Along the Right of Way ...

More from Cassandra...

Milepost 1121

Since I had quite a few good shots from Cassandra, I thought I'd share a few more with you before I moved on to a few other things from our recent trip.

If you get there early enough... right now, that is sometime before about 9.30 in the morning, you are very likely to see the west bound PENNSYLVANIAN pass by.  That's the AMTRAK train that runs from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia on a daily schedule.  Later in the evening... probably around 5.00pm, you can catch it headed back west.

While we have kind of decided that Mondays and Tuesdays are a little slower than the other days of the week that we have been there, we still find plenty of action... or at least I do.  My better half is perfectly content to sit on one of the park benches there and read or just enjoy the mountain setting.

 As I mentioned in my previous post, you are "right there" as the trains go by.  When a heavy train comes from the west, still going up hill, the noise from the four to six lead units is incredible and the ground just shakes.  Real excitement and real mountain railroading.

Hopefully, I've convinced you that if you are ever in the area, you need to plan to spend some time there.  Enjoy the mountain setting... and the trains!

dlm

Cassandra Crossing -- A GREAT Train Watching Place!

Milepost 1120

Each time we go back to Altoona to spend a little time in the mountains and to watch the heavy NS action, Cassandra Crossing is always one of the highlights of the trip.  You can really get "up close & personal" there as the trains pass mere feet below you.

The story is that at one time, the main road into town crossed over the railroad where the overpass is located.  When the new road bypassed town, that bridge was closed.  But there were miners who lived in town who complained about having to cross the busy railroad tracks and climb the hill on either side of the tracks.  So a narrower, pedestrian footbridge was put in for them to cross to & from work.  By the time the mines closed down, the bridge was a popular train watching spot and was left in place.

While I'm not sure of the exact distance, I'd guess you can see trains coming for about four miles in one direction and perhaps half a mile on the other side of the bridge. And the location above them gives one a very good photographic vantage point.

Should you ever get over to the Altoona area, Cassandra is about half an hour from downtown.  Take Rte. 22 west towards Pittsburgh, get off at the Rte. 53 exit and go towards Lilly.  Cassandra is easy to miss but is about 2-3 miles west of Lilly.  The only drawback is that there is NOTHING in town at all... no place to eat, get gas... even to take a "convenience break."  So if you do go there, be prepared to go a few miles in either direction for some of life's necessities.  But while you are there... enjoy one of the best train watching places I know of!

dlm

What Is This?

Milepost 1119

One of the more strange things I saw while train watching during our vacation was this sitting on top of a container in a container train.  Anyone have any idea as to exactly what it is?

The only thing I can figure is that it is a "containerized" flat car.  I saw one other one but didn't see any kind of load on either one.  The reason I think it's some kind of flat car type container is that all along the sides, it has what appears to be rollers for tie-down straps.  That, and the reflective tape all along the side makes it look like it could easily be loaded onto a container trailer and look pretty much like a regular flat bed trailer.

If anyone has any different or better ideas, kindly let the rest of us know... I like it when mysteries end up with a solution.

dlm

New Brick Tower Kit

Milepost 1118

OK, if you have visited here much at all, you KNOW I have a soft spot in my modeling heart for railroad towers.  So I was really interested when my friend Mike sent me some info for this new kit.  This one is a bit more unusual as it uses laser cut parts.  The price isn't all that bad either at $50 although that's a lot more than the typical $15-$20 most of us are used to paying for conventional injection molded styrene kits.

You can see the product information page by clicking HERE

I'll have to do a little more reading to find out about the prototype but it does look like one that would fit on most Eastern layouts through the mid fifties.  Hmmm... now who is it that models the Nickel Plate in that era??!?

dlm

Vacation Time!

Milepost 1117

When you read this, we will have just returned from our little vacation.  Our route took us through Altoona, Pennsylvania, to do some serious train watching (and to pick up some peanut butter & chocolate covered pretzels from Boyer's Candies), the Baltimore area where I plan to visit with my friend David as well as visit the B&O Museum then finally a few leisurely days along the Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Of course, one of the stops along the way will be the transportation museum in Roanoke.  So stay tuned for some pictorial highlights from our trip.  I'm sure I'll have plenty to share the next time we visit.

dlm

Congratulations Tony!

Milepost 1116

While Janet & I did attend the National Train Show in Indianapolis this year, we were there as vendors and not show participants.  So it was with great surprise that I opened the pages of MODEL RAILROADER this month to see that my friend, fellow NKPHTS member and model railroader extraordinaire, Tony Koester, was presented with a special award at this year's NMRA National Convention for his work in supporting & promoting the hobby of model railroading.  Tony was given a lifetime membership in the NMRA and was only the 69th person to receive such an award in the long-running history of that organization.

Anyone who reads MODEL RAILROADER on a regular basis has seen his monthly column, TRAINS OF THOUGHT.  And you have probably also read his ongoing articles about his Nickel Plate Road 3rd Subdivision layout.  But Tony has done so much more for the hobby...

He is probably model railroading's number one ambassador.  He attends each NMRA convention as part of the MODEL RAILROADER staff and is a regular fixture at the NTS as he answers questions from young and old, novice and experienced modelers as well as just generally being a very friendly person.  When I attended my very first NKPHTS convention many years ago, Tony was one of the very first people I met and we have remained in touch, off and on, ever since. 

Humble as always, Tony said that he was really shocked to receive the recognition that he so richly deserves.  Through his efforts in MODEL RAILROADER articles, books he has written and by simply "meeting & greeting," Tony has truly been a wonderful ambassador for the world's greatest hobby.

Congratulations Tony on a well deserved and most distinguished award.

dlm

A Great Gift from a Friend

Milepost 1115

My brother-in-law stopped by the other day with a really nice gift from his father.  This is a painting of a railroad train in a lumber camp.  I had visited with his father a few weeks ago and he proudly showed me his efforts with brush & paint.  For obvious reasons, this was my favorite of the several paintings he showed me. 

Norm is an inspiration to everyone who knows him.  A construction accident over twenty years ago put him in a wheelchair.  But he hasn't ever given up.  In the time I've known him, I've never heard one word of complaint about his plight.  He has truly made the most of his situation and just moved on.  He still does woodworking and his latest interest, paintings like these.  If you go to him with some kind of an idea, he can usually "flesh it out" and you will have what you were thinking about in the first place.  Like I said, truly an inspiration to all of us who have had the pleasure of knowing him.

Right now, the layout room is kind of chewed up given that the old layout has come down and the new one hasn't been started yet.  But I can assure you of this: at an appropriate time, this painting will hang in a prominent place and will remain a special gift from a special friend.

dlm

Sunset Along the Line...

Milepost 1114

Well, the weather has finally cooled down a bit to the point where it seemed nice enough to go out train watching again.  We hit the trail several days ago and visited Galatea, just east of North Baltimore.  The traffic was ho-hum; we saw four including three in the span of fifteen minutes.  Usually, when the sun sets, picture taking is over for the outing but in this case, the sunset was the best shot of the evening.  I actually shot this from the car window as we crossed the tracks.  Usually, when we leave, we take one last look in each direction.  In doing so, I got this really nice sunset with the reflection off of the rails, etc.  Really a nice shot to finish the day.

As always, BE CAREFUL around the railroad tracks and stay off of railroad property.  Contrary to popular belief, those trains can't stop on a dime... nor can they swerve to avoid a collision.  Even in this case where the crossing is protected by lights AND gates, one should ALWAYS be very careful when crossing.  As mentioned a few posts back, I have seen crossing glitches so nothing's perfect.

dlm

A Lima-built Locomotive Showing her Stuff!

Milepost 1113

This is a really neat video of an outdoor layout featuring a C&O 2-6-6-6 Allegheny locomotive.  The prototype loco was built down in Lima and there is one neatly preserved & on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Dr. Boyd Travis from Bluffton, Ohio, used to tell the story about the locos that they were too long to turn on the turntable down at the Lima Locomotive Works so they had to run them backwards from Lima through Bluffton & Findlay to Fostoria where they could turn them on the B&O/C&O diamond then send them on their way forward.  He shot 16mm video of them on more than one occasion; one of these days, I need to look for a copy of that DVD as it has been digitally converted many years ago.

Click HERE for the entire video.  I don't think you need to be a subscriber to facebook to watch it.  Note that while the loco is lettered Chesapeake & Ohio, the hoppers are entirely all Nickel Plate as far as I can tell.

dlm

 

A Neat Little Project...

Milepost 1112

As the caption explains, this is a prototype gauge that was built in a Wheeling & Lake Erie yard to check railroad cars that were routed through an older tunnel on a particular branch.  I would think that with some Evergreen Styrene strip stock and perhaps a small shed-type structure, you could knock this out easily in one evening.

When railroads first got started, labor was plentiful and cheap.  So digging tunnels was pretty common, especially in some of the areas served by the Wheeling as that was mining country as well.  But as time went on, railroad cars and locomotives got bigger and taller... and the cost of labor went up as well.  As the larger cars came into service, decisions had to be made as to whether a particular obstruction on a line like a tunnel or even a tight, narrow bridge needed upgraded, eliminated... or whether or not sufficient restrictions could be put into place to allow those parts of the system to remain 'as is."  Such was the case with the Robertsville Tunnel.  W&LE management decided that traffic through this particular tunnel was not sufficient enough to require its enlarging or "daylighting;" removing the tunnel altogether.  Since it remained in place, they had to ensure that traffic going through it would fit so this clearance gauge was built.  Its operation was simple; if a car, caboose or even locomotive were to strike any parts of it, that particular piece of equipment was not permitted onto that section of track... period.

As an aside, one of the worst accidents on the NKP occurred when an oversized car struck the top of a tunnel, causing it to fall in.  The crew members in the caboose were both killed.

Since Evergreen makes all kinds of strip sizes, this would be an easy project regardless of the scale that you operate in.  If you have a tunnel on your layout, I'd simply measure the opening and then pretty much duplicate that with the styrene strips.  While there are no particulars given for this particular gauge, I'd guess that 4x8 strip would be used for the outside frame while 2x4 stock would serve for the actual frame & bracing.  This one appears to be painted white but I'd think that any bright safety color... white, yellow or orange, would be fine.  The picture only shows a portion of a small shed nearby but I'm guessing that was related to the gauge so you might want to add one as well.

Once you are done, the next train to leave your yard can be checked for clearance.  What's that you say?  You don't have a tunnel on your layout?  Well... I suppose you could modify your thinking just a little and allow it to be used for a bridge structure, highway overpass or even close clearances with some buildings.  OR... maybe the next division down the line has a tunnel where clearance could be crucial.  By all means, don't let practicality get in the way of this fun, interesting project.

dlm