I have been a fan of model railroads since Christmas 1936 when my parents gave me a vintage Lionel “O” Gauge freight train. I still have it and still cherish it. The locomotive is a 2-4-2 385E tin plate model, equipped with a matching tender, an orange side-dump car, a flat car with a pile of wooden planks on it, and a classic caboose. Each cars has two single axles and four wheels. The following year my train was expanded by the addition of a pea-green hopper car equipped with a pair of four wheeled trucks. This was one of the last years that Lionel marketed “toy” trains; in later years they made a serious effort to market trains that looked more realistic.
By the time my brother Joe was old enough to have a train, we were in the midst of World War II. He ended up with a very realistic looking American Flyer, made of “pot metal”. It unfortunately failed to survive the rough treatment of a couple of careless boys. My wife and I made sure our children each had his/her own train, initiating a nostalgic feeling in the three of them. Beth has a lovely permanent setup in their basement, supplemented by a separate loop around their Christmas tree each holiday season. Both Sara’s and John’s families have elaborate setups that are resurrected each year as part of Christmas villages under their trees.
For many years we have enjoyed the Miniature Railroad and Village at the Carnegie Science Center. Recently Beth and I discovered the Ohio Valley Lines layouts in Ambridge. The Ohio Valley Lines model railroading club owns a building that had originally housed a hardware store; today it is home for two major layouts – a 2,500 square foot “HO” gauge setup on the first floor and a 1,250 square foot “N” gauge one in the basement; a modest model railroading museum; an extensive Library dedicated to the hobby; meeting rooms; and offices.
For the benefit of our readers who are not dyed-in-the-wool model railroad fans, a discussion of gauges is constructive. The classic “toy trains”, like my old Lionel set, are “O” gauge (1:48), with rails an inch and a quarter on centers. “HO” gauge (1:87) with rails about 5/8 inches (16.5 mm) apart is enough smaller than “O” to permit extensive layouts in small spaces, yet big enough to appear realistic. Even smaller is “N” gauge (1:160) with rails about 3/8 inches (9 mm) apart. A typical boxcar is about sixteen feet high. In “O” gauge its replica would be four inches high; in “HO”, about two and a quarter inches; and in “N”, about an inch and a quarter.
Both Ohio Valley Lines layouts are interspersed with a collection of serpentine walkways that allow visitors to observe the trains close-up. Typically, the layout is four or five feet wide with an appropriate background on a vertical wall, usually with a hill side permitting several levels of track. In most cases there are three or four through tracks with trains running in both directions. Members of the club operate their own trains using hand-held wireless controllers. Unlike toy trains, these trains can be extremely long; Beth counted over forty cars on one. One of the operators proudly showed off his train to us. Having an NFL theme, it consisted of boxcars decorated with each team’s logo and something honoring a Pittsburgh area player – Dan Marino for the Miami Dolphins, Paul Posluszny for the Jacksonville Jaguars, etc.
In general, the scenery is remarkably life-like. Another member proudly pointed out to us a hillside with exposed rock strata that he had crafted. It is hard to believe that such a small group of model-makers have been able to put together such an elaborate display. It is also impressive that they have been able to piece together urban scenes, rural vistas, and industrial sites so well. The “N” gauge layout has an excellent city scene, complete with an authentic Pittsburgh PCC (Presidents’ Conference Committee) trolley running through it. The trolley was programmed to come to a halt at each stop, pause there long enough for passengers to exit and enter, and then proceeding on down the street.
I was intrigued by a steel mill prominent in the layout. It included a blast furnace, torpedo cars, an electric arc furnace shop, and a rolling mill. As I was explaining to Beth that this was an incorrect combination (basic oxygen furnaces refine steel from blast furnaces; electric arc furnaces re-melt scrap), one of the members overheard me and chose to insert himself into the conversation. I was impressed that he was genuinely interested in constructive criticism, so I proceeded to criticize the design of the several short through truss bridges (like the bridge over Chartiers Creek on the old Pennsy line between Bridgeville and Vanadium Road). These were constructed from kits; we jointly concluded that the fault lay with the kit supplier, not the model-builder. He then showed us several large truss bridges that had been produced by 3-D printing – that is indeed a remarkable process.
Some of the portions of the layouts model actual local lines, including the Montour Railroad. I was wishing someone would do that for the Chartiers Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad when, by accident, I came across a website for a gentleman in Texas who is doing just that. His plans are ambitious, a series of twenty-four-inch long modules. So far he has only completed one module – the tipple for the Pittsburg and Buffalo Coal Company’s Hazel mine in Canonsburg – but it is impressive. His website has an excellent collection of reference material for the original line.
The Ohio Valley Lines layouts are available to the public via open houses, Saturdays and Sundays, on seven consecutive holiday weekends between late November and early January. I am already looking forward to visiting them at least once next year.