PRR PRR Trunkeyville

randgust May 5, 2016

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  1. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    Doing some of my 1920's PRR research I came across this little gem. This was an oil boom town in the 1870's in northwest Pennsylvania that rapidly dried up and nearly disappeared, but it stayed a 'station name' and the location of a PRR 74-car passing siding up through at least 1950 as it shows on track charts.

    The most appealing part of this is one of the cutest little mini-flagstop stations I'ver ever seen. It 'almost' looks like a closed-in version of an open standard flagstop structure, but I'm not enough of a PRR guy to know. So, is this a unique building, or a PRR standard design? Anybody ever see any drawings of one of these?

    http://www.west2k.com/papix/trunkeyville.jpg

    My father told stories of walking down to this location because this is where PRR had a water tank for northbound coal trains at Trunkeyville (Pittsburgh-Buffalo) - they would grease the rails just in front of the water tank to watch the two helpers spin out trying to restart the trains, and apparently hitch a ride to get them back home on the coal drags. He remembered the firemen throwing coal at them....

    The second 'washout' shot above precisely locates the building today. It was just south of a little bridge/culvert, and that culvert apparently failed leaving the PRR track dangling. Because of the small bridge adjacent to a bitty flagstop, this has a T-trak module written all over it... I can find that spot within about 10 feet on Google Earth.
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2016
  2. Hardcoaler

    Hardcoaler TrainBoard Member

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    I was thinking the exact same thing when I saw the photo, so that makes two of us.
     
  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    This would be a very cool module scene.
     
  4. randgust

    randgust TrainBoard Member

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    Showed it to my wife, and she actually wants me to build it as a camp shed in 12"=1' scale for my woods property. I have scratchbuilt in that scale before, it's a little awkward for me, but I can scale up N scale 1x2's to actual 2x4's if I have to. My wife has wanted me to buy a caboose for years, I've resisted it because I know exactly how hard it is. This actually would work much better.

    It actually looks small enough it could be built off-site and trucked there, so I'm more interested than ever in finding dimensions/drawings if it is possible.
     
  5. eric220

    eric220 TrainBoard Member

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    If you're still interested, here are plans for the open shelter.

    http://prr.railfan.net/standards/standards.cgi?plan=59328--

    http://prr.railfan.net/standards/standards.cgi?plan=54559-C

    http://prr.railfan.net/standards/standards.cgi?plan=54559-B

    It works out to 14' from wall to drip line of the passenger shelter overhang. The "enclosed" area is 8'6" deep and 12' wide. I couldn't find anything for that specific structure, but from the overall look, I suspect it is based on those plans. There are some differences, however. Most notably, the peak of the roof appears to be centered between the back wall and the drip line of the passenger shelter overhang. The PRR plans call for the peak to be off-center, although where the peak ends up varies somewhat from plan to plan.
     

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