After running many different layouts through my head I have finally decided on the layout. I am going to model the East Broad Top RR as my narrow guage portion and the PRR as the standard guage level. I have spent many hours on the computer obtaining photos and drawings of the EBT buildings and the operations of the line. It gives me some interesting modeling, such as putting a ng truck under a standard guage car and running it on ng tracks, the coal trains, a bit of logging with the McKelvey Bros, and the interchange with PRR in Mt Union. That is where the changing of trucks happened and would be a required area of the layout. I have some info on the trackage there, but would like some more. Does anyone have or know where I might find more info? I'm looking forward to getting a final plan on paper and will start a general layout plan tonight. My wife is excited that I'm getting a start as well, she wants to see these trains I have acquired actually move.
In 1938, the US Geological Survey photographed the US by plane. I believe you can get to those photos from here.
Here's a small piece of one I used to help design my layout.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
There are numerous excellent books on the EBT and MR had a very extensive artcle on them a couple decades ago (OK maybe 3 decades ago).
I have the hardback "The East Broad Top" by Rainey and Kyper, excellent reference for history, maps, rosters and equipment diagrams and the soft cover Carstens book, "East Broad Top, to the mines and back" by Grenard and Kramer. Lots of pictures of later operation, maps of Orbisoina and Mt Union.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I did some more scrounging on the web and found what I was looking for. I was looking for the trackage and buildings in Mt Union, and I have more info than I can absorb at the moment. I also got the valuation maps for the PRR Allegheny division. Either I need to lease a football stadium or I'm going to have to do some compressing.
Maptech has historical topo maps online for free, and Penn State has both old and more recent (still 70's and earlier) aerial photographs online. I just dug on a 1938 and a 1971 photo of the cement plant in Fogelsville for what I'm workign on.
Maptech: http://historical.mytopo.com/index.cfm?CFID=10848764&CFTOKEN=95182554
Penn Pilot: http://www.pennpilot.psu.edu/
The Penn State thing is, naturally, photos from PA. but Maptech has maps from other states as well.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Also, check the index of magazines from the top menu here. There have been many articles and plans in MR, Trains, and RMC going back to the 1940's. In December 1971 there was a room-size EBT plan in MR, quite a nice one actually. The plan is probably in the track plan database, but the article had additional information. In the Sept 1961 MR are drawings by J Howard Geissel of an EBT 2-8-2 and several freight cars. More recently they have featured Doug Taylor's EBT layout (last in 1983 I think). If it's the one I think, he really was doing a much larger part of the PRR and ended up doing the EBT first. I thought I saw a later update at some time that had the compelted EBT plus the PRR as far as Horsehoe Curve, or maybe my mind is going since nothign liek that shows up in the magazine index. Hold tight, I've been going through my complete collection of old MRs, I'm up to 1973 at the moment.
As you have discovered, this is an extremely well-documented railroad with the added advantage of having a surviving and operable section (although they have suffered financially in recent years). Also, quality models of EBT equipment is available in both HO and O.
East Broad Top by Lee Rainey and Frank Kyper (Golden West Books) contains track plans for virtually every community of the line, and would be a primary source for modeling.
Along The East Broad Top by Donald Heimburger (Heimburger House Publishing) contains numerous scale drawings and additional historical photos.
Mallory Hope Ferrell's Colorful East Broad Top (Heimburger House Publishing) is a primary reference for color matching of your models.
Enjoy. Bill
Number 14 EBT had the best three note whistle in all of Steam. I have never heard any other whistle like this one anywhere else in my life time.
Good luck and enjoy your modeling of EBT.
You are right about the wealth of information on the EBT. The Library of Congress had alot of information as well, including building plans for many of the key buildings in RockHill Furnace and many photographs in general. The actual interchange in Mt Union took a little more digging but I have what I need there as well. I do need to find some dimentions for the rolling stock as I would like to try scratching them as well as the buildings.
I would like to have the PRR line to include Altoona and the horse shoe, but I'm not sure I can pull it off well without having everything jammed together or severely deleting trackage. That yard was "BIG".. I'm trying to find a clever way to be able to maybe add it in the future if I can do it justice. I just don't want 4 tracks 6ft long to represent Altoona and an 18'R track to be the horseshoe.
I'm thinking of going with the stub-turnouts that the EBT uses, but need some input on the reliability of them. There is only one 3-way stub and the rest either left or right turnouts. The EBT rails will be c55 until it reaches the dual guage tracks at Mt Union, where I plan to go with c70. By the time I'm done with that yard I will either be a master at laying dual-guage or ............I guess I don't want to go there.