Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Railroad

As is usual with me, I have been negligent in updating this page. Life keeps getting in the way of what I want to do.

I haven’t accomplished much on the railroad lately, I did draw up some ACI labels and will be installing them on a few pieces of equipment soon (I hope).

The latest accomplishment was the removal of a tree in front of the upper reverse loop. It was blocking my view of the holding block in the loop. When I planted the trees along the tracks 7 or so years ago they were small enough to not block the view, but over time they got bigger (how dare they) and I had to remove one. It’s buddy had a lot of dead branches on the side where I removed the tree, so I trimmed those branches off and pruned the tree to be a more even shape. To my surprise I created a nice little niche to photograph trains.

I have done some repairs to my barn, and hopefully I will build the barn doors and pour the foundation so I can plant the thing. Its only been mostly built and in storage for years so maybe its time to finally finish it.

I did install the new power supply, I have to fiddle with it each time I fire it up, but that is just a mild annoyance. It has been so darn hot here lately that I haven’t been out running trains much anyway. Hopefully the temps will get back to something more comfortable and I will get back to working on the railroad a bit more.

Well things were going well on the P&CS, the trains were running with only minor problems. The trees were trimmed, and bushels of weeds were pulled. A new field of Scotch Moss was planted and things couldn’t have been much better. Then today the MRC Trainmaster 20 that powers the railroad died. I do get 16V AC from the AC terminals but only 3.22V DC max from the track terminals. I suspect it may be the power transistor, but I am not sure. I am going to try and get the thing fixed, but in the mean time I have ordered a replacement. Since the weather guessers are calling for rain for most of the coming week, its not a real big loss in terms of my ability to run the railroad. I could be upset, but the power supply has powered the railroad for about 8 years with no issues, and it was a power supply I purchased second hand, so I can’t really complain.

Since the railroad will be inoperative until power can be restored, and its supposed to rain most of the week, that should give us some time to work on projects. Right now on the work table is the LUD. Its a diesel critter kit we purchased from the Birdwater and Raspberry.

http://birdwater.com/EngineKits.html

The parts that came in the kit are assembled, and we have smoothed the wood with some spackle. Next we need to make the hood, roof, interior, window glazing, paint the thing and mount the couplers. We also need to work out headlights and the directional circuitry for them. If I get off my caboose and start working on it, we should make plenty of progress during the coming week.

We made our deadline of running trains by May first. The new Saw Mill Run Bridge is in place, although it needs some proper cribbing/abutments made for it.

Most of the railroad has been regraded and rebalasted, and the small stretch that still needs work will be finished in a few days

The first train crosses the new bridge.

I did choose a Bachmann Big Hauler for the first crossing and run on the railroad, its lighter then most of the equipment I have, and it will run on my track no matter how poor the track work is. After checking out the railroad and running the Big Hauler for a few hours with no issues, the PRR decided to run a mixed freight across the line and bridge.

So all in all its been a good day. I got a little too much sun and am good and tired, but it was a good day.

Well the new Saw Mill Run Bridge’s bare structure is together. The crew learned a bit about how not to use the new pin nailer. Bottom and top trusses still need to be fabricated and installed along with the tension rods. Almost a third of the railroad has been regraded and rebalasted. The weather is supposed to turn nice again this week, so the work should continue. We are still planning on having the trains start running on May first. Most years we are up and running by now, but May 1 has always been the target date. Its still a question as to if the railroad will be operational this year for the May 1 opening day deadline.

Saturday, April 17, we participated in the local NMRA Jamboree. The South Hills Model Railroad Club set up its modular HO layout. The module built in the Shannon Car Shops isn’t complete but trains can run over the trestle on the module.

Actually the only module that can be called complete is the pair from David Bodner, although he still has a few bugs to work out on his automated mining train. All in all the event was a lot of fun and somewhat educational, but it set back repairs in the P&CS 2 days.

So work continues and we are still hopeful for the May 1 opening of the railroad.

This past weekend, Easter weekend, the rebuilt switch was installed at the upper reversing loop.


Now that the switch is in place the railroad can be regraded and leveled. Just past the switch (upgrade) is the cement bridge abutment for Resignation Bridge, and that is the reference point that the entire grade is based off of, so installing the new switch is a big deal to the crews on the P&CSRR. So far it appears that the change over from 1a slag to crushed limestone has eliminated a lot of the spring regrading work. So far the track has been on grade (2.58%) and very close to level. This is another example of how I should have listened to the more experienced folks in the hobby and started off with crushed limestone like I was told to do.
So the next major project to get the railroad operational is building a new Warren Truss Bridge to cross Saw Mill Run. The 4 lengthwise beams have been made, they are glue laminated beams of cedar. Now we just have to cut all the diagonal pieces and pin them all together. Hopefully that will be happening soon. Things are moving right along and the large pile of lumber we have on the shop floor will hopefully be getting smaller real soon now.