Thoughts on a former Pennsy yard office?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Dave, your Enola building was definitely in my mind when I was thinking of it all too.

In fact, when I started, it was probably going to look like a single floor, rectangular version of what you've got.

[Dave V]

Dave, if any identifiable molecule of me is a SPF, I have to at least defend the hometown.   There is no "Ott, PA", it is (was) OTTS tower in Warren.  That was the split between the Salamanca Division toward Olean and the P&E on the south side of Warren, with the north line crossing the Allegheny river on a truss bridge (it still does, to United Refinery) and the south line going east to Sheffield, Johnsonburg, etc.    Today it is one lonely turnout, but it's a very busy one.

Tower was gone long by at least 1965, when the line was severed to the Kinzua Dam.    It's a pretty good model, actually, pretty sure it is a standard plan small tower.

The only decent online shot of it on 'prrerie.com' seems to have disappeared, but its in several books, in a ragged state.   See "On the Main Line", page 245,  "Triumph VII" page 219 (same photo), interlocking diagram of OTTS page 353.

Thanks for the clarification!  I knew I'd seen a photo somewhere, but memory was hazy...  Warren, PA.  Now I can refine my search to find pictures of it.

EDIT:  Hahahahaha!!!  Randy, you and I have had this exact same conversation 5 years ago!  To wit:

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=18852.msg167853#msg167853

[randgust]

Yeah, and when I went on a search for the photo, I found the same conversation myself.  Found the link, found the webpage URL dead.

I can't find an online photo now.   That's why I used the book references.   Scanned and resent to you.

[Dave V]

Yeah, and when I went on a search for the photo, I found the same conversation myself.  Found the link, found the webpage URL dead.

I can't find an online photo now.   That's why I used the book references.   Scanned and resent to you.

Thanks for the photo!  As nice and compact as it is, I wonder, though, why Dimi chose a tower that's so hard to find photographs of.  i guess they thought the architecture was generic enough.

I picked up another one last week for use on my extension...if that ever happens.

[randgust]

To make sure we go on TOTAL thread drift, the one thing at Warren that I'm astounded that nobody has ever decided to model is Warren Railcar; aka Warren Car Company.   Just west of Warren, originally built with DAV&P (NYC) on the north side and PRR on the south.  Started out as a railcar manufacturer, and built steel CIRCUS FLAT CARS until the 1950's ("Warren" flat cars, look it up), then did general tank car repairs until there was an explosion, then did general car repair, then was a TTX/Railbox shop in the late 1970's into Conrail, then back to general railroad car repair.  Still there today, pretty much the same footprint, and still relatively small for a railroad car repair facility.   See Google Earth, its pretty obvious west of town.

So if you ever wondered about what to do with circus flat cars without actually modeling a circus in N, have I got a deal for you.  They also built and designed the extra-long stock cars for animals, elephant cars, etc.  Oh, and lots of wrecked, rusted, and heavily weathered private-owner cars.

To bring this completely back around to PRR, take a look at the Warren steel circus flatcar (look at Baraboo Circus Museum fleet) compared to what's considered to be the 'grandaddy' of long intermodal flatcars on the PRR that were later picked up by TTX.  It's darn near an exact copy.  So I've always maintained that Warren, PA is the birthplace of the extra-long, two-trailer, intermodal flatcar, thanks to Warren Car and the circus business.

[wm3798]

The yard office I built was done with DPM modular walls, not Walthers.  I based it on an amalgam of the old Commissary building and the scale house at Maryland Junction.

You could do a one-story version.

Lee

[davefoxx]

Or, you can have my commissary building . . . if the price is right.   



DFF

[Dave V]

Ed, call me crazy, but since the Pennsy already had a substantial yard at York, what did the real yard office look like?  Although your alternate timeline leave Conrail operating a thriving Northern Central into 1985, I would imagine your Pennsy "heydays" would not have been too different from the real historical timeline (since, as I understand it, Agnes in 1972 is where your history diverges) so whatever the Pennsy built for real in York is likely to have been there in your world.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Nope, don't want to steal that. I actually want to do SOME actual modeling on this project.

When I get a few minutes to rub together, I might start putting together the building together digitally.

And Dave, I had actually just thought about that. I have two people I'm going to be asking who I might actually be running into this weekend.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I had a chance to see some photos of the real structure tonight, and I've got to say, it's very disappointing.

It was a single story cinder block (or so it looks) structure with some brick trim.

[Dave V]

I had a chance to see some photos of the real structure tonight, and I've got to say, it's very disappointing.

It was a single story cinder block (or so it looks) structure with some brick trim.

Then there's a good chance it was a past-war replacement for a wood frame structure.

[wm3798]

Disappointing cinder block building?  No... man... that's a perfect little scratch build!  Tease out the details around it, and you'll have a show stealer!

Lee

[chicken45]

What about this cute little guy?

[prropcrew]

Guys,

I'm crawling out of the cave I usually lurk in on here to post a picture or two. I'm one of Ed's sources for all things railroad in York. So, for the benefit of everyone that commented I wanted to post the pictures I shared with Ed last night. These were all taken by the late George Slonaker. I don't have a definitive date on these first two, though I'm shooting for late-70's, early 80's. The Black and white shot was taken from the sanding tower.

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Also, here's an aerial from 1982.

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The concrete building with brick accents is the yard office and would have been built as a depression-era improvement during the mid-1930's, when the Brick tower, and brick scalehouse were also built.

It would be a pretty straightforward build out of styrene too.

Regards,
John

[Dave V]

That follows exactly the same construction as the Huntingdon freight station.