It's Time!

It is with mixed feelings that I announce the present iteration of the Paducah & Lake Erie is being sold and removed from its current location. The layout (bench work and track) is being taken by David James to Brecksville, Ohio. David, as followers of this blog will remember, has contributed greatly to the building of the railroad over two locations (Ohio and Missouri) and some almost 20 years. It is as much his railroad as it is mine. The remainder - engines, rolling stock, structures, and electronics - will, with few exceptions, be sold to anyone desiring them. A complete list is available by emailing me at linson.bill@me.com.

NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS (for me at least): I intend to replace the current iteration with a small switching layout. My plan is for a 20-24 inch wide shelf layout, about 8-10 long down one wall, and then adding another 8-10 feet in an "L" configuration. The Winston-Salem "Tar Branch" (Model Railroader, Jan-Apr 2018) is the inspiration for this effort.The plan is to continue DCC control, but switch to NCE, which I have been assured that even I can install and maintain. I plan to use hand-thrown turnouts (at least at the beginning). PRIMARY CAVEAT: the railroad will not have anything that I personally cannot install and maintain. The final "given" is that it will be at a height that I can sit in a drawing table chair on wheels and roll around to operate it. I anticipate having only two engines (one steam and one RS-3). I will start on it as soon as the current layout is removed.

Three primary reasons have led to this decision. First, I will be 80 years old this year, and can no longer stand for lengthy periods, nor squat to reach the lower level; thus, I can't maintain the room-size two-level layout. Second, the electronics have surpassed any semblance of expertise I enjoy, and thus, I have to hire someone to maintain and install the electronics of the railroad. And, third, when the time comes (and I hope that's waaaaaay off), I don't want Sue faced with getting rid of all this stuff.

It has been a great twenty years, and I have learned a lot. I can't begin to list everyone who has been an integral part of this project, both in Ohio and in St. Louis, but a heartfelt thanks to all. The support of Sue has been and is exceptional. I look forward to many years of modeling to come.

This is the final post on this blog; it will be retired. I do plan on starting another blog featuring the new railroad as soon as there's something to report. Thank you all for reading, commenting, and supporting this endeavor over the years.

Carving a rock face, first pass

Since my last post (about covering the helix), our Thursday night round robin group - the Gandy Dancers - were here, and when I told them of my plans to cover the exposed pink foam shown below with fascia board, two of them ... Carl Schoeneberg and Rick Pfarr ... encouraged me to carve a rock face. Both said, "Give it try ... just carve away with picks and blades and sharp tools, there's no magic." Carl sealed the deal when he added, "If you don't like it when you're done, you can always cover it with fascia then." Made sense. Friend and great modeler Dave Abeles said in his outstanding blog (https://onondagacutoff.blogspot.com), "There is no way around it - with layout construction, sometimes you just need to make a decision, and move on." Also made sense.

Here is the foam covering the helix as it was when the Gandy Dancers were here. At the far left, one can see where the "front" of the helix was covered over a year ago by John Ellenbracht of St. Louis, and nothing had been done since then. About a month ago, David James of Brecksville, Ohio, stopped by and finished covering the scene as seen here. Finally, I picked up a bread knife, a paint can opener, a screw driver and even a two-pronged tool for digging out dandelions and set about "whacking" and cutting. A good thing to assist the completion is the fact that I have three deadlines to at least show some progress. David is passing through August 7, on his way to the NMRA Convention in Kansas City; the Gandy Dancers return two nights later for a regular meeting; and I committed to doing a "mini clinic" on covering a helix in late September for the Gateway Division (St. Louis) of the NMRA.

This is the first pass at creating the rock face. Admittedly, there is a long way to go. I need to do some serious "gouging" next, and maybe even glue on some rocks that I have on hand. One of the issues will be to not carve too deeply on the foam just left of center in this photo because the railroad helix curves out very close to the outer margin. Following the additional "whacking and gouging", I will paint washes, add ground cover (dirt, bushes, grasses, etc.). I think I am glad that Carl and Rick urged me to try this.

It's a couple of weeks later, and I've done some more carving - note the indentation in the center of the photo. It takes me a while to move forward on tasks with which I have little confidence, and this certainly qualifies. I've also placed several cast rocks in locations to break up ground cover, trees, etc. I've put it off as long as I can so now, ready or not, it's time to bite the bullet and start painting.

Here's the first pass at painting. I mixed two colors - Garden Gate (an olive green) and flat black - roughly 3/1, painted the foam and immediately gave it a coating of sifted real dirt, topped by a light dusting of Woodland Scenics course turf (dark green). Tomorrow, I will give it a light misting of a white glue and water mix (50/50) and work to knock down any shiny spots. Obviously, this is only a first step, to be followed by heavier ground cover, bushes, and trees. I still have to paint the rock face on the vertical side, but that has to wait until the upper regions are complete.

Rock faces, created with Woodland Scenics rock molds and hydrocal are in place. Neighbor Joe Voetter is the molder for these. They're glued with hot glue. Next comes the painting and ground cover to blend them in. That will be followed finally by trees ... lots and lots of trees. It's starting to come together, and every day gets a little closer.

Covering the helix continues

Covering the helix  was partially done a year ago, but a good amount was still exposed, and that exposed area was the first thing visitors saw when entering the room.

Not a pretty site!

This past week, David James -- readers of this blog are well aware of what he means to the P&LE -- stopped by on his way home to Brecksville, Ohio, from a meeting in Kansas City, and completion of the coverup was started. The first phase is the addition of 3/4" plywood on the end, and then the stacking of the pink insulation foam comes next.

David James building up the foam covering. Yes, there is a helix under there.

Basic foam work complete.

Next steps are to cover the pink foam with Sculptamold, paint, ground cover (dirt, various shades of green, course and fine turf), and trees ... lots and lots of trees. The dirt will come from a woods close by, the turf is a Woodland Scenics product, and the trees are Scenic Express SuperTrees. I'm off to a "dollar" store to purchase bowls, sheet trays, spatula, etc., since I've been warned about pirating such items from the kitchen. Check back in a couple of weeks; the goal is to be complete by then.

Let there be light ...

It's been well over a year since I've posted on this site; not much work has been done on the P≤  what has been done did not lend itself to photography ... or even reporting, for that matter. But, I'm getting back to the railroad and expect to report progress here with some regularity. Here's the first in what is planned to be noteworthy advances.

I have long agonized over how to light the lower level of my two deck railroad. In January this year, an American Flyer modeler named Gary Brandenberger of St. Louis presented a clinic to the Gateway Division monthly meeting regarding the use of LED lights for many modeling applications. One was the use of  LED strip lights. SHAZAM! I thought. Further discussions with Gary led to me purchasing three 10-meter long strips of Daylight White lights by ABI through Ebay and we (primarily David James of Brecksville, Ohio) got them installed this weekend. The three strips, about 32 feet long, were sufficient to light the approximately 100 linear feat of the lower deck. I should note the three strips cost a total of about $90, and took less than two hours to install.

This is the staging yard with the room darkened with the exception of the new strip lights.

The lights come with self-adhesive backing, and although some suggest reinforcing that with a glue of some sort, they seem to be holding well without. My railroad is open grid, built with 2 x 8 sections. The strip lights are attached to the bottom of the 1 x 4s.

The strips are the white light seen in the top third on the photo.

The above photos are with the room lights turned off to better show the lighting provided. The following photo is with the room lights turned on, which will be the normal lighting when running the railroad.

We also hung a couple of helicopters "flying" over Howard Mountain to honor a friend and a grandson, but photos will have to wait until more scenery work is done to the mountain later this week. There's a lot of work to be done on the railroad, but the lighting issue is solved.

Hoosier State ... another trip!

Another trip ... just a short one. Chicago to Indianapolis and back on the Hoosier State. Primary reason for taking this trip was because it travels through much of the portion of Indiana where I spent my childhood in Attica. The railroad runs through Lafayette, Crawfordsville, and Monon, among others.

What's really neat on the four hour journey is that by taking Business Class (there is no sleeper service) one gets seats in the dome car, with our own private chef and made-to-order meals -- dinner on the evening train to Indianapolis and breakfast on the return trip to Chicago. The service, offered as an Amtrak train, is provided by Iowa Pacific, and uses vintage cars, repainted in the color scheme of Illinois Central passenger trains of yesteryear, for no other reason than the railroad owner likes that look. Our dome car, for example, was ex-Santa Fe. Power on the train was a pair of GP 40s, one from New Jersey Central, and the other probably from the New York Central.

We left Chicago at 5:15 pm, and arrived in Indianapolis shortly after 11 pm. After a really short night in a nearby hotel, we returned to the train for the return trip. I would recommend spending at least one day in Indianapolis; the station is right down town in the shadow of Lucas Oil Stadium and other points of interest. Nice trip.

Powder River Basin trip

As a rail fan, the prototype is always as fascinating as the model. Such was the case a week ago, when twelve of us (from Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri and even one from Canada) met in Chicago where we boarded Amtrak's California Zephyr for Denver and then took rented cars to the Powder River Coal Basin in Wyoming. We visited the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden, CO (highly recommended), the Cheyenne WY Depot (also highly recommended), and the Powder River Basin.

The Black Thunder Mine, owned by St. Louis company Arch Coal, is the largest (based on production) coal mine in the world. It's all surface mining here.

Until the coal mining depression (thanks to cheaper natural gas, low cost crude oil, and depressed foreign markets)  hit a couple of years ago, more than 100 trains of 125-plus cars left this area daily. That number is now often fewer than 30 trains a day. Train loading never halts, as the empty trains enter the balloon track queue, proceed through the loaders, and depart, all without stopping.

The Cheyenne Depot, built in 1886, continues its renovations started in 2011. It includes the restored waiting room, an extensive museum, a large model railroad depicting Wyoming railroading of yesteryear, and an enclosed second floor observation area overlooking the UP yards. Passenger service has not come through Cheyenne since the 1970s, but this is a large yard, serving the UP, and a crew change point on the railroad.



It wasn't all museums and coal mines; we also found time to get trackside. Here a UP stack train races west towards its crew change at Cheyenne, only a couple of miles away.

Even in late April, weather impacted our trip; we were unable to get to the famous Sherman Hill on the UP as snow and fog closed down I-80 between Cheyenne and Laramie the day we were in the area and planning to film long UP freights working up the hill that has drawn rail photographers for more than 100 years.

It was a good trip, and visiting the Powder River Basin is a checkmark on my personal bucket list.

The eagle has landed

A pair of eagles, to be known as Joe and Evelyn, have set up residence on Howard Mountain and are watching over their two eaglets.

The nest is the fine modeling of Jim Adkins of Orrville, Ohio (home of Smucker's Fine Jams and Jellies). Jim is an outstanding modeler of miniatures in already small scenes, such as the tools on a workbench in an HO scale garage, etc. The tree is a Scenic Express Super Tree.