PRR/Conrail Juniata Division Engineering Report

[DKS]

Since I never owned brass locos, can you go in to detail on this?

Because everything is solid metal, typically a brass locomotive only picks up one pole from the loco, and the other pole from the tender. The drawbar passes current from the tender to the motor. This arrangement is prone to stalls because of poor pickup and conductivity. Shorts can arise if, for example, a pilot truck on the loco derails. The possible solutions are not a quick or easy fix; they include replacing the tender trucks with plastic all-wheel pickup trucks, installing wipers on the dead side of the loco, hard-wiring the connections between loco and tender, and so on. Shorts are tough to mitigate, however; pilot and trailing trucks might be replaced with plastic counterparts, or at the very least fine-tuned with springs or whatever to minimize the possibility of derailing.

[reinhardtjh]

The Juniata Division will be relocating to Colorado Springs in June...

I got my assignment notification!

A little late, there, but I spent a week in Colorado Springs in 2005.  I did a contract job for MCI.  Seemed to be a nice place.  Lots of cool mountains and the Air Force Academy right down the road was a bonus.  The climate change from FL is going to be fun. You might have snow, but at least no hurricanes.

So far?

Alabama (BOTS)
Mississippi (Tech School)
Louisiana (Ft Polk)
Korea (Yongsan)
Ohio (Wright-Patterson)
Florida once before (Patrick)
North Carolina (NC State for the PhD)
Nebraska (Offutt)
...and now Florida (Hurlburt) again.

When were you at Wright-Patt?  I was a contractor there for 4 years in 1990-94.  Area B, Bldg 45 Wright Labs HQ.  Oracle DBA and OpenVMS admin.   I started in June '90 and was through during Desert Storm.  That was an interesting time.  I loved that place.  Every morning I'd enter and drive past the old flightline to get to my parking lot.  Some days the hangars would be open and they would push out some of the aircraft they were restoring for the museum.  Truman's old Connie was there for a while.  One year I saw an old B-25 turn to parts on the tarmac, parts go away and return and then they came together again.  Very cool.  I wish I could have had a camera.  lol I got to see an F-117 land there for restoration for the museum.

The Hippo is hawt!  Man, I just love PRR steam.  How could you not?

John H. Reinhardt

[Dave V]

John,

WPAFB from Aug 2000 to April 2002...  Was at AFIT for my Masters in meteorology.

[chicken45]

Did you enjoy the Skyline Chili?

[chicken45]

Seusscaboose brought up a very important point...  The shorts and stalls associated with brass will create havoc with a sound decoder.  I still have momentary shorts in turnouts with my brass K4.  Instead if sound in this beast, perhaps I do sound in a Bachmann H-class bash using a Superturbine casting and do standard DCC for the I1sa.  TCS Keep Alive looks attractive, if only it were N scale.

I doubt this will fit in the tender though...
http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/N_Scale/Atlas/C630/N_Atlas_C630_AMD-1.html

[Dave V]

I updated the trackplan to include the new factory and spur.

[DKS]

For better or for worse, here's Lewistown Station, ready for delivery:














Incidentally, that slight dip in the canopy across the front wasn't there originally... I dropped the camera on it. 

[Dave V]

Awww, man...  That is HAWT!

I've always had good luck railfanning there...  I remember nailing one of the last blue SD80MACs on point coming eastbound past the station.

This was in 2011 during the NSE Hershey convention..



I love the station, I love my many good railfanning memories there, and I love that you were willing to make this for me.  I can't wait to relive those memories on my layout, and imagining instead of Amtrak's Pennsylvanian, I'm watching the Blue Ribbon Fleet stop at the station.

[Dave V]

So Dave, you gave me dimensions of:

"4.25" x 7", with a 1" x 3.25" notch at the rear left."

I cut a template to those dimensions, and it's a tight fit!



Hopefully my template is correct, because if it is, I should clear both tracks.

Dave, how deep would you recommend I sink the depot into the Styrofoam?  The current depot sits on Trackbed, so it's at track level.  If I rip out the Trackbed, it probably sits 1/8" lower than the current depot.

Also, is it a photo effect or does the canopy overhang the platform edge?  That might make for some additional clearance challenges.

[DKS]

Base should be sunk 1/4 inch to reach track level. And it is exactly 4.25" front to back.

Canopy does indeed overhang the base, front and back (total depth is 4.5"). 

I can trim it back if need be; just removing the gutters would reduce it by 1/8-inch.

[Dave V]

Uh oh...   

The 4.5" part doesn't bother me...  Just when it reaches 5.5" at the addition.  That will foul the siding.

[Dave V]

Signing off for the night...  Up at 0500 for PT per usual.

[DKS]

The 4.5" part doesn't bother me...  Just when it reaches 5.5" at the addition.  That will foul the siding.

4.5" is the total depth at the addition. I think you may have the drawing wrong.

[Dave V]

Aha!  Then all is good!  I have an inch to spare...  Thanks!

I had made the main part of the station 4.25" wide, and then added the 1" addition beyond that.

[PRRATSF]

Cant wait to see this installed. DKS, outstanding job. Have spent many hours walking around this building while waiting for a train. To young for PRR, but thanks to Grandfather, I did see PC there. 

Sam