OMG

A brand new hobby shop just opened and it's only a couple miles away! What are the chances? The Nashville area had lost almost all of its model railroad related shops. The odds of having a new one appear (especially in this town) must be the same as winning Powerball. The new shop is a Hobbytown, which may be a sign it won't disappear overnight.. They have Atlas code 55 flex track! In stock!. I'm not sure what those odds are,  but they must be up there too. It's $5.75 a section, but at least it's available here, in this state. I don't have to buy it in New Jersey anymore or pay exorbitant online shipping.. Huzzah!

I didn't know the place was there until last night, and it was too late to visit when we found it. I did drop by there this morning to "take inventory". They have the aforementioned track and other N scale goodies including freight cars that don't cost a fortune. They have modeling tools! I don't have to go to drive 30 miles for a Xuron track nipper! Wait I don't anyway...Sprue cutters work just as well. But anyway, I checked their display case. No steam locomotives or "vintage" diesel and a preponderance of CSX, L&N, and Southern. We are in the South after all. Can't have everything.

Didn't purchase much, just a handy little tool I've not seen in a hobby shop before. It's an 11" long aluminum sanding block. I know exactly what to do with it. I was thinking of getting a similar sander from a auto body supplier, but those are flexible and this one is rigid. It will work much better. For what? 

Leveling Spline

There are some spline strips that were not cut square and as a result the top of the spline is not always as flat as I would like. When you are working with a situation like this in auto body repair you need to lower any high spots and fill the low spots. A long sander is used to take care of any high spots. Low spots are filled with a thin layer of lead, or nowadays, body filler, or as it's commonly called,."bondo". If you need to sand you want to sand just enough, not gouge into the filler. Same here. Light sanding is required. You don't want to create dips. In the photo the low spots are pretty obvious. You don't want to sand the spline down to those lows. You want to get the general surface level and then use some compound to fill in the hollows.

Wouldn't have been easier to cut them all perfectly square? Yes, it would have. Is it possible? Maybe. But even at that I'm sure there will be places that need touch up. The sander is for those areas.

Now for a totally unrelated tidbit...

In the book Triumph I,  Charles Roberts makes the rather startling claim that Kittanning Point is NOT Kittanning Point. Since just about every map I have shows Kittanning Point as the mountain directly above the center of Horseshoe curve this seemed pretty arrogant to me...

USGS  Topgraphical Map

Above is a section of a USGS topographic map from a program called USA Maps. You can see that the location of the mountain is clearly labeled. I had even highlighted it with a "pushpin" (green dot) and a label while doing some earlier research. A map of the same area from Google Maps shows the same location...

Newest Map Information

MountainZone.Com and TerraServer concur. So who is Mr Roberts to argue with the entire civilized world?

I'm not sure where Charles Roberts got his information, so I started digging deeper. The topo map I use for designing the Allegheny Eastern is a compilation of several historic USGS topographical maps. The one that shows Horseshoe Curve, the northeast corner of the Hollidaysburg Quadrangle, was originally produced in 1903. Where does it show Kittanning Point?...

1903 Edition USGS Topographical Map

Then there are the OTHER maps. The ones the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation created. The PENNDOT maps don't show the topography of the area like the USGS documents do, but they include roads and other information pertinent to transportation. According to PennDot, Roberts is totally correct. Or is he?...

PENNDOT: Horseshoe Curve 1915

PENNDOT: Horseshoe Curve 1941

Exasperating as hell, isn't it? Roberts view makes perfect sense considering that the PRR built an entire complex where PENNDOT shows Kittanning Point. Then again, the Point they seem to be referring to is that very complex. Mr. Roberts statement that Kittanning Point is the mountain peak to the east of the curve seems questionable. Hate to argue with such detailed historical research but...

Does it matter? Probably only to me. After all, I do need to give names to the areas I'm attempting to represent. It does go to show, however, that your information is only as good as your source. Read everything...You never now what you'll trip over.

Regards,
Frank Musick
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Allegheny Eastern Railroad