It's National French Fry Day and Shore River's North Job is being kept busy switching cryo cars of frozen french fries at the two cold storage warehouses in the Pinelands Industrial Park.

Bruce

   

I've been reading George Hilton's book - "The Ma & Pa: A History of the Maryland and Pennsylvania Railroad" that one of my coworkers gave to me a few years ago.  The Ma & Pa: A History of the Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad - Hilton, George W.: 9780801862946 - AbeBooks

Fascinating stuff about a railroad with grandiose visions never really realized.  I live a mere mile or so from it's right of way, and I occasionally walk the "Ma and Pa" trail here in Harford County which is on or near the roadbed that carried freight and passengers (eventually) from North Avenue in Baltimore up to York while hitting small towns and industries along the way.  Before the interstate highway system and before everyone had multiple cars, this railroad helped farmers and the small towns bring their goods and services to markets in those two cities.  I've also hiked a lot in Rocks State Park, where there is still a bridge abutment and what's left of the roadbed running through the park adjacent to Deer Creek.  There's a natural gorge there and you'd never think you were still in Maryland.

What's also fascinating is that the railroad began operation as two distinct railroads each in narrow (3') gauge, and in order to hit all of these small towns, the routing was relatively insane for a railroad, which can be seen by consulting the map here: The Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad - Abandoned Rails.  George talks about the extreme twists and turns by comparing it to the Rio Grande mainline, and the comparison isn't even close - the Ma and Pa was the equivalent of a roller coaster thrill ride, and it travelled through some very picturesque countryside.

If I were to model steam......   I might have to give modeling the Ma and Pa a try....

I'll add to this thread as I get more familiar with the history.  The entirety of the railroad is within an hour of my homestead.

WPMA-40  making it's return trip back to the yard.  The heat must be keeping the patrons from the Blue Pig inside this evening.

Bruce

   

For my kit build structure I am going to assemble Walthers Cornerstone Subway Entrance kit. This will tie in with my layout addition. 



Here are the parts. 


Looks like a fair amount of painting. I am going to build sections of the structure and then paint them. I usually paint before I assemble.

I'm looking for a DT&I locomotive for my son his had a bad fall and it was his favorite locomotive. it is the orange emd one that Athearn made years ago. If you have one that you would part with PM me.
Jim

Close up of WPMA-29's SW1500 working at Absecon Mills Flour track.

Bruce

   

So while I was home a bit over a week ago I took my wife along to a ride on the East Broad Top. We rode the train out to Colgate Grove and back, had lunch, and then I went on their new extended shop tour. My wife wasn't really interested in the shop tour so I went by myself while she went and found something else to get in to. I took lots of pictures.







Our train, consisting of the ex-Algoma Steel GE 55-tonner (while 16 is still down for repairs), an open car, combine 17, coach 22, and one of the cabooses (which didn't get included in the photo, whoops). Combine 17 and COach 22 are new production cars that were acquired last year to help take strain off of the aging wood cars and give an alternative to the open cars.











The interior of our coach. The new cars are swanky and do include walkover seats. They were really nice.











The new coaches ride pretty nicely. Fairly smooth. The new combine also has wheelchair lifts in it. We did not disembark at Colgate Grove, but the newly fixed up facilities there are quite nice.







The shop tour starts at the Freight Office in ROckhill Furnace. There's a lot of really cool stuff in there.







Antique Dynamite boxes always get my attention. Growing up, my Dad was a commercial blaster and collected these antique boxes everywhere we found them.















This desk in the Freight Office included some interesting paraphernalia.







Note the blank pad of waybills :O







This photo is just to show the size difference between the standard gauge and narrow gauge equipment.







The boxcar was donated by the Kiski Junction RR and was just yesterday propped up on some of the EBT's in-house built transfer trucks and is now rolling on a 36" gauge. They are going to do some minor mechanical work and a cosmetic restoration then plans are to include the car in photo freights.







This old Ford straight truck caught my eye, can't help it anymore as a truck driver.











Here's the little work train they were using when working on trackwork both north of the station on the way to COlgate Grove as well as going south. Once the PA-475 crossing is reactivated they will be able to take the work train all the way down to the current end of track nearing Jordan Summit, approximately 1 mile south of the station. I just love little trains like this with critters. An open car for people and a flat car being used for tools and materials, powered by M-4.











#12 and #18 in the roundhouse.











M-1.











The 18th century stone farmhouse as well as the recently restored section of the storehouses. The farmhouse was historically used as the yard office. It has apparently been remodelled a few times in its history, as well. The storehouses were sinking in to the ground to the point that the little structure between the storehouses proper and the stone farmhouse went from having a flat roof to having a heavily slanted roof. The FEBT pulled all of the parts in it out, jacked the whole thing up, rebuilt the bottom and poured a concrete foundation, rigthted the warping in the shelves, and then put it all back down and carefully replaced everything right where it was.











A better view of the restored storehouses. You can also see the sandhouse here.











Inside one of the storehouses.











These are all spare locomotive parts. THere are parts to locomotives that haven't been at the railroad since *before* the shutdown in 1956. They really just never threw anything out.









More to come

I have a 3x4 HOn3 layout that I want to get to a state of completion with people, details, vehicles, and other things of scenic interest.  The ultimate goal is to make the layout worthy of taking to shows for display, or for a feature magazine article.  Right now there are a few things that would make the layout a whole lot more interesting.  My list includes:

- Add 3-4 more vehicles
- Add ~20 more custom hand painted figures.
- Make sure all structure windows have glass and window treatments.
- Every square inch of layout space has appropriate ground cover
- add signs, interesting details, trash cans, power lines, junk, tools, etc.

It's really an open list - I will try to get as much done by the close of the contest.

Hope the winter scene from the Leetown Division helps to deal with the current hot spell.

   

if were in the monsoon season how come the current humidity is only 12 present?