Scratchbuilding a Portable Substation

The following 4-page article about a portable substation (PSS) appeared in a 1961 issue of Model Railroader. Since this was 57 years ago I think MR will allow me to share the article with you.

BTW - the best thing to do with you old issues of modeling magazines is to tear them apart and save the articles you like. Toss out and/or recycle the parts you don't need. You'll have a much lesser pile of stuff you'll need to file away for future use.

At one end of my layout was a loop which would be constructed out in a forest preserve next to a zoo. The lack of buildings and other scenery bothered me. Thinking about it, the idea of a PSS seemed like a natural for me. 

I've seen photos of PSS and remember a PSS installed next to the South Shore Line tracks some years ago. Some of the PSS like the permanently installed substations had an "electric equipment farm" as part of the substation. This was the part of the PSS I did not desire to build due to time constraints. I wanted to build a "building on wheels". This is where the article in MR came in handy .

Print out the page with the drawings. Then enlarge the drawings for O scale (1/4" scale) and you'll be ready to start.

See you next time! Cheers,
Ed