Northbound layout tour 12 25 23 

It certainly is. Thank you.

I actually think of this as primarily a shelf layout. Just a long continuous shelf layout! Glad you enjoyed.

I'm hoping closer to 20.

Thanks Carla, so kind.

I was very impressed that it was doubled tracked most of the way. You kept it simple and it was worth the viewing. 2 head nods and a wow. Yelp, there it is folks!

No sir. You're doing beautiful things; but thank you! Love the NKP units you've been showing!

@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061 Thanks Ray I appreciate that.

Thank you and welcome aboard! I always think it's neat seeing people watching from around the world, definitely not something I ever envisioned when I started.

@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061 no problem, mate

@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061 i like model trains too.

Thank you

Thanks!

Lol thank you!

Glad you enjoyed it

Glad to have you aboard!

Always my pleasure

I hope it's fun to operate! Lol. I have big shoes to fill with some of the other local crew's ops.

Thank you very much!

Yes, I found it quite accidentally on a work trip

Funny enough, I did about 40 ft of fascia over the last few days.

Oh nice!

I want to build a model of the Bridge at some point, myself. my thought would be to buy a T shape piece of steel. 1/4" plywood and Cork roadbed would be attached directly to the top of the steel. 3D Print the whole surrounding structure and piers. If additional support is needed, use black iron pipe though the center of individual piers, where it would hardly be noticeable.

I'm starting in on the design work for the bridge, I've got quite a bit of data, but I won't say no to more.

Thank you, and great question! B&LE started acquiring jennies in the mid 50's and were gone by the 70's- some may have made it to the early 80's. So, a few things to understand as to why they never became a mainstay or didn't last. The only reason they probably ever had them: the B&LE, union RR, and Duluth Missabe & Iron Range (DM&IR) were at one point, all owned by US Steel - who also had great lakes ships, so they owned the complete supply line from mine to mill. The short jennies are the length they are partially due to the high density of iron ore, but that specific length because it matches the hatch spacing on Lake freighters. So, on the dm&ir end, this is very important for the gravity loading of the boats, but on the b&le end this doesn't really have a purpose. I suspect they only ever had them in the first place as a bulk buy with the dm&ir. The bessemer also had the benefit of running few empty miles, once a ore train was unloaded on the south end, the same train could be re- loaded with coal to go back to the ships or points north. If you ran jennies, these cars would be at full cubic capacity, but under weight. Running 'full size' hoppers you can max out weight of ore going south, and weight & volume of coal going north - so hoppers is the better play. Lastly, as real iron ore was mined out, 'taconite' became what is shipped today. Taconite isn't as dense, the dm&ir, and later era bessemer jennies got extension sides added to haul more volume at the same weight - this made the hopper plan even a better argument. The cars you see today are typically used for hauling rock or similar aggregate. They weren't purpose built for taconite, but they serve the purpose well enough. They came on property maybe.... idk, 5-7 years ago? There's still a handful of the classic B&LE 100 ton hoppers floating around, but pretty rare to catch anymore. Sorry for the long answer. I guess the short answer is "coal and lack of ship loading" lol. Thanks for watching! Oh, there was also a point that jennies were used to haul coal during a rush where they came up short on hoppers..... might have to model that.....

-@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061 Thanks for the informative answer. If you don't mind, something else I was curious about since I don't have any vantage point to look into the hoppers, are they still running loads both ways with taconite south and coal north?

@@lennyhendricks4628 taconite South to the Edgar Thompson works, 1 train a day, empty going north. Coal hasn't run in ~20 years now.

@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061 -- Thanks so much. I must have heard somewhere about the coal because that is what I sort of expected. And of course Edgar Thompson. Thanks again.

Thank you. It's in the book "bessemer& lake erie in color'" by Nathan s Clark. I've seen the same picture in Google images.

@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061 embarrassingly, i have that book! Forgot all about it amongst the many others i have. Now on the night stand for a refresher. I can get some details that i need of the facade from that picture.

11-12 miles? 700 ish actual feet

​@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061wow!😊

Thanks Mark. I do have the occasional derailment, but they're rare and usually because I left a switch open! This covered the entire mainline, however the erie branch splits off at NA tower, the erie branch its under about 1/2 the layout so there will be a lot there. Today the tracks go down, crosses elk creek and stop so there's not much there yet. The western Allegheny branches off at queen jct on the second deck and will run in the back of the scene for about 40 feet, ultimately it will have a reverse loop over the big helix that may get scenic eventually. Other than the switch off the main, none of that is built yet.

It's 3 decks in parts. The lower level was originally thought of as staging, but as planning progressed it became the erie branch. Still a lot to do down there. This video shows how it connects ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3BVrPZGTgtI.htmlsi=AyixUCyjF_JQ_vsi

@@bessemerlakeerieinhoscale6061 I see. Thank you.

No the 2-8-0's are BLI. They are HEAVY and pull better than almost anything else I have. The train didn't need them both, just looks cool. The TCS install is how they show on tcs's website, but I didn't reconnect the smoker or cab light.