Morning, all...

Last night we got a river cruise, with freighters and steel mills and bridges. These bottle cars were hot out of the furnace :

Great pictures today.

I've been busy with lighthouse tours, baseball games, and summer orchestra concerts, to name a few.

And progress continues on the Reading 2100, soon to be in new livery as American Freedom Train 250

https://youtu.be/ZdyBwz497k8?si=9kaxImK3MnJCTYkB

We've now walked down one long wall of the building, and across the shorter wall, but have seen not half, but about a third of the layout. This next walk is broken by peninsulas, with longer aisles that invite you to walk in. It helps to create the real experience as the railroad lines follow the real river valleys. Along the way, on the facia, there are pictures and explanations of some the landmarks we are seeing. It gives us an even greater appreciation of the work that went into these custom built models.

I love the detail that has been added in every area of this layout.



We've now reached McKeesport, where travelers are waiting on the platform. Next door is the library and you can see the books.

In the yard, one of the impressive structures is a long icing platform.



You might also notice, the lighting seems to be changing...when the layout is operating in computerized display mode, the lighting cycles through a day into evening, and will even go nighttime dark. This shows off the lighted structures very nicely.

Guys, thanks for looking in and your comments. This layout is so big, I'm still walking down one wall of the building. As we approach the next corner, we come to the biggest yard on the layout. We see a line of crummies with their custom lettering.



Behind them is a scratch built model of a roundhouse, matching the prototype.
It actually was a wooden roundhouse, modified through the years as motive power got bigger and longer.

If we're going to quote the classics, I give you Dr. Lyman Hall:

...I remembered something I'd once read-"that a representative owes the People not only his industry, but his judgement, and he betrays them if he sacrifices it to their opinion." It was written by Edmund Burke, a member of the British Parliament.

In my younger days I played both this part, and Rutledge.

Happy Fourth!

As we move away from the downtown triangle, we come to one area that is being refurbished. There will be an intricate set of tracks here servicing the steel mill.

The streets are busy with vehicles and people. It wasn't until. I looked at the pictures that I realized there is a mirror hiding there making the street longer.

Club members have used 3D printing to fabricate trusses for this passenger shed. They have decaled and weathered much of the rolling stock for this empire. The freight depot looks very busy with those trailers.

When I entered the layout, I was standing on the south bank of the Monongahela River, looking at the Pittsburgh skyline. The bridges are magnificent.



Over my shoulder is the office building for the P & LE, as well as one of the city's famous inclined railways.

Inside this large building is the layout, as well as gift shop, snack bar, displays etc.
The organization has plans to expand in the near future. You can also find recent coverage and a track plan in the December 2023 issue of Model Railroader.

The HO layout is a fictional road set in the very real landscape of SW Pennsylvania. The Mon Valley would have been created by a merger of several roads in the 30's. The club has gone to great effort to show the towns and locales as they would have been in the early 1950's

Welcome to a tour by photo of an amazing layout which I visited.
Fellow members of a preservation group which I belong to, the American Steam Railroad, got a personal open house recently, with track privileges and an unobstructed view of the scenery. which is protected by glass panels on regular open house dates.

For those who want more, I encourage you to check out the following websites

https://www.americansteamrailroad.org

http://wpmrm.org

Wake Up! No sleeping in today...the plan is ....ROAD TRIP!

I have a special invitation to visit the Western Pennsylvania Model Railroad Museum, north of Pittsburgh. I guarantee pictures to come, but you can see it featured in the MR of last December.
 Just need to grab some breakfast and head out.

See you later, folks.

The brick side wing starts with a piece that has the bricks laser etched. There is a front wall and a back wall, plus another section that goes to another structure. Start by painting the base coat, which is the underlying bricks, which I made burnt orange.




Then, using the other colors shown above, I picked out individual bricks in a random pattern. When dry, we seal this with a spray on clear coat. Finally, a dark wash was applied to tone everything down and blend it. I wanted this part of the building to look really grimy. It turned out like this