I am new to these parts and just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Ryan and i’m 24, just getting back into model railroading after a 10 year hiatus called adolescense!
Anyway, my girlfriend and I are starting to model the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR’s Monongahela branch traveling from Pittsburgh, PA to Brownsville, PA (we created a blog to detail our progress! http://plerr.blogspot.com).
Anyone else out here on the forums modeling the P&LE?? Or does anyone have any P&LE stuff they don’t want and is in decent shape? Or know of someone or a store that is?
I’m looking forward to being a productive addition to these forums!
Have you checked out Bessemer Hobbies (www.bessemerhobbies.com I think)? They specialize in B&LE stuff, but also have a lot of items from other roads that served the Pittsburgh areas. I’ve seen them at shows in the area too and they have a good bit of nice stuff, some of it custom runs. They seem to be nice people too.
No connection to them except that I drool over everything whenever I see them at shows.
Welcome to the forum. There are a lot of us back after a hiatus of one sort or another. There are also a few of us who enjoy the support of significant others. I know nothing about your line, but I love to share scenery ideas. I am looking forward to some pics and learning as we go.
Welcome! Did I hear you correctly that you have a girlfriend that is a modeler too? Man, she must be a keeper. I finally got my wife over the whole shock factor that I’m into trains after revisiting the hobby after a 10 year absence too. Now my 2 year old son loves trains, so the wife is slowly coming around to us taking drives up to Cajon Pass. She still isn’t interested in helping me with my models or even letting me just come home once in a while and pull them out to work on. I hope that she will one day convert over to the dark side, maybe down the line when I have my own train room and the layout is in working order. Anyway, good luck with everything and once again, welcome.
Thanks for that link to Bessemer, it looks to be right up my alley as far as all those lovely hoppers go!
Art,
The P&LE line that I am attempting to model is a beautful line. Its mostly single track with quite a few side tracks… It runs the length of the river ranging from 25 feet to 150 feet from the water with hilly and forrestly terrain… Its a fairly flat terrain with a few inclines and a few declines here and there… but lots of windy turns… making for some (hopefully good) modeling in our line.
Yeah, I guess i got lucky! She grew up modeling trains with her Dad and her younger brother, so when I brought up the idea of me getting back into trains now that I am out of college and making some money she jumped at the chance to do it with me. She’s less into the construction and railroad operation aspect and more into the scenery and building creation… Hey that lets me work on the trains more right?
Welcome back to the hobby! I myself got back in it full swing last year after a 10 year break. When I a kid/early teens I had a 4x8 that I called the P&LE although it wasn’t based on the prototype. Mine was the Pennslyvania & Lake Erie which was a fictional spin off from the Pennsy. At the time I didn’t even know there was a prototype P&LE, never mind that it was part of the PRR’s biggest rival, the NYC!
Here is good link. http://www.plerrhs.org/ I was going to model P&LE, then B&LE, then Conrail, and now the Pennsylvania. I am not sure where you live, so a hobby store may be hard to point you towards. Do you live in PA?
If you really want to have fun, why not include an interchange with the P&LE’s subsidiary…the Montour? The Montour served a few coal mines in southwest PA until it was abandoned in the mid 1980s. Even though it’s been gone nearly 20 years, the right-of-way is mostly intact, but it’s a trail now. Several bridges have been saved, along with a few buildings. Even one of the steam cranes is still around…but on the Ohio Central now. See http://www.montourrr.com for more info.
I live in the philadelphia area… so i visit the fine hobby shop of lin’s junction in lansdale…
Emdgp92,
Ideally I’d like to get to the point where I can expand north past pittsburgh and explore the opportunities that the montour brings… currently we just started south of pittsburgh towards the end of the line in brownsville… the nice thing about this is the PRR met up in brownsville, with the joint line the Monongahela RR… many options in my future…
Cool. I’ve been to Brownsville many times in the past. The last time I was down there, not much was going on. Several of the old buildings have been torn down, but I think the engine shop building is still there.
well we got all of the track down… the ballasting is done for the main line, and we are about to start on the ballasting for the sidetracks to an industry and the coal mining facilities!
we also picked up our first rolling stock, a 40’ box car to be utilized in town at the to be determined industry… still waiting on the first batch of 100 ton hoppers to come in the mail… any day…
There are some excellent videos that might be helpful. There’s even one produced by the P&LE for it’s employees. I’ll look it up and send you a link to where you can buy a copy. Another video follows the west side of The Mon from Pittsburgh to West Brownsville. The Monongahela RR video is also interesting.
You should enjoy your return to model railroading because Brownsville and West Brownsville are very interesting places.
I built a 2-rail O Scale layout of the east side of The Mon from Belle Vernon to Brownsville and the west side from Charleroi to West Brownsville. It was a real challenge to build the high cliffs between Roscoe and Coal Center but when finished, it looked awesome.
I have many cousins living in Brownsville, California, Roscoe and Coal Center. Growing up in the West Texas brownlands, my brother and I used to visit our grandparents in PA each summer and be amazed at all the beautiful mountain forests and green Monongahela River. Pretty cool stuff !!!
and you are so right about the mountain forests and the mighty mon… i can’t wait to model the sprawling hills of lush trees lining the track as it traces the monongahela…
the layout im working on right now will just focus on fayette city (With it’s town and the Fayette City Mine), but eventually it will connect south to newell and brownsville (the junction and bridge to west brownsville), and north to belle vernon (Belle Vernon Coke Works) and monessen (a steel mill)… it will be nice to be able to realistically fit these three components (coal, coke, steel) together with the use of 5 towns on 14 real miles of track
