Conrail Ft. Wayne Line and Lordstown Secondary Layout

[LKOrailroad]

Phil, I won't be a great deal of help. Don't have any personal train or industry photos of the area. While I roamed the territory at one time in my life my railroad interest was focused on the AC&Y in Akron. Got tons of info for the AC&Y. However, I do have friends that still live in the area. None of them are train watchers but if you need photos of something specific I may be able to talk them into snapping a few pics for you.

[Chris333]

Wow I just took the road along the mill and almost all the buildings from the BOF to the main enterance are gone. Hard to believe, they moved the Mahoning River to build that mill.

[conrail98]

Wow I just took the road along the mill and almost all the buildings from the BOF to the main enterance are gone. Hard to believe, they moved the Mahoning River to build that mill.

Yeah, I had heard it had started. They don't mess around when they dismantle that stuff, do they? Is that why the Mahoning does a little jog around the mill?

Phil

[Chris333]

The river used to go like this:

Almost everything inside the red line is gone now.
In 1950's photos you can see it more pronounced. And now when it rains hard that part of Pine St. floods so they close the road. Also over where the PRR dips down under the B&O and Erie flooded all the time. There was a pump house along the PRR. This is the Erie over the PRR:


I've heard of engineers blasting through there by shutting off the traction motors and keeping the motor blowers on. 

[conrail98]

I've been building out/changing the staging area. Originally, it was 15" wide and it needs to be 2'. I got the old benchwork dismantled and cut out the next benchwork and put up a few of the new cross braces this weekend. I have about 13 more to put up before I can declare that section done. I'll post pics once everything is completed. The next work is I wanted to daylight my upper level as it's 15" around 2 walls, same width as the lower level in that area. I wanted to get it back to 12" but needed to make sure that all the buildings, i.e., rolling mills, BOF, etc., could be done on that width. I found I could probably do a compromise where the shelf that would hold the BOF and caster would be at 15" and the rest at 12". Here's the upper level plan for consumption:



One one side of the wall is the BOF/Caster/Mills and the other the Coke Plant and Blast Furnace. Now that I can see it can be done, I'm going to start trimming the upper level around those two walls using my sawzall, my favorite benchwork building tool, to reduce the width where it is on the plan. I've also still been cutting up risers that I need and getting the last filler sections of backdrop in,

Phil

[conrail98]

I spent yesterday rebuilding the staging area (lower level) and the coke plant/blast furnace area. Each section was about 15" in width before and I needed to move it out to 24". I have an studded wall divider and, for some reason or perhaps in anticipation, I had runs L-girders along it that the 15" wide shelf was drilled into the studs, since it was open, and screwed into the L-girder. I basically just removed those 15" joists and put in the appropriate sized ones for the 24" long ones. A few on the shots closed to the camera extend through to the other side of the wall to support that side of the layout.

Mill/Coke ara:



Staging area:



I also put up a few more backdrops on the peninsula. It amazes me how once those were put up, the peninsula is solid now and won't budge at all. Next steps are put up the facing pieces on the ends of the joists, probably using pocket holes again, and then to reduce the top-level in a few places back to 12" wide since the lower level is 15" everywhere,

Phil

[w neal]

Great work Phil! Highly recommend you close off your ceilings in some manner.

[conrail98]

Great work Phil! Highly recommend you close off your ceilings in some manner.

The joists going to be painted and sealed. I want no permanent structures in the basement for resale later. Previous owners had a drop ceiling and where it appears the infrastructure for that was, anyone over about 5' 11" would be stooping,

Phil

[jpec]

If you paint your joists black and keep the lighting level with or underneath the bottoms, you probably won't even notice that it's unfinished.  Take a look at some of the modern restaurants you go in...they do it.

Jeff

[conrail98]

If you paint your joists black and keep the lighting level with or underneath the bottoms, you probably won't even notice that it's unfinished.  Take a look at some of the modern restaurants you go in...they do it.

Jeff

Yep, that's the plan, maybe a charcoal gray like Matt Goodman used (he's on the Model Rail Radio mailing list). Most of the layouts I operate around here do that, finished or otherwise. One is all white, but his basement ceiling height is even shorter as it's in an 1800s house and everyone has to duck on his layout to get anywhere around so it actually makes the basement seem bigger,

Phil

[conrail98]

I put up the fronts on the two levels for staging and the mill/coke area:



The plywood will have risers holding it up for the subroadbed so ignore the unlevelness of it. I also put up a new front on one area on the other side of the wall and started moving stuff around so I can shorten the upper level shelf from 15" to 12" along 2 of the walls,

Phil

[conrail98]

Somewhat of a milestone, all the major benchwork pieces are now finished! Here are the two last remaining sections completed:





Next up, two small pieces of backdrop then on to risers and subroadbed,

Phil

[conrail98]

I put up 16' of benchtop today using a method recommended by someone in my operating group, put risers up on every other support, leveling them, put on the plywood top then go back and attach the ones in between. Here's a shot of how I decided to do my risers:



These two shots are of the Orrville area of the layout:





Now to continue around the rest of the first level,

Phil

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Awesome.

[conrail98]

Awesome.

Thanks. I'm actually stuck on that corner now. I will have two rises in the layout to get the height back up to the level I need to have so the line coming across the gate go back over itself coming into staging. I was originally planning 2" for clearance, which would work for the bridge over the track but not for the loop under staging because I forgot about the cork roadbed and rail height under the 1/2 plywood,  :face palm:.  I have to get back down to the basement and fool around a bit. At least I realized this before putting in the next plywood top or worse, trying to lay that loop,

Phil