Bruce-worthy

I said I would post more often, that was back in May and so much has changed since then, seems a little arbitrary to pick on my lack of new articles. Still, I have been very busy in the train room with all the time on my hands and the fact that for a while, we were all stuck in the house. I completed one project after another and after a while, I had completed so many, I realized that I need to keep a list of the updates so I made sure to show Bruce the next time he stopped over the house. A list of updates that were Bruce-worthy. Well, we were able to get together last weekend and I showed him all the changes, we ran a few trains, and now I can share them with everyone else.

Starting in Irwin, the main changes were replacing the cardboard mockups for US Steel and Pittsburgh Plate Glass (PPG) with some real structures that had "some" depth. Both are still partial buildings to give the illusion of more depth than the layout but help make the scene. Notice the details on both loading docks as well as  the lit interior in the PPG building. Eventually, all of the buildings will have detailed and lit interiors. Two things that you don't see in this photo is the overhead crane in the PPG factory with the 10 Ton marking, a shout out to our local Warped Wing Brewery signature fixture and the new oil crane just left of the picture along the engine track. 

US Steel and PPG Buildings

Next, heading east out of Irwin Yard we see Uniontown and some of the new details there. First, McKinney's Liquors, after our son-in-law, finally has a sign - although he still missing the front of his store, interior and roof! Next to that is the new Moose Lodge 73, which actually exists here in Beavercreek OH but I really wanted to have a Moose Lodge in Uniontown. There are more details along the streets - news stand, fire hydrants, mail box and parking meters, people and a couple new cars. Also new is the city park in the center with the town twins, Dan and Don, playing a game of checkers at the picnic table. 

New buildings and details in Uniontown

Along the other side of the peninsula from Uniontown is Herminie PA, home of the Westmoreland Coal Company Mine No. 4. The building finally has a company sign on the back but also signs above the tracks under the coal tipple. The biggest changes here are along the backdrop with a new machine shop, fence, and most importantly, exposed stone wall that shows how deep this strip mine was carved before they converted it into a shaft mine. 

WCC Mine No. 4 in Herminie

New rock wall backdrop along the mine tracks

Our last stop is the hillside just east of Herminie that is the scenery break before the Youghiogheny River and East McKeesport scenes. Originally, I had envisioned a company store here but as I suggested in my last post, I decided to make this a tree covered hillside, reminiscent of the woods behind my house growing up. If you look closely on the left, you'll see a young boy on the left running to catch up with his friends, a girl leaning against the tree at the top of the rise counting and several kids hiding in the woods. There's even a raven in one of the trees - yeah, it's tiny!

Hillside between Herminie & Youghiogheny River

So that's not all the changes but most of the big ones. Halloween was great this year, with mild weather, that I opened the garage and back door and ran the trains for anyone who wanted to check out the model railroad in the neighborhood. The trains ran, non-stop and no issue, for over 3-1/2 hours! Very happy with that. With the temperature dropping outside, I will begin moving some projects indoors. I have several car kits to building, want to build the interiors and lights for Isley's, McKinney's and Dailey's in Uniontown and then probably the coal mine, Westinghouse and L.A.S. Fabrics. I am working on a special project now ... but more on that later! 

Happy November!

2020 Time to start blogging

So my last post was nearly 1-1/2 years ago and I have not abandoned my model railroad, I have just gone through a few life events - another “thanks but you are not in our long term (next month) staff plan” job change, our daughter getting married, oldest son engaged and youngest two entering college - and I just did not have much time for the trains, even less to write about. A couple train sessions and a show or two with Bruce, an operating session with all 3 sons and my son-in-law (that was a blast) and working on a few small projects. I added a few figures, fixed a turnout, and dreamed.
A few months ago I decided to write down all the projects regardless of scope. Things like build an interior and light the coal mine to add the scout figures in Camp Bruce; fix cars on RIP track and annual rolling stock maintenance; organize workbench to replace card stock buildings. At last count, it was more than 140 different items. List in hand, a notional idea of priority and I had  plan to work away.
That was fall 2019 and the train room cooled, harder to go out to the unheated garage and work so I brought a couple projects into the house - replace PPG and US Steel mockups, build a Moose lodge for Uniontown - and I was making steady, if slow, progress.
Enter COVID-19, stay at home orders and little else to do. I changed focus and pulled every unopened box, started kit, scene details and scenic treatment out and looked at the collection. I had a LOT of stuff! Refocused, I’ve made some 60 trees for the woods between Herminie and East McKeesport, built the lodge and added a sign for McKinney Liquors (shout out to my son-in-law), added numerous figures and scenic details, finished the city park in Uniontown and arguably made more progress in the first 4 months of 2020 than the last 2 years. Part renewed motivation, part opportunity of time management... all good!

Woods between Herminie and East McKeesport in progresss

More to come...!

Motivation

Sometimes, we just need a little motivation to work through the problems we have. Last spring, I added some building lights, first in the Irwin Tower, which is at the entrance to the train room, then the barn in the corner between Irwin Yard and Uniontown. I have always felt building lights, like weathering, adds realism to our little model worlds. I ran the interior lighting bus to the end of Uniontown and lit up GGS Cabinets, named for my dad, George G. Several weeks later, I spent some time crawling under the layout and extending the bus to the other end of the layout which is Niagara Street. I added lights to the building with Clancy’s Tavern, a Dayton (Riverside actually) favorite of ours (we ate dinner there tonight as a matter of fact). Turned it on and...
Short.
I use a separate, older DC power pack, for the lights and it has an overload indicator on the top. Damn thing was blinking like a Christmas tree. I unplugged the new building, thinking maybe I crossed the wires to the LEDs (should not be a problem), and still had a short. Well, it was definitely in the bus but since I used 2 color wires and kept them carefully lined up on the terminal strips, I was just frustrated and gave up.
For a long time.
I kept thinking I just needed to disconnect one terminal strip from the next until I found the problem...somewhere a negative wire was touching the positive side of the terminal strip. Or, a bad terminal strip. But I did not feel like tracing the problem under the layout.
Enter the Dayton Train Show and reconnecting with Bruce. Just the motivation I needed. Tonight, I disconnected a known working terminal strip at GGS Cabinets and the lights are shining bright and clear. I just have to trace the OTHER half of the layout, two or maybe three terminal strips and I can fix the problem.
Guess what I will be doing tomorrow, on a cold, winters Saturday?

Catching Up...And Irritations

Yesterday, Bruce and I managed to align our schedules and get to the NMRA Divsion 3 Dayton Trainshow in the new Montgomery Fairgrounds. The show used to be at the Hara Arena which closed a few years ago, and the group did a good job pulling off a train show at the Upper Valley Mall...but it did not seem the same. I think the Fairgrounds will be a better venue (still miss Hara) although the nice weather probably colored my perspective as we walked between 4 different buildings to see all the vendors and exhibits. He also commented that I have not posted on the blog since February so I decided it was time to get back to things.

We had a great time and I managed to snag some more building lights (interior and exterior), an awesome artist rendition of the Monongehala Crossing (with Kennywood amusement park in the distant background) that Bruce said reminded him of the trestle bridge that crosses the layout and separates the Youghehany River scene from East McKeesport, And I finally settled on a little problem that has been bothering me. The PRR interchanges with the P&LE in Herminie and I had always envision the B&O crossing that trestle bridge. It’s just a scene break and the track goes nowhere (until I decide and get approval to drill through the brick wall and extend the layout into the backyard!). I wanted a signature B&O caboose with bayside windows. I found one this spring at a hobby store in Columbus for ...$55!!!!! I could not do it. I mean more than 50 bucks for a railroad car that would never move!! Crazy. So Bruce and I were on a mission to find one and I think we found 3...lettered for ATSF. I could repaint and number it (not keen on that) when we found a P&LE one for...brace yourself...$5.

A little weathering and it will fit in perfect! Sorry, B&O, looks like you lost the right of way!

So I have not done a lot over the summer, other life activities demanding my attention and being in a bit of a lull for inspiration but that leads to the other topic...irritations. I found a farmhouse to mask the end of the divider between Uniontown and the Irwin Yard. A $30 building kit that I plan to use less than 1/2 of the parts for a shallow 3D relief and the flashings were annoying. A couple of the pegs from the mold injection points were so thick I could not cut them with an X-Acto knife and had to resort to a razor saw! Next, I assembled a package of pallets. I noticed right away that the 4 sheets had 6 tops with outside cros members and 3 bottoms with the inside cross member...meaning my package really made 12 pallets and 12 somethings. Yeah, I can get creative and bury the 1/2 pallets under a stack of real ones (or place them on the growing Troop 442 campfire) but how hard would it have been to make 2 sheets of 9 tops and 2 sheets of 9 bottoms and at least have 18 complete pallets without a bunch of useless spares? 

Things that make you go...hummmmm.

Coming Out of Winter

I’ve posted before that it’s just a little hard working in the train room in the winter time. The 10’ x 14’ room is behind the garage and, while part of the house, not heated. There were times I came out and it was 34 degrees Farenheight before I turned on the space heater and warmed up to a balmy 49 by the end of the work shift. Needless to say, a little challenging to work with detail parts sans gloves and let’s not get started on using water based paints! Nonetheless, there were reasons to come out and ponder the work in progress.

Youghegeny River Scene

One area that I find inspiring and satisfying is the Yough River Scene. I had a vision for this corner that I was sure would be beyond my very limited artistic talent. It had been bare, painted insulation board for quite a while with a carved depression for the future river. The first challenge was painting the tree covered hills along the backdrop in this corner. I dithered forever and Bruce conveniently me that I should just give it a shot...we had plenty of sky blue paint to cover up mistakes! I read How To articles and looked at photos for ideas and tackled the task with a couple different shades of green and a stubby bristle paint brush. After I was done, I stepped back and was...stunned. No ribbon award winner, but plausible!
I painted the riverbed, added some talus rocks and sand, then Adam helped me sculpt the river water with a plastic resin you heat, pour and work really, really fast! Added a couple of canoes before it dried and then tackled the surrounding scenery. Dirt, grass, trees, stumps, fallen logs, dirt were next to make this a bit of an untamed nature area. Abandoned campfire, birds, deer, backpackers and fishermen rounded out the scene. Not too shabby!
I pulled the locomotives out of their winter hibernation over the weekend...I store them in the house so they don’t get too cold and the little lubricating oil in them don’t gum up and after a few times around the layout, the trains were once again running on the PRR Irwin District. This spring I hope to finish the ballast cleanup project I started in September, add the separate power supply and wiring for interior lights in the buildings, finish detailing Camp Bruce and build the farm house.
Should be fun!

Great Finds

I’ve posted a few times about great finds at the stores. Most recently, my stop at T&K Hobby and looking around the Beavercreek Hobby Lobby. Sometimes, I have great finds IN the train room. My inspiration to finish the Yough River was from the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water I had sitting around for the last couple of years from the N Scale 2’ x 4’ module the twins and I were going to build (did not get very far). The inspiration to finish the scene came from discovering about 8 ready to plant conifers and another couple dozen deciduous trees. Not to mention the figures I have collected over the last 12 months or more - canoers, backpackers, wild birds, and fishermen.
Tonight I was moving a few things around and found another stack of materials I had set aside. I went ahead and placed the laundry women on the layout in Herminie. The first aid trailer needs assembled but is planned to really wrap up Camp Bruce (with a few more tress and the Boy Scout troop I have waiting). I found the package of office equipment (desk, tables, chairs) that I bought earlier this year for the Westinghouse office building, the rest of the kit for the Irwin Tower and the details for Niigata Street - mailboxes, fire hydrants, phone booths and more!
That should keep me busy through Christmas or so!!

Working on the Youghiogheny River

As ususal, things have been on again off again on the PRR Irwin District. Fall weather here has been nice but I was not terribly motivated to work on the railroad. I did some small tasks. After finsihing the ballast on the East Yard in Irwin, I tackled the West Yard over a period of a couple of weeks or more. Actually rather easy work but a bit tedious. I went to the NRMA Division 3 (Dayton) train show for the first time in a couple of years and found some great bargains, including the Lancaster Farm house that I need to cut to fit into the partial scene near the barn area. Since I had that, I decided to focus on the farm and planted a few trees and installed the white fence. Looking good. That inspired me to finish the West Yard as well as the track in Uniontown and all I have left to clean up the ballast (in that corner) is the siding to Heinz and PPG.
I made a trip to Pittsburgh to visit my Dad and sister, stopping at T&K Hobby and found a few other good bargains including some water lilies and cattails for the Youghiogheny River scene. Now I had some more inspriration and began working there. Adam helped me pour the river (finally!) and I was not completely impressed but it was workable. I stopped in the local Hobby Lobby for a couple of picture frames and decided to check the model railroad section. Score! Some figures, a couple packages of ready to set trees and a terrific bargain on light diffusing and light blocking kits from Woodland Scenics and I was set. For the past two weeks I have been working in the Yough River section and am pleased with how it is turning out. I dug through my supplies and find some 40 tree kits (I suck at making these) and expect the scene to be complete by the end of the year. In addition, I cleaned up the ballast on the tracks in Herminie and Yough area. 
Almost ready for some open houses!