Merry Christmas!     Just remember the "Reason for the Season!" 

First snow of the season is cheering up the Christmas season. A first run ConCor RDC (re-lettered for the PRSL) pulls up to the passenger shelter as an old Trix 0-6-0 spots a box car at the local lumber yard. An old Micro-Machines log truck patiently waits to dump it load.

Continuing our “first snow of the season” theme with ancient N scale artifacts. Here is the Camden roundhouse with all first-generation locomotives. The original Atlas Pennsy RS3 is in the far stall while the later Atlas Reading RS3 is in the first stall. Then comes the Trix PRR 0-6-0 B6 switcher, the Bachmann Reading 2-8-0 Consolidated, and the Trix PRR 4-6-2 K4 Pacific.

The fifth stall contains the first Atlas GP30. I have four of them from the collection of Barry Wingard (he provided most of the pictures for the first Greenberg N scale price guide (Dallas Mallerick). He was an avid collector of everything produced in N scale.

On the turntable is the first run Atlas PRR FA1 along with the cut-off Reading FA1 (Bev-Bel???). The ConCor PRR crane in the background would also qualify as first-generation N scale.

At Christmas the serious 1950s freight trans take a break and the display cabinet queens come out to pull the Christmas and special run cars.

So sit back at Olive Street in Westville and watch the Christmas parade trains march by!

Some Misc Pictures

Sun's coming up over Brown Tower in Camden with the Campbell Soup Company workers beginning to arrive for work.

Beautiful day at Woodbury Lake whether you are in the canoes or fishing from the dock.

The redone Heljan turntable pit (after 50 years I got tired of the monotone black:
Before:

After:

Reading Day at the roundhouse with some time-warped engines visiting.

Oldies Day with all 1970s equipment: Trix 0-6-0, Trix 4-6-2, Atlas FA1, Bachman 2-8-0, Atlas GP30, Atlas RS3, ConCor RDC.

Hobby Magazine Articles

(The 3 articles slated for publishing will NOT be being published!)  

The first article deals with the insanity of tearing apart 70% of my 95% complete Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines layout. It explores all the interesting obstacles along the way.

Photo by Anna Goncharova from unsplash

Since I am inherently a windbag, the first article was so long it had to be split into two parts. The second part will deal with operating the new layout which was now capable of running a full day's PRSl 1950s freight schedule on the lines operating through Woodbury, NJ.

Photo from the  Bill Lane collection

The last part deals with a separate topic. It is my firm belief that two things make a model railroad look like a Christmas toy train layout. The second reason deals with the curves, especially turnbacks, and this article deals with the issues they create and offers some options to deal with them.

Woodbury Train Station Kit

 Right on Tracks Models kindly sent me some draftings of the PRSL Woodbury Train Station Kit they are developing. Target delivery time is sometime in the winter. The kit will include the tool shed and the waiting platform on the opposite side of the tracks from the train station. (At one time there was a 3-track mainline passing the station.)

Woodbury Train Station kit model from Right on Track Models

After running across his beautiful model kit of the Tuckerton station, I contacted Richard at Right on Tracks Models about the feasibility of adding a Woodbury, NJ station kit to his lineup. For the last 8 months I have been running down contacts from the Woodbury Historical Society and the group that led the historical restoration of the station. I have also been taking/collecting pictures and measuring the building.

I am absolutely thrilled that Richard has agreed to get this project on his drawing board for this winter. His previous kits can be found at: https://www.rightontrackmodels.com/

PRSL Vol 2 p104

Woodbury is the county seat of Gloucester County and was founded in 1683 by Henry Wood, a Quaker, from England. Its short-lived (8 years) first railroad, the Woodbury and Camden Railroad, came to town in 1838. 

 George Green brought his patent medicine and glass manufacturing to Woodbury in the 1870s and the town flourished. (I’m sure the opium content of his medicines spurred its reputation as a world class medical cure-all.) 

 In 1917, 139 daily trains passed the triple-tracked Woodbury train station. At one time 40+ passenger trains a day stopped at Woodbury but alas, the automobile triumphed and the last passenger train through town ran in 1971. In 1996 the station was restored and since then has been a popular historic restaurant.

Ricght on Tracks Models - Tuckahoe Station

The Big Picture

Someone on one of the forums was asking folks to submit pictures of their entire layout, not just a scene. That is a tough assignment if your layout is in a loft with tight ceiling clearances. Although my layout is only 12'x17' I can't get back far enough or high enough to encompass the whole railroad in one shot.

Here's my best attempts:

Right Side

Left Side

Book Shelf Induced Dioramas