The P&LE terminal timetable below was compiled from times listed in a B&O timetable issued August 14, 1949 and a P&LE timetable issued February 10, 1947 (the closest I’ve been able to get so far, but good enough for me). The day and night sessions are separated by the thick black bar.
It’s not shown in the above screenshot of my terminal schedule spreadsheet, but many of the arrivals and departures involve pick-ups and/or set-outs, such as the early morning arrival of The Shenandoah, allowing Pittsburgh-bound passengers a little more time to sleep in their bedrooms, while the rest of the train continues to Chicago. Some late-night trains pick up a sleeping car with passengers who boarded the parked cars in the evening and went to bed before the train picked them up.
Rather than modeling a long distance, where the trains start in one city and terminate in some far off city (maybe skipping some distance between scenes or levels), I’m more interested in focusing mainly on the Pittsburgh terminal and all of the passenger trains that passed through, from overnight long-distance trains to daytime commuter trains and freight trains running between them.
Freight operations are harder to plan without knowing which scenes will be built, but at minimum, I should have several industries in the four key scenes, from which pick-ups and set-outs could be made by local freights. A lot of coal, coke, iron ore and limestone moved over the P&LE, but since I’m not planning to build more than a portion of one steel mill, there wouldn’t be many places to deliver those materials to. I might just run those trains straight through, possibly as automated drones to work around during passenger operations. The P&LE freight house, central warehouse and team tracks are prominent features of the Terminal scene, and would provide a lot of freight switching opportunities. Considering my main interest is B&O passenger ops, this amount of potential freight operations feels sufficient to me.
The Books
In addition to Model Railroader Magazine, Classic Trains Magazine, and countless videos on Trains.com, the following books and magazine special issues have been very helpful in my planning, research and modeling over the past five years:
- Freight Cars of the ’40s and ’50s (Jeff Wilson)
- Realistic Layouts – Use the Art of Illusion to Model Like a Pro (CJ Riley)
- How to Kitbash Structures (Tony Koester)
- Basic Painting & Weathering for Model Railroaders (Jeff Wilson)
- Modeling Structures (Jeff Wilson)
- Modeling the Transition Era (Tony Koester)
- Express, Mail & Merchandise Service (Jeff Wilson)
- Modeling Cities & Towns (Jeff Wilson)
- Planning Scenery for your Model Railroad (Tony Koester)
- The Allegheny Midland – Lessons Learned (Tony Koester)
- Realistic Model Railroad Operation (Tony Koester)
- Designing & Building Multi-Deck Model Railroads (Tony Koester)
- Realistic Model Railroad Design (Tony Koester)
- Track Planning for Realistic Operation (John Armstrong)
- How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork (Linn Westcott)
- The Model Railroader’s Guide to Passenger Equipment & Operation (Andy Sperandeo)
- The Model Railroader’s Guide to Steel Mills (Bernard Kempinski)
- The Model Railroader’s Guide to Iron Ore Railroads (Jeff Wilson)
- The Model Railroader’s Guide to Coal Railroading (Tony Koester)
- Steam Locomotive Projects & Ideas (John Pryke)
- Guide to Signals & Interlockings (Dave Abeles)
- Applying Lessons from the Prototype (Tony Koester)
- Dream Trains – The Last, Best Streamliners 1946-1956 (Classic Trains Special Edition)
- Dream Trains 2 – The Last, Best Streamliners 1946-1956 (Classic Trains Special Edition)
- Pullman – America’s Hotel on Wheels (Classic Trains Special Edition)
- Trains of the 1940s (Classic Trains Special Edition)
- More Trains of the 1940s (Classic Trains Special Edition)
- How to Model Railroads of the 1950s (Model Railroader Special Issue)
- Guide to North American Steam Locomotives (Kalmbach)
- Guide to North American Diesel Locomotives (Kalmbach)
- Pittsburgh & Lake Erie in Allegheny County, Vol. 1 (Polaritz, Hudson)
- Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad (Harold McLean)
- B&O Power in Color Vol. 1 Steam & Cab Units (Bob Withers)
- Baltimore & Ohio Through Passenger Service in Color (Bob Withers)
- Baltimore & Ohio Pacific Locomotives (Bob Withers)
- Touring Pittsburgh by Trolley (Harold Smith)
- Images of America: Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys (Kenneth Springirth)
- Images of America: McKeesport (McKeesport Heritage Center)
- Pittsburgh: Streetcar City (Pennsylvania Trolley Museum)