I’ve been watching your railroad grow since 2017. It’s amazing the amount of progress that you’ve made with the resources you’ve had! And I was waiting for the day that you would announce that you’d be running every weekend and that day has finally come! Big congratulations and look forward to coming out again and again!
Very cool! So happy to see an update from you, and very happy to hear that your little railroad is doing so well :) It was also great to see some of the progress that you've made lately :)
Hi Rick, thanks for this informative update, you folks have done an amazing amount of work. I hope you can video some of the work as it progresses on the next Porter you're trying to get back in steam.
What base is used on the bulbs in the signals? If they are the standard base ( A21 ) as used in a house, try some Sylvania/LEDVANCE ED11A21DIM0827 LED bulbs in them. Depending on your battery Voltage, at 60 Volts they will look like a warm white light. There are also 12Volt ones that use the standard bases. They tend to throw a harsh white light but behind the signal lenses shouldn't be bad. You have to be careful when using LED bulbs on DC as some brands and types will not work on the lower or DC Voltages. GE being ones of them in some models. The Sylvania/LEDVANCE ones do say that they are dimmable. Minimum Voltage for those bulbs is 24VDC but you really do need to run them at 60VDC.
And if you want to try one, I can ship you one. The bulbs are rated for indoor and outdoor use. As an aside, if you are running 12Volts, you can step the Voltage up to 60VDC for the lamps using a boost converter such as a MingHe 7210A. As you likely have things wired on those signals for 110V, they would be a direct replacement.
Just love your ability to allow us to share this experience vicariously. Thank you ! Curious - the county that has the base for the Western Maryland Railroad, contributed many $100,000 toward the restoration to steam of the B&O 1309 looking at the economic multiples from the increased tourist dollars - I could imagine official support from your local government with the acquisition of additional right-of-way, and good Lord knows, YOU need a succession plan.
Rick, I know they know you. What happened to the Eastern Terminal Railway channel and their plans to trans-load materials on their end of the line railroad?
I think they are for the massive stationary steam engine in the building. That was what started this at this location. It was a steel heritage museum. The steam locomotive was just part of the heritage of J&L steel, but the narrow gauge railroad has become the emphasis more than the heritage of the steel industry of the Mahoning Valley. If you visit, you can walk around and climb up on the steam engine. (There is a staircase and catwalk over it.) If I remember right, the flywheel is 27ft in diameter???
