A Brief Update - For Those Who'd Like One
#1
Howdy folks,

It's been a little while. I started a new job not terribly much longer after my last post and I life has been pretty crazy since then, but most notably I just don't have internet access to my laptop terribly often these days which makes it hard to keep up with online forums.

The last time I was on here I was making plans to acquire locomotives and rolling stock to build my HO Faire & Middlin RR. I did end up buying some of the locomotives that were discussed for the project in my thread (from years back, I know, y'all have likely forgotten lol) about selecting diesels for my short line. I ended up focusing on GP10s and an SD35 for that, with no switcher. The concept for it really got carried away with time, but I put together a paint scheme for them and was preparing to send them off for painting when I had the sudden, honest realization that my heart just wasn't really in it and I wanted to do something else. I was going through old issues of Model Railroader magazine that I still have from growing up and an article in one of the issues ended up reminding me of what originally got me so interested and fascinated by trains in the first place, a trip on the East Broad Top Railroad when I was very little. I road it many times growing up, and the news last year that the railroad would be coming back to life after sleeping for most of the last decade inspired me to start diving in to modeling the East Broad Top instead of my runaway proto-freelance short line. The skills developed making models for that short line certainly won't go to waste, nor will at least some of the equipment already bought for it. I have been working on the development of an HOn3 East Broad Top set during the fall of the years 1937-1942, years of some of the greatest variety on the railroad in terms of equipment, operations, and trackage.

I'm starting with a 2 foot by 10 foot switching layout of the Mount Union yard, running from the interchange with the Pennsylvania RR down to the southern end of the yard, leading to the three foot gauge railroad's mainline. The layout will include the three refractories plants (Harbison-Walker, General Refractories, and North American Refractories) which during this time were all powered by Broad Top coal (though that would soon change). NARCo also received its gannister rock (silica rock) from quarries as online industries, and all three shipped out finished product by boxcar. In addition, there was a local delivery coal trestle here, a trestle for dumping away coal impurities from the Chance process coal washing plant, a transfer shed for hand transferring of freight from local cars on to standard gauge ones and vice versa, as well as the famous Timber Transfer which retrucked standard gauge cars on to special narrow gauge trucks and back. Operations will focus on processing inbound loaded hoppers through the unloading shed, and then processing outbound loaded hoppers under the coal washout, with some going to local industries and industries on the East Broad Top, and the majority being shipped out via the PRR (at its height the EBT was shipping out around 4-500,000 tons of coal per year, so there is plenty of work to do). The yard switcher's job also encompasses switching the other industries. There was a wye located at Mt Union which will be modeled, though due to space the majority of the wye will fold down when not in use. The trackage at Mt Union is largely dual gauge and standard gauge, and the switchers there were steam switchers (0-6-0s) fitted with dual couplers at each end (one for standard gauge, one for narrow gauge). Given my current living situation and the general unavailability of East Broad Top locomotives in HOn3, a shelf layout modeling the standard gauge/dual gauge section seemed like the most reasonable place to start.
I will do my best to give regular updates on my progress with posts in the appropriate categories, but saying hi and giving an update and rundown like this seemed like a good use of The Upper Berth section. Of course, if that judgement was incorrect I will leave the moving of this thread to the discretion of the moderators.

I would love any input or advice any of you have, and would certainly love to answer any questions if you guys have any. I've been researching the East Broad Top with some degree of regularity and frequency for many years as a labour of love and a passion, and as a result have become quite knowledgeable about it within the confines of what I've been able to read and see with my own eyes.

Regards,
Amanda (exohead)
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Modeling the East Broad Top as it was between 1937-1942
~Amanda
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#2
Welcome back!

This sounds interesting and I will be following.

EBT is on my list of railroads to visit someday.
Tom
Silence is golden but Duct tape is silver
Ridley Keystone & Mountain Railroad
My Rail Images Gallery
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#3
In a fairly short time I’ve already acquired quite a lot of reference material and picked up parts to get a couple of projects going for it.
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Modeling the East Broad Top as it was between 1937-1942
~Amanda
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#4
I'm glad to see you becoming active once again. The East Broad Top can get many modelers back at it. They just acquired a PRR X29 box car from the the Kiski Junction and I know Wayne, Nutbar and I will be waiting to see what they do to it. 
I hope you will keep us updated because many of us are stagnated at the moment and need some inspiration.  
Charlie
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#5
I knew it was only a matter of time when I saw they brought back conversion trucks and coupler adapters from Mt Union. They are apparently planning to hook it in to photo freights to use as an example of the retruck operations. Pretty stoked!
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Modeling the East Broad Top as it was between 1937-1942
~Amanda
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#6
I did this quick paint job on it in 2000 to replicate an O scale model made for a local hobby shop (this is a model of a model). That quick paint helped preserve it. We used it on our snow dog train in the winter to keep the generator in it for heat in the cars .     
        Wayne made a model of it that he presented me with at my retirement party in 2009 after the last snow dog train.    
I was really pleased. One of my most loved possessions. 
Charlie
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#7
Oh that is particularly cool
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Modeling the East Broad Top as it was between 1937-1942
~Amanda
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