Timelines; More PRR acquisitions for the layout

Using a timeline is something I learned a long time ago in the military as a tool for operational planning and execution. The most common military use is in a Synchronization Matrix, in which the progression of time is laid out along the top horizontally with the beginning of an operation on the left, and then the different actors (to include the enemy) and friendly organizational entities are laid out vertically. The commander then can see visually what is or should be going on at specific times throughout the operation and what each actor needs to do to counteract what the enemy is doing.

A more toned down civilian version of this might be for example when planning a vacation trip where you figure out what time to leave based on what time you want to arrive, taking into account stops along the way, traffic, road construction, etc.

Once again, model railroading is no exception to this concept. We know some modelers may choose an era spanning several years, while other modelers on the opposite end of the spectrum choose to model a specific year, or a specific month of a specific year, or even an exact date.

In the March 2017 issue of Model Railroader magazine, Tony Koester writes about this very topic in his monthly Trains of Thought column, which is usually found on the last page just inside the back cover of magazine.

When I read his article, I remembered how I wrote many synchronization matrices and timelines in the military and it dawned on me that this would be the perfect tool for planning the Spruce Street project. I also figured it would be a great way to keep focus on certain things such as purchasing locomotives and rolling stock for the layout. If I am planning on 1947 as my year to model, then it would make no sense for me to blow money on a GP30 locomotive.

Here is my initial work-in-progress timeline for the Spruce Street project.

You can put anything you want along the left side of the matrix. In my matrix I of course put my T1 locomotive in the top position and then you can see I timelined it out horizontally. It was built and delivered to PRR in 1945 and was retired and scrapped in 1953. There are also events listed along the left side, such as the Pullman anti-trust lawsuit going into effect in December 1945. That topic could be another blog post in itself.

One event I recently discovered was starting on 15 July 1945, the Office of Defense Transportation took control of over 800 sleeper cars from the railroads in order to move thousands of troops from the east coast to the west coast. Germany surrendered in May 1945 but in July 1945 the US was planning a necessary invasion of Japan to put a final end to the war. Of course the atomic bombs changed that but still the invasion plan was going to require massive troop movements from the European Theater to the Pacific Theater, so the War Department took control of a large fleet of sleeper cars for that purpose. PRR took their own initiative and temporarily suspended sleeper service on all trains traveling 450 miles or less. The Panhandle Route through Columbus was affected by this since most trains through Columbus originated in Pittsburgh or St. Louis. Assuming I wanted to be historically accurate in my modeling of an era, this event would be very important to consider.

There were other more local events to consider for the Spruce St project. It was around 1950 that PRR decided they would consolidate operations in Columbus to save money and demolish the Spruce St roundhouse and move the locomotive servicing operation over to the east side of town to the 20th Street Yards. The Spruce Street roundhouse was dismantled starting in 1952 and was completely torn down within a year.

The flip side of this is that as a model railroader you can always decide to hang the labels "proto-freelance" or "freelance" on your project, which essentially gives you full artistic license to create your own alternate plane of existence and do whatever you want, either completely ignoring history or incorporating certain pieces of history as you see fit. While I am by no means a "rivet counter", I do like sticking to history as much as possible, so using a timeline fits right in to my modeling mindset.

More acquisitions for the Spruce Street project

Right now I am leaning towards 1947 as my year to model, for more reasons than what I list here at the moment. In the timeline above, which by the way is nowhere near complete, you can see a line for Alco PA1 5756 / PB1 5756B, which were on roster with PRR in 1947. Here they are by MTH in HO scale:

MTH PRR PA/PB-1 #5756/5756B. Noticeable is the rear end  of the A unit which sits a little low compared to the B unit.

I picked the set up direct from Walthers when I noticed they were in their Warehouse Sale page. This is a DC set (DCC-Ready) that retails for $349 normally, but Walthers was running it for $218. The caveat to this is that PRR ran the PA1's in an A-B-A configuration, so to be more prototypical I need to get another A unit and number it 5757. 

This is my first locomotive set from MTH. I have to say I am quite impressed so far, although I have yet to run them. Both units are powered, and except for the A unit having a cab they are both nearly identical under the hood. They have an 8-pin NMRA DCC plug and there is also a recess and holes in the frame for a downward firing rectangular speaker. One thing I have noticed on the down side though is that the rear end of the A unit sits a little low and is quite noticeable when coupled to the B unit. I figure it will require some shimming of the rear truck to level it with the B unit, but I haven't really examined it closely yet.

Under the hood - large can motor with dual brass flywheels and a circuit board with an 8-pin NMRA plug.

The A unit with cab section, lighted number boards, working mars light, and speaker cutout and bottom venting holes.

Same shot of the B unit front end.

I have read some mixed reviews about the MTH Digital Command System, which is MTH's proprietary DCC system that is supposed to be compatible with NMRA DCC systems. With that in mind and not having any experience with MTH to concur or refute, I figured it best to get the DC/DCC Ready set and add my own sound. 

I also picked up a couple Branchline heavyweight sleeper car kits from Ebay. I've been keeping my eye on them after reading some favorable reviews and a couple popped up for around $20 unassembled. I have no other Branchline cars, so I figured I would try a couple to see what they are about. Apparently these are no longer made, so I'm trying to get some before their price goes up.

The kits appear to be high quality and highly detailed. All parts to include interior, wheels, and couplers are included.

8-1-2 sleeper in Pullman Pool paint scheme

Finally, I bought a couple books recently to aid in my research efforts. 

I am hesitant to admit that both these books have great pictures in them, but they also both have a lot of great information that is quite relevant to the Spruce Street project. The Stegmaier book has a lot of consist info and is split in half with the first half being New York-Chicago trains and the second half being New York-St Louis trains. There is also a small section on non-mainline trains which includes some more Columbus area trains.

Next step is assembly of the two Branchline kits and adding DCC to the Alco PA/PB units. At some point too I will actually try to start building a model railroad...

Not So Wordless Wednesday - First Pennsy Power Acquisition

What a better way to start my collection of Pennsy power for the Spruce St Terminal project than with a PRR T-1?

Broadway Limited Imports PRR T-1 #5528

Unfortunately for the T-1's, they entered service with PRR at the same time the railroad started acquiring their fleet of EMD E-7 diesels. This meant that the T-1's were never used on the premier trains like the Broadway Limited because those trains were the first to run with the new diesel power. Pennsy management knew by 1946 that diesels were the inevitable future for the railroad, and true enough in half a dozen years the T-1's would be benched awaiting the scrap torch.

Fortunately for me, modeling the Spruce St Terminal in Columbus Ohio is a great opportunity to show off the T-1. Most T-1's were used on the Panhandle line through Columbus where they were better suited for the flatter terrain of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

One of the great things about being subscribed to the Model Railroader All-Time Digital Archive is being able to search every issue of MR magazine for product reviews of potential buys on Ebay or at shows.

Apparently Broadway Limited Imports has had three runs of the T-1, with the most recent being a Paragon 2 version released just in the past few years. In 2007 BLI came out with a T-1 in their "Blue Line" which were DC only (albeit DCC ready with a DCC plug) but interestingly the Blue Line models had a unique system for DC sound. This required the user to purchase a DC sound unit from BLI which was around $30 but would allow any Blue Line locomotive to run in DC mode with sound. They came with an 8-pin NMRA plug that you could plug a non-sound decoder into but would allow fully functional and programmable sound through the decoder.

The other version of the T-1 was first produced in 2004 and was a dual-mode DC/DCC model that came with a QSI Quantum DCC sound decoder. This is the version I was hunting for on Ebay thanks to a favorable Product Review article I found in the May 2004 MR. The Paragon 2 versions are still fetching close to their original MSRP of $499 on Ebay, but the 2004 QSI models are mostly in the $200-$300 range depending on condition. Blue Line T-1's can be had for under $200 but they are harder to find and are DC only anyway. I was all set to buy one of the QSI T-1's for $289 when this one popped up as a new listing in "mint" condition for $229. I couldn't click on "Buy It Now" fast enough.

So far from just opening the box I am highly impressed with the model. Builder plates are readable (with magnification or at least cheaters on...). It is heavy, the locomotive itself weighs in right at 2 lbs. The picture doesn't do it justice, it is over 16" long with tender, being a scale 122' long over the couplers. It is non-articulated as it was in real life, so to allow operation on tighter radius curves it has no flanges on the center two driver wheel sets. It does, however, come with a spare set of driver wheel sets with flanges if the user has broad enough curves and wants the flanged drivers.

Time to crank it up to see how it runs and sounds!