New Bachmann S 4 Arrives at Harlem Station

A new locomotive arrived at the PoNY Railroad's Erie Harlem Station with little fanfare but much appreciation today. With the 44 tonners down until a suitable decoder and sound system is found (I finally gave up on the LokSound I've been messing with for over a year now!), no. 514 (an Alco S-2) has been shouldering all of the duties by itself. The shiny new sound-equipped Alco S-4 no.529 is a welcomed site to the crews, and at under $100, the general accounting office couldn't complain.

I had already assumed I was going to have to change out the headlight since the double configuration seemed unusual, but again, another nice surprise that it is consistent with prototype. (Maybe all S-4s came this way?) Not sure how much closer I'm going to look, but I'm impressed with the out-of-the-box experience so far. Didn't even hesitate when I started him up. The crews should be happy.

Some prototype photos I've acquired lately of 529. Notice how close the first two photos were taken!

1970 at Jamestown, New York

A few milliseconds later in 1970 at Jamestown, New York

Post merger sometime/where

5 October 1971 at Croxton Yard, NJ

Delivered in October of 1952, no.529 was one of only 4 Alco S-4s (nos. 526-529) on the Erie who was a pretty good customer for Alco. I'm pretty sure they weren't bought because of the characteristic galopty-lop sound of the engines, but that is one reason why I like them.

Bonus material
An outtake from the 2 minute film session today. Even the simplest filming needs more than one take! The office crew got a laugh when no.529 moved in reverse instead of forward on the first take...

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Lehigh Valley 27th Street Freight Station Pier 66

I've finally started on the 27th Street Freight Station of the Lehigh Valley Railroad - and I "finished it" the next day. Well, operationally, anyway. I needed another 2 operating slots a little earlier than I had in my master plan of layout construction, but pending visitors will do that to a schedule. :) So in a couple of days, I was able to go from nothing to completed yard while watching the Olympics.

Just the essentials: TV remote, glue, architecture history and Dr Pepper (not necessarily in that order.)

On the way home from work on Friday afternoon, I stopped off at the local big box hardware store and picked up a 3/4" sheet of blue rigid insulation board. I sliced it into three 2-ish feet by 8 foot pieces, laminated those together with Elmer's glue (I know not the most sophisticated glue around, but it seems to have worked!), and I let dry for about 24 hours. I then finished off the three exposed edges with black Gatorfoam board to match the Harlem baseboards. I glued this and then screwed with black coarse threaded drywall screws to hold it until it dried. Then the next day while watching some inspirational Olympic competition, I covered with black flooring underlayment left over from the Harlem Station pocket terminal.

I get by with a little weight from my books, and furniture to secure the track while it dries.

Lots of turnouts including two double slips and also 4 crossings, which will make for some fun switching maneuvers. Black flooring underlayment is my subsurface for gluing down the code 75 Peco track. No insulated rail joiners here, because I run battery powered locomotives.

This material, as far as I can tell, is very similar to Woodland Scenics' roadbed. I am using the underlayment mainly for sound absorption, and it seems to accept Elmers glue well, which is how I glued down my track after letting the underlayment dry for a couple of hours.

The completed track work.

If you go have a look at Phillip M. Goldstein's amazing web site on all things New York freight railroading, you'll see some great diagrams of the track over the years and some history of the building that inhabits the air space above, the Starrett-Lehigh Building. I will somehow model this so that the lower floors are accessible for operation (maybe just have structural columns) and then have the full building above. The unique feature of the Starrett-Lehigh Building is that it had truck elevators that would carry delivery trucks to the upper floors for loading and unloading. This will be pretty cool to model!

Also go check out David Ramos' excellent New York Harbor version. I referenced his translation and research material to create my version, which is pretty close to his. Great minds...

Slotted into an existing bookshelf at the same height as the rest of the layout for car float compatibility.The top shelf will be gone soon to make room for backdrop and building model.After the track

Relationship with existing Harlem Station pocket terminal. A car float will transfer cars between these yards and the Hoboken Shore portion of the layout in the other room.

Locomotive eye's view of the two yards.

This lightweight baseboard/bench work technique goes extremely quickly, and it is as light as you can get for a layout that needs to be movable. I think the black provides a very finished looking unfinished platform to operate on until the scenery goes in. Much better than bare plywood with no muss and no fuss to get that way.

At some point I may provide strategically located handles on these rotating pocket terminals. The idea is to keep building them and then swap them out for different operating sessions. This allows me 1) to forever keep expanding my layout while remaining in the same size physical space, 2) to try out different techniques of construction, scenery, etc. in a confined area, 3) to keep buying new locomotives ad infinitum for any railroad on the east coast, and 4) to provide new operating interest and challenges for the operating crew. 

Up next is some locomotive work on the Lehigh switcher that will be based in this yard, and then it will be ready for some operations! 

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Erie 149th Street Harlem Station

 

A new layout to distract

So one thing you can do to avoid actually making progress on anything is to start a lot of different projects. As I am trying to figure out how construct the benchwork on my HBS layout so that it is easily disassembled to clear space in my office/guest room for other uses, I am contemplating starting on a small layout first to work out some of the issues I've identified that need attention.

Being a New York Harbor guy, I've done a lot of research on the various pocket yards around the harbor, and I've been inspired by work of David Ramos, Tim Warris and others. I also just want to get something up so I can run my trains.

I've used a free download of AnyRail software to draw up a plan of the 149th roughly as it appeared in the early 1950s. Total size is about 7'x5', and it would be a free-standing layout so there would be access all around it. I'm looking to use lightweight materials and split it into two sections for easy storage. It would feature a car float with tug, float bridge and several spots. The prototype had about one float unload and load a day, and I can imagine this would be a just right amount of operating time for a casual evening solo session. It would also be good for taking to shows and letting people try out operating.

I've made some changes since this image was created, most importantly increasing the size of the lead at the top of the plan by ooching the turnouts over to the right.

I've already got the boxcabs and S-1 that operated there for the Erie, and I have tested them out on the Peco code 75 Streamline track to much satisfaction so far. Perhaps I can get this up and running in short order to use as a test bed for establishing my construction standards for the HBS.

Great research site: Harlem 149th by Philip M. Goldstein

Other 149th Street layouts: Small Layout Scrapbook #96a (more photos) and #88, and another under way by Matthieu Lachance

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Photo of No 19 at New Harlem Freight Station

I recently found a copy of Erie Railfan (vol 1, no. 3, pp 8-9, Summer 1973) that has the second part of an excellent Larry DeYoung article on first generation diesels. Included is this photo (Ed Kelsey) of no.19 at the Harlem Station (149th Street). The building behind it is the office and freight house located on the Exterior Street side of the yard looking E-SE. No.19 was actually the fourth boxcab Erie acquired in 1928 (no.20 was the first in 1926 and nos. 21-22 in 1927).

The photo and article provide some interesting and relevant data for my layout. I now know that no.19 was at Harlem on June 12th, 1949, and that it had its end tiger striping. Cross referencing another photo from the Railroads of New York Harbor 2010 Calendar by George J. Abere, Jr. in April of 1955 shows that the striping is still there, and since it is a color photo, I know the striping is yellow as is the lettering and herald on the sides.

I also have a good reference for the building windows, awning and configuration in '49. I haven't researched this fully, yet, but the building changed over the years, so this adds a piece for nailing down what it looked like if I want to choose a specific year to model it (or perhaps multiple models for different years?)

1954

Also of note is that it looks like the ground is paved with concrete, which is previously unknown information to me. So, I go to historicaerials.com and search for "Exterior St and 149th, New York", and I find aerials from 1954 (above) showing the concrete paving. The tracks are also uncovered at this point, and I know from a 1957 photo that the two tracks, along with others) are enclosed by a building. There is also a neat feature that allows you to compare photos side by side with a slider to reveal one or the other photo. I choose 1966 and 1954 to compare (the oldest available), and notice not only the new building, but also maybe some new tracks by the centrally located crane and an elevated I-87 over Exterior St. (below)

1966

So a really good find leads me through a slew of resources to have a better idea of the evolution of the yard. I think I prefer the smaller building without the covered tracks, which means pre-'57 at some point. I may go to 1959 and simply construct the walls of the building with a removable roof for operation, or, better yet, just say it is '59 and not have the building. (Don't tell anyone if I end up doing that.)

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Introduction Why Rymal Station

Hello All!

This is the first post in my new blog so I’d like to introduce myself and the aim of this blog. My name is Peter and I have been interested in trains as long as I can remember. Part of that interest, a large part in fact, includes model railroading. My interest is in modern-day CN and CP operations, with some shortline modeling as well (GEXR, OSR). I have been reading several other model railroad blogs for some time now and it has inspired me to start my own. Hence, the idea of this blog is to document the progress on my home layout, as well as some prototype photos as well. 

I say ‘my’ home layout, but in fact it was started by my dad about 20 years ago. He designed most of the track plan, and completed the benchwork and the majority of the track work. My brother Mark and I are now working with dad to complete the trackwork and at the same time convert the layout to DCC. I’ll post more info and a track plan later, but hopefully this brings you up to speed with where I’ll start this blog. I hope in the foreseeable future to get the trackwork running reliably and start adding some scenery to the layout.

Why Rymal station?

Well, the short answer is that I had to call this blog something. The long answer is that it seems many modelers name their layout or blog after something meaningful to them or their modeling. Rymal was a small hamlet on the south edge of Hamilton, ON, and bears the name of William Rymal, an early settler of the area; it has long since been amalgamated with the city of Hamilton. Rymal, sometimes referred to as Dartnall or Hannon, was important enough to warrant a station on the CNR line from Hamilton to Jarvis (originally Hamilton & Lake Erie; I’ll post more info on the station itself later). This was the line made famous for its’ street running down the middle of Ferguson Ave in Hamilton, and later the use of an A-B-A set of F7’s on the Hamilton-Nanticoke steel train; again, more info to be posted on the steel train later on. My house is located about four miles from where the station stood, and my dad grew up less than a mile from the station’s location (though it was demolished about three years before he was born). And at one time many years ago, my great-grandfather ran the Rymal feed mill (actually named Ancaster feed mill for reasons long lost to history), and would bring in boxcars of grain to the siding at Rymal for use as animal feed. So not only was it geographically the closest rail point of interest, but in some strange way it seems to make sense.

I’ll try to update this blog as often as time permits, but until then, thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,

Peter.

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Freight Station

I’ve taken a little break from my layout, and instead decided to spend the last few weeks trying my hand on my first model structure. I have never put together a plastic model building before, and the last time I did any kind of plastic model was a couple cars that I did back when I was 12-13 years old, which turned out less-than-satisfactory. This kit was given to me by my friend, who found it mixed in with a bunch of junk at a local thrift-store. The kit is an old POLA-HO Freight Station #557. I was surprised to find that all the pieces were intact inside the kit, and nothing was missing except a couple small accessories. This would be a perfect practice kit!

The kit was missing its instruction manual, but it was pretty self explanatory how everything went together. I did however change a few things with the roof. I didn’t like how far the roof extended out from the front of the building to cover the loading deck, and also extended the full length of the building. This overhang covered too much of the first floor windows and doors, so I cut it back, and excluded the overhang between the first and second floors, as seen below.

I used Humbrol enamel paints (which I prefer greatly over Testors brand) thinned about 30 – 50% depending on the application. As I’ve said before, I’ve never really worked successfully with enamel paints, but with patience and determination, the painting went pretty well for my first attempt. I used a wash of white acrylic for the mortar between the bricks, and a black wash for the deck surface and base. I sealed everything in with a coat of Testors Dull Coat.

I also built a small interior scene of a storage room (as seen above). The entire structure is lit with 2 small bulbs, with leads extending out the bottom of the base. I used clear styrene coated with dull-coat for the window glazing. This allows for a more uniform lighting effect across all windows. I was pretty pleased with the final result, and I am now more confident to move onto bigger and better structure projects.

I went back to work on my layout a few nights ago, working on the base structure of all the landscape and terrain. I will also be starting my second structure kit right away, my Walther’s Cornerstone Merchant’s Row 1 (kit # 993-3028).

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