Hello to all I’m new to the site and was wondering on how to do a model train layout of the horseshoe curve in ho. I would also like to add the galltizen tunnels if possable.
[#welcome]
Hope you find what you’re looking for! There’s a lot of PRR fans here, so an answer should come soon!
At this link, find “the Keystone”, a series of modelling publications put out by the Pennsy’s Historical Society. You can spend a couple of evenings in that site finding out all sorts of info.
In HO, it will take some room, even if compressed quite a bit. The curve is large enough on its own, but adding Gallitzin is going to impose a big challenge and task on you if you want it scaled.
Railmodel Journal December 2005 has an excellent article on Larry Reynolds HO Horseshoe Curve layout. His layout is 27 feet by 43 feet, and his Horshoe Curve takes up some real estate!
Railmodel Journal website is www.railmodeljournal.com/
TheK4Kid
I was just checking out there website a few minutes ago. Just google horseshoe curve, pa and you will get there visitor website. I am just a hour or so away and never knew it. It shouldn’t be to hard to model other than the size. Maybe a smaller one might do.
I finally made it to the Horseshoe curve last spring and was surpised to find it wasnt as big as it seems in the movies/books/DVD’s etc. That place ranks as one of the coolest places to train watch tho. Altoona is cool too. So much history there.
Scott
What scale are you working in? Even in N you’ll be filling a good sized- basement to do a representative scene. The good news is that including Tunnel Hill, at least the east end of it, you can use the tunnels to conceal your return loop or staging tracks. The east end is a little trickier.
There have been several excellent layouts that include the Curve done in several scales. I agree with the recommendation to look them up on-line.
Lee
A basement the size of a football field would be great. A lot of money too…[8D]
It’s been quite a few years ago, but I used to be involved in the construction of a free-lanced layout that belonged to a private individual. Although he didn’t actually stick to any particular railroad, he did have this layout divided into theme rooms (the layout is built over an old antique store in some old offices that used to be a barber shop, law offices, etc…well over 4,000 feet of HO scale track through out the various rooms). In addition to have room that are devoted to a passenger/freight/engine terminal, and a steam roundhouse room, he also has rooms that are devoted to other themes. The first one you see coming up the stairs when completed will be a deep gorge with several massive trestles spanning the landscape. If you turn around and look behind you, there will be a mini-Tehachapi loop (and I believe to make it work it was built backwards from the actual Tehachapi). Other rooms include a dispatchers room, which will have no scenery and features 4 different levels of trains moving through with 3 huge dispatchers panels…the plan is to use radio communication with a central dispatcher and a few local panels near yards. One room will be a rural area where, once scenicked would feature a coal mine and lumber yard, and possibly a grain mill or other similar structures. The room next to it would be a city scene with a viaduct and skyscrapers. But the room that would probably interest you most would be the horseshoe curve room. Although scaled down considerably it does feature the famous horseshoe curve shape (4 tracks as it originally was, and not 3 as it is now). the track comes it at the right hand end of the room and curves around to the back then will go into a tunnel and leave the rear of the room on the opposi
My two favorite “Horseshoe Curve” articles can be found here…
[1] Mike Shannahan’s - Horseshoe Curve in the 1950s…
http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=I&MAG=MR&MO=12&YR=2002&output=3&sort=D
[2] Classic Railroads You Can Model…
http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=I&MAG=BOOK&MO=1&YR=2002&output=3&sort=D
The Classic Railroads article is the best prototype plus trackplan article I have seen with that trackplan totally dedicated to a 4-track Pennsy mainline from Altoona to Gallitzin and inclusion of the right-of-way PRR towers. Mike Shannahan uses a smooth-flowing 2-track mainline that becomes a 4-track mainline for his accurate rendering of the Horseshoe Curve portion, and back to 2-track mainline to the free-lanced towns of Brunswick & Tuscan.
For extensive prototype pics go to North East Rails…
[3] Tunnel Hill at Gallitzin…
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/gallitzin.html
[4] Horseshoe Curve…