Saturday, March 29, 2014

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:







Monday, March 10, 2014

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.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

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!