Altoona

One of the best things about model railroading is the diversity. Building a layout can involve you in many  disciplines ranging from carpentry to electronics. Sometimes this is planned, but sometimes you find yourself going off on a unexpected tangent. For some folks who prefer a linear approach to a project this might be frustrating. For me it keeps things interesting and fresh.

Tomix Track 4" R Versus Bachmann 11.75" R

The "realignment" of the Allegheny Eastern right of way stalled for a couple of reasons, but while I wait for a solution I can work on other areas. The last blog entry was one such case, I ordered replacement gears for some Bachmann PCC cars. Those gears have been installed and the cars tested. The tests included running the cars through several tight radius curves and showed that an unmodified Bachmann PCC can safely negotiate a 3 inch radius curve. Based on the tests, I contacted a company in Washington state that carries Tomix products. Tomix has a line of ready made street trackage for N scale trolley enthusiasts that includes a 103mm curve (a tad over 4 inches). I ordered a set of curves and straight sections, enough to make a small oval for further tests.

Altoona "Module"

This trolley experiment led me to thinking about the area of the layout that will represent "downtown" Altoona. Part of the realignment project requires cutting the extruded foam covering the table top back to the right of way. This means that the large piece of foam where Altoona proper will be located could be removed intact from the benchwork. I now had a ready made template for the site, which I carried to another bench (aka kitchen table). Instead of having to draw up a scale plan of some sort I am now able to layout the city and it's streets in "full size" using all those buildings I bought on clearance. I can use the actual Tomix track to check spacing and clearances and even run the trolleys. It's kind of a layout within a layout, a module if you will, that can be installed on the All East benchwork as an assembly.

Topographic Map Altoona, PA

Creating this module includes all kinds of activity. I started scanning Google maps online to get the general layout of Altoona as it exists today. This enables me to interpret the topographical maps I have from the mid-twentieth century. I have been guestimating the size and shape of the streets and buildings based on the topo maps and photos from various reference books. If I had access to Sanborn insurance maps I would be rescaling them to use as templates I could glue to the foam. The general result is that I am able to pattern a fair area of the layout after the actual city being modeled. The section will extend from just west of the 14th street bridge to the freight station a few blocks east and about two or three blocks north of the main line. It won't be an exact replica, there's no way I can (or want to) create one. I working towards an "impression" of Altoona  in the early 1950's.

Altoona & Logan Valley, 1954

All the research indicates that the trolley line should run parallel to the PRR tracks as far east as "east" goes on the layout. This means I can place a return loop within the helix on that side of the layout. Pretty simple. Going west is a bit harder. The Altoona and Logan Valley did not run up to The Curve (although that would have been a great idea). It crossed the Pennsy mainline at 17th Street and meandered south to Hollidaysburg. There is also some evidence it crossed the PRR yard over Red Bridge (about 10th Street) to service East Altoona. Currently all the info I have on this is a photo taken in the 1940's of a streetcar on the bridge. More info is forthcoming, however, in the form of a book on the A&LV. I was also fortunate to have found a railfan's hand-drawn map on the Internet. The map was drawn in 1954 during the final days of A&LV streetcar service. The double loops above the center of the map is the are being modeled "City Center". As you can see, there is nothing east of the section I'm recreating on the layout. The line headed south after crossing the PRR main line at 17th Street.

11th Avenue Looking East

In the meantime, I'm working on the module, mocking up some street scenes using the Tomix track and some Design Preservations structure kits. There's nothing permanent yet, but the staged scene of 11th Avenue gives you some idea of what is possible. As I mentioned in the previous blog, the Bachmann cars have been modified to lower the car shell. While still not near the scale ground clearance, it is quite a bit lower and looks more realistic than the stock version. No modifications were required to allow the car to negotiate the 4" radius curves. The Tomix track is a start, but the streets will have to be built up to match. The street surface that comes with the track looks to represent concrete. I'm looking for a way to simulate the brick typically used in American street trackage at the time. I'm thinking brick paper might do the trick.Anything else would be too thick to use. There is also the option of creating my own street trackage using code 55 rail and molded plastic sheets of brick siding. That way I can produce even ighter curves to fit the streets of my miniature city.