Certainly Not State of the Art

Newcomers to the hobby would be wise to start out with code 55 track (for realism) and DCC engine control. Both have become practical and reasonably priced.

Unfortunately I am not a newcomer nor am I "State of the Art!"  When you have spent 50+ years acquiring 120+ engines, conversion to DCC is not financially feasible. Nor is replacing 50+ turnouts and hundreds of feet of code 80 track.

So here I be! A DC layout with 59 electrical blocks and powered by 6 MRC Tech 2 & Tech 3 power packs. I still have some issues to work out (power surges when transitioning from one tower's control to the next) but we are now functional! The yard on my previous layout and the current yard never got powered (until recently) because I kept putting off attempting to solder wires to those 3 little posts on the Mini-toggles. Consider it due to paralyzing fear.

So wanting to get to the point where I can begin full scale operations, I wired the yard through Atlas Selector controls. We can now be considered an operational layout. (Which probably puts us ahead of the professionals who will look down upon such obsolete efforts but are still in the forever planning stage.)

Next up: Figuring how to generate realistic traffic to the industries on the 12 spurs and 3 team tracks. The end is in sight!

SJNSLWLT#1.75 (1 3/4 annual South Jersey N Scale Lone Wolf Layout Tour)

nScale.net's management notified me that we were overdue for an official inspection from the forum's Reach Police (can all train wrecks be reasonably reached from an aisle) division. Thursday was the designated day which meant we would not be able to get Bob (NTrainz1) to join us (see July 13, 2013 blog entry) since he still has to work for a living.

We haven't seen Tim in a long time. His son, the Model Railcast Show moderator, has informed me that since last year's get together he has switched from N to HO to Lionel, and is considering a Garden railroad. (We will have to get the nScale.net forum management to initiate court marshal proceedings.)

Anyway we were happy to see Gene and his GE 70 tonner which came for a visit. The little critter did some switching in the South  Woodbury yard which we were able to record for posterity. PRSL officials put it through its paces to see if it could be of value on the line. Although it has a high cuteness coefficient it proved to be a little light footed (3-6 cars on level ground and our PRSL in spite of being in flat southern NJ has a profile with some short but challenging grades).

Gene is a retired school teacher from Barnagat Light and is one of those folks who perpetually encourages others. I'll bet he has left a lasting impression on an army of school kids. His presence is also greatly appreciated on the forums on which he participates.

For our next visit we scooted over to Glassboro to view John's progress. He is beginning to rough in scenery for his NS line (in Virginia). He has also taken the plunge into converting the layout to DCC. John's desire is to see long trains run through dwarfing scenery and he has a 12'x28' room in which to do that. Nothing like a long coal drag through sweeping S curves.

EL RS3s

The PRSL Historical Society was telling stories of EL RS3s that showed up on the property in the early Conrail era and were known for starting fires. I assume they meant along the right of way.

Anyway that gave me an excuse to add some color to the PRSL. I acquired a shell and used it on a duplicate RS3 that was on my roster. Broke one of the handrails and still need to add couplers but I love having it.

Reading RS3s were frequent visitors during my early 1950s time period, so it is just a little stretch to put it on the layout.

I found an EMD SD70 in the NS heritage Erie colors on eBay from a seller with a high feedback rating at a good price with free shipping. It arrived but sounded like it was going to explode so it has to go back. The seller is offering to replace it so he will get high feedback ratings!

Meanwhile set up a quick photo shoot (with 1950s tankers) just because it was so pretty.

Scripts 2,3,& 4 - Part I - Northbound

Givens:

• My trackwork for the recreations of Woodbury and Westville is around 1950 era.
• The RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars) arrived on the scene in 1950 & 1951.
• The doodlebug connection passenger service from Salem ended in 1951 (I'll get that in sooner or later).
• The bulk of the passenger / freight schedules I have received for the PRSL go back to 1954 when the PRSL ran 6 passenger commuter trains each way and 6 freights each way through Woodbury.
• A friend sent me a 1951 schedule which had 12 passenger trains each way (no way I can do that Jose!)
• The most detailed freight schedule I have is 1974 
• ·        So where are the rest of my designed operational scripts to come from?

I was going to replicate the (6) 1954 commuter passenger trains (each way) by running 3 consists 2 times each but I think that will make things too busy (i.e.  too much work therefore diminishing the operators' fun) so I'll settle for 3 commuter trains each way.

In the morning they will run from Millville (represented by the other side of the Camden Pavonia yard) through stops at Woodbury, North Woodbury, South Westville, Westville, (past Brooklawn,) Camden and Philadelphia. In the afternoon we will reverse the process. (Ignoring for a moment that I have no staging tracks to store them.) I have 4 RDCs, 2 in PRR lettering and 2 in the Budd demo paint schemes (Budd only had 1 demo RDC :-) ). I have purchased decals to convert 3 of them to PRSL once I figure out how to remove the old lettering. The PRSL borrowed the Budd demo every summer to handle the seashore traffic. The remainder of the runs were handled by Baldwin road switchers (someone please make them in N scale!!!) and P70 heavyweight coaches.

So I'll run 1 PRR RDC pair,1 Budd RDC, and 2 or 3 heavyweights pulled by a PRR RS3. (I just learned the PRSL had some Erie-Lackawanna RS3s (prone to fires) on the property so now I need to find that paint scheme!) So walking through scripts 2, 3, & 4 here are the photos:

Northbound:

PRR RDCS in South Woodbury:

Heavyweights in South Woodbury:

Woodbury Station:

Budd RDC - North Woodbury:

Heavyweights approaching South Westville:

Westville:

Brooklawn circles:

Scripts 2. 3, 4 - Part II Southbound

Afternoon southbound commuters:

Brooklawn:

Westville:

North Woodbury:

Woodbury:

Red Oak Tower:

South Woodbury:

Creating the "Scripts"

I am beginning to create scripts to set up an operating session. One of the PRSL's primary jobs is to keep the coal power plant at Deepwater supplied. A steady stream of coal must be provided by rail.

The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines does not have its own  indigenous coal sources so it's parents companies (PRR & RDG) must keep it supplied from mines in Pennsylvania. Here is the daily transfer from Philadelphia and points north and west. Powered by a pair of Baldwin Sharks (the closest thing to a diesel "steam locomotive") the transfer run arrives at Camden's Pavonia yard.

The sharks are cut off and head for the roundhouse for servicing. Meanwhile a Baldwin switcher heads out to get the train.

The days of steam are drawing to an end and PRSL's parents keep sending their soon to be retired fleet of steamers to end their days on the PRSL. Here the Pennsy sharks pass a Reading consoladated on their way to be serviced.

Meanwhile the yard switcher has grabbed the first half of the train to begin the classification process.

The sharks managed to pick up some empties on their way to Camden. They must be cut out of the middle  of the train to head back to Philly and points north and west for reloads.

Better put the cabin away before we get caught with it in our switching.

Retrieving the rest of the train we find an express box car at the head of the next cut and deposit that on an outbound track.

Having put the coal loads together our job is done until we prepare the Camden to Deepwater train for departure.

Pix That Didn't Make the Cut

I am starting to put together some "scripts" for the future operating sessions and I took a bunch of pictures to tell the story. I will post them sometime in the next few days. In the meantime here are some pictures that were either not needed or not part of the story:

Sharks on the Manayunk Bridge

Slicing through the bookshelves. (My wife definitely voted against this project. I was very fortunate to have negotiated sole rights (man cave) to the loft before the home was purchased.  :-)  )

Definitely the transition era with Reading Consols and Pennsy Baldwin Sharks in the yard

Putting the Sharks to bed in Pavonia

Breaking up the inbound Pennsy coal train from Philadelphia

The PRSL loved Baldwins, all shapes and sizes!