East Terminal & Newburgh

[Schraddel]

Hello Folks!

It is time to tell the story of my H0 modular switching layout.
In the beginning there were 5 modules of an abandoned modular layout of German prototype:











It should become a rural station in Germany elsewere. Roco Line track with track bed was laid and nailed down. And as you see it was still plywood country.
Only on module 1 i made first attempts of landscaping.
But in 2006 i became US Modelrailroader and the most of the German stuff became obsolete.
Instead i went into a search for an US prototype.
At first i thought of small rural station of NYC prototpe settled in the Catskill or Adirondack Mountain area.
But my attention was soon drawed to the Cleveland/OH area with it's busy industrial districts.
Untypical for the US with the usually common wide spaced landscape, here are factories, warehouses, streets, piers, and of course railyards squeezed in the Cuyahoga Valley in a tight package.
This links to historic photos on Shorpy may give you an impression:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.shorpy.com/node/9229?size=_original#caption">http://www.shorpy.com/node/9229?size=_original#caption</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.shorpy.com/node/13986?size=_original#caption">http://www.shorpy.com/node/13986?size=_original#caption</a><!-- m -->
Do you have seen the small railyard in the last photo? And how crooked it is squeezed between the buildings?
Bad for real 1:1 business, but good for 1:87 modelrailroaders.
Each further i studied Cleveland/OH, each more i got impressed with the prototype situation and at least this was the prototype for my little model railroad.
Of course there is the danger to make a big, big huge layout covering thousand of square meters if you do not pay attention.
But on the other side you have the ability to put a grid over the area and pick out a small part only. Like picking out the raisins out of the cake.
So i did. I did not choose space consuming furnaces, steel mills, harbour fronts and so on.
Only "normal" small industries and small business served by rail wich could be found on the edges of every city.
On "normal" situation these industrial districts are wide spread over the landscape and still space consuming for model RR.
But here in this special geograpical evironment they are all sqeezed together. Good for model railroaders with few space available.

The next year no spike was nailed. Instead i "visited" the historic Cleveland/OH:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/index.html">http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/index.html</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/railroads.html">http://www.clevelandmemory.org/exhibits/railroads.html</a><!-- m -->

I got fascinated here:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.clevelandmemory.org/nss/index.html">http://www.clevelandmemory.org/nss/index.html</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://web.ulib.csuohio.edu/SpecColl/nssbk/">http://web.ulib.csuohio.edu/SpecColl/nssbk/</a><!-- m -->
A Class 1 carrier with only 7 miles of main line.

At least my mytical East Terminal & Newburgh Rail Road is a konglomeratical mix of the:
- Newburgh & South Shore RR (N&SS)
- Cuyahoga Valley RR (CV)
- Baltimore & Ohio RR (B&O), here paricular only the line through the Cuyahoga Valley

As time frame i choose the 1940's and ealy 1950's.

So, that were the theoretical thoughts, let's start and see what i can do in practice with this 5 given modules.

At first i removed all the German rail stuff. They were a little bit toy train like and made for deeeep flanges still common in Europe and are not a US prototype.
Then i bought real US tracks from Atlas Code 83 and Peco Streamline Code 83, both are representing US protype.


Here i made my first attempts have laid track and switches loose onto the plywood district.
One of my thoughts was to reuse some of the buildings of German origin.
No good idea.

Lutz