Looks great, excellent weathering as always and I love seeing that turntable track extension modelled!

Norm, that is absolutely stunning.  I thought the first photo was actually  a real train!

What did you use please as the crushed ballast all around the turntable?  It looks remarkably real.  I would like to put that  around the edges of my diagonal cross road and turnouts. 

Mannyrock

Norm another fantastic job

Absolutely beautiful!

Outstanding job

That turntable extension is a cool detail! I didn't know that was a thing.

Beautiful engine though! Seeing an engine done up like that makes me want to start weathering all my fleet.

@BillYo414 posted:

That turntable extension is a cool detail! I didn't know that was a thing.

I know for a fact (photographic documentation) that both the UP and the PRR had to use those "extensions" at the tender for those locomotives longer than the turntable.

Beautiful engine though! Seeing an engine done up like that makes me want to start weathering all my fleet.

That is part of what 3RS modeling is all about! Norm does it better than most.

Please post a photo(s) showing the turntable extension and how it is mounted to the table. TIA

@PRRMP54 posted:

Please post a photo(s) showing the turntable extension and how it is mounted to the table. TIA

Did you look carefully at photos #2 & #3 above?

The tender in the way hides most of the details.

@PRRMP54 posted:

The tender in the way hides most of the details.

Well, photos of the prototype are pretty much the same way. I have not seen any photos from the "good old days" of the table extension in place without a locomotive. Guess you might have to use a Google search.

Here’s a couple more shots of 5022 living out its last days hauling coal for PRR:

Here’s my crude TT extensions. They only had to look semi-OK and be functional. The real ones looked to be made of a couple sections of rail, or maybe they bent them somehow as they seem to have a bit of a compound angle. I dunno.

This engine was quite a bit different from most of my 3rd Rail projects. One nasty little surprise it had for me right at the bitter end was the insulation of the center blind driver tires from the wheels. It threw me for a loop. Cleaning the overspray from my weathering on the outer driver sets improved things very much.

Video is now up:

Norm,

Simply incredible!   Top notch workmanship.

Looking at your extensions a bit closer, it seems you are propping them up underneath with something.

I'd like to see just how they fit on there - as I found this to be an interesting solution to a short turntable.  Very interesting modeling. 

Thank you for posting.

I basically ground some Atlas rails on my belt sander and soldered some chunks of brass channel to the bottom of them to clamp the rail head. It took a few tries. Not the most elegant things but they worked. The piece of rod wasn’t really necessary after I got the clamps figured out. The trick was to keep them from sliding off the rail or tipping as the tender backed onto them.

Great looking & running engine! Awesome video, of a unique prototypical TT extension in action!

Norm, watching the first video of the engine popping on the TT is excellent. When I first saw this post I didn't see that there was a video at the bottom and I was trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at.

After seeing what Hot Water said about who used it and watching the video it just makes sense. Flawless job on this and extremely cool.

@Hot Water, how did the railroad pop the extensions onto the turntables? Did they weld them on?

@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

Norm, watching the first video of the engine popping on the TT is excellent. When I first saw this post I didn't see that there was a video at the bottom and I was trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at.

After seeing what Hot Water said about who used it and watching the video it just makes sense. Flawless job on this and extremely cool.

@Hot Water, how did the railroad pop the extensions onto the turntables? Did they weld them on?

No, they could not be welded on, as then no other locomotives would be able to effectively use the turntable. They had to be portable, and only used when required. At the UP North Platte, Neb roundhouse, the turntable extensions were only needed when a 4000 class 4-8-8-4 locomotive ventured east from Cheyenne, Wy. (I think the extension components were kept inside, on a cart of some sort, and then rolled out to the turntable when needed). Sometimes a fork-lift was used, otherwise they were just man-handled by a bunch of men.

There’s some info on the TT extensions here:

http://www.columbusrailroads.c...%20Fe%20Class%205011

Godfather Rails also has some shots in color that show the extensions in decent detail:

http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=515

@Norm Charbonneau posted:

Here’s my crude TT extensions. They only had to look semi-OK and be functional. The real ones looked to be made of a couple sections of rail, or maybe they bent them somehow as they seem to have a bit of a compound angle. I dunno.

Thank you. I have saved those photos for future reference.

Fabulous stuff as always--I love the atlas H21 hopper cars--they are the nicest freight cars ever produced in 3rail in my opinion--nothing like having a string of them--I especially like the coal goes to war ones

My gosh... engine and TT notwithstanding, that is one heckuva layout! Just marvelous...

Mark in Oregon

@Hot Water posted:

Jack:  would there have been a need to keep the water and, possibly the coal load, reduced so as not to break the extensions?

Or were they so robust that the weight of the coal and water didn't matter?

Here's some cool video of the real thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5zOCNNw6t0

PRR J1's and Santa Fe 2-10-4's at Sandusky, Ohio (1956)

Great Video , exceptional  Train layout

@Berkshire President posted:

Jack:  would there have been a need to keep the water and, possibly the coal load, reduced so as not to break the extensions?

According to what I have been told by the "old heads", both the water and oil (coal in the case of the UP 4000s) were kept to a minimum. Thus, the locomotive was turned prior to servicing.

Or were they so robust that the weight of the coal and water didn't matter?

No, they were not THAT robust.

@Berkshire President posted:

Here's some cool video of the real thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5zOCNNw6t0

PRR J1's and Santa Fe 2-10-4's at Sandusky, Ohio (1956)

Great video.

About 36 seconds in, there's a good pan of the front of the ATSF loco; it's why, when I first got my Williams 4-6-2, I thought that model was based on a Santa Fe engine:

Mark in Oregon

@20centuryhudson posted:

Fabulous stuff as always--I love the atlas H21 hopper cars--they are the nicest freight cars ever produced in 3rail in my opinion--nothing like having a string of them--I especially like the coal goes to war ones

I found a set of brand new shadow keystones lurking under the layout and thought it would be a good time to set them up with Kadees and some weathering. I also got a 3 car set of the Berwind hoppers recently and got them ready to roll. Will be on the lookout for more..

@Berkshire President posted:

Here's some cool video of the real thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5zOCNNw6t0

PRR J1's and Santa Fe 2-10-4's at Sandusky, Ohio (1956)

I love the music! I’ve been watching that vid for a few years now, should probably snag the dvd someday. That east meets west doubleheader is giving me some ideas!

now it comes together

I whacked together a TMCC doubleheader with my Lionel J just to see if I could. I’d prefer to use the 3rd Rail J but for some dumb reason I put a 746 on it. The Lionel has an 805 and it could grab the cosmetic non-operating pilot coupler on the 5022. I may play around with it some more.

Interesting that the RS5 ATSF 3751 sounds have a sort of cadence to the chuff at some speeds.

I couldn't get those new videos to play, but my gosh, Norm; that is a fantastic layout!  

It must be huge, because you get a real sense of space...thanks for posting all this great stuff.

Mark in Oregon

Nice double header video. 2 great locomotives that look awesome pulling a coal train.

Nice looking steamers and layout, Ahhhh the smell of coal in the morning!

Thanks you guys. I was supposed to finish the part 4 vid showing the final efforts but haven't gotten around to it. I picked up Herron's Pennsylvania Glory Volume 2 at York which has a bit of footage of the 5011 Class engines on the Sandusky Branch. I also referenced PRRT&HS' Keystone autumn 1999 issue and Jeff Ainsworth's Santa Fe Steam Series Volume 5. There was quite a bit of info out there on this rather unique happening.

I'm still trying to catch up on videos Norm. I still have my York pictures to post before I can start getting back to normal. Hopefully by tomorrow I can catch up.