08-15-2012, 12:39 PM
I believe all TV trains and other priority freights like auto parts went over the freight bypass at Harrisburg station. Diesels were exchanged for electrics and vice versa west of the station itself -- and far enough west that, in my memory, eastbound auto parts trains with E44s were moving pretty fast when they reached the station. This exchange was the reason you saw a lot of light electric power crossing the Susquehanna south of the city over the PRR bridge.
Another train from Potomac Yard was the Tropicana train, which was after my time for the NEC, but the Wikipedia entry says it ran twice a week northbound by about 1975. We're starting to get into the reasons the NEC always struck me as a tantalizing prototype, but modeling actual operations is extremely involved.
Another New Jersey issue is the Amboy Secondary, which certainly in PC days was a route for coal to South Amboy. The trains left and entered the main at Monmouth. How much of that was still active by the late 70s I don't know, but it's a reminder that whatever you do, you would need to be working in a lot of coal extras, going either to South Amboy or Greenville.
Another train from Potomac Yard was the Tropicana train, which was after my time for the NEC, but the Wikipedia entry says it ran twice a week northbound by about 1975. We're starting to get into the reasons the NEC always struck me as a tantalizing prototype, but modeling actual operations is extremely involved.
Another New Jersey issue is the Amboy Secondary, which certainly in PC days was a route for coal to South Amboy. The trains left and entered the main at Monmouth. How much of that was still active by the late 70s I don't know, but it's a reminder that whatever you do, you would need to be working in a lot of coal extras, going either to South Amboy or Greenville.