New member, just getting into it at 49 years young.

[jwrCR76]

Hello all,

I apologize in advance if there's an 'introduction' sub-forum somewhere that I missed, so if this belongs elsewhere, mods- feel free to move this.

I've always held a passing interest in trains in a general sense. I've taken a few club nostalgia runs, shot some photos of interesting equipment, but nothing bordering on religion.

A high school buddy's father used to own a hobby shop in the early 1970s, and still has a lot of new-in-box HO locos stuffed in closets, and continues today in his late 70s collecting new releases that catch his eye. But he's never gotten around to creating a layout to run them. Recently, that urge has hit him, and I've been helping to clear family room space for him so we can setup up three 4x8 tables and begin work.

I've also assisted him in getting to his local hobby shop now and then, and I've slowly been drawn into trains that much more. I'm now considering my own layout, and I have the luxury of not having collected so much stuff that I'm locked into anything yet. I'm pretty much starting from scratch and my options are wide open.

Having a small home, I decided quickly I'd go with N scale. As for subject matter, I'm drawn mainly to two major influences- the industry's upheaval of the early 1970s with accompanying fallout and mergers/takeovers, and due to local familiarity, NJ Transit. I want to represent a lot of ideas in limited space, so my thought is to take the northen New Jersey rail locations that interest me and compress them into a single layout. This means taking widely dispersed prototypical locations and eliminating the vast distances that are actually between them...as if the state were, say, one half a mile wide...not 60 miles. Weird, perhaps, but then necessity is the mother of invention.

I'll also be mixing eras just a bit, spanning 1977-1986 on one layout, so that black Conrail locos will share space with disco-striped NJTR locos (sorry purists!).

Getting to specifics, I've been looking at lots of Youytube videos, photos and articles- again, focusing on northern New Jersey road names and locations. I've got a few consist ideas in mind (and your corrections / expansions / suggestions are all invited and welcomed as I have much to learn).

My first desire was to do something with NJ Transit...but it appears Atlas' GP40 is the only game in town for that road name. No other locos, no passenger cars at all. Well, it seems the NJTR GP40-2s are non-revenue anyway, so I've decided I want to do a short ballast train of one loco and 3 or 4 hoppers. I have the Atlas #4300 in hand and three hoppers are in the mail. I'll weather them all up a bit to depict some usage without looking battered.

Next I really want to bash together a 1976-78 Conrail consist of 3 or 4 locos and about 30 well-worn, battered and some re-stenciled rolling stock. A big, ugly mess of ex-Erie, ex-PC, ex-whatever equipment....and lots of exhaust stains and grease smears.

Another CR unit I want to put together is one I really need some help on- as far as correct history, road numbers, equipment models and so on. I saw a single grainy photo online from 1984 of a GP40-2 leading an unseen, unknown consist that was removing the rails from the Lackawanna Cutoff.
http://history.gsmrrclub.org/cutoffimages/greendel_1984.jpg
The lead is #3346, and as best I can make out from comparing the pic to the known CR roster, I'm guessing an MP15DC is behind the GP, running cab forward. Beyond that, nothing is shown in the pic, but (I assume) it is a crane car and flat car carrying the used rails. Anyone know anything on this type of setup? Would the thing also have crew quarters on board? I'm calling this consist "The Cutoff Killer".

Beyond these three, I've no specific consist ideas (tho an Amtrak passenger setup might workout as well).

Anyway- if this tickles anyone's synapses, feel free to chime in. I'm looking for ideas for specific locations to model (the Paulinskill and Delaware River Viaducts are a bit much so...), so if a particular yard/station comes to mind where each and everyone of these consists might have been seen, even in widely different eras, I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks for the long read!

John

 

[Irongrave]

Finally some one who wants to model one of the coolest times in railroading (i'm also doing the late 70s-00s because i like to much.

A cool area to model would be the southern tier line as well between the NJT trains and a lot of conrail freights back in the day.

 

[grande man]

Welcome to model railroading John. Its good to have you here on the forum.

Your idea sounds interesting. Keep us updated as it comes together.

 

[jwrCR76]

Thanks, guys.

Still poking around eBay and online stores for inspiration, and I'd like to add another pair of trains into the mix as well:

A trio of NYSW locos because that's the line that passes above my hillside home where the highest elevation of rails in New Jersey are located. It's always fun hearing a long one grumble and groan toward the crest in the middle of the night! But do I go with SD70Ms circa 2000+ as I've seen them, or Dash 8-40Bs from the late 1980s (when they still striped the plows) but before I lived here and thus never saw them in person? Decisions, decisions. The older set would fit the layout better, matching with the NJT and CR rail crew units nicely. Only the long/ugly CR freighter would clash slightly.

The last (and entirely superfluous) is an F-series EL Phoebe Snow circa mid-1960s...cuz I'm currently working with someone on recreating the Paulinskill Viaduct in exact N-scale (I know I said 'no way' before, but I just found a talented guy that says it's do-able) ...not just a couple of the arches, but all seven, with both approaches and a bit of fill at each end- a bit over 7 feet long in total. If the viaduct is completed well, then the Phoebe will be a go.

The wallet shudders!

 

[Trussrod]

Hi John and welcome to the forum.

You certainly seem to have a lot of great ideas for building your MR which is a big help as well as having done a considerable amount of research which also enhances your efforts and will make the end result that much more prototypical and enjoyable.

I'm modeling a much earlier era without attempting to recreate any specific area but still also have to fight the distance issue and what will seem realistic. All part of the modeling fun!

Sounds like your new friend is being a big help to you, which is great.

It will be good to see other posts of what your doing.

 

[jwrCR76]

David,

Thanks for the kudos. Yea, incorporating a 7-foot viaduct into a 10x3 layout is going to be no easy task. I keep imagining it along the back edge of the table, but at 9" ground to deck, it can't stand ON the table because the inclines of the approaches would be hideous. The real viaduct stands in a valley so that 2/3 of its height is below 'ground level' of the area surrounding the valley...meaning I have to sink the viaduct 6" below the table top, yet also open the ground at the center of my layout to allow SEEING the whole thing. I'm imaging the overall surface to look something like an oblong variation of an impact crater, with one long side sliced off. Hard to describe, better to draw something up which I'll try to post shortly.

As far as eras, I'm born in 1961 and my interests tend to stem toward eras I witnessed myself, so steam is of nearly no interest to me (tho the more massive, intricately 'busy' looking behemoths do catch my eye). I get into trains around the time the E and F diesels show up...and on through the current stuff.

I think I've made my decision on my "Suzy Q" setup. I love the yellow jacket paint scheme that includes the striped plows (busy, busy, busy!), which is the 1985+ look, and the available N-scale steers me toward the Dash 8 quartet numbered 4002, 4004, 4006 and 4008. I've found several pics of all four shortly after getting their paint, strung together without any revenue behind them, but pics of them actually earning their keep usually had them split up, having one Dash 8 working with 2 or 3 locos of other models...and road names. I like the idea of putting two of the Dash 8s with another NYSW loco model to pull some freight in a "while they were still pretty" era of 1986 or so...which works nicely with my NJTR ballast rig.

OK, gonna go do some layout sketching...more soon.


John