| PRR NORTHEAST CORRIDOR IN HO SCALE LAYOUT HISTORY AND BACKGROUND INFORMATION |
| Updated on August 25, 2008 |
| STATEMENT OF PURPOSE |
| PHASE 1 BEFORE 1986 - 2000 |
| PHASE 2 AFTER 2000 - 2007 |
My first fascination with trains began in the 70s as a child
with trips into Center City Philadelphia through the Reading
Terminal. I memorized the whole route from Fern Rock
Station into town. My favorite trains to ride were not the air
conditioned Silverliner's but the Blueliner's. I still
remember the sound of the traction motors. I thought the
Reading Railroad/CR/Septa line was impressive, until I rode
the Amtrak /Former PRR Northeast Corridor Metroliner (THE
MUs) to Penn Station New York. I knew then which railroad
line was the best even at that time when everything on the
NEC was falling apart. Although the Original PRR company
is gone and I never got a chance to see it in action, it lives
on in the achievements of the railroad for example:
Stations, Bridges, Catenary, Track, Tunnels and Innovative
Equipment. As a young man in the pursuit of my career as
an Architect I was inspired by the pioneering creative spirit
PRR and their monumental achievements. To me the
Northeast Corridor (DC- HELLSGATE) will always be PRR
Property .
PROJECT NEC
This Project was started out as a 4’x 8’ sheet of
plywood in 1986, which grew into a 10’x 10’ layout
area years later. This was an apartment layout and space
was very limited. Since then It has moved to a house and it
can max out in a 17' x 15' room The layout is cut up into 7
(2'x2') sections so it can be taken apart. The original track
design was a 4-track oval, which grew to accommodate a
larger main station. The original idea of using the oval
design could give the railroad continuous running on 4
dedicated tracks independent of each other. The two inner
tracks would be reserved for faster trains For Example: The
Acela Express and Metroliners. Slower traffic such as
transit trains and freights would use the outer tracks and
sidings.
The city has been moved to the basement and has
expanded to reach the suburbs. See Max Basement Plan.
CATENARY
Once I decided on a track plan, I turned my attentions
toward making a catenary system. I was leaning toward
buying a Marklin system but my budget just wasn’t big
enough. The old Marklin catenary in general was not
realistic enough (no insulators) and the single spans look
European, but the tower mast looks like the PRR Lattice
tower masts without the high-tension extension. I
purchased about 10 masts and 10 spans, which was very
expensive for me as a teenager. I ran across a French
system with insulators that I liked and it was inexpensive,
but it was only enough to build about 10% of whole table. So
I built the rest of the system from scratch, fabricating
catenary poles from plastruct pieces, central valley girders
and IHC signal bridges trying to recreate that PRR "Philly
Style" (One of earliest PRR catenary styles) a mixture of
lattice catenary masts, wire spans and insulators. I actually
like this style better than Plain "k" braced style which came
along later in the 1930s. I call it the "Philly Style" type
because you can find it predominately from North Philly to
Wilmington. The oldest catenary is between 30th Street
Station, the Philadelphia Zoo and out on the Paoli mainline.
Beyond these places the "K" braced catenary structures
take over. (For more info See PRR Catenary Styles at
prrnorheastcorridor.com)
Building the catenary wire was the hardest part of this
project. I had to solder about a thousand connections but it
was worth it in the end. "ALWAYS USE LEAD FREE SOlDERâ
€�. (available at Radio Shack) To give the catenary that
used look I painted all the wires above the contact wire with
green water based hobby paint. It's water-based so that I
can wipe it off with a moist cloth to make any repairs. All the
electric trains run of off catenary and the return is through
the rails just like the prototype. It even sparks. 01-22-08 I
just switched to DCC and it works Great with Catenary. The
disadvantage to running off the catenary is that you have to
rewire all electric locomotives for catenary pickup and two
rail return. The advantages are smooth prototypical
operation, cleaner rails and If any one asks you "does it run
of the wire?" you can say YES! " see the sparks"
BUILDINGS
The arrangement of a row of taller buildings in the middle
of the layout is meant to create a backdrop separating the
Industrial section from the Station Section. It also makes the
layout look bigger than it actually is. I picked this technique
up from the one of the best city railroads ever built ,the
Franklin & South Manchester by George Sellios. It is truly a
masterpiece.
All of the buildings in this city are built from scratch. In the
first version of the table all of the buildings were made of
cardboard and paper, (fire hazard) which didn’t stand
the test of time. When I graduated college (Architecture) in
2000.. .
Go Temple!!!!... I decided to rebuild the whole city out of
styrene plastics, acrylics & Lexan. These new materials
allowed me to build taller and larger buildings and light
them with relative ease. The tallest building on the layout is
about 22 stories (40�) About 90 percent of all the
buildings are new but now I have to take time and weather
them ,add some more trees, trash, graffiti and more people
. Just like a Real City, It will never be finished It will continue
to grow as long as I have more space.
The problem with commercially bought model railroad
structures is that some aren't consistent in scale. I model
my buildings at 1:96 which is 1/8"scale because a foot
equals and 1/8". HO scale is 1:87 scale, which is slightly
bigger. A lot of Commercial manufacturers make some
buildings smaller than true HO scale and 1/8"scale so you
can fit more of them on your layout. Just look at how small
some of these factory kits are. Prototypical Factories are a
kitbash of at least 3 kits which can get expensive fast.
STATIONS
Over the years there have been a total of 6 different
stations on this layout. I have built 4 different large shed
type stations and two 30th Street Stations. I have decided
on this go around to try and make 30th street permanent.
With limited space to work with I couldn't recreate the 3
levels of trackage and one level of street that 30th street
has. So I had to forget about the suburban platforms and go
for 2 levels of trackage (the lower level platforms & Freight
Highline) & one level of street. To satisfy my shed craziness
I am building a Broad Street Station module. (See plans &
pictures)
TROLLEYS
Every Model city has to have a trolley route.
In the first version of the city I had one trolley route and it
was very steep to negotiate the grade separations. I was
discouraged by this because I had to modify every trolley I
bought to make it up the hills. I came up with a plan to raise
the entire street level above the tracks, that way the trolley
routes could cross the NEC with no inclines. This opened up
other trolley routes, and made the configuration of the 30th
Street Station Module possible. My cousin is also into trains
and trolleys. He has his own set up and we designed it so
that his trolley layout can hook up with mine at 30th Street
Station creating a bigger city.(See Plans) All of our layouts
are modular so we can take them to Shows. Currently there
a total of 9 routes in the model city.
On Cam's city section and the Mt airy Section there are 3
independant routes. The Downtown section has 2
indenpendant routes. These two section couple together
form 2 more routes Totaling 7 routes. With the addition of
the west Philly section 2 more routes were created. (loop at
Somers shops and the City Hall Loop)
Currently the city is served by 9 trolley routes.
ELEVATED/SUBWAY
Currently I am proposing an elevated/subway system to
serve the city with 4 stops ( North Philla- 30th street- West
philadelphia and a possible City Hall). Please see plans for
more information
with trips into Center City Philadelphia through the Reading
Terminal. I memorized the whole route from Fern Rock
Station into town. My favorite trains to ride were not the air
conditioned Silverliner's but the Blueliner's. I still
remember the sound of the traction motors. I thought the
Reading Railroad/CR/Septa line was impressive, until I rode
the Amtrak /Former PRR Northeast Corridor Metroliner (THE
MUs) to Penn Station New York. I knew then which railroad
line was the best even at that time when everything on the
NEC was falling apart. Although the Original PRR company
is gone and I never got a chance to see it in action, it lives
on in the achievements of the railroad for example:
Stations, Bridges, Catenary, Track, Tunnels and Innovative
Equipment. As a young man in the pursuit of my career as
an Architect I was inspired by the pioneering creative spirit
PRR and their monumental achievements. To me the
Northeast Corridor (DC- HELLSGATE) will always be PRR
Property .
PROJECT NEC
This Project was started out as a 4’x 8’ sheet of
plywood in 1986, which grew into a 10’x 10’ layout
area years later. This was an apartment layout and space
was very limited. Since then It has moved to a house and it
can max out in a 17' x 15' room The layout is cut up into 7
(2'x2') sections so it can be taken apart. The original track
design was a 4-track oval, which grew to accommodate a
larger main station. The original idea of using the oval
design could give the railroad continuous running on 4
dedicated tracks independent of each other. The two inner
tracks would be reserved for faster trains For Example: The
Acela Express and Metroliners. Slower traffic such as
transit trains and freights would use the outer tracks and
sidings.
The city has been moved to the basement and has
expanded to reach the suburbs. See Max Basement Plan.
CATENARY
Once I decided on a track plan, I turned my attentions
toward making a catenary system. I was leaning toward
buying a Marklin system but my budget just wasn’t big
enough. The old Marklin catenary in general was not
realistic enough (no insulators) and the single spans look
European, but the tower mast looks like the PRR Lattice
tower masts without the high-tension extension. I
purchased about 10 masts and 10 spans, which was very
expensive for me as a teenager. I ran across a French
system with insulators that I liked and it was inexpensive,
but it was only enough to build about 10% of whole table. So
I built the rest of the system from scratch, fabricating
catenary poles from plastruct pieces, central valley girders
and IHC signal bridges trying to recreate that PRR "Philly
Style" (One of earliest PRR catenary styles) a mixture of
lattice catenary masts, wire spans and insulators. I actually
like this style better than Plain "k" braced style which came
along later in the 1930s. I call it the "Philly Style" type
because you can find it predominately from North Philly to
Wilmington. The oldest catenary is between 30th Street
Station, the Philadelphia Zoo and out on the Paoli mainline.
Beyond these places the "K" braced catenary structures
take over. (For more info See PRR Catenary Styles at
prrnorheastcorridor.com)
Building the catenary wire was the hardest part of this
project. I had to solder about a thousand connections but it
was worth it in the end. "ALWAYS USE LEAD FREE SOlDERâ
€�. (available at Radio Shack) To give the catenary that
used look I painted all the wires above the contact wire with
green water based hobby paint. It's water-based so that I
can wipe it off with a moist cloth to make any repairs. All the
electric trains run of off catenary and the return is through
the rails just like the prototype. It even sparks. 01-22-08 I
just switched to DCC and it works Great with Catenary. The
disadvantage to running off the catenary is that you have to
rewire all electric locomotives for catenary pickup and two
rail return. The advantages are smooth prototypical
operation, cleaner rails and If any one asks you "does it run
of the wire?" you can say YES! " see the sparks"
BUILDINGS
The arrangement of a row of taller buildings in the middle
of the layout is meant to create a backdrop separating the
Industrial section from the Station Section. It also makes the
layout look bigger than it actually is. I picked this technique
up from the one of the best city railroads ever built ,the
Franklin & South Manchester by George Sellios. It is truly a
masterpiece.
All of the buildings in this city are built from scratch. In the
first version of the table all of the buildings were made of
cardboard and paper, (fire hazard) which didn’t stand
the test of time. When I graduated college (Architecture) in
2000.. .
Go Temple!!!!... I decided to rebuild the whole city out of
styrene plastics, acrylics & Lexan. These new materials
allowed me to build taller and larger buildings and light
them with relative ease. The tallest building on the layout is
about 22 stories (40�) About 90 percent of all the
buildings are new but now I have to take time and weather
them ,add some more trees, trash, graffiti and more people
. Just like a Real City, It will never be finished It will continue
to grow as long as I have more space.
The problem with commercially bought model railroad
structures is that some aren't consistent in scale. I model
my buildings at 1:96 which is 1/8"scale because a foot
equals and 1/8". HO scale is 1:87 scale, which is slightly
bigger. A lot of Commercial manufacturers make some
buildings smaller than true HO scale and 1/8"scale so you
can fit more of them on your layout. Just look at how small
some of these factory kits are. Prototypical Factories are a
kitbash of at least 3 kits which can get expensive fast.
STATIONS
Over the years there have been a total of 6 different
stations on this layout. I have built 4 different large shed
type stations and two 30th Street Stations. I have decided
on this go around to try and make 30th street permanent.
With limited space to work with I couldn't recreate the 3
levels of trackage and one level of street that 30th street
has. So I had to forget about the suburban platforms and go
for 2 levels of trackage (the lower level platforms & Freight
Highline) & one level of street. To satisfy my shed craziness
I am building a Broad Street Station module. (See plans &
pictures)
TROLLEYS
Every Model city has to have a trolley route.
In the first version of the city I had one trolley route and it
was very steep to negotiate the grade separations. I was
discouraged by this because I had to modify every trolley I
bought to make it up the hills. I came up with a plan to raise
the entire street level above the tracks, that way the trolley
routes could cross the NEC with no inclines. This opened up
other trolley routes, and made the configuration of the 30th
Street Station Module possible. My cousin is also into trains
and trolleys. He has his own set up and we designed it so
that his trolley layout can hook up with mine at 30th Street
Station creating a bigger city.(See Plans) All of our layouts
are modular so we can take them to Shows. Currently there
a total of 9 routes in the model city.
On Cam's city section and the Mt airy Section there are 3
independant routes. The Downtown section has 2
indenpendant routes. These two section couple together
form 2 more routes Totaling 7 routes. With the addition of
the west Philly section 2 more routes were created. (loop at
Somers shops and the City Hall Loop)
Currently the city is served by 9 trolley routes.
ELEVATED/SUBWAY
Currently I am proposing an elevated/subway system to
serve the city with 4 stops ( North Philla- 30th street- West
philadelphia and a possible City Hall). Please see plans for
more information
| LAYOUT HISTORY |
I started this railroad to satisfy a Dream. Not many
people had built a city railroad. Most of the layouts you
see are of the suburbs or out in the country, with hills,
tunnels and rolling scenery set in the 30's 40's & 50's . I
wanted a real challenge that a modern city would bring.
I had to build everything from scratch because at that
time and even today there wasn't much on model
railroad market for this type of city or it was too
expensive.
My inspiration was the NEC from the Philadelphia Zoo
to Frankford Junction. Basically a 5-6 track stretch of
railroad cramped with factories, sidings and small yards
with diverse catenary styles. In this area some factories
were right up on the Right of Way, almost fighting for
proximity to it. It was a true Corridor. I was so
impressed I decided to model it.
PHASE1 = 1986 to 1998 Cardboard city
PHASE2 = 1998 to 2006 Center city & Broad Street Sta
PHASE3 = 2006 to present Center city, North Philly,
West Philly and the Broad street Station Area
people had built a city railroad. Most of the layouts you
see are of the suburbs or out in the country, with hills,
tunnels and rolling scenery set in the 30's 40's & 50's . I
wanted a real challenge that a modern city would bring.
I had to build everything from scratch because at that
time and even today there wasn't much on model
railroad market for this type of city or it was too
expensive.
My inspiration was the NEC from the Philadelphia Zoo
to Frankford Junction. Basically a 5-6 track stretch of
railroad cramped with factories, sidings and small yards
with diverse catenary styles. In this area some factories
were right up on the Right of Way, almost fighting for
proximity to it. It was a true Corridor. I was so
impressed I decided to model it.
PHASE1 = 1986 to 1998 Cardboard city
PHASE2 = 1998 to 2006 Center city & Broad Street Sta
PHASE3 = 2006 to present Center city, North Philly,
West Philly and the Broad street Station Area
| CATENARY INSTALLATION COMPLETE 1990 |
| PHASE 3 2008 CITY EXPANDED |
