Model Railway Forum

Chops wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2019 6:20 am Fabulous work. My great grandfather worked on the Pennsylvania Railroad out of
Altoona from about 1850 to about 1910. A brakeman, back in the days when
personnel were assigned to run about the tops of moving goods wagons and
wrench down manual braking systems at the blast of the whistle. Unlike the
safer version of British wagons, American wagons of that vintage relied on a
primitive link and pin system that routinely severed fingers. While he kept his
fingers, he almost died by having his head crushed between two wagons being
backed together; in the absence of buffers, there was nothing to prevent two
wagons, or coaches, from merely colliding into each the ends. Lucky for me,
an alert bystander waved off the engineer.

What you are creating looks very much like the Allegheny Mountains of the
Western side of the state. The vehicles and structures are spot on for the
period, as well.

Pennsylvania was the site of the first oil well, 1859, as whale oil, which
was used as a home lighting fuel was becoming drastically expensive as the
whales had been hunted to near extinction. Kerosene was initially distilled,
by heating the crude oil in vats, providing a cheap substitute. Petrol followed
a few decades later.

Pennsylvania was also a major steel manufacturer through the 1950's as it
had an abundance of coal and iron ore deposits in close proximity. As with
many things, Pennsylvania is now the heart of the "rust belt" brought on
by NAFTA and cheap imported Chinese steel, and the former prosperity
has long since fled leaving near ghost towns and poverty. But the 1950's
were the apogee of the "American Dream." All gone now.