A new skyscraper was just added to the Philadelphia section of the S scale Penn Western. I had used some sandstone textured foamcore for the flooring of a food court for the train station and thought that the texture would look good as the siding of a building. So, I designed a 180 foot structure to fill a part of the skyline. After rounding up the parts needed and cutting sections of foamcore, the building actually started out as a kit.

I wrote an article on using foamcore for walls and abutments at:

http://royhoffman.com/pwrr/foamcorewall.html

That's it for now. You can see more photos at: royhoffman.com/pwrr/ebtshops

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.