Weekend Photo Fun 7-14-23-??

A couple from my last YouTube video.

The Lionel Lines Pacific.

The Lionel Centennial SD90.

A 2022 Christmas Layout memory

The front left area from the opposite side from the one from last week.

-walt

Thanks Scott for getting us started for this fine weekend!    Here are some pics from around my layout.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

A P5a modified rolls through town.

Foreman Jasper Critchet, with back to camera, announces "Time to get back to work fellas!  Coffee break is over".

Postwar Paradise.

Waiting for the train.  

Before I post my regular weekly post, I want to thank everyone who responded to my question in last week’s post as to whether or not everyone wanted me to keep posting all the narratives about my photos, or to just post the photos themselves. I was amazed at how many responses I got, and everyone wanted me to keep writing, which I will gladly do so. I like to share my knowledge as well as the images of my layout with others. Likewise, I enjoy reading the commentaries and images posted by others, and always learn things that I did not know. So thank you again!

The photo posted here is just to follow up from last week, and is one that I did not use…but it was a nice photo and I figured I’d post it this week just to open up the post. My regular weekly post for Weekend Photo Fun will follow.

The final photo I posted last week which I did to show you the entire length of a coal drag also unintentionally included the PRR railings I installed in the basement 26 years ago when I built my house. I don’t THINK I’ve ever told the story of them. I bought the property back in 1990 when I was still pretty young, and had the next 5-6 years to design both the house AND the layout. In this way, the basement was specifically designed to accommodate the layout. I knew I wanted an around the wall layout, but what I did NOT want was a duck under. So I designed a “star pit” which is a 6’ long corridor with steps on either end. This allows you to step down under the layout, walk six feet, and then go back up a few stairs into the layout room. And it honestly didn’t cost very much to add to the house.

My original intention was to just put a conventional wooden railing along the sides so that no one fell in, but I mentioned the PRR stanchions to my contractor while he was building the house and he asked to see them. He went nuts when he saw them, and was insistent that I use them instead.

They are actually “Lines West” stanchions with three pipes rather than two, and were at least originally used on the PRR west of the Pittsburgh station. These actual ones came from the Panhandle Line in downtown Pittsburgh where the railroad crossed Second Avenue and passed under the Boulevard of the Allies. They were being removed and scrapped by a contractor when the abandoned railroad was being converted into a light rail line back in the early 1980’s.

A friend of mine was down there watching the demolition and ask the contractor or whoever was removing them if he could have a few and he was told yes. So he took them home. Over the next few years, I became his physician (I’m a family doctor) and took care of him when he was sick. He was moving out of town and could not take them with him, so he asked me if I wanted them.

Of course I said yes, and they sat rusting in my back yard for a few years until my house contractor (a great guy BTW!) saw them and said let’s use those instead of a wood railing. So he took them, had the old rusted pipe removed, sandblasted, primed, and painted. Then he had new pipe cut and threaded. Finally, he installed them around the stair pit. So that is the story of how they came to be. Hmmm, this ended up being a lot longer than I figured, so maybe I should have submitted this to OGR for publication?!?!? Well, anyhow, now you know the story of how they ended up in my train room!

Finally, there is also an overall photo showing the length of the stairpit and you can see the fascia of the layout on the other side of the aisleway in the distance. There is also a second conventional entrance to the room which was wide open for the first 8-10 years of the layout’s existence until the upper portion was blocked by the benchwork and backdrop. It was and is still used to bring in larger pieces of lumber and our train storage racks. However, since the layout scenery is now about 90% finished, it does not get used too much these days.

That’s it for this week! Enjoy!

Here are some pics from a fellow train club members layout. The little CN switcher is an old Lionel engine that was well worn engine that I custom painted to orange and black CN scheme for him, looks as good as the new engines on the layout.

And I took my new Menards Beta test engine I just got and past dummy Santa Fe Blue engines for a test run.  Some comparisons with his Lionel Red Santa Fe released a few years back. The new Menards engines are the longer body; the FP7's were built for passenger service and had a longer body for the steam generator used for heating the passenger cars. The Menards Santa Fe has a nice volume control on the remote, lots of different cab talking sounds, OK horn and bell. It has a digital momentum so when you move the remote speed control to 0 speed then the engine lows down nicely. This is a good feature for the kids it is targeted to so it does not wear out the engine when they spin the throttle on the remote back and forth. My grand kids love these engines and like the shiny bottom end and trucks. We ran the train with a few passenger cars it pulled easily. The dummy engine does not roll well, had to give it lots of lubrication and the lubed the engine as well. It will be a good entry level engine to go with a few of the Menards freight cars and I expect will sell well at their stores if released in sufficient quantities  by Christmas

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

The final photo I posted last week which I did to show you the entire length of a coal drag also unintentionally included the PRR railings I installed in the basement 26 years ago when I built my house. I don’t THINK I’ve ever told the story of them. I bought the property back in 1990 when I was still pretty young, and had the next 5-6 years to design both the house AND the layout. In this way, the basement was specifically designed to accommodate the layout. I knew I wanted an around the wall layout, but what I did NOT want was a duck under. So I designed a “star pit” which is a 6’ long corridor with steps on either end. This allows you to step down under the layout, walk six feet, and then go back up a few stairs into the layout room. And it honestly didn’t cost very much to add to the house.

My original intention was to just put a conventional wooden railing along the sides so that no one fell in, but I mentioned the PRR stanchions to my contractor while he was building the house and he asked to see them. He went nuts when he saw them, and was insistent that I use them instead.

They are actually “Lines West” stanchions with three pipes rather than two, and were at least originally used on the PRR west of the Pittsburgh station. These actual ones came from the Panhandle Line in downtown Pittsburgh where the railroad crossed Second Avenue and passed under the Boulevard of the Allies. They were being removed and scrapped by a contractor when the abandoned railroad was being converted into a light rail line back in the early 1980’s.

A friend of mine was down there watching the demolition and ask the contractor or whoever was removing them if he could have a few and he was told yes. So he took them home. Over the next few years, I became his physician (I’m a family doctor) and took care of him when he was sick. He was moving out of town and could not take them with him, so he asked me if I wanted them.

Of course I said yes, and they sat rusting in my back yard for a few years until my house contractor (a great guy BTW!) saw them and said let’s use those instead of a wood railing. So he took them, had the old rusted pipe removed, sandblasted, primed, and painted. Then he had new pipe cut and threaded. Finally, he installed them around the stair pit. So that is the story of how they came to be. Hmmm, this ended up being a lot longer than I figured, so maybe I should have submitted this to OGR for publication?!?!? Well, anyhow, now you know the story of how they ended up in my train room!

Finally, there is also an overall photo showing the length of the stairpit and you can see the fascia of the layout on the other side of the aisleway in the distance. There is also a second conventional entrance to the room which was wide open for the first 8-10 years of the layout’s existence until the upper portion was blocked by the benchwork and backdrop. It was and is still used to bring in larger pieces of lumber and our train storage racks. However, since the layout scenery is now about 90% finished, it does not get used too much these days.

That’s it for this week! Enjoy!

What a great story!!!!!!

Peter

Setting up for our two week run at the Keystone Tractor Museum

We are bringing our big layout 21x43 and our 6x15 which has the Lionel Dealer Display D-27 module simulation.

We are right off I-95 about 30 miles south of Richmond and about 2 miles north of Petersburg and the Appomattox River. Come join us if you can. The museum is AMAZING!

Besides our two layouts, there will be two N gauge layouts and two HO layouts.

Set up:

A few pictures from around the museum....this Nash Metropolitan convertible is my favorite piece to look at!

Test running my "Titans"......

Have a great and safe weekend, folks!

Peter

One more video of my new GGD Chessie set. This time pulled by the M-1 steam turbine electric as the C&O intended.

Ken

@kanawha posted:

One more video of my new GGD Chessie set. This time pulled by the M-1 steam turbine electric as the C&O intended.

Ken

Ken I was hoping you would show the M1 on the lead!

Ron

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

The final photo I posted last week which I did to show you the entire length of a coal drag also unintentionally included the PRR railings I installed in the basement 26 years ago when I built my house. I don’t THINK I’ve ever told the story of them. I bought the property back in 1990 when I was still pretty young, and had the next 5-6 years to design both the house AND the layout. In this way, the basement was specifically designed to accommodate the layout. I knew I wanted an around the wall layout, but what I did NOT want was a duck under. So I designed a “star pit” which is a 6’ long corridor with steps on either end. This allows you to step down under the layout, walk six feet, and then go back up a few stairs into the layout room. And it honestly didn’t cost very much to add to the house.

Very cool Neal. I have a couple of the two rail versions.

My module theme at non-Kennywood setups is "Cars of Movies and TV".  I like to also include figures that match the vehicles, and I picked up these figures from 4 franchises to go with vehicles I already have.

Andy

I am in the middle of building the 2nd of the Frank Ellison Tribute Series offered by Brennan's Model Railroading......the Hap Hazard packing Company.

It is a challenging kit, but Dennis' directions are very comprehensive.

Last weekend was painting and staining the wooden parts.

I love to work outside and yesterday morning was beautiful.

The foundation....

These pieces frame the indoor truck bay.....

Adding the interior wall bracing. The doors and windows are meant to be open .....so the interior will need to be detailed with produce.

The window frames are very delicate.....

The scalpel is a relic from my younger days as a nephrologist.....the days when I would put in my own temporary dialysis catheters. When we were cleaning out the office, I found a few expired catheter kits (they are all single use). I destroyed them but saved the scapel for modeling.

\

Window and door frames are done.....

Next up is hinges on the doors and windows, followed by raising the wall on the 1st floor.

Peter

The weekend jam session has started!

Gene

Here’ a Union Pacific GP9B MUed behind a GP7 that you can’t see, about to back up and couple into a string of freight cars.

Time for doughnuts.

@Lionlman posted:

Time for doughnuts.

Yes!

Peter

The photographer caught this West Side Lumber 2-truck Shay pulling out of the yard with a D&N boxcar full of dynamite.  Good thing the crew put a car between them and the dynamite, but it seems they could have chosen something better than a flat car.  Looks like it will take a week or two for the train to get to its destination.

K-Line

A gift from my 35 year old son, David, who has a great sense of humor, an O scale outhouse, now on Ole McDonald's  farm on my layout:

And my favorite, rats carrying slices of pizza into the NYC subway entrance:

I bought this chessie tumbler 14 oz cup from kalmbach hobbystore today!!

@PRRMiddleDivision posted:

The final photo I posted last week which I did to show you the entire length of a coal drag also unintentionally included the PRR railings I installed in the basement 26 years ago when I built my house. I don’t THINK I’ve ever told the story of them.

That's a great story, Neal.  Thanks for sharing it with us.