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Dutchman
Administrator
USA
23230 Posts |
 Posted - 03/30/2008 : 07:51:12 AM
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Rick,
More great progress. That Harrisburg Grocery Warehouse looks great. Nice use of those DPM templates.
I know what you mean about the warmer weather knocking at the door. Yard work is really beginning to cut into my modeling already.
BTW, tell Mrs. Harsco that the skirting looks great! |
Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
Edited by - Dutchman on 03/30/2008 07:52:16 AM |
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Rick
Administrator
USA
17726 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2008 : 07:55:24 AM
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| Rick, I've been following along with all of your posts and pictures and you really have made a lot of progress the past few months. Thanks for keeping us updated. |
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MarkF
Engineer
USA
9272 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2008 : 10:51:43 AM
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Sorry I couldn't make it over last night Rick. I like Harrisburg Grocery! Looks good.
We still need to get the Commonwealth Branch in before any type of operations can be considered. I'll be over this week to get it installed! [:-eyebrows] |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Harsco
Fireman
USA
1101 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2008 : 3:25:04 PM
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| Thanks for the comments guys; it's motivating that there's an audience "out there". Personally, I can't thank Mark and Steam enough for pushing me through this phase of the layout process...it was always something I despised and therefore a hindrance to any sort of progress. With the branch plus two other smaller industrial switching areas left to get in, the light is starting to glow at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Then the part I like - buildings, scenery, details, and operating - can be enjoyed. |
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MarkF
Engineer
USA
9272 Posts |
Posted - 03/30/2008 : 4:18:32 PM
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| We are close Rick, very close! And no need to thank us. Are you kidding? Remember, I'm between layouts right now so I've kind of adopted yours for the time being. |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Harsco
Fireman
USA
1101 Posts |
Posted - 04/22/2008 : 10:05:33 PM
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Well, it's been awhile, so i thought I'd snap a few pics of what's been happening. After a week away in Indianapolis for a work-related "vacation", we got together and did some more plugging away, this time around the future site of Lucknow, PA and my fictious branch to Commonwealth Coke and Chemical. Mark F did the honors of gluing down the Woodland Scenics pre-cut incline, a TREMENDOUS (IMHO) innovation for us vertically challenged modelers....I have enough trouble thinking in one dimension, much less two or three. Here's an overall shot of the area starting with Susquehanna Aggregate, which will crush, sift, and ship recycled slag from Harsco. The pink ledge is the future slag dump hill...
This part of the layout is supposed to be decidedly different change of pace from the heavily urbanized/industrial area of Harrisburg...Lucknow is a small town located north of H'burg just before the PRR freight main joins up again with the passenger, then swings across Rockville or proceeds northward to Northumberland. The town itself will feature the usual array of small businesses and homes nestled next to PA Route 22:
In the distance is the Lucknow station, shown here a bit closer with the diverging branchline behind it:
A closer shot of the future "Lucknow Main Street" area...the turnout is for the future American Rag and Metal spur (scrap dealer)
Lastly, a shot of the junction trackwork - the branchline curves off into the distance; the foreground one is a future team track, and the one to the right is the Susquehanna spur:
Not to be overlooked, Steam Nut continued the thankless task of dodging falling semi-molten solder balls while wiring the staging yard. With the advent of warmer weather, the tug of the great outdoors (ie: lawn and garden chores) is having a severe impact. Yet, having gone this far in such a short time, I remain eager to get things up and running to the point of seeing this damn thing actually work. All of us, but most especially Mark, have been steadily refining the future operating scheme to the point that (according to Mark's mysteriously derived spreadsheets) I will need something on the order of 63 ore jennies to keep Harsco running on a daily basis. For someone with little knowledge of steel mill operations, he has absorbed a lot of info in a short amount of time and is currently honing and polishing a very realistic sequential schedule that could keep a few operators busy.
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Edited by - Harsco on 04/22/2008 10:09:21 PM |
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MarkF
Engineer
USA
9272 Posts |
Posted - 04/23/2008 : 12:24:14 AM
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Good to see you post the update Rick! Although I did notice in the one pic that the pink foam is not carved yet!   I hope to get track up the branch laid on the next visit and we need to finish up North Harrisburg!
And thank you for the kind words about my ongoing efforts to develop an operating scheme, although you may want to hold off on any complements until I come up with one! I'm still scratching my head over some issues on that project, but it will all work out in time.
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Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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dnhman
Fireman
USA
1049 Posts |
Posted - 04/23/2008 : 2:35:33 PM
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Rick,, looking keep at it!!
Joe |
Cheers!, Joe |
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Tyson Rayles
Moderator
USA
10163 Posts |
Posted - 04/23/2008 : 2:53:22 PM
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| I have somehow missed this before. Rick it looks like you have the makings of a first class railroad there! |
Mike |
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Harsco
Fireman
USA
1101 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2008 : 06:45:41 AM
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Thanks for the comments, guys....getting feedback helps supercharge the ole motivation factor, especially now when the sun is shining and the flower beds are calling - LOL. I still have lots of projects to catch up on just to keep pace with Mark and Steam, like mounting the fascias and finishing the trackwork in North Harrisburg. I've also been noodling around with the idea of mounting a glowing red light under the slag dump's hardshell to simulate the hot slag being dumped...might be an interesting future feature.
The real work for the future is being done on a computer, more specifically Mark's as he struggles (happily, I might add) at adapting the traditional car card/waybill system to a captive, yet pretty busy system - the steel mill. Harsco sits astride the PRR freight main (actually a ficticious PRR subsidiary, the Harrisburg Terminal Railroad), so there's lots of "interchange" movement between the blast furnace and the new Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF). What this means in terms of operations is that the Harsco yard crew has to jockey the bottle, hot metal, and ingot cars back and forth in the yard as needed, then hand them over to a specially trained PRR "Hot Move" crew for transfer over the PRR main to either the BOF, soaking pits, of off-line foundary customers. Add into the mix through freights, a couple of locals, local industries, mineral shipments (ore, dolomite, coal, coke), slag dump movements, and it should get interesting if nothing else. Mark has adapted and translated a lot of information I gleaned from my steel discussion groups regarding mill capacities and is attempting to achieve a workable operating schematic - no easy task, I assure you (as an example, according to the capacity charts I'm going to need 62 ore jennies delivered on a daily basis just to keep the blast furnace stoked and producing). With lots of operational experience, both he and Steam have the advantage of being able to spot problems before they become insurmountable and at this stage at least, adapt my ever-changing and developing track plan to better suit reality. |
Edited by - Harsco on 04/24/2008 06:50:44 AM |
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wvrr
Fireman
5015 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2008 : 07:40:07 AM
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Rick,
I'm just getting caught up on your story, here. Looking back, I really like the viaduct that runs in front of Harsco. That really captures how tracks get crowded in industrial scenes like that. Everything else looks good, also.
Chuck |
Wyoming Valley Railroad
http://sites.google.com/site/wvrails/ |
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MarkF
Engineer
USA
9272 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2008 : 8:27:43 PM
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Thanks for the kind words Rick! I hope my efforts meet your expectations! Yes, this steel mill stuff is all new to me and I'm learning a lot! I never knew all the traffic that these things generate. As we build the layout, our obvious goal is as close to prototypical operations as possible. Rick is taking care of the modeling and doing one heck of a great job, as the pictures show. He provides the input as far as steel making goes, and we translate it into operational ideas.
One aspect of the operations on this layout that I've never played with before is the timing. All layouts I operate on work on a sequential form of traffic movement. That really doesn't work on Rick's layout as much of the traffic is generated by the steel mill. Everything pretty much revolves around the blast furnace, and they are in operation 24 hours a day! Averaging three taps a day, once the hot metal flows, the clock starts ticking to get the hot goods to where they need to go. In an effort to simulate this, we're incorporating a fast clock, so everything will be by a timed schedule. And of course we will have the normal flow of through freights and locals on the line to work around. One of my main goals is to try to simulate as closely as possible the traffic flows into and out of the steel mill, maintaining the proper ratio of raw materials in and finished goods out. That's the challenging part!
As Rick updates everyone on the layouts progress, I will try to also update you on the operational aspect. We're hoping to start some sort of crude operation in the next few months, and refine it from there, adding operators as time goes on. |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Harsco
Fireman
USA
1101 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2008 : 8:49:57 PM
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Well, having received a long, nicely bulleted e-mail from Mark regarding what he expected done by the next time him and Steam came over, I've scurried around trying to clean up all those little projects I've kept putting off, like the fascia. Since it was a rainy, dreary weekend, I spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday fussing and cussing my way through fascia work....a necessary evil, I suppose. As usual, I failed to plan for something as basic as ATTACHING a fascia, making it something of a challenge to come up with makeshift bracketry to hand the ^#$*&^ thing...here's a few pics of the effort:
As promised, I installed the foam risers for the eventual slag dump at Susquehanna Aggregate, preferring it without a beveled hillside yet, which will be installed later. This was one of the bulleted items that a certain person "strongly suggested" I get finished before the next get-together:
Aside from construction things, I recently took my Centerline track cleaner and with a bit of sheet styrene, turned it into a "idler" car for hot movements that coincidentially will keep the yard trackage polished (hopefully). Try to ignore the shiny brass wheel in the center; that'll get painted a less noticible flat black when I get a chance.
I'm also one of those hopelessly untalented people who wish they could take a good picture, which is REALLY ironic since my father was a professional photographer...obviously I wasn't paying very much attention. Here's a few recent attempts at close-ups:
Things seem to be moving along fairly well; we hope to actually "benchmark" some of the steel mill operations within the next month or so, provided Mark can solve the material flow matrix.
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Edited by - Harsco on 04/27/2008 8:56:58 PM |
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MarkF
Engineer
USA
9272 Posts |
Posted - 04/27/2008 : 10:40:40 PM
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Wow Rick, that fascia looks really good! Nice work!!! It really changes the looks of things and gives a nice professional appearance.
I spent some time tonight working on the 'traffic flow'. I'm sending you some information off line. I'm looking foward to getting that branchline finished and getting the rest of the trackwork done. |
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
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Harsco
Fireman
USA
1101 Posts |
Posted - 05/05/2008 : 10:01:02 PM
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A productive work session last evening; Mark F. Steam, John R, and Joe H were all there to contribute to the effort.
There is a myth floating around the South Jersey model railroading community that every layout he works on will eventually end up with a Steam Nut industry...mine appeared the other night in the guise of a warehouse/stores building for the future Commonwealth Coke. Just to prove the man is equally adept with fine modeling as he is constructing steel I beam benchwork, here's the results:
My contribution, besides running around like a decapitated chicken, was to finalize the track arrangement at Commonwealth Coke. As the picture hopefully illustrates, this proved to be somewhat ticklish to pull off, since there will be a lot of conveyors, chutes, and buildings, along with the coke pusher seen in the distance which needs it's own large space free of restrictions or interference:
Here's the final arrangement at Lucknow, showing the branch to Commonwealth as well as a team track and local customer track:
Before the troops arrived I spent the afternoon laying out my version of Maclay Street, which will be elevated above the Harsco Maintenance Shops to hide where the mainline emerges from the closet:
Mark F's efforts resulted in the following picture story glimpse into the future: a PRR slag movement to Susquehanna Aggregate. Here's the Harsco yard crew handing off the tapped slag to the PRR Hot Crew:
After receiving clearance from the PRR dispatcher, the train then leaves the yard and disappears under the PP&L plant on it's way to Lucknow. The track repair gang can probably feel the waves of heat as it rolls past:
Here's the train passing under the future Maclay Street and passing the Maintenance Shops, BOF, and rolling mills:
A little further on, it passes the Division Street yard and North Harrisburg Industrial Area.....
...then arrives at Lucknow to enter the branch.
First, it's a 2% climb northward....
..then a backwards movement southward....
...until it reaches the end, where the Susquehanna crew will dump the molten slag down the hillside to cool and be crushed:
Mark F did the honors, installing the Susquehanna and Lucknow trackwork, then positioning everything just right.
The last piece of the immediate operational puzzle will be this section near the Harsco Herr Street plant, aptly referred to as "Capital Street" since it's close to the state capital building. (since the scope of my operations is somewhat limited in distance, I model streets instead of towns). The area itself will feature seven sidings, tight curves, and an automatic Advil dispensor for the hapless operator stuck with switching it. Here's the proposed track arrangement, courtesy of the HTRR "Hot Crew":
I meant to take a picture of Steam's efforts as well but neglected to. While Mark F and I can usually waste a lot of time waxing poetic about some arcane modeling point, Steam just hustles and bustles along..last night he cut the openings in the fascia for the Digitrax remote receptacles using his Roto-Zip and a really neat home-made template that ensured consistent results.
The highlight of the evening had to be later when the three of them (Mark, Steam, and John), joyfully counted up the remaining turnouts needed to finish up Commonwealth and Capital Streets and watched with amusement as my hair turned white with horror. Did I say I liked heavy-duty urban/industrial switching? I MEANT to say rural, single track branchlines, did't I?
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Edited by - Harsco on 05/05/2008 10:12:21 PM |
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Harrisburg Terminal Railroad (HTRR)
