PRR/Conrail Juniata Division Engineering Report

[Dave V]

I have that power plant kit.  I don't know; it's pretty small.  It's about the size of the Penn State power plant.  When the Bellefonte Central Railroad still ran to the Penn State campus, the plant received at most 2-3 hoppers at a time.  Splicing kits makes a bigger plant, but starts to stress the real estate on the door.

Part of me is now considering a whole new door as a blank slate.  Two of the three mountain features can be removed and transplanted to another layout.  I love the portability the door provides, even if I'm less enthused about the inefficiencies of room space, viewing angles, and curve radii.

I'm kind of concerned that when I lift the track and roadbed I won't have a clean level surface below to relay track on.  Plus there's that slight warp.  But not sure I want to start the whole process over again either.

[wm3798]

I used two of these kits and some sheet styrene



To build this:


and used some more sheet styrene to build a coal pier along the front side.


It's compact, and designed to be the power plant only for the paper mill, not a regional supplier, but you could take that Walthers kit and add a few modern additions and a shed to represent a dumper, and have a plausible power plant.  The trick is to include all the transformer yards and power lines (Train Cat!) to weave it into the rest of the scenery.

Lee

[DKS]

I have that power plant kit.  I don't know; it's pretty small.  It's about the size of the Penn State power plant.  When the Bellefonte Central Railroad still ran to the Penn State campus, the plant received at most 2-3 hoppers at a time.  Splicing kits makes a bigger plant, but starts to stress the real estate on the door.

Part of me is now considering a whole new door as a blank slate.  Two of the three mountain features can be removed and transplanted to another layout.  I love the portability the door provides, even if I'm less enthused about the inefficiencies of room space, viewing angles, and curve radii.

I'm kind of concerned that when I lift the track and roadbed I won't have a clean level surface below to relay track on.  Plus there's that slight warp.  But not sure I want to start the whole process over again either.

It's your call, obviously, but if it were me, I'd just tear up the track, scrape away as much of the old roadbed as possible with a putty knife, then have at the subroadbed with a sanding block and coarse sandpaper. Check it with a straightedge, apply some wood filler to any low spots, and sand again. Any slight irregularities won't be an issue after new roadbed is applied. Been there, done that, and it was fine. Besides, there's nothing wrong with the town and most of the scenery; I don't think the ROI for doing it all over again would warrant it.

Oh, and if you want a little more real estate on the "extension" for a larger power plant or whatever, make it square, instead of rounded the way I originally drew it.

[Ian MacMillan]

You could do something simplico like the plant at BOW, NH for PSNH.
http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=r5q9dq919vrq&scene=28979817&lvl=1&sty=b

Coal was delivered by PanAm in NS or CR hopper. PSNH SW's pulled the train through the rotary dumper. We (New England Southern) would deliver anhydrous ammonia for the scrubbers, and then deliver empty covered hoppers for a company that made blasting Black Beauty from the coal plants by products. We'd then pull the empty tanks and loaded hoppers. Was quite fun to switch. Pan Am does it all now since we've been booted completely from the New Hampshire Mainline.

[wm3798]

Williamsport, Maryland is a tidy little plant, too.  The tracks used to come in from the top, with a scenic little bridge across the canal.  Follow the grade in the pic.  There was 3 or 4 tracks about where the big rectangular storage thing is.  Everything else looks about the same as it did before Chessie gave up the business to the rubber tired monsters.

http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qkz9ds8hdzq6&scene=38846618&lvl=1&sty=b&where1=Williamsport%2C%20MD

Lee

[DKS]

There's a wiki page showing all of the coal-fired power plants in each state. Here's PA, for instance:

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pennsylvania_and_coal

You can click on the generating station names in the list at the bottom and see satellite images of the plants. Very handy for research.

[MichaelWinicki]

Part of me is now considering a whole new door as a blank slate.  Two of the three mountain features can be removed and transplanted to another layout.  I love the portability the door provides, even if I'm less enthused about the inefficiencies of room space, viewing angles, and curve radii.

I'm kind of concerned that when I lift the track and roadbed I won't have a clean level surface below to relay track on.  Plus there's that slight warp.  But not sure I want to start the whole process over again either.

Wouldn't a "blank slate" excite you a little?  It would me.  I know you've talked about using SuperTrees which would really ramp up the look of the forest/hills.  Then you could do some other things on a fresh door like static grass. 

I'm guessing most of your buildings would transfer over, so you'll save a lot of time there. 

But roadbed laying, track laying and making Styrofoam hills?  That shouldn't take that long.

[Dave V]

It's your call, obviously, but if it were me, I'd just tear up the track, scrape away as much of the old roadbed as possible with a putty knife, then have at the subroadbed with a sanding block and coarse sandpaper. Check it with a straightedge, apply some wood filler to any low spots, and sand again. Any slight irregularities won't be an issue after new roadbed is applied. Been there, done that, and it was fine. Besides, there's nothing wrong with the town and most of the scenery; I don't think the ROI for doing it all over again would warrant it.

Dave, the potential problem is that I used foam WS Trackbed roadbed on 2" extruded Styrofoam subroadbed.  Foam on foam...  That's a challenge for a putty knife.  That's my main concern.  I've already noticed irregularities in Enola Yard where I didn't adequately smooth the PL300 glue underneath the Trackbed.

I really like the current revision.  I have an idea of my own that I'll mess with tonight.  It preserves the idea here but might make better use of the space.

[Dave V]

Wouldn't a "blank slate" excite you a little?  It would me.  I know you've talked about using SuperTrees which would really ramp up the look of the forest/hills. 

It excites the heck out of my creative juices.  It does not excite the wallet or the wife (when I'm in full-up layout building mode I tend to tune out the family).

[DKS]

Dave, the potential problem is that I used foam WS Trackbed roadbed on 2" extruded Styrofoam subroadbed.  Foam on foam...  That's a challenge for a putty knife.  That's my main concern.  I've already noticed irregularities in Enola Yard where I didn't adequately smooth the PL300 glue underneath the Trackbed.

What did you use to bond them together? My suspicion is that we might be able to come up with a means of separating them non-destructively.

[Dave V]

Dave,

Some latex caulk but mainly white glue.  Rehydrating it will work the 90% solution.  I suspect that whatever chunks come up can be filled with spackle.

[MichaelWinicki]

It excites the heck out of my creative juices.  It does not excite the wallet or the wife (when I'm in full-up layout building mode I tend to tune out the family).

Yeah, I can understand the cost involved with switching over to the code 55.  SuperTrees kits aren't too costly.  

You've had the current door layout for a while.  Maybe if you explained to the Mrs. what was going on and your current unhappiness with it, she'd be understanding.  

She probably already knows that you've grown bored with it.

[DKS]

Some latex caulk but mainly white glue.  Rehydrating it will work the 90% solution.  I suspect that whatever chunks come up can be filled with spackle.

Sounds like a good soaking should do the trick. I'd fill in holes by carving them out a bit larger and gluing in chunks of fresh foam, then maybe using a surform to true things up if needed. I don't trust spackle anywhere but on the wall.

SuperTrees kits aren't too costly. 

They aren't that costly, but Supertrees are quite delicate, and would suffer considerable damage on a portable layout like Dave's. I suspect Supertrees must wait until a permanent layout room is acheived.

[MichaelWinicki]

They aren't that costly, but Supertrees are quite delicate, and would suffer considerable damage on a portable layout like Dave's. I suspect Supertrees must wait until a permanent layout room is acheived.

Yeah, that's true David.

[Dave V]

Patricia's very understanding...  She's been listening to me bounce ideas off of her.  I think that she's amenable to a change so long as I've really thought it out and am not setting myself up for further disappointment later.  

A blank slate is exciting, but there are some things I don't want to fix.  For example, i'm very fond of the arch bridge scene.  I'm also happy with the road overpass scene.  The town works for me.

Dave, I have some Supertrees on the layout now (I have two whole boxes of unfinished trees), and as you've noted they're just too brittle for frequent layout handling.  I don't mind having a small population of them in the foreground knowing they'll need to be replaced.

So I took a PowerPoint hack at the layout, and I'll admit it's nowhere near as sexy as what Dave's been doing.  It uses the same idea, however...  And out-and-back loop from Enola.  In this case I would remove the siding with the tan ballast that currently serves as my DCC programming track.  I'd have to add an overpass where there's currently a high cinder fill to support the one leg of the wye.  The "bridge piece" could be 2.5 feet long and bolt onto the doors, and should be lightweight enough to be free-standing.  I added a river crossing like Sherman's Creek at Duncannon, further emphasizing that we're on our way west from Enola toward the Middle Division.  The downside is that Spruce Creek Tunnel in this scheme ends up railroad east of Lewistown, but that's not a show-stopper.



Reference earlier discussion on the coal mine...  Lee, I would probably try to sell this bad boy because it's based on an MR article and it's a nice size.  For you, however, I just so happen to have a fully built-up and weathered unmodified New River Mine that would be a better customer for the WM.