Roster Addition

The latest addition to the P&LE roster is this GP35 from the late Dean Freytag's South Ridge Lines. The only changes to it are that a DCC decoder has been installed and it has been tuned. No alterations have been made to the exterior appearance, nor will there be (it's a nostalgia thing). I've not yet determined just how it will be used, but probably in a local switching service. I have several Dean Freytag structures, some of which were built specifically for the P&LE (engine house and engine service facility), and some which were built by Dean for his own railroad (general warehouses, etc.). In addition, there is some rolling stock from his railroad, primarily Davies Steel hoppers. The switch motors are all in. Next on the "to do" list are 1) the leads into the 9-stall engine house at Paducah - no turntable or transfer table - and 2) the classification/staging yard. Lots of turnouts and lots of track!

Yippee! Interlocking Turnouts All Powered

Yippee! The nine turnouts leading to and within Heyl Interlocking are all powered, and three of them have the indicator lights installed after today's work by Brian Post. You may remember from earlier posts this interlocking plant will allow trains to come from any one of four tracks - two from the lower level and two down the grade from the upper level - and proceed on any of the four tracks; I envision that on operating sessions, this will be one ops position by itself. The boards with the switches and lights are VERY temporary. I have found a professional sign maker who will laser-cut the panels and drill the holes at a reasonable rate when the time comes. With today's progress, about all that is left with the turnout completion are the remaining six lights, and installation of the final ten at Attica Yard. Things are moving along.

Scratch Built Engine House

When friend and Lexington, KY resident Allan Silverberg sent me a photograph of the RJ Corman engine house built from containers, I knew immediately there had to be one on the Paducah & Lake Erie. I started with eight 40' containers, glued them together two high and two end-to-end, and then set about making the trusses from styrene (top photo at left). I determined from the photo the roof had a 20-degree slant, and I decided I wanted the outside dimension to be 6" wide. This is meant to be a single stall engine house, although the prototype in Lexington is two tracks wide. After gluing the trusses in place on the containers, the next task was to build the base. The prototype has the track set in concrete, and my answer was to make a three-layer "sandwich".

Layers in my "sandwich" start with Woodland Scenics N-gauge 3mm road bed, topped by 2mm scrap plastic (compliments of Ken Heyl's finding it on a rail fan outing) to bring it even with the ties, and finally - yet be completed - topped with .020" styrene painted to look like concrete (paint is drying as I write this). That's the state of the project now (lower photo on left). Still to be completed is the roof, the front and back siding, interior lights, and exterior details that will include electric box, air conditioner(s), soda machines, etc. When finished, it will sit at the end of Attica Yard. This is my first scratch building effort; I have enjoyed it and plan to do more. As part of the project, I am writing a two-part "how-to" article for the National Model Railroad Association's (NMRA) Gateway Division newsletter with Part One having appeared in the Spring 2012 issue. Part Two will appear as soon as the building is done and in place.

Ops Session Changes Priorities

Guests of the P&LE for the first time this evening were the Gandy Dancers, a sub-set of the NMRA's Gateway Division that meets weekly at different member's homes. When they arrived, I had engines and rolling stock scattered all over the railroad to clear out Attica Yard; I asked them to take an engine(s) and return all the cars they could to the yard. It was an eye-opening experience. The railroad ran well, but it quickly pointed out the priority - a new rank order I might add - to be followed in the progression of building the railroad. It is amazing what a 30-minute, essentially unorganized operating session can reveal in terms of weaknesses of the system. It was a lesson I shall not forget, nor will I ignore in the future. The photo to the left is that of a kit bash by Ken Heyl and a remarkable likeness of the Station Inn in Cresson, PA, where we stay on our trips to the Horseshoe Curve. The one guy in our group that has seen the real thing recognized it immediately. Good work Ken! Now back to making that NEW priority list of tasks to be tackled.

New Addition to P&LE

Newest addition to the P&LE is this Trackmobile, compliments of neighbor and good friend Joe Voetter, who worked for the company for over 30 years and, as a sideline, developed this model which is now sold commercially. This little guy will have a number of places to be active, including the LKL Steel Works, the Paducah Engine Facility, or other places where one or two cars need to be moved short distances.

One of the RS3's out of the David James engine shop and Steve Morr paint shop is on the point of a CSX unit coal train. Love those unit trains. More work today with Brian Post on wiring, programming, and general tuning of the railroad.

Turnout Switches, Position Lights

Work is starting on installing turnouts, wiring control switches (DPDT), and adding panel position lights (bi-color LEDs). In a VERY temporary installation, top photo shows the control switch and position light on scrap piece of peg board. Eventually, the panel will be painted Plexiglas.

The lower photo shows the back of the panel and the wiring. The extra wire is to allow for flexibilty in positioning the permanent panel. We are using blue and white buss and lead wiring for the turnouts - the track buss and leads are red and black. Ultimately, the accessory wiring will be green and yellow.

The major electronic work is being done by local model railroader Brian Post. Brian can do in an hour what it would take me a day or more to accomplish, and do it infinitely better.

P&LE Roster

The P&LE roster is starting to build as power comes back from the David James engine shops in Brecksville, Ohio, and the Steve Morr paint shops in Ashland, Ohio. Here are five of the work horses slated for heavy duty. The two P&LE Alco's will work in general freight service, the heavily worn #1083 will see action in the LKL Steel Works scheduled to be built yet this year, and the two units in the back, purchased from the late Dave White's Buckeye Western Railroad, will work Attica Yard. Not in the photo are a pair of SD 40-2's in Conrail livery; they served as helpers out of Altoona in real life and will function the same on the P&LE, and three more modern road engines - two from CSX and one UP. Things are starting to pick up on the Paducah & Lake Erie. NOTE: To enlarge any of the photos in the blog, simply click on them.

Railroad Running Well

Primarily on the efforts of David James, the Paducah & Lake Erie is running well. David was here a short time last weekend, and again for two days here at the end of the week. The major issues we got accomplished were (1) adding leads from the ramp leading from the helix -- not a lot of fun, but necessary, (2) adding leads to power Attica Yard and the passing siding on the lower level, and (3) adding decoders to several engines. Yes, David even taught me, kinda, how to install decoders. The primary thing I learned is that if you've seen the inside of one engine ... you've seen the inside of one engine. We pulled five of them apart, and NOT ONE of them was like any of the others. But in the final analysis, all the engines with decoders are running well, everywhere on the railroad. It's just about time to start on some of the fun parts, i.e., building something besides track! More later, and soon!

Christmas in Springtime

Now that Attica Yard is in, I have started unpacking boxes of rolling stock. Not having seen any of this stuff since packing up in Ashland 3 1/2 years ago, it's like Christmas in the middle of April. As you can see from the photo above, the yard is already filling up; the two "empty" tracks are the main lines. The Peabody coal train is on a passing siding. With several more boxes to go, obviously building the planned storage yard has to move up on the "to do" list. As many of you already know from experience, that "to do" list does not get shorter, it lengthens on a daily basis. But, that's what it's all about.

A Visit to John Peluso's Railroad

Last Thursday, our Gandy Dancers group visited John Peluso's outstanding railroad in our weekly meeting. I came away with at least three distinct thoughts: 1) you can get a lot of railroad in a 16-inch wide space - all of John's two-level railroad (top photo above) except the yard (also above) is just 16" wide; 2) when done correctly (and it is by John), just how good photo backdrops can be - John uses ScenicKing photo backdrops blended in with the foliage - note the tree next to the foliage backdrop just left of the brick building backdrop in the yard photo, and the entire line of trees against the photo backdrop in the bottom level (top photo); and 3)John uses all four-axle power, and it works well and looks good on a smaller railroad. His entire railroad is of very neat, clean design, and runs well. An enjoyable evening.

Paducah Passing Siding Completed

This evening, we completed the last of a number of tasks we set out to accomplish this week when the Paducah passing siding went in, and was checked with trains passing through. That means this week we completely "tuned" the track (and rolling stock that was out) and got everything running smoothly; we completed the four-track, 16-feet long Attica Yard; we put the Paducah passing siding in; got the road bed in for the Heyl Junction passing siding; and cleaned and organized the railroad room. What a help Kenny Heyl was. We even found time to go train watching the first sunny day (Wednesday) and to the hobby shop. Whew! The photo above is from Wednesday and is from a new spot (for me): Geyer Road and the UP crossing in Kirkwood, just west of Kirkwood's historic station.

Attica Yard Is In

After spending Wednesday train watching, it was back to the basement today and putting in Attica Yard, named for my hometown in Indiana. Two photos -- top, the length of the yard shot from the west end, and bottom, Kung Fu fighter Ken Heyl putting on the final touches. We have the passing siding around Paducah about two-thirds finished (it will be complete before bedtime) and that will about complete Kenny's stay. We have accomplished a great deal.

"Tuning" the railroad

Ken Heyl is in Missouri this week, and first on our agenda (with snow outside) is the "tuning" of the railroad. We spent the morning with that task, and few do it better than Ken Heyl. In this photo, the Burlington with a short coal train is headed up the ramp to the helix, and ultimately to the upper level. The UP-led mixed freight coming down the ramp has just left the helix; on the lower level is the Peabody coal train with CSX power on the front. These two trains are headed for Heyl Junction, an interlocking plant on the opposite side of the room, and the "tower operator" is going to have some decisions to make regarding which train to send where. The buildings in the photo are from the late Dean Freytag's well-known railroad, and are placed simply for the picture. This area will become Attica (Ind.-my hometown) Yard before the end of the week.

Gaps and Drops

The Paducah & Lake Erie is now fully operational after some 5 1/2 hours spent Saturday in with Digitrax expert Brian Post dealing with all the reversing loops. The reversing loops were created primarily because of the complex interlocking with two crossovers on the lower level. After a number of double gaps and power line drops -- I will post a explanatory photo later for those who are interested -- trains run through the interlocking from any one of four tracks and leave via any one of the same four tracks. Photo above shows two trains meeting on the lower level, the first time power has gotten to these tracks. Now, with trains running the entire mainline, I can start "tuning" the track to assure smooth operation, and adding the yard and industrial turnouts. Again, thank you to the yeoman effort put forth by Brian Post in solving this complex wiring problem.

Digitrax Electronics Nearly Finished

The Digitrax electronics are nearing complete installation. Those working with Digitrax will recognize the device pictured here as the PM 42, an auto-reversing circuit board. This circuit board allows for up to four reversing loops, which will handle the loops on the P&LE. Note the labels on the left side of the board, designating the reversing loops: "Heyl" is Heyl Junction, an interlocking on the lower level, "Yard" is a "wye" track into a storage yard, and "Mine" is a double crossover coming out of the helix on the upper level. The fourth reversing loop will be the turntable at the engine facility when installed. The main line leads are in. Next comes the four-track classification Attica Yard on the lower level, and hooking up the Tortoise turnout motors to DPDT switches.

Dean Freytag, 1924 - 2010

Model railroading lost a friend and an icon Christmas evening with the passing of Dean Freytag in an assisted living home in Ashland, Ohio. Dean, 86, was well known for his scratch building and kit bashing, particularly of steel mills. He was published widely in the model press, with more than 50 articles in Model Railroader alone. He was also the author of two popular modeling books, one about using styrene and Plastruct, the other about the history and modeling of steel mills. Many of us have Dean Freytag structures on our model railroads. The Paducah & Lake Erie has a Freytag kit bashed nine-stall engine house and a scratch built refueling and sanding facility, as well as a series of covered hoppers from his South Ridge Lines. Dean was preceded in death by his wife Ann (1999) and is survived by a sister, Carol, brother-in-law Jim, and a niece and nephew. Rest in peace.

Leads Going In

The lower level leads are going in on the Paducah & Lake Erie. I have also finished connecting the long siding to the main line on the lower level. It's an interesting process; since we hooked the leads to the buss wires prior to fastening down the plywood sub-roadbed, I now look underneath to see where the leads are attached, drill the holes for the leads, drop foam roadbed pins (about 3" long) down the holes to make it easier to find the holes, and then follow the pins out of the holes with the lead wire up to the track, rather than the normal solder-to-the-track and fish down to the buss wires ... a long explanation for a relatively simple task. As soon as I get the remainder of the leads in, I plan to build Attica (my hometown in Indiana) Yard on the lower level. The four-track yard will be about 17 feet long and will have on/off switches to each track. Then it's back to wiring the Tortoise switches to power the turnouts.

Happy Thanksgiving

To all of you, Sue and I wish you a great Thanksgiving and the very best of holiday seasons.

Rolling Stock Appears on P&LE

Rolling stock is slowly starting to appear on the Paducah & Lake Erie. First to show up is the Peabody coal train, shown here crossing from the helix to the ramp that will take it to the lower level. Not all play today, as I put in the loooong passing siding on the lower level. Next is hooking up the lower level power leads as there is a significant decrease in power on the new trackage.