Inessential Cars #1 - WM Scale Test Car

Anyone who has perused the model railroad press or read other model railroad blogs has probably seen some reference or article title about cars that are essential to modeling a particular road or line. For this blog however, I wanted to take a different route.

Those who are obsessed with a particular prototype like I am with the Western Maryland probably have found certain equipment from that railroad that they find too unique not to model, even if they have no use or relevance to the area of the railroad you model. This may go against the grain a bit of prototype modeling as I have heard it defined, but sometimes you just have to build that unique prototype. And to those who are reading this and thinking the commonly bantered statement that, “there is a prototype for anything”, have to understand that that statement just isn’t valid.


To prove my point here is my first example. My WM Scale Test Car. The WM only had one scale test car, which was apparently not the norm on larger railroads, that often had two of different weights to confirm that a scale was properly weighted both at 40,000 and 80,000 pounds. WM 1696 weighed 80,000 pounds, and that was sufficient to meet the needs of testing the dozen or so scales across the railroad. Here is where we get to the inessential part. From my research thus far, there were no scales along the Connellsville Sub, so there would be no need for this car to travers the sub after it was delivered in 1947, assuming it was routed directly to the WM at Connellsville. The closest you get is the scale at Knobmount, a location which I plan to model only as a staging yard. Still, this car was too unique to pass up. For more reading on this prototype, check out the Western Maryland Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by Jack Brown (still available in digital reprint) or Dwight Jones new Western Maryland Non- Revenue Equipment in the Chessie Era. There really is no point in me having this car on the Connellsville Sub (unless someone is aware of a scale on one of the WM branches near Fairmont or Gray that I have not discovered).

1696 in the late-1970’s paint, minus any speed wings.

On to my version, Walthers released a scale test car kit a while back that works as a good starting point. Bachman has more recently released a ready to run scale test car, but only in limited road names, and placard options on the undecorated model do not match the placards the WM had attached to the handrails of its scale test car. For the price, I would suggest picking up one of the Walthers kits. I started out with a Walthers kit I picked up on eBay that started with UP reporting marks and molded in silver. Polly Scale Ello removed the UP markings. Next, I painted the car by hand using PollyScale Special Oxide Red. Some UP yellow was placed around the coupler pockets. Decals for 1696 in two schemes are produced by Mount Vernon Shops. I used styrene and broken guitar wire to create the placards that hung from the handrails. In the photo of 1696 in the Color Guide, the plackards are empty, so I left them that way as the stencils that might be there are not included in the decal set. They were at times stenciled with the rule that the car’s journals were not to be packed without supervision of the official in charge of inspecting the scales, however I have yet to find a photo of the car with a clear view of that wording.

Getting the car up to NMRA standards, as was required at the CB&W Model Railroad Club I was a member of when I built this model, was basically impossible. I upgraded the car with 36” metal wheels, but try as I might, I could not get the coupler pockets to be loose enough to spring freely since they come out through the car frame itself. I believe I was successful in adding enough weight to be up to NMRA standards however. Thankfully, since these cars had to ride in front of the caboose, I was able to get a waiver, and this car was commented on at many of the open houses I ran at while I was a member of the club.

So there you have it, an inessential car that is very WM. I don’t know if it will spend most of its time just as eye candy at Maryland Junction or make a run up to Bowest every now and again, but for now it is sitting in storage awaiting the time when the yards Maryland Junction take shape.

These photos were taken with my old iPhone on my Rockwood, PA module before it had much scenery. Perhaps one day I will update them with better roster shots.

Which Direction to Take

Well, the move is over, as is apartment life.

For much of May and June my wife and I were in search of a house we could buy. July was full of paperwork and waiting, and in the last week of July we got the keys. Now we are fully moved in and largely unpacked.

A few of the guys at the club and at least one of my uncles have asked, and yes, there is plentiful space for a layout in the basement. The question is, what do I want to model as my first solo layout exactly?

I have a grandiose plan (in my head) to build parts of the main Connelsville Sub itself along two walls, with large curves to gain elevation at one end and a helix at the other.  The focus would be on specific LDE's I want to hit along the way (mainly kits I have acquired from Medford Trains). However, this is my first layout build from the ground up, so I am weighing my options carefully before investing too much into that idea.

I was kicking around another option first during the time we were waiting for our house purchase to close. The plan would be to model the industries served by the WM in the 1960's on the north side of Cumberland and along the old Eckhart Branch of the C&Pa. I grew up in Eckhart, so this branch has always been of interest, but scratch-building the equipment to model the Eckhart Branch in full, pre-WWII like is shown below, is a bit daunting of a task to me at this point in time.

 

In 1955, the WM officially abandoned most of the old C&Pa, leaving small portions to operate as stubs from the WM mainlines. However, the Eckhart Branch was isolated at the Henderon Ave. (US Rt. 40) overpass that the B&O built in the 1930's. The B&O had purchased a controlling interest in Consolidated Coal Co. to allow them to build along side the C&Pa up through the Cumberland Narrows for the B&O's extension to Pittsburgh. While this control ended in the 19th century, the B&O and C&Pa stayed close partners, to the point that C&Pa trains used the B&O to get into Cumberland for many years, with the C&Pa abandoning their parallel mainline into town.

Consolidated Coal Co. sold their railroad to the WM in 1944. Soon after, the WM decided to abandon the C&Pa mainline between Mt. Savage Junction and Mt. Savage in 1955, leaving no direct connection to the WM for the customers in lower LaVale along the old C&Pa. The WM did however have a connection to the B&O, known as City Junction, just East of the Henderson Ave. overpass.

However, the access was not simple. From my research of track charts for the area, mainly at City Junction, access to the branch would have had to occur like this. A train would be made up of cars dropped off at the WM's City Junction yard. The train would then pull forward onto the westbound main of the Connelsville Sub. Then the train would back across the bridge over Wills Creek and a few city streets before reaching edge of WM rails. Then they would have to be given clearance by the B&O dispatcher to enter the B&O eastbound main, still performing a reverse move. The train would then pull forward for the short run up to the switch over to the WM/C&Pa owned third track through the Narrows. The following track charts should help illustrate the complicated track arrangement at issue.

To drive this operation, I decided on a simple loop design. The yard sits inside the loop, while Eckhart Junction sits outside the loop. Because of this, to get a train from the yard to the branch, I have to perform the same forward and backup moves on main lines to get to the C&Pa. My rough sketch of this idea is shown below. I also figured that if I have the space and feel I can reach it, I might as well model some of the industries served by the WM and B&O near the B&O connection. However, these industries will not be "on the way" to the Eckhart branch as they were on the prototype.

I maintained a loop for two reason, the first is simple. Sometimes I just want to run trains or be able to show the railroad off to people who are passing through.Operationally though, the loop would allow for a short east and west bound trains to be running around the layout, requiring the dispatcher to stop them as an Eckhart Branch bound train made its move across to the branch itself.

Back to the prototype, once clear of the B&O main and onto the old C&Pa, it was smooth sailing for the relatively short run up to lower LaVale. From what I can tell, there were at least 5-7 industries on the line. The plan would be model 5 of them: Fieldstien's Scrap Yard, Sears Warehouse, Witmer Foods, Economy Wholesale, and Superior Concrete (later renamed Cumberland Concrete after combining with that company).

 

The problem I face at this point is lack of information or photos on the customers in this area. All of the buildings seem to have survived (minus the scrap yard), but pictures of trains beyond Eckhart Junction are non-existent from my research.

From a modeling perspective, I figure this gives me carte blanche to do what I want within reason. Below is my rough sketch of the industrial area. If I were to build this out, I might stretch the branch out by modeling the curve that existed between the Sears Warehouse and Economy Wholesale Warehouse.

(Notes on the above plan: I realized after I put the plan on paper that I forgot to include the C&Pa bridge over Wills Creek, which I would definitely want to be a part of the Eckhart Junction scene. Also, the left end of the upper diagram ties in right end of the lower diagram.)

The one picture I have seen of a train headed to the branch was only carrying short cars (50' and under), so I am not overly concerned about tight curves and turnouts. As you notice in the pictures below, even the tracks and turnouts at City Junction were extremely tight.

 (Photo's copyright by their respective owners as marked and linked from Facebook.)

The roster will require covered hoppers of sand for the concrete companies, gondolas for the scrap yard, tank cars for Southern States, flat cars for the lumber yard, and boxcars for the various warehouses. There was also a coal dump near the Cumberland end of the third track throught the narrows, that I may include. Thankfully, I already have plenty of cars of these types.

As for buildings and track, I have most of the city buildings and some warehouses I would need to fill out the track plan. Most of the purchases would be in electronics and scenery.

So why not build it? Simply put, as I have stated in previously, I enjoy running long trains, and this layout does not offer the opportunity to do that. Even if I did build it out, I'm doubtfully I would get full enjoyment out of building this track plan. Another issue is that I doubt the in-town industries would be easy enough to reach to actually be worked. This would reduce the operational opportunities even further.

I have not entirely ruled this idea out as my first solo layout, and I may still tweak the plan to see if I can find some more general operational interest for me. In the meantime, I thought writing this plan out might help focus my layout goals, and perhaps lead me toward the direction in which I end up going.