N Gauge Counterattack

Since members on the PRSL Historical Society were showing off some their work in S gauge (Bill Lane's magnificent engines and cabins) and O gauge, I figured I would counter with a few photos from the other end of the scale spectrum. (Where's the HO reps?)

    Westville Buzby Bros cement, power plant, Brooklawn circle

    Westville power plant, highway bridge over Timber Creek

    North Westville

    Route 130 overpass over Gateway Blvd

    Barry Bros. coal trestle in right background

PRSL References

I was visited recently by a new friend who plans to model the PRSL in HO. I gave him a list of references that I should probably document here in case by chance some others seek to undertake modeling the PRSL. (I have listed the pictures dealing with Westville and Woodbury.)

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines by Frederick A. Kramer 1980 edition

Pictures: Westville p. 94; Woodbury pp16,49; 1974 Freight Schedule p.94; PRSL Roster pp 101-102

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines by Frederick A. Kramer 2011 edition (same text but a lot of new pictures) Pictures:  Westville pp 22,129; Woodbury pp 11,90,104; PRSL Roster pp 138-139

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in Color by John P. Stroup Volume 1

Westville pp 102-103; Woodbury p. 104; Diesel Roster p.124

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in Color by John P. Stroup Volume2

Westville p. 99

Images of America: Woodbury by Sands & Turner; RR pictures: pp 35, 40-43, 45

Images of Rail: Steam to Diesel in NJ by Charles P. Caldes

            Gloucester  p. 68; Woodbury pp. 70, 103

By Rail to the Boardwalk by Richard M. Gladulich

Atlantic City Railroad by Cook & Coxey - deals with the Reading RR portion of the line.

The first two were my best resources, #3 & 4 have the nicest pictures.

Internet sites:

Join the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Historical Society: http://www.prslhs.com/

Excellent source of PRSL history from a lot of men who worked on it.

The Reading Modeler: http://www.readingmodeler.com/ contains the 1954 Freight Shippers Guide listing all customers (and shipped products) on the PRSL

SJRails: http://www.sjrail.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Strasburg Model Railroad Club: http://www.trainweb.org/smrc/prsl_layout.html has modeled the PRSL in HO from Woodbury to Glassboro

Treasure Chest

Wow, John just came up with a document that is a treasure chest of information. It includes the 1954 freight and passenger schedules and a ton of other information such as L class engines (Mikado's) were allowed on the south track of the Westville trestle but not the north track. This document is going to be fun to comb through. A few areas had 60 mph limits but most were significantly lower. The Westville trestle was 10 mph in both directions. The Mantua Creek bridge was 30 mph. I do not believe 4-6-2s or 2-8-2s were permitted on most sidings. Good thing that most steam power was 4-4-2s and 2-8-0s.

The passenger schedule was 6 trains north in the morning and 6 south in the evening. I guess I'll have to make sure I have a continuous connection so I can double up on passenger trains. I am surprised there are no schedules for the Salem and Penns Grove legs. PRSL books show meets at Woodbury to transfer passengers. Did that service end by 1954? I would not have thought so.

Schedules

I guess during my period of enforced waiting I should work on something else. How about the challenge of a schedule. I haven't looked for Passenger schedules yet but they should be easy enough to find. In the 1950s the PRSL was still required to keep commuter trains going. That meant several towards Philadelphia in the morning and several south in the evening (multiple routes and connections at Woodbury). The Atlantic City and "racetrack special" (Atlantic City Racetrack) routes did not run on the lines through Woodbury.

The Woodbury routes were supported by Baldwin diesels and 1 to 3 Pennsy P70 heavyweight coaches each. I have plenty of them. I believe most of the Doodlebugs were gone by the 50's. (I have one just in case). In the early 50s, the PRSL acquired 12 Budd RDC-1's  (see the Aug. 1, 2011 blog). I have 4 to support that role.

Turning to freight schedules, it gets a little murky. The nearest schedule I can find was in the Kramer PRSL book and it covers 1974.

Adding notes from John Acton. a block operator in the early 1970s, I have come up with the following:

The crews worked 14 hour shifts.

Bulson 22a (?) worked Camden to Westville (Texaco) to Camden

WY33,4 (6:45am) to Millville - direct run, no stops

WY 840,1 (10:45am) to Pedricktown - full shift, all stops along the way

WY79,80 (2:45pm) to Paulsboro - John has this going to Glassboro instead of Paulsboro! - worked Woodbury & Glassboro  ???

WY846,7 (4:45pm) to Thorofare - I assume this did the Shell chemical facility in Thorofare (and all stops?)

WY 842,3 (11:15pm) to Carney's point (DuPont) (11PM to 8 AM) full shift all stops along the way

WY50,51 (5:00pm) ran between Salem and Woodbury

WY379,80 (11:59am) did not come north to Woodbury; Bridgeton to Glassboro & back (off layout)

WY350,1  (7:00pm) Millville to Dorchester, Manumuskin and back (off layout)

The Reading Modelers internet site contains the 1954 Freight Shippers Guide (http://www.readingmodeler.com/modules.php?name=FSG&op=fsg_station&bid=64&branch_name=Main Line) which contains all the customers for the PRSL , the commodities they received and where they received it (town, and private spur or team track).

Not definitive but a great start.

Buzby/Busby Brothers Cement

Westville had a spur near the power plant that ran across Gateway Blvd and along River Drive to Buzby/Busby Brothers. The 1954 Reading freight guide calls it Buzby Brothers and listed it as receiving rail shipments of cement. The attached photo from the Railroad.net forum shows 6 covered hoppers being delivered by a steam switcher. I have been unable to locate any closer pictures of the facility. A lady on the Westville Facebook group page thought she may have some but a year and a half has passed and she has not responded to my latest inquiries so I doubt if help is coming from there.

Gateway Blvd was 2 lanes in each direction and the traffic being stopped for switching the spur was not an infrequent occurrence. Particularly during the construction of the nearby Interstate 295.

The notes from 1944 Westville town council meetings say that a gravel, sand & asphalt plant was proposed to built by Busby Bros. on River Drive at Gateway Blvd."

I currently have a grain elevator acting as a very poor stand-in and am building the Walthers Cement Plant but it is also a very poor stand-in. Seeking help on Railwire (http://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=26415.0) I was directed to a Faller Cement Mixing Plant kit that is probably a closer fit to the industry. Unfortunately it is not cheap and not in stock at most places but I will endeavor to secure one.

Several Railwire members also gave me good input on how they operated. The facility is long gone having been replaced by a pleasant park along the river. Hopefully it will rise again on my layout soon.

De-Motivation

Someone on Railwire started a topic on motivation, basically looking for the gang to provide some inspiration to get modeling again. I seem to have slipped into a similar non-progressive period and I got to thinking why those periods occur.

I guess some factors would be:

     1)  Lack of money: 16 months of no full-time employment
          Counter-argument: I have many, many, many building kits that have been sitting around for up to 30 years

     2)  Indecision: With 3 modules largely done the initial work, the next module needs to go:

          a) Across 6' of loft windows

          b)  Into the unheated storage space (no money to insulate it and my wife would not be pleased with my invasion of the home's only large storage area (12'x12' with a gas heater).

          c) Across  the room entrance which will necessitate a duck-under (and raising the layout height above its current 48"). I am 65 and no longer spry.

     3)  Boredom

     Counterargument, I do not get bored when there is new bench work and track work to build.

     4)  Roadblocks: I have two:

          a) The other side of the room contains built in desk and shelves which will have to be at least partially destroyed (replacement wallboard) in order to get my Philadelphia scenes in (30th street station area & Walnut Lane Bridge).

          b) Space: My original 4'x8' layout remains in the 12'x17' (21') loft, blocking further expansion.

I plan to sell it off after my next article (about it) gets published in N Scale Magazine. Unfortunately they have yet to schedule it and I need to keep it around in case I need to replace some pictures submitted with the article. At this point I would be happy to know that they really do intend to use it (hopefully in its intended form).

5)  Lack of picture taking sites remaining. You can only take so many pictures (and I've taken several hundred) in a 14' space until some trains start running. I could do some more switching except for reason #4b (again).

 

So I guess my current delay can be traced to #4b & #2c with 4b holding the greater impediment

The available aisle spaces are currently 24" and 32". The 4'x8' has got to go at some point (and there will be tears).