The Paducah and Lake Erie is an HO scale modern day coal-hauling railroad set in the Allegheny Mountains of southwestern Pennsylvania. Built by Bill Linson, the layout is ready for scenery with the bench work 100% complete, and track work and electronics 95% finished. Brian Post has done much of the electrical work on the railroad. The two-deck layout (lower at 30″, the upper at 48″) is the third iteration of the P&LE, the first two having been built in Ohio. The Code 100 track is controlled by Digitrax; the mainline and some siding turnouts are powered by Tortoise and/or Switchmaster machines; most sidings are hand thrown.
Features of the railroad include a nine-stall engine house, kit bashed by the late MMR Dean Freytag, and built to resemble the former IC facility in Paducah. Each of the nine stalls is accessed by means of powered turnouts routed through the throttle via Digitrax DS 64’s. Other features include an interlocking plant in which trains can enter from any of four tracks (two each from the upper and lower levels) and then after traveling through a loop at the end, return on any one of the four tracks; a helix between the two levels; and a 12-track storage/staging yard on the lower level of a 16-feet long peninsula. Plans are for a steel mill on the upper level of the extension; a sizable coal mine and loading facility coming off the helix; and a number of other scenes reminiscent of the Horseshoe Curve area.
This video was shot and edited by Doug Obert, who recently retired after a long career in production with ABC in Washington, D.C. Progress on the P&LE can be followed on Bill’s blog at: http://paducahandlakeerie.blogspot.com.
