Building the Third RMRR
The first part of the new layout was built using open-grid construction and measured 5' X 10'. The track plan, which is basically a folded loop, was an enlarged duplicate of John Allen's original 3.5' X 7' GD (as noted previously). A spur (in the foreground of the photo on the left) leads to the upper elevation, where Jaystown is to be located. This spur will eventually travel along the wall terminating at a small rail yard. At the lowest level of the layout (left-center of the photo) is the small village of Justin Junction, where several industries will be located. This first section was mostly completed in 2003.
One feature that I wanted in the design of this layout was a city scene. My original design sketch on the right, which indicates the placement of structural members and track elevations, allows for "town space" in the middle of the layout. Because the layout would be against the wall, and five feet deep, it would be very difficult to access the back of the layout. To remedy this issue I designed a lift-out section in the middle of the town. By removing this section I would be able to access any part of the layout. This section was easily disguised by making the separations where the streets meet the sidewalks.
After the basic track work was complete, as seen in the photo above, I determined that I could add another industry by extending the right front of the layout a few inches. I removed the facing board in that area and added five inches to the framework. This allowed me room to run a track to the right front corner of the layout. |
The First Addition
Before the 5' X 10' layout was totally completed I began the extension to what I would call Juniata Yard. The extension began at the end of the upper level spur (at Jaystown), point A on the drawing above. The track was run along the back wall and up the side wall to the new yard. The area where the track turned the corner I called Oldtown. Here I placed a group of town buildings that I had built for the first RMRR out of balsa wood in 1966. The total length of this extension was 22'. The Juniata yard was a fairly small yard with locomotive servicing facilities and some car storage capability. The layout, including this addition, was completed by the end of 2004.
In the photo on the left you can see the new tracks following the wall to the beginning of the yard (left foreground).
The following video shows the railroad being built to this point.
In the photo on the left you can see the new tracks following the wall to the beginning of the yard (left foreground).
The following video shows the railroad being built to this point.
The next two photos are of Juniata Yard.
Justin Junction, on the 4th Anniversary of the New RMRR, March 1, 2007
I staged this photo at Justin Junction on the 4th anniversary of the new layout. In this photo we have PRR L1 #520 with a string of hopper cars on the upper track. At Justin Junction PRR E6 #1211 is pulling a local passenger train into the station, while PRR F7A #9833 is bringing a mixed freight through on the passing siding.
Extending Juniata Yard
After four years of operation and improvements the layout underwent another slight expansion in October 2007. Juniata yard was just too small and I wanted to increase the yard capacity, so I curved the yard down the front wall, adding an additional 6' of yard space. By doing this I not only increased the yard capacity but I was able to locate a customer facility in the corner of the yard. This improved operational possibilities and allowed me to use another old balsa wood structure that I built, from a Model Railroad Craftsman article, in 1964. Below are a few photos of the expanded Juniata Yard
Building Blairsville Yard
When I was 10 years old our family moved to Blairsville, PA. I became fascinated by the small PRR railroad yard located there and spent many boyhood hours hanging out around the yard. Ever since I became interested in model railroading I had a desire to recreate the Blairsville Yard. In fact, as part of an early attempt, I constructed a balsa wood model of the Blairsville roundhouse when I was in college in the mid 1960's. Unfortunately this roundhouse model was crushed as I was transporting it home from school, so I never moved forward on the project at that time. Over the years I continued to harbor a desire to model the yard and in 2004 I built a model of the coaling tower at Blairsville. This model, though not quite completed at the time, can be seen in the early Juniata Yard photos above.
When Blairsville Yard was being razed in the late 1960's I found a drawing of the yard on the wall of the old yard office building. Using tracing paper taped over this drawing, I made a complete copy for myself. This drawing is over 5' long. Although Blairsville Yard was a small yard, by railroad standards, it would be huge in HO scale. The actual yard property extended for about a mile', which would be around 60' in HO scale. Market Street divided the yard in two. The north side of the yard contained most of the structures and facilities. The south side of the yard was primarily for freight car storage. So, due to space limitations, the north side of the yard would be the area that I would want to model. This part of the yard, to scale, would still consume an area of 18' X 15' in HO scale. Selective compression would be necessary.
After I retired in early 2010 I decided it was time to model Blairsville Yard. The first thing I had to do was to tear out Juniata yard. I used this area to build a transition into north Blairsville Yard. In the photo below you can see the area where the expanded Juniata Yard was once located. I installed a scenery break in the center of this area. To the left is the track coming out of the south yard, crossing Market Street, and to the right is a rural scene and the curve back to the line coming up the wall from Jaystown.
When Blairsville Yard was being razed in the late 1960's I found a drawing of the yard on the wall of the old yard office building. Using tracing paper taped over this drawing, I made a complete copy for myself. This drawing is over 5' long. Although Blairsville Yard was a small yard, by railroad standards, it would be huge in HO scale. The actual yard property extended for about a mile', which would be around 60' in HO scale. Market Street divided the yard in two. The north side of the yard contained most of the structures and facilities. The south side of the yard was primarily for freight car storage. So, due to space limitations, the north side of the yard would be the area that I would want to model. This part of the yard, to scale, would still consume an area of 18' X 15' in HO scale. Selective compression would be necessary.
After I retired in early 2010 I decided it was time to model Blairsville Yard. The first thing I had to do was to tear out Juniata yard. I used this area to build a transition into north Blairsville Yard. In the photo below you can see the area where the expanded Juniata Yard was once located. I installed a scenery break in the center of this area. To the left is the track coming out of the south yard, crossing Market Street, and to the right is a rural scene and the curve back to the line coming up the wall from Jaystown.
The north yard was built on a peninsula extending back into the center of the room, towards the 5' X 10' original layout. North Blairsville Yard is wedge shaped, narrowing to a point where the track crosses Market Street. I duplicated this wedge shape when building the peninsula. Although I would have liked to make the yard larger, due to space limitations I had to cut the yard off directly behind the roundhouse. This made the finished dimensions of the peninsula 9' long by 4.5' wide at the roundhouse, tapering to 2' wide at Market Street. Although all of the structures are to near scale dimensions, the yard in this area has been compressed to fit the space. If the yard had been to scale this area would have had to be 13.3' X 8', tapering to 2.3'. So my available space was only about 40% of what was required for an exact replica. Because I could not compress the size of the track or the distance between the track, the only way to fit the space would be to eliminate about half the tracks and shorten the distance between Market Street and the roundhouse, but leave enough to make a fair representation of the yard. The following two photos are of the actual yard and my compressed representation of it.
This next photo is a view of the yard from the south side of Market Street. In this photo you can see some of the other yard structures, the coal wharf, freight station and passenger station.
The Isabella Coke Works
A new section and industry was added in 2013, I named it the Isabella Coke Works (ICW). The real Isabella Coke Company existed in the early part of the 20th century just across the river from Blairsville near the town of Cokeville. My addition, which exists on my layout in the early 1950's, was named after both the old Isabella Coke Company and my granddaughter Isabella. The operation represents a low budget bee hive coking operation, typical of many found throughout Western Pennsylvania in the first half of the 20th century. With the exception of the office building and the water tank, all of the structures for this new addition were scratch built. The ICW operation provides a shipping destination for coal from the Lazar Brother's Coal Company. The following photos are of the new addition. Details of the construction of this addition can be found in my blog.
The Ligonier Valley Railroad Branch
On New Year's Day 2014 I began construction of the Ligonier Valley Railroad branch. Construction progress can be followed in my blog. My main purpose for building this new section was to model the Kingston area as it existed in the mid 1940's. I worked in this area for a good bit of my life and for 14 years lived only a mile away. This new section branches off at Justin Junction and then travels along the wall under the main layout, finally looping around a scenery break under the Blairsville yard. By adding this new line I can now run a train from Blairsville yard to Kingston, loop around the scene break and return to Blairsville. At prototypical speeds it will take over 20 minutes for this journey. If I do any switching moves along the way it is easy to consume an evening with one run. The line is now completely operational and over mostly complete (a model railroad is never really completed).
The photo to the left shows the split at Justin Junction for the new branch line. I was able to add a new industry at the end of the spur track in the center of the photo. This new industry sits on a removable section along with the new town of Edstown. I can duck under the section if I do not want to remove it, but it is easy to remove and reinstall.
The photo below shows the Kingston area. The Kingston plant and Kingston Station are along the Loyalhanna Creek. The scene depicts a section of the route 680 bridge (now route 217) and the spillway at the Kingston dam. |
The next photo shows the other side of the new extension. On the back side I modeled the limestone tipple that still exists on Route 30 West near Longbridge. This scene is set in mid-Winter with just a bit of residual snow remaining on the ground. The tipple is out of sequence compared to the real LVRR, but it allowed me to add some more operation interest to this new section. The loop end between Kingston and the tipple scene is set in early Fall with vivid leaf colors.
Continuous Improvement - Upgrades and Additions
Since completing the Ligonier Valley Railroad extension in 2014 there have been no major expansions or additions, mainly due to lack of room. However numerous upgrades and small additions have been made since then. Most of these have been detailed in my monthly blog. They have included upgrades to the backdrops, interior detailing and lighting of many structures, structure upgrades, scenery improvements and a few small additions. A few of the more notable upgrades are detailed below.
Replacement of the Lazar Brother's Coal Company Structure
In late 2014 I replaced the coal mine structure which I had built for the second RMRR in 1985. The new structure is a Walther's kit and is more representative of a Pennsylvania coal mine in the early 1950s. Below are before and after photos at the coal mine site.
Replacement of the Rail Bridge at Justin Junction
In early 2016 I decided that the bridge near Justin Junction did not represent a typical US railroad bridge, so I decided to replace this bridge with another Walther's kit. This new bridge looks very much like the many railroad truss bridges I have seen over the years. Replacing the bridge required some realignment of the track and some cutting and fitting of the existing scenery to make it work. The results, shown below, were worth the effort. The old bridge is on the left and the new bridge is on the right.
Replacement of the Blairsville Coal Wharf
Long before I decided to construct the current version of the RMRR I built a model of the coal wharf that was located at the Blairsville, PA rail yard. I was always fascinated by this structure when growing up and I took many photographs of it over the years. I tried to determine the size when I built this first model by scaling some photos, but I miscalculated and my finished model ended up too small. Also the model was lacking in a lot of details, but it was a close representation and I used it for many years. In about mid 2016 I decided it did not meet my current modeling standards, which had improved over the years. So I decided to build a new model with better detail and more accurate in size. The photo on the left below is of the old model when is was being built and the one on the right was taken during the construction of the new model and shows the size difference between the two. The photo below these two photos are of the completed new coal wharf model.