Pittsburgh Railways & the Laptop Bag Loop

A new day, a new modeling interest, a new blog look... welcome back to MRN Express! This has been a slow summer for me (hence only one other shorty post since Series on Sound, which was a college final project.) But slow-summer doldrums are occasionally broken by writing work, or increasingly often, working on trolleys. And this time, I don't mean at the Rockhill Trolley Museum. I mean what you see below.Truth is, I've put the PRR and the Wellsville, Addison & Galeton on hold yet again, and focused instead on Pittsburgh Railways. I realized lately that a new portable model railroad would be very useful for me, and I decided to build one. I chose to model Pittsburgh's trolley operations based on some Internet research, extensive reading of Pennsylvania Trolleys in Color, Volume III and a growing appreciation of the western Pennsylvania region. After drawing up three or four other track plan ideas, I finally settled on the following. The plan features a double-track loop modeled after Pittsburgh Railways' interurban operations, which survived to become today's Pittsburgh light rail system. The track in light gray is underground and hidden from view. I had some space left over on the other end of the railroad, so I added a little stub-ended line. The railroad will play host to mostly Pittsburgh Railways PCC streetcars, as pictured here in an earlier teaser posting.

But how is this idea supposed to be different from any other model railroad, and how is it more portable? It's not my smallest layout, since my most heavily used railroad is an expandable 4 inch by 38 inch setup. However, the new plan has one advantage, in that it will be built inside of this:Yep, it's a laptop computer carrying bag. And it will look no different on the outside when it is finished being converted into a model railroad. Heck, I might even be able to get it on an airplane, if Atlas flextrack doesn't set off metal detectors. But all maniacal air-travel schemes aside, I will be likely to take this self-contained, stow-and-go layout with me when I travel, be it by car or by Amtrak. And you may even see it at the Rockhill Trolley Museum once in a while.

Keep checking back, as I'm excited to share some progress pictures. I'll try and put some of the ideas I use into article form, so if you're looking at ways to make model railroads more durable or you need a home-built model train controller, keep checking back here, the articles are already started!


[Later edit: This layout is still slowly under construction, and the modeling focus has changed to Johnstown, PA. Look for more updates in the future!]

-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor


P.S. Regarding the new look, I'd just like to say thanks to Google and the Blogger team for not only providing more options for the look of the blog, but also to all the other users who made the templates and components I used available. I hope everyone will find the new look clearer and more readable!