operators were part of the regular crew on Allen McClelland’s
Virginian & Ohio RR.
The third group is based around five operating layouts and we
host monthly round-robin sessions on Saturdays. Several of
the operators in this group come from out of town. It’s great
to have so many people enjoying the Pennsylvania & Western,
and their frequent visits also keep me motivated to work on
new scenery, weathering, or whatever to show them.
Work Ethic and Help
I’ve done the majority of the layout building, wiring and detail-
ing work myself. I try to spend an hour a day working on the
layout. Many days I feel like nothing was accomplished, but
gradually progress is made. Others have helped in various
stages of construction.
My late father helped me with the benchwork, and a local
round-robin work group has helped with some ballasting,
scenery work, and pulling long wire runs. Another friend, Bob
Chapman, helped me install the hardshell, and has also helped
out with scenery work and structure kitbashing.
Bob’s wife Sharlain taught me how to make trees and paint
realistic rocks using inexpensive craft paints. My wife Ann
painted most of the figures in Annville.
Mike Havron has provided a wealth of PRR prototype informa-
tion, and also built several of the PRR-owned structures. Two
members of my operating crew, Paul Miklos and Ed Swain, also
have done some nice work on structures.
Future Plans
My current staging and train schedule supports an operat-
ing session that lasts about four hours. Many of my operators
Pennsylvania & Western RR - 18
prefer shorter sessions in the neighborhood of three hours. My
big plan for 2014 is to essentially double the amount of stag-
ing on the railroad, and expand the train schedule so that one
computer-generated “session” will last for about nine hours. I
will be able to host three of the shorter sessions before need-
ing to generate a new set of sessions on the computer. I also
plan to add a few industrial spurs and a new small coal mine
for even more switching fun. Finally, I’m working on chang-
ing from RailOp to JMRI Operations software to generate my
switch lists. That conversion will be completed in 2014.
Interested readers can visit my website at
com
for
layout construction updates, lots of photos and much more
layout information on design, construction and operation of
my railroad.
28: A Fairbanks-Morse H10-44 switcher (PRR class FS10)
#5985 is preparing to leave the diesel engine house in
Annville.
28
MRH-Mar 2014
