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.

Helix progress, harbor added

The helix cover is about done. All that remains are some trees, foliage and ground cover. I will do that within the next couple of weeks.

I purchased a small harbor from the late Bob Weinman's railroad. Bob was an exquisite modeler, and loved water scenes. The large harbor on his model railroad was taken out intact for his wife Libby. My intended use for this harbor is that coal/coke will be brought in by barge for the steel mill that will occupy the entire 16-feet long peninsula stretching out behind it. Bob scratch built the barges; the tow boat is a kit.

Paducah scenes revisited

These photos appeared in a post on a previous blog, but I'm reposting so you don't have to go back and forth to see the finished pieces of the railroad. The three hotels pictured here are not prototypical to Paducah; however, the names are authentic to that western Kentucky city.

Left to right are the Hotel Paducah, the Irvin Cobb Hotel, and the Jackson House. The park in front is Noble Park, also a name authentic to Paducah.

Another view of the hotels, the street in front, and a fourth building housing a business yet to be named.

This is the Freytag Engine Shop, in my mind the signature structure on the layout. It was built by the late Dean Freytag, MMR, specifically for the P&LE, and is thought to be the last major project by the iconic modeler.

The Tortoise and SwitchMaster turnout motors on the P&LE are controlled by IntuiSwitches, developed by Shelly Levy of the Kansas City area. They are push button and lighted route switches, and my primary reason for using them is they are flush mounted. The upper photo shows a custom-made yard panel; the lower photo is of two individual machines.

Slowly, but surely ...

Slowly, but surely, we're getting the helix covered. This provides an idea of what it will look like when completed. 

When completed, the tree line at the upper left will be blended into the rest of the scenery, and the tunnel portal will be finished. Obviously, the top third of the covering still has to be finished, as well. I awoke with a start in the middle of the night ... "did we ever check tunnel portals to assure double stacks would clear?" They will! Whew!

Continuing on covering the helix

Work continues on covering the helix and we're getting closer to completion. Just a bit more painting to do, and then we're ready for ground cover and foliage.

Below is a rock face, poured into molds, and then glued on to and blended into the pink foam material we're using for the scenery. All the other rock faces in both photos are carved directly into the pink foam and then painted. Carving and painting are by John Ellenbracht.

When this work is complete, in a couple of weeks, this end of the railroad will be pretty much finished. This will provide what I think will be "signature scenes" at each end of the P&LE, i.e., this cover of the helix on one end (forming Howard Mountain), and the Freytag Engine House at the opposite end in Paducah.