Trunkeyville, the module

[randgust]

I'd already made a module good enough to run over.   I did know that one of the key features was that on the front edge - like West Hickory - the track went right off the tie edge and sloped into the river - steeply.  I knew there was a stream from the aerial, but my site visit proved I had the depth and transition all wrong.   And the culvert was a bridge.

So here's the module, and remember the reason for the siding to the back is to serve as an adapter as well as a stand-alone T-trak module.  That's not historically accurate, but then again, I haven't been able to prove exactly what was there prior to 1950.    I'm really leaning toward a weed-grown siding with gravity-fed oil tanks behind it, no monster tank, but still typical of the period.



Back at the stream, I loved what I saw firsthand, and it didn't look anything like what I thought it did.

So, I ended up sawing out the entire culvert - plaster, and supporting structures, and starting over.   I confirmed the measurement to be a 20' span on the bridge, and started roughing it in with 1/8" basswood.   

I've got it replaced and roughed in with the concrete bridge.   Since it would have been new then, I'm going with a more fresh and lightly weathered appearance.  More to come.



Ah, and I get to redo the plaster, and recontour the creekbed, because it rises sharply in front of that bridge, almost a waterfall.  The road had a bridge or culvert for sure to get to the station, but it's a guess what that looked like.  Maybe I'll use my stone culvert walls there.

Meanwhile, I've got the station to work on, and squaring up the photos with Photoshop (de-keystoning tool) got me some dimensions.  Resized them based on the door size, and came up with 20x12 on the station itself, which seems in proportion and reasonable.   Evergreen styrene with Vollmer plastic shingle material on the gable ends.



I thought it looked like the windows were too high, until I looked at the washout photo.  There's a man standing beside the window in that shot, and the bottom of the side window is like chest level, and the walls are pretty high.  I scaled it out to 10'.    This is still such a unique structure.  The shingled sides of the gable, and the curved roof support, are complete overkill for a flagstop.    As far as I can tell, this was not a PRR standard design.  If anyone can find anything else that even resembles it, I've love to know.

[randgust]

One of the puzzles I've got is the road crossing for the stream.   Today, it's probably a 36" - 48" corrugated culvert, rock and gravel dump fill.   It's still a narrow road - only 18 feet.   Dialing it back to 1920 or earlier you have to wonder what was there, and how to model it.  Stone arch?  Small truss?   Something simple and wood?   Seeing as how everything around was put up with wood and in a heck of a hurry I'm leaning toward that.  With only about a 20' span, it could be pretty simple.    PRR might have upgraded, but a down-and-out oilboom town would not have.

Looking for inspiration, I found this - the story of virtually every road bridge in Yellowstone, built in the same era.   Wow, what a collection of little road bridges to admire...every shape and size.
http://www.npshistory.com/publications/yell/hrs-roads/chap12.htm

I'm really leaning toward a simple A-frame truss, single span, wood, with wooden cribs on the ends.   Suggestions?

[Point353]

One of the puzzles I've got is the road crossing for the stream.   Today, it's probably a 36" - 48" corrugated culvert, rock and gravel dump fill.   It's still a narrow road - only 18 feet.   Dialing it back to 1920 or earlier you have to wonder what was there, and how to model it.  Stone arch?  Small truss?   Something simple and wood?   Seeing as how everything around was put up with wood and in a heck of a hurry I'm leaning toward that.  With only about a 20' span, it could be pretty simple.    PRR might have upgraded, but a down-and-out oilboom town would not have.

Looking for inspiration, I found this - the story of virtually every road bridge in Yellowstone, built in the same era.   Wow, what a collection of little road bridges to admire...every shape and size.
http://www.npshistory.com/publications/yell/hrs-roads/chap12.htm

I'm really leaning toward a simple A-frame truss, single span, wood, with wooden cribs on the ends.   Suggestions?

Go to https://bridgehunter.com/pa/ and look at the various bridges in the counties in and around the area and from the time period you're modeling.
Many of the road bridges seem to be of the metal pony truss type.
One such example: https://bridgehunter.com/pa/jefferson/337216038500010/

[randgust]

I really like that 13' wide 47' long 1920-era steel pony truss on the Little Brokenstraw.   I'd forgotten that there were two of those around here, even if one is only good for a snowmobile trail, so thanks for the link.   That would make such a beautiful model for a detailed small module like this. https://bridgehunter.com/pa/warren/617210056140010/   Wow, and a wood deck.. May have a winner, thank you!

 It's times like this when I really miss Bob Knight and his etched bridge skills.  But when I look at that one, I'm seeing parts that look very familiar off of the same Central Valley plastic truss bridge kit I used on the Hickory Bridge.    Like everything on this small project, I'm torn between trying to be historically accurate and yet have some modeling fun as well, and find that sweet spot in the middle.

[OldEastRR]

Maybe you should move this to the Layout Engineering Reports thread? I'm very interested in the progress.

[DKS]

Like everything on this small project, I'm torn between trying to be historically accurate and yet have some modeling fun as well, and find that sweet spot in the middle.

I think this kind of sums up model railroading for a great many of us.

[randgust]

One of the things I really want to do is to use this little module as a test bed of the Woodland Scenics rushing water.   My on-site visit proved to me that the vertical drop on the little stream even from the road to the bridge was a lot sharper than I imagined.   It's not a deep, flat, flowing stream like it looked from the air.   Frankly I can't imagine how it ever washed the entire railroad roadbed out from the back, but it did.   I've never modeled anything like that before.   I'm having to recontour the creek bottom now and replaster it to increase the vertical drop.

This will also be a test bed for scratchbuilding that little steel girder road bridge, as soon as the snow gets off the north part of the County and I can get in there with my truck to get a look at it.   I have no idea what was really there in 1920, but if I put in a single-span bridge and lightly secure it, if I ever do find out what was there I can redo it.

I'll also be scratchbuilding a period oil loading facility, and I've noticed they were ALL gravity fed - tanks went above the tracks.  What makes that interesting is that there were very visible 'shelves' on the hillside today from the oil drilling years, and that huge tank had to have been somewhere.   I very much doubt that rail loading of crude from gravity tanks went that late (post-pipelines), but it's also true that 'stuff' hung around from the oil boom era far longer than it should have.   Found some great pictures of period facilities.

The legacy of the 1920's technology is still all over, buried in the woods around here - powerhouses, jerker lines, rod lines, pipelines, and some of it even still works in isolated areas.

Another interesting thing I discovered was that if you look to the right of the depot photo, there's a building back there with a gable and a door on it.   That building is still there today with a bright red standing-seam metal roof.   I had a 'local' identify it as the oldest standing building in the village, was the post office for a while.   If you look at it from the air it matches the position nicely.  It's had a second story put on it, but the roofline still matches along wth the location.  And, I apparently have the spot it belongs on the module.

[randgust]

  Made a lot of progress this weekend - got the entire scenic area reprofiled, made an oil tank area up on the hill, got the road bridge abutments in the creekbed, and the road up the hill set in.  Got the dimensions figures out of what I'll call the 'post office house' and it will work where I want it.

And got the station painted and assembled.

[randgust]

OK, so I haven't posted much to this lately, but the good news is that it's because it's moving quickly (at least for me).

Here's the update from taping, through rough scenery, and the plasterwork.

You'll notice that after looking at the hard shell outline, I cut down the one hillside a bit, looked too vertical.



On the upper left I'm making the diverting track a siding - and in salute to the oil heritage of this spot, putting in vintage crude tanks.  I came across a wonderful 1870's shot of wood oil tanks and used that for reference.   I got a couple kits and was unhappy with them, I went with PVC tubing.  More on that later.   You'll also see I roughed in the road bridge, more on that later as well.



The brown 'latex dip' soak is mostly just to preserve and seal all that fiber as the plaster and spray stages get really wet.  It's an undercoat.



I tore out the plasterwork I had done and completely redid it, the creek was too deep and the bridge was replaced with the concrete one.   One thing I observed about early oil tanks was that if they could, they always located them ABOVE the rail siding on a hill, as it was all gravity feed.  No pumps.  So given the geography I've actually seen down there (and the big flat spot above the road on the hillside that now has a newer house on it) that would appear to me to be where the original oil pipeline tanks were.

I'll get to all the details here further on, but here's the status as it sits this morning:



I'm working toward getting the creek in before Altoona anyway.   I'll post more on the scratchbuilding of the historic structures later.

[randgust]

If you take a look back at the original gem of a depot photo:

http://www.west2k.com/papix/trunkeyville.jpg

And you look to the right edge, you'll see a white house with a side addition, and wrap-around porches.

When I visited there, one of the locals that was curious what I was up to pointed to a house and said 'that was originally the post office'.   I didn't think much of it at the time, but I did photobomb everything I could at the time.   When I got to really studying the pictures, I realized it WAS the same building as in the depot photo, with a second story added, but the little addition to the side now had a sliding door that was probably the PO many years ago.   But same footprint.



I'm standing on the end of the remaining railroad bridge, so the position is right.

Knowing that, I could scale the dimensions of THIS building using Google Earth, and then start studying the older photo for the one side view.

End result was a 'backdated view' of the same structure as it appears in the depot photo



I'll add more detail later, but I had to get it this far to even determine how it was going to impact the scenery and fit in the scene.

If I shoot the depot from the same angle as the historic shot, you can see what I'm trying to do here.   As close as I can get giving the limits.

[randgust]

Now, on those oil tanks....

I've found this one really excellent shot of the place in its heyday - and it's clearly the spot as the depot is front and center.   This appears to have been taken from a wooden barge on the Allegheny.   Other than all the major buildings (which are gone, and so far I assumed burned) if you look to the right of the depot you'll see a large wooden tank.  That's for oil.  Trunkeyville was the site of the railhead for the words second oil pipeline - Fagundus to Trunkeyville, about 4 miles to get to the railhead.



As they also loaded barges of oil barrels here, that big dead tree was probably killed by snubbing, as well as all the bank erosion.

Now, here's another shot I found of typical tanks.   This is only labeled "Phil Sheridan Tanks", could be anywhere in the oil region, and probably the civil war general as a lot of them went into oil right after the war.  He might be standing in that shot.



But you can see the wood oil tank construction.   So nothing out there looks like that in an existing N kit that size.  I took PVC pipe and put individual stained HO 2x6's on the surface, and then did the bands with brown carpet thread.  End result looks good.   As this is about 1920 on my module, these tanks are either on their last legs or abandoned and I very much suspect they were gone by that time, but it makes a better model anyway.  This tank transfer is why the village even existed.

[OldEastRR]

One thing I observed about early oil tanks was that if they could, they always located them ABOVE the rail siding on a hill, as it was all gravity feed.  No pumps.  So given the geography I've actually seen down there (and the big flat spot above the road on the hillside that now has a newer house on it) that would appear to me to be where the original oil pipeline tanks were.

And I gotta wonder how contaminated the ground under and around that new house are. No EPA in 1870!!

[randgust]

The most amazing part of this country around here is that because of the ample rainfall, vegetation recovers rapidly, and with it, eats all signs of anything human (wood, metal, and even concrete) given enough time.  You really have to work to find traces of the oil and lumber booms.  The railroad grades, mill sites, and in some cases entire towns, have reverted to the forest and you can really only see them in winter with a trained eye.   During the oil era, if you could burn it to feed a boiler or a stove, it got cut.  Hillsides were absolutely stripped.   Now the forests are completely recovered, and what is endangered is any remaining small towns and rural employment.  The river valley is full of canoes and kayaks and camps and most streams have trout in them.   Our Amish population is increasing exponentially, on subsistence farms and all manner of home craftsman business.   I was at a major industrial-scale Amish/Mennonite greenhouse yesterday just over the NY border and the 2-story new store was done entirely open-framed, hemlock beam and pin construction by the Amish, not a commercial truss or steel plate or bolt anywhere.  Flash back to 1870 again.

Update:  Not your typical amish barn, eh?  https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x882d57d87849d8a1:0xa6e94b136e6a132d!2m22!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e6!3m1!7e115!4shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMCwxX0blDvGM3xwydmdLp8z-uKMd3FdvkFtcsd%3Dw266-h200-k-no!5stroyer's+greenhouse+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipMCwxX0blDvGM3xwydmdLp8z-uKMd3FdvkFtcsd&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4-9-skpXbAhUjw1kKHZSjAFUQoioIdzAO

And you can forget the movies, these guys are professional craftsman.  Said it was all assembled offsite, fitted, and rapidly re-erected on site this year.

[johnb]

The most amazing part of this country around here is that because of the ample rainfall, vegetation recovers rapidly, and with it, eats all signs of anything human (wood, metal, and even concrete) given enough time. 

Not out here, I know where cattle chutes still stand and I followed the old SP MOW to the Gila River about a month ago

[Point353]

I was at a major industrial-scale Amish/Mennonite greenhouse yesterday just over the NY border and the 2-story new store was done entirely open-framed, hemlock beam and pin construction by the Amish, not a commercial truss or steel plate or bolt anywhere.  Flash back to 1870 again.

How long did it take to prepare all of the materials required to assemble that store building, and did the entire (Amish/Mennonite) community essentially provide free labor?
Are the Amish/Mennonite obligated to meet local building codes and/or LEED specs?
Wonder what that building would have cost if it was put up by a commercial outfit specializing in timber-framing, such as Bensonwood, versus using more modern time and cost effective construction techniques and products?