Humongous

The Pennsylvania Railroad's four track mainline through the Alleghenies was the one of the busiest sections of railroad in the world. Designed for eastbound tonnage, trains from the west had all the advantages. Even so, a plethora of helper engines were still required going east. Reading Triumph I, I found myself wondering if I should have modeled the west slope of the Alleghenies from Conemaugh to Gallitzin. Would have been quite a different theme for a model railroad based on the Pennsy

Be that as it may, the fact remains that modeling any section of the Pittsburgh Division is not for the faint of heart. It's not so much the trackwork, or the scenery, or even fitting a site like Altoona into a two car garage. Yes, there is a preposterous quantity of track. There are, however, many multi-level layouts that use just as much, albeit with a single track mainline. Scenic elements like Short Mountain and Kittanning Point are over 30" tall in N scale, but the Rockies or the Sierras modeled by some are even taller. Most real Class 1 railroad facilities can not be modeled faithfully in any reasonably sized dwelling. Only lines like Virginia & Truckee, East Broad Top or the   Buffalo Creek & Gauley had model railroad sized yards and servicing facilities. All of this is certainly true. Yet none of these is the greatest challenge when modeling the PRR. The one thing that sets the Pennsy apart from all of its competitors is the sheer amount of traffic volume.

Pennsylvania Railrpad management commissioned a study in 1945 that analyzed traffic on the Pittsburg Division over a twenty four hour period. The day chosen was April 6th, 1945, a little over a month before VE Day saw the end of the war in Europe. On that Friday sixty eight years ago, two hundred ninety eight trains operated over "the top" at Gallitzin. Of the almost three hundred trains on the east slope, one hundred one carried passengers while freight accounted for one hundred three. The mix also includes ninety one helper engines running light. Just to add to the fun, two work trains were dispatched that Friday.

These numbers are staggering. Especially when you consider all this happened within twenty or so track miles. It's doubtful that any other railroad on the globe made this many movements. Even with a four track mainline the operations department was hard pressed to meet the demand caused by this huge amount of  traffic. How do you recreate anything this monstrous in a 1:160 miniature?

If we average the numbers out, a train passed through Horseshoe Curve every 4 - 5 minutes. That's 12 or more trains each hour. To model 1 hour of operation a layout would have to be equipped with two staging yards, each with a capacity for 6 trains. The current design of Juniata, which is actually double ended open staging, provides for 10 tracks, five in each direction. Since the Allegheny Eastern is dependent on Juniata's capacity for staging trains, we can only simulate about 50 minutes of the massive daily operation.

The trouble is that things are not that simple. The actual traffic over The Hill had an eastbound bias. In the twenty four hour period analyzed in the 1945 study, Two hundred seven trains went east, but only ninety one traveled west. On the other hand, westbound traffic required eighty nine of the ninety one helper movements. Only two snappers (PRR for helpers) drifted down the west slope to return to Conemaugh. Based on these numbers a train came down the east slope every five minutes, while sixteen minutes elapsed between trains going up. To recreate an hour of operation properly staging would have to support twelve trains east bound, with four westbound. While Juniata can hold an hour of traffic moving west, the yard can only support about thirty minutes eastbound. That would mean that an operating session on the All East lasts thirty minutes before we start repeating consists or call it a day.

Since Altoona was a division point, staging freight trains would seem realistic.Trains would arrive from both directions, be broken down, classified and reassembled to be forwarded to their destinations. We might even be able to replicate some of this action and give the yard crew something to do. Keep in mind, however, that some of the freight and almost all of the passenger traffic is composed of through trains. They won't stop except for servicing, an engine or crew change, or a westbound helper assignment. So now Juniata serves as staging, but only for freight trains processed at Altoona. The ten yard tracks might easily accommodate an hours worth of such traffic. This of course begs the question...Where do I stage through trains?

What if the through trains were kept out on the mainline? The four tracks can easily accommodate a train each, two in each direction. We could consider this "roundy round" operation as orbiting the layout. The "orbits" could be synchronized with a timetable for through freight and passenger. Each time the orbiter comes around it would be considered the next train on the timetable. Trains traveling west would stop to attach a helper, with steamers taking advantage of the break to take on water. The west bound orbiter would climb the hill to Gallitzin and stop for the helper to be cut off. It would then continue west to drop down the helix and reappear at Spruce Creek as the next through train.

Once again, this might work going west, but what happens eastbound? There are three times as many trains going east. It takes a certain amount of time to circumnavigate one hundred fifty feet of mainline. Since west bound trains appear every sixteen minutes, this isn't to hard to accomplish. I cannot, however, get an eastbound freight around the layout in five minutes. At least not if I want it to stay on the tracks. It would literally be moving at sixty miles an hour. Just to seal the deal, the speed limit on The Hill is only about thirty for all trains in both directions. I have painted myself it a corner.

Fortunately there is one place on the All East capable of holding a fair number of  through trains. The helix has a track length of 30-35 feet. Staging the orbiters in the helix is a whole new ball game. The fact that it is four tracked means it has the capacity to store about twenty eight trains. Each track can store seven, each with an average length of five feet. This would allow eastbound trains to appear every five minutes without breaking a sweat (or the train). Movements west need not use the full capacity of those tracks since volume is only a third in that direction. A full  hour of operations in both directions can occur before a consist repeats itself. Working this out as part of operations would take some time to master, but it might be an effective solution. I shudder, however, in contemplating the cost of  the equipment required for all these movements.

Yet all of these movements, including the required westbound "snappers", would only represent one aspect of the challenge. The Pennsylvania Railroad did not operate with traffic conveniently spread out at equal intervals. Because of the terrain, interference in operations and other factors, there were traffic jams and long delays, particularly for freight trains. Keeping freight restricted to tracks 1 and 4 within the territory being represented exaserbates the congestion. Passenger trains used the the inner tracks, 2 and 3, to avoid the slow speeds and delays caused by the freights and helpers. Recreating through passenger service creates a scheduling problem. Most passed over the summit in the middle of the night, between 10:00 PM and 4:00 AM. I have to check the timetable to find out what percentage of the one hundred one passenger movements happened during this time.

Something to think about as the ballast strip and track are laid down.

Regards,
Frank Musick
Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Cinders

I actually spent some time on the layout today. I started to lay cork ballast strip at Spruce Creek. Once I had the strips for all four tracks glued down I temporarily laid down some track. Good thing it was temporary because as soon as I got the last nail through the cork I realized I had forgotten something...

Cork Ballast Strip, Code 55 Flex Track

By the way, the cork does a good job of holding onto those track nails.

Anywho, According to the info I have hoarded the Pennsy used cinders as a "sub-roadbed" for their track and then built up the roadbed with stone ballast. I thought I might try to do this by actually laying scale "cinders". Then it occurred to me that a coat of paint might do just as well. As a test, I painted the foam spline and the cork ballast strip with the black paint I use on the exposed benchwork. It's a satin paint so it has a slight shine, but it looks fine for this trial. Of course I had to pull the track back up...

"Cinder" Sub-Roadbed

I painted the sides of the spline as well as the sides of the bridge section of the spline. Once I get the arches cleaned up an sanded I'll paint the insides too. Then I'll attach the plastic sides before I weather the whole assembly so it looks like it all goes together.

I laid the track back down on the still tacky paint, using nails to keep it in place...

Code 55 Flex Track on "Cinders"

I'm using Woodland Scenics fine gray ballast. I poured it all into old tacky glue bottles. I left the original caps on, thinking it might be a good way to dispense the ballast. It works great. The opening is small so I have more control of where the ballast goes. It delivers the ballast in small amounts so I don't get big piles that need to pushed down the track a ways. Once the ballast is down I use a stiff (but soft) bristle artist brush to clean off the the ties. It ends up looking like this...

Fine Gray Ballast Over "Cinders"

The ballast may be too light, but a thin wash of black should darken it up a bit. I'm thinking of adding the dark color to the ballast glue to see how that works. I'm going to pull the track back up again and paint it a mixture of leather and rust colors then use a weathering marker on the rails. Once it's laid down again, I'll clean the rail heads and let the nickle silver shine through.

The outer edges of the spline probably should be sanded to a more beveled edge but I think I'll leave well enough alone for now.

Nothing stupendous, but some progress is better than none.

Regards,

Frank Musick

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Allegheny Eastern Railroad

Doldrums

I'm going through one of those periods when I would rather do anything but be in the garage. Mowing the lawn, fixing the car, grocery shopping, even watching TV. It's not like I can't find the time. Being retired I pretty much have most of the day to myself. I actively avoid the layout. If I do work on the Allegheny Eastern, it's only a few minutes at a time and only small things get done.

I sealed and sanded about four feet of roadbed in the Spruce Creek area. I also removed the Atlas arch bridge sides (glad I used tack glue) and threw some paint on them to see how they might look...

I did make it by the hobby shop (having the new one locally is SO convenient) and picked up some girder bridge for the HOMER flyover. I had to splice a couple and add a plastic bottom so I could skew the side to match the location...

Beyond that all I got accomplished was waiting for the test painting to dry completely. The good news is that I think I'm satisfied with my version of DGLE...

I'm also liking that Gunmetal metalizer on the smokebox. I should get right on it and repaint the entire steam fleet but I'm pretty sure it can wait until the track is laid and the mainline is operational.

Therein lies the problem. I cannot get motivated. At least not about the layout. That might change any day but right now it is really hard to achieve anything model railroad related. I'm still reading and researching so I guess that is some sort of progress.

Regards,

Frank Musick

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Allegheny Eastern Railroad

A Little Patch and Paint

No, I'm not selling or buying a house, just working on the All East. Now that I'm pretty sure all the roadbed is in place I started leveling it out. The guys at Railwire came to the rescue again and suggested Durham's Rock Hard Putty. It comes in a couple of sizes but only my favorite home center had the smaller can. Whipped up a batch by mixing in some water and smeared it on the spline at HOMER. There's more than a few yawning cavities in the area so it seemed a good place to try it out. First I sanded out the high spots. Only takes a light pressure on the sanding bar...

Passenger Spline at HOMER

I used that plastic spreader that I used to apply the Bondo at SLOPE. The plastic is soft which keeps the tool from tearing into the foam. I hold the thing almost perpendicular to the spline with very little downward pressure...

Spreading the Putty on the Spline

It took a couple of minutes to cover a two - three foot section. All I have to do now is wait for the stuff to dry and run the sanding bar over it...

Afterward, Waiting for Final Sanding

After 16 Hours and a Light Sanding

After 16 hours the putty isn't quite dry and I still have some voids to fill. Once I get this right I have only 100 or so feet to go. Piece of cake.

Waiting for some glue to dry somewhere I started experimenting with paint. Recently Testor announced it was cutting back production on their modeling paint. Among the first to go will be the Floquill and PolyScale lines, the railroad colors most of us use. I thought of stocking up on "Brunswick" Green, but A - It's costly ($6 a small bottle). B - It's especially costly if you stock up on it. C - I'd hate to stock up on paint and have it dry up or whatever in the bottles. Not sure of the shelf life and don't want to find out. I forgot D - My new local hobby shop doesn't have it. They have every other color, but no Brunswick Green. Weird.

Soooo...I went to said hobby shop, bought some of the Model Master paints for about $3.50 (1/2 ounce bottle) and tested them on a Bachmann locomotive shell I had destroyed. I tried a Model Master color called Schwartzgrun. It's German for Black Green. The "swatch" on the paint display looked dark, but it actually looked gray green in the bottle. I painted the cab and a short section of boiler hoping it would darken as it dried. Looks nothing at all like the swatch. I then tried some Aircraft Interior Black on the adjacent section of boiler. It's definitely darker, but more of a "warm" gray. The rest of the locomotive was previously painted Floquil "Brunswick" Green. It looks like flat black in the photo below...

Paint Test #1

I also painted the smokebox with Gunmetal Buffing Metalizer (about $4 or so a 1/2 ounce bottle). I then poured most of the bottle of Aircraft Interior Black into a empty bottle and added a pipette of Euro Dark Green. I painted another section of the boiler with this mixture and it turned out a warm gray with just the slightest green cast...

I'm not sure if it matches Dark Green Locomotive Enamel, but it's close enough for my tastes. I also experimented with some reds trying to match some PRR car colors. A few more coats are required...I should have cleaned the old paint off first...but the preliminary results are...

Model Master #2073 "Rot" RLM 23

I tried Model Master #2073 "Rot" RLM 23 as replacement for the red oxide I use on boxcars. The hopper I painted was originally Floquil Boxcar Red (I think). It looks like red oxide to me, but maybe a bit dark.

Next I tried FS 31136 Insignia Red on a Penn Central cabin car I need to "backdate" to Pennsy, 1949...

Model Master FS 31136 Insignia Red

Like I said, I should have removed the old paint first. I think the car was molded of plastic in that PC Green, so only the decals would be removed. Need to try again with more coats.

Finally, I tried Model Master #2009 British Crimson. This color reminds me of the Scalecoat "PRR Maroon" so I brushed it onto an SP passenger car (Daylight Colors) to see what color it dries to...

Model Master #2009 British Crimson

If you ask me the Insignia Red looks closer to Tuscan. Even with more coats, the crimson is too red. I think the Insignia Red looks pretty close to how I perceive tuscan red. I'll have to find a close match for the Boxcar Red I use on the cabin cars. As I said a long time ago, I'm not lookinng for an exact match, just close enough to the color that I can use consistently for each type of equipment. I feel that if all the boxcars or cabins or locomotives are the same shade it will look more realistic than a dozen shades of the same color.

That's about all I got done. Time with my grandson took up most of the week.

Regards

Frank Musick

Chief Cook and Bottle Washer

Allegheny Eastern Railroad