East End

More progress. Roadbed is complete except for the turntable at East End. Trackwork is progressing, but things have reached a point where turnouts will need to be created.

As mentioned before, the layout is "generic". Even though the Average Eastern is freelanced, it's the connecting roads where the term generic has the most latitude. Currently, the Pennsylvania Railroad interchanges with the AE at Average. The PRR is just one of several lines that had a four track main. It could be the New York Central, Erie, Lehigh Valley or Jersey Central.

At East End the options expand quite a bit. There are literally dozens of railroads with two track mains. Two tracks however can also be found on single track main stems with long sidings. I recently got a deal on some locomotives lettered for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. At the moment, the double track Class 1 that connects at East End is the DL&W...

East End

It's pretty busy at the moment. AE #11 is just arriving with a short freight. Off in the backgtound, the Company Shay is picking up a string of empty hoppers to run back to the mine. A Lackawanna Geep is working the interchange track as a pair of F units rolls west with a mixed freight.

The F units are currently lettered for the Erie Lackawanna, a merger that didn't take place until 1960. That's a bit late for the period the layout is set in. Fortunately the paint scheme on Lackawanna units is the same. The units can be backdated by replacing the nose herald and the side lettering.

I'm beginning to rough in some of the scenery. I started at East End. I'm using cardboard strips for the basic landforms. I tried to make a general shape and the randomness that appears in nature...

Rough Scenery East End

Carbon Point

I also started roughing in the general layout of Owertown. The roadbed for the Owertown Transit Co. is in place and ready for track...

Owertown: OTC Tracks

Quotidian needs a new full size drawing. I used the peninsula as a work area and the old one got pretty beat up. Once I have the drawing laid out I'll start on the track. 

Average is straing to take shape. The roadbed for the yard is all down and ready for track. I also got a start on the turntable pit and base for the Average enginehouse...

Average Enginehouse

I tried to keep the track well in from the edges of the benchwork this time. Lost a lot of equipment to the unyielding concrete floor.There are still some places where tracks run too close to the brink. On the aisle side of these areas I have constructed what I'll call berms. I used 1" thick extruded foam strips. They look like walls right now. The idea is to shape them so they look like steep banks or rock cuts...

Berms

I made some more electrical connections and got power to all tracks, including the Q Company. Unfortunately the MRC throttle I was going to use for the Q is damaged so the Shay wisn't running yet. Anyway, I fired the layout up and ran some trains...

Regards,

Frank Musick

Building a dream layout on a nightmare budget

The Average Eastern Railroad