royhoffman's blog

I've completed the foundry using the same techniques as before.

Next building will be the Pattern Storage Room

I've been scratchbuilding the first four yard structures at Orbisonia. I've used Northeastern batten and scribed wood overlaid on a foamcore shell. Some windows and the corrugated roof are Clever Models paper products. Paper glued to foamcore works out great.

The first structure is the car shops.

The boiler and coal bin were next.

We S scalers have our own special day today.

On behalf of my fellow S scalers. I'd like to wish all of you a Happy 3/16.

A few years ago I was taking my wife to a crafts shop in Marion, PA when I came upon the perfect trackside structure. It was a grain feed depot alongside a railroad spur. I made it a point to return someday and take some photos. However, I procrastinated and when I recently returned, motivated by the purchase of an ERTL 1:64 scale Grain Feed Set, the business had transferred to a pellet dealership. The plan was to marry the ERTL set with a scratchbuilt structure that was inspired by the structure in Marion.

It's time to bring out the M-1 gas-electric. It's usually run once a year on Fall Spectacular weekend.

The M-1 pulls up to Orbisonia Depot.

We're heading out past some hoppers.

It's not hard to have a love affair with a narrow gauge railroad. The 3 foot gauge was often necessary to handle the tight curves and steep inclines associated with mountain railroading. Such prototypical settings lend themselves to some great modeling possibilities. Such a railroad was the East Broad Top located in the mountains of South-Central  Pennsylvania. The EBT was a 32 mile line connecting mines that extracted good quality bituminous coal from Broad Top Mountain to an interchange with the PRR at Mt. Union, PA.

The last article for the standard gauge portion of the Penn Western is based in the Harrisburg area. I recently completed a major reworking of the 7' X 12' section so that I could add a Conrail interchange and expand the Sn3 East Broad Top. There's a lot of "open land" for new structures to be modeled. The background scenery contains the Susquehanna River as well as the state capitol building.   

This time we'll leave Philadelphia and head west to Harrisburg. The trip will take us through Reading and the Anthracite coal region.

We continue to roll through the Allentown area as we approach the station there. There has been a lot of interest in the use of foamcore for structures. There are other uses for it as I'll be pointing out. I don't know as yet how to go about doing an article on the subject. Anyway, let's continue our trip around the PWRR.

After leaving NJ, the Eastern end of the Penn Western, we cross back over the Delaware as we head to our next destination. The PW has two main lines, one northward to Allentown and one westward to Harrisburg via the Anthracite Coal Region. Some industries represent certain towns in PA that aren't geographically correct like Gettysburg, Shippensburg, Jim Thorpe and Mifflinburg, but the structures themself exist to keep the flavor of modeling PA. We'll next be heading to Allentown. The Allentown section occupies an 8' X 17' pod with 2 liftout sections for access.