PRR/Conrail Juniata Division Engineering Report

[Bob Bufkin]

Despit my over 24 years in the Navy I never had to go through this.  After getting married my wife stayed in MD since she had a good job with the FAA and I managed to not stray too far and managed to make it home on most weekends.  Pain sometimes but with her being a GS14 we figured it was worth it.

[Dave V]

This was PCS number 8 for us.  It seems for every three good moves we have a bad one.  I guess I was due.

[John]

I was an Army brat for 12 years, and we moved 10 times. In the Navy, my family moved 7 times .. each time - we had damage .. most I never claimed .. it just wasn't worth getting the estimates .. Like flight2000, we mainly had low end furniture .. until my last duty station . thats when we got the better stuff ..

[Ian MacMillan]

Luckily my parents only moved once while in the Navy.

Dave, are you friends with Lance Myers?  Over on his FB he has been posting several new photos and videos with his new quadrotor and GoPro Hero3 of Huntingdon and the area around the tracks. Some really nice stuff I thought you might be interested in.  I'm looking at picking up the same set up for my railfan exploits.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Luckily my parents only moved once while in the Navy.

Dave, are you friends with Lance Myers?  Over on his FB he has been posting several new photos and videos with his new quadrotor and GoPro Hero3 of Huntingdon and the area around the tracks. Some really nice stuff I thought you might be interested in.  I'm looking at picking up the same set up for my railfan exploits.

Those videos and photos are really cool. I'm glad he's out there doing that.

[Dave V]

The Juniata Division sits in my unfinished basement in crates, soon to be relocated to the garage when they begin construction on finishing said basement next week.

This has left me with a lot of time to consider what I want to do with it.

Since I don't know where I'll be stationed next, I want to resist the temptation to fill the basement with layout.  To that end I'm having a bedroom built for it that measures roughly 11' by 15.5' (this is more for house resale than any self-denial measure).

Time is an issue for me...  My new job as both an assistant professor of physics and as director of the meteorology major requires more hours than one would expect.  In the fall I teach a total of 6 hours of core physics...lesson prep, office hours, and the like fill the rest of the time to include many evenings.  That also screams for a manageable layout.

I've been dreaming of two 3' wide HCDs in an L formation, centered on Lewistown.  If I could squeeze in a representation of the Standard Steel plant at Burnham (requiring a spur from the Lewistown depot) I could scratch my industrial itch.  Druthers would include at least one side of the layout being just scenic running, with the obligatory stone arch crossing of the Juniata River, a snippet of Huntingdon (since I built the J.C.Blair factory), and then some yard space.  I'm thinking a 1' wide yard shelf would work for that, sort of scenicked open staging.

I have doodles on note pads but at this time nothing worthy of public sharing.

The new layout (if it were ever built) would use Atlas code 55, LED position-light signals, and a more prototypical track/structure arrangement at Lewistown.  My recent acquisition of a pair of Walthers Vulcan Mfg kits would form the nucleus of Standard Steel.

I'm not married to the HCD idea...  However, they're just so darned convenient from both a construction time and (more importantly) a portability standpoint.  A rectangular component is very easy to crate and the HCD is about the maximum chunk size that will comfortably fit through (go figure) a standard bedroom doorway.

And....  Discuss!!!

[DKS]

Dave, what of the yard? If that stays, why not make a U-shaped layout by using the yard to link the two HCDs? Just a thought...

[Dave V]

Dave, what of the yard? If that stays, why not make a U-shaped layout by using the yard to link the two HCDs? Just a thought...

The yard is neither well designed nor well executed...  It's not well suited for staging and it doesn't work as a classification yard.  I think based on my 'roundy-round style all I really need is no-kidding staging.

[DKS]

So, then the yard gets scrapped? A shame, since despite its operational shortcomings, it looks good.

[Dave V]

So, then the yard gets scrapped? A shame, since despite its operational shortcomings, it looks good.

Scrapped?  That's an ugly word.  I prefer "recycled."  Everything that can be salvaged would be saved, down to every bush and relay case.

I would also not use Caboose ground throws ever again.  They work fine, but they're so unsightly I may as well lay a third rail down the middle.

[Philip H]

Dave,
You have a long list, recorded here FWIW, of givens and druthers for layouts of various sizes. I agree the HCD concept is your best bet while on the move. I can also see the appeal of a u shape with three doors to expand your running area (perhaps with your main creating a loop around all three doors).

That said, between your work, your wife, your boys, and enjoying all Colorado has to offer (including rail fanning trips to Laramie), do you want to invest the time in a new layout? I know it's hard to look at your Lessons Learned from the Juniata, and your new space., and not dive in. I'd just hate for you to hit your head on the pool bottom, so to speak.

[pjm20]

You could always work on a module that will be incorporated into the "big one" like Jerry Britton did with his Shermans Creek Bridge module. It would be in depth and allow to model extensively, but also not get caught up in trying to get a whole layout running. Maybe you could make a module out of the bridge at Huntingdon. Not to complicated, yet plenty to build and create.

[mu26aeh]

Time is an issue for me...  My new job as both an assistant professor of physics and as director of the meteorology major requires more hours than one would expect.  In the fall I teach a total of 6 hours of core physics...lesson prep, office hours, and the like fill the rest of the time to include many evenings.  That also screams for a manageable layout.

Ugh, reading this part brought a chill down my spine.  As a graduate of the meteorology program at Millersville University, the mere mention of physics brings back nightmares of ordinary differential equations, thermodynamics and such.  I'm more in with forecasting and reading maps myself 

[Dave V]

I should also mention I am 100% open to discarding the original Juniata Division (after recycling all the goodies of course).

The other idea I had used the existing main section of the Juniata Division and then take another completely separate door, all done up industrial-Pennsy-underthe-wires, and connect them via a short 3 section making a U.

In this iteration the "U bridge" would leave Lewistown by the freight station.

The two obvious issues with this idea would be:

1.  No staging.
2.  Running the risk of turning two very distinct flavors of Pennsy into cute caricatures. 

[Dave V]

Ugh, reading this part brought a chill down my spine.  As a graduate of the meteorology program at Millersville University, the mere mention of physics brings back nightmares of ordinary differential equations, thermodynamics and such.  I'm more in with forecasting and reading maps myself 

Millersville grad, huh?  Awesome!  I would love to teach there after the Air Force.  My folks are about to move back to Lancaster.