Thursday, December 27, 2012

Scenery Phases / Woodbury Progress

I judge my scenery progress by the following list (which keeps growing).
[When done you go back and re-do numbers 4-6 and 8-11  :-)   ]. 
Since Woodbury is up to phase 12, I guess it is time for a photo progress report.

Scenery Phases
1.      Build benchwork
2.      Paint wooden platform surface
3.      Track - lay & paint
4.      Roads - install & paint
5.      Sculptamold hills
6.      Basic Ground cover
7.      Sidewalks - install & paint
8.      Trees
9.      Secondary ground cover; bushes, weeds
10.  People & station details
11.  Special scenes
12.  Custom buildings which accurately reflect the area

I need:
                Woodbury: station
                3 PRR passenger shelters (Westville, South Westville, North Woodbury)
                Westville: brick station
                Westville: Buzby Bros. (now that I have found a picture)
                Woodbury: St. Pat's Gothic church
                Walnut Lane bridge

Since my eyesight ain't what it used to be, I'll probably need to find someone to do the custom buildings. Since I'm unemployed, I will have to find someone to do them and accept payment in N scale freight cars. This could be tough. :-)

I'll leave most of the pictures smaller since you can click on them to make them larger.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Woodbury Station on Cooper St
A Presbyterian type church is standing in for St. Pat's
Cooper St.
Parking lot chain link fence will eventually be reduced to half that height.
E Barber Ave and Red Oak tower
South Woodbury yard
More traffic than S Barber Ave ever saw!
 
Woodbury Bottling Co (been gone a while!)
A freight train coming off the Penns Grove branch
(The Woodbury yard once had an icing facility.)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Christmas Presents!

Great Christmas! I got 3 Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines cabins (PRR for cabooses),

a PRR 2013 calendar, a couple of weathered freights cars, and a NCC-1701 Star Trek Enterprise pizza cutter.
 
My son and his 6 kids came up from Florida for the holidays, so I had all 4 of my children and 12 grandkids together again! God's blessings continue to flow in this special season. It doesn't get any better than that for me!
 
One Solitary Life

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in another obscure village where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty.

He never wrote a book,
He never held an office,
He never went to college,
He never visited a big city,
He never travelled more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born,
He did none of the things usually associated with greatness ,
He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty three, his friends ran away.
One of them denied him .
He was turned over to his enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves.
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth

When he was dead,
He was laid in a borrowed grave,
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone.
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race, and the leader of mankind's progress.
All the armies that have ever marched,
All the navies that have ever been built and sailed,
All the parliaments that have ever sat,
All the kings that ever reigned,   put together,   have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life!

Adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in “The Real Jesus and Other Sermons” © 1926 by the Judson Press of Philadelphia (pp 123-124)

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Christmas Trains ! ! !

I've made some good progress on the Woodbury modules (sidewalks and trees) but in honor of the best holiday of the year (God's special gift to mankind), I wanted to highlight Christmas trains! Showing my age, I still vividly remember the great Lionel layouts the major department stores in Philadelphia used to set up for Christmas displays. I still get excited remembering them and trying to figure out which tunnel each train would come out of!

As a kid I would pester my Dad to set up the Lionel and American Flyer trains each Christmas. Both he and my uncle Fred would set up 4'x8' platforms (Fred's had the tree on his, while ours took up a good chunk of the dining room).

Unfortunately none of my 4 kids ever caught my love of trains but it was not from lack of effort on my part. I am still trying to fan some interest from our 12 grandchildren. I put up a Lionel train under our tree until my wife needs the room for presents:

 
I used to take a 2'x4' layout to work each year:
 
 
And I made 3 of my kids similar layouts for under their trees. I just cut a hole in one of the loops for the tree to protrude out of:


My youngest son was a big fan of Micro Machines growing up so I used many of his old buildings on his Christmas layout:
 
My oldest son lost his layout in transit when they moved back to New Jersey from Nashville (his wife is a talented singer) so it got replaced with a 6'x6' layout that I had made to take to work (until I realized it was too much trouble to cart in and set up):

Like I always said (temporarily forgetting my theology), it's not Christmas without trains!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

South Woodbury Yard

First pass scenery has progressed to the South Woodbury yard area. In the small yard, Woodbury actually had an icing track at one time. I have no idea how long it lasted and have not seen any photos of it but it sure gives an extra excuse for some additional operational action. Also there were some locals from the Salem and Deepwater branches that would terminate at Woodbury and drop off some cars to be picked up to continue to Camden and beyond.
 
Here are some mid-progress photos.


 
 
 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

The Woodbury Station Area

Well, we actually have 2 trains running concurrently now but not with the reliability needed. No matter how well the track is tested, following ballasting we start all over. Plus all the straight alignments now look like Penn Central track in bankruptcy. Oh well, keep plugging.

Attached are some progress photos in the Woodbury Station area. I am trying to recreate some scenes from a Long/Coxey photo and another in the Images of America - Woodbury book. Only the first pass scenery has been put in place and a lot of stand-in buildings are employed.


 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, December 3, 2012

The Paulsboro Incident

I do this blog to record the progress on my PRSL model railroad layout and to document what I learn about the real PRSL and it's transitions to Conrail and finally Conrail Shared Assets (CSA) (which is now controlled by Norfolk Southern and CSX). This post will document the train wreck that took place Friday November 30th in Paulsboro, NJ.

Paulsboro is a refinery town located on the CSA branch to Deepwater. Besides the refinery, this branch supports a major DuPont complex and a large power plant. Having this line out of operation will cost them a lot of money and they are still a week or two away from getting it cleaned up.
 
 
American Red Cross
ABC News
Rich Taylor
Rich Taylor



From the Dec. 1, 2012 Gloucester County Times:

"... residents living within a 12-block radius of the accident scene were moved from their homes as a precautionary measure in the face of residual levels of vinyl chloride — a toxic, colorless and flammable gas that causes irritation, headache, shortness of breath and dizziness — in the air. ...In all, approximately 500 people have been evacuated from their homes as of Saturday morning.

“Clean-up will commence after the [National Transportation Safety Board] concludes its investigation at the scene,” said Moore. “The focus for us will be the safety of the people around the scene and the first responders.”
Conrail, which owns and maintains the rail bridge, has placed 106 families in area hotels. ...
“They’re paying for everything — food and lodging.”

Officials at Underwood Memorial Hospital, in Woodbury, said 10 people walked into the medical center’s emergency department reporting respiratory problems Saturday afternoon, bringing the total of number of residents complaining about the detrimental effects of the vinyl chloride in the air to 86.

“There have been no admissions, however,” said Molly Tritt, a spokeswoman for Underwood. “They have been treated and released.”

According to NTSB Chairwoman Debrorah Hersman, in a press conference at the Paulsboro Fire Department, the conductor of the train that derailed Friday morning first came upon a stop light before crossing the bridge.
“There was a conductor and an engineer in the front part of the first locomotive. They approached the movable bridge and there is a red signal there; a stop signal,” said Hersman, adding that the bridge was in the “closed” position, meaning that it was closed to water traffic, but appeared open to trains. “This is an unusual position to see the bridge in at that time — they would have expected to see the bridge in an open position, and by that we mean open to recreational vessels over the waterway.”

According to Hersman, the conductor and engineer “keyed in” a signal over radio to close the bridge and show a green light. However, the light remained red.

At that point, the conductor exited the train to examine the crossing bridge.

The conductor observed it appeared safe to cross, and had the engineer signal the bridge three more times for a green light, according to statements made by the engineer and conductor to NTSB officials, Hersman said. All three attempts failed.

The engineer then called Conrail dispatch over the radio.

“He received approval to cross the bridge and pass that red signal,” said Hersman. “Two locomotives and several cars made it across the bridge and were one other side when crew stated they saw the bridge collapse and pulled the emergency break.”

Five cars made it over the bridge, which is 200 feet long, without incident. The sixth car, carrying plastic pellets, and the seventh car, carrying lumber, derailed onto land. The eighth car derailed partially onto land and partially in water, and was carrying ethanol. Cars 9, 10 and 11 were all carrying vinyl chloride. Cars 9, 10 and 11 all derailed into the water, with car 10 containing the 1- by 3-foot breech in the hull, which caused the leak of vinyl chloride. Car 12, also containing vinyl chloride, had also derailed but is still partially on the bridge. Car 13 is standing upright, still coupled to car 12.

Hersman stated data recording devices recovered from one of the locomotives indicate that the train had been moving at a speed of 8 mph just before the emergency brake was engaged. The speed limit over the bridge is 10 mph.
The freight train had been traveling south from Camden, leaving at 5 a.m. on it's way to Carney's Point, in Salem County.

According to the NTSB, the punctured tank was built in 1990 by Trinity Industries, based in Dallas, and contained between 23,000 and 24,000 pounds of vinyl chloride.

“We are continuing to question the crew — the conductor, the locomotive engineer and the dispatcher — as well as other crews who may have traversed the bridge in the days prior to the accident,” said Hersman, adding that between four and eight trains crossed the bridge on daily basis before the collapse. “And so we still have some work to do.”
Hersman stated the NTBS is still waiting for clearance from the U.S. Coast Guard to guarantee the area is safe for investigators to gather evidence at the scene.


As of today, December 3rd, the people removed from their homes will not be allowed to return for an estimated 2 weeks! Car removal is currently halted.

UPDATES:
Dec 9: 329 people have returned to their homes; 30 people still not allowed back
Dec 10: "A" frame removed
Dec 11: Crane beginning to remove cars
Dec 15: First trains over the bridge (locked in place)
 

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Progress Report - First Train

Since my Haven Branch of the Pennsylvania RR moved to Alabama in early October I have had no running trains. Seeking to rectify that before Christmas I moved past the unfinished Woodbury modules and constructed a temporary connection on the window end. First train ran yesterday (still have some glitches to correct) so I figured it was time for a photo progress report. So buckle your seat belts and here we go:

We start by crossing the Delaware river into New jersey. A pair of PRSL GP-38s (2005, 2008) are on the head of a 36 car freight. (Until someone releases some Baldwin road switchers it is tough to get back to the early 1950s!)
 
 
On raised roadbed we split the 2 Bellmawr circles
 

A wood trestle carries us over Big Timber Creek ("Crik" to the locals).

Running past the old power plant that was used to electrify the outside 3rd rail in the 1940s, we enter Westville.


This is the stand-in for the 2nd Westville station
 

High-level view of the tracks bordering downtown Westville
 

Following along Gateway Blvd we can spot the Barry Bros. coal trestle in the background.
 

We can see Westville in the distance above North Woodbury's Hollaway Lumber Co,
 

North Woodbury's Washington Ave can be seen behind the engines.
 

Entering the transition duck-under.
 

Ducking under the Hunter St Overpass from North Woodbury
 

Meeting a pair of RDCs at the Woodbury Station on Cooper Ave.
 

Red Oak Tower on East Barber Ave


South Barber Ave just before the Woodbury yard
 

Evergreen Ave overpass in North Woodbury
 

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Train Storage - Part 2

In the September 9th, 2012 post, I started discussing where to store the railroad cars. This week I implemented a storage shelf under one of my center of the room modules. I got a 1x12 board, 6 feet long and mounted a 1x3 down the center of it. The 1x3 backs/aligns the boxes and also provides L girder support so the board will not sag. Stacked 3 high it holds 135 MicroTrain containers on each side (total 270 cars). They could easily be stacked 4 high for a 360 car capacity. I store my cars by 1) type, 2) road name (reporting marks), 3) road number so I will probably have stacks or 1, 2, and 3 cars only and not use the full capacity.

I also plan to get some 1x6s and repeat the process with single sided storage on the wall hugging modules. (You have to do things like this when you mange to accumulate almost 900 freight cars!)