Description

by Dave Freshwater

OLI Tower’s concept developed about the time that I completed my Operation Lifesaver certification. I wanted to be able to show the 3 types of active and passive devices that mark crossings, and do it with true scale details. Eventually, I hope to have working gates and flashers on the mains and flashing lights only on the Alternate Blue crossing. (I’ve got a flashing light device to try on the Alternate Blue sometime soon.) The grade crossing on the Mountain (Green) line will get the passive crossbucks. 

Since nothing draws attention at shows like movement, I put in the Orange line to be used mostly as a display track (not a PRR-type 4th track). There is an auto-reversing circuit from Pocono Mountain (a Timonium show vendor) on the Orange line. There are gaps in the rails with a resistor bridging the gap. It is a simple system, which I complicated as a matter of course. 

Because we use DCC on the Red Line and use the Orange line for sidings where they exist, I wired in a switch to isolate the DC reversing circuit, and those resistors, from the AC power when using DCC. There is another switch to control whether the power to the Orange line comes from the Cinch Jones connectors or a local source. I also built a couple of “Y” connectors, that allow Orange to tap into Red or Alternate Blue to tap into Blue power if we are running DCC. That allows a DCC engine to be parked hot, ready to go with the flip of a turnout. 

The Operation Lifesaver display aspects drove other scenery items. I added 6 inches to the front of the module to allow space for a station, parking lot, and eventually some people watching the show. (Don’t be surprised if it eventually looks a little like the Manassas Rail Fest.) The reversing gap for the display engine is in the grade crossing. I can set the scene up as a controlled crash between an engine and a car. The engine will coast a bit after hitting the gap and will push a car off the crossing. I just have to figure out a workable, and removable, way to return the car to the crossing each time when it is being used for this type of display. 

The bridge on the Green Line was inspired by a trip across the Monocacy River trestle on the Walkersville Southern. The train overhangs the end of the ties on that deck girder bridge. The Kato truss bridge went into the center of the span, to mimic the truss bridges across deep river channels in “steel country.” Barges and tugs move lots of bulk materials to steel mills; this gave a scenic link to my other modules. I need to finish the tugs and barges and get the river poured with Envirotex. I have a few other ideas to help tie into the other steel mill modules, but it’s going to involve a lot of scratch-building or heavy duty kit bashing. 

Including a river on the module didn’t allow the Alternate Blue line to run straight through. So, I built a junction to bring the Alternate back to the Blue line. The junction lead to the tower to control the interlockings; and it is a lot easier to call a tower “OLI” than a station. 

Of course, there had to be a few “Pennsy” touches to keep my SPF (slobbering Pennsy freak) card. Although people catch the 4 tracks as a sign, the real indicators are the station and tower colors. I have drift cards of the standard PRR colors, including structure colors. PRR shifted their structure schemes sometime in the 1950s, although we SPFs haven’t figured out when the switch occurred and which was the new scheme. Our challenge isn’t helped by both schemes existing on structures to this day. The old station in my hometown somewhat matches the scheme used on the module’s station (the hometown station is masonry.) The tower scheme matches a tower over along the old main line between Baltimore and Washington. 

As you can tell from the article, OLI Tower is still a work in progress. There are enough projects to keep me busy, and Jon Percy happy, for years of adding little details. But, then again, is any module, like any layout, ever really done?