Amtrak New York Division/Conrail Atlantic Region
#1
Alright, new layout, new thread.   Its actually been a struggle to plan a new layout though.

As far back as I can remember, I've wanted to model the Northeast Corridor. 

That is not an easy prototype, there are challenges beyond the catenary.  The Northeast Corridor is by its nature, more of a "heavy mainline operation".    4-6 track mainline,  frequent passenger and commuter trains,  and "distinctive" NEC pieces of equipment like the Jersey Arrow commuter cars and the E44s are EXTREMELY rare items.  You might find one or two Arrow III kits,  but you'd need many to actually start making a representative model of operations.

However,  I think I have actually overcome that obstacle.  I have enough Amtrak and Commuter equipment (including 34 Arrow IIIs) to the point where I think I could keep up with the "flow"  of the Northeast Corridor and still have larger, more prototypical consists.  I've managed to snag some of the more rare distinctive pieces like a GP40P and 4 pairs of Arrow IIs,  and I have 4 E44As to supplement the more readily available E33s and GG1s in freight service.  

I have manage to match the volume of the prototype, which is still unreal to me.  

The real problem, is building a satisfying layout to run it all on. 

I definitely have my braindead days after work, so I would totally appreciate just "watching the trains go",  but I also do like operations,  especially after having gotten a taste of them at my local train club.  Unfortunately, the "mainline running" nature of the NEC isn't very conducive to that. 

There are areas that DO have freight switching,  but they have some limitations.  

Through central NJ, in the towns of Deans, Adams, and New Brunswick,  there were "ought" tracks that ran along side the NEC that had switching at some point.  You can still see them when you ride up today, but many of these spurs are clearly abandoned, and its not clear even if the ought track itself is in service, or when they were last served, though they are present on a 1987 Conrail ZTS chart.  These were apparently the last bastion of cabooses on Conrail, since they had no "run around", and so the trains switched the line in one long back up move.  Pictures of any of this operation as basically non-existent, probably due to accessibility and the fact that the whole area could be considered "boring".   It would however, be the easiest to do, since the NEC is only 4 tracks wide,  and any extra depth for the ought tracks wouldn't be too painful to do.

   

Farther north, the first freight yard you hit would be Metuchen, which supported the nearby Ford Metuchen Assembly plant.   There are tons of local industries in this area,  but the yard is the only thing near the NEC.   You could easily make a whole "industrial shortline" layout based on these tracks,  and I actually have an article published in November 1980 that discusses in detail the movement of freight between Metuchen's yard and its local industries.  As the diagram below shows however, the majority of all of this is out of sight of the Northeast Corridor itself.  This wouldn't be so bad if I had more space for a peninsula to work with.    The other "concern" is that this area south of  "Union interlocking" where the Jersey Shore trains would diverge from the NEC.  This means that the only common NJ DOT trains would be Arrow IIIs, and the GP40Ps and the GG1s in commuter service would not normally stray this far south.  

   

The next best location is Stiles Street Yard in Linden NJ.   This is ideal, since there is a large yard, with lots of industries around it.    You could basically make an entire layout around the operations here.  Present is the GM Assembly plant,  Merck Pharmaceuticals, and a few odds and ends that appear to take general freight.  It is also north of Union Interlocking,  so it would be realistic to have Jersey Shore trains passing by.  I also own a New York Division dispatcher sheet that details some of the activity as far as trains entering and leaving the yard. 

The main limitation is that the area is thick.   The Northeast Corridor is not only 6 tracks here,  but there is some big space between Track 1 and Track 2 for reasons I don't understand.   Stiles Street yard and its associated running tracks are also  parallel and large,  and while only a few of the yard's tracks are electrified,  it would mean that all of that would be towards the back of a shelf style layout.    The orientation of the GM plant and the size of the auto-parts cars means that  it will require longer, broader curves, that mean the assembly plant might need to jut out on its own peninsula.   

There is just a lot going on, and while any of these prototypes would require selective compression, this one would DEFINITELY need to be cut down.  

   

So you can see why I am struggling a bit.  

Givens and Druthers

Amtrak New York Division/Conrail Atlantic Region (NJ Division?)
Scale: HO
Gauge: Standard

Prototype: Conrail,  Amtrak, NJ DOT

   Era:1979
   Region: Northern NJ
   Railroad: Northeast Corridor

Space:

Essentially, I have space for something similar to a semi-dog bone layout that is 40' long, ~11' wide on the ends, and ~5' wide in the middle.   The previous owners partially finished the basement, so one room is nice (and I'll probably store my trains and work tables in there) but the rest of the basement is unfinished.  There are a pair of unfinished walls where one only has partial drywall and some electrical switches installed, and the other is just the 2x4s. Both look easy to remove.  I can't invade the entire basement since we need room for other things,  but if I needed to extend the curve of the dog bones a few feet beyond the 11' boundary, I can. 

The only concern I have is in the back corner, there is my sump pump, which I would like to be accessible.   The breaker cabinet is technically just beyond the edge of the partial wall on the bottom right, and though I don't intend to block it, it is there.  

There are no overhead limitations.

   

Governing Rolling Stock: 89' TOFC/Autoracks,  86' Hi-cube Boxcars, 85' passenger cars.  

Relative Emphasis:

I would like to keep operations and scenic realism somewhat balanced.  That said, despite the NEC being a largely "mainline running" kind of railroad,  I would like to focus on areas where there is switching.  

|______________________V_______________________|
Track/Operation .................................................. ..Scenic realism
|_________________________V____________________|
Mainline Running .................................................. ........ Switching

Operation Priorities: (rearrange as required)

  1. Local Freight Operations
  2. Main-Line Passenger Train Operation
  3. Long Freight Train Operations
  4. Passenger Train Switching 
  5. Engine Terminal Movements
  6. Helper District Operations

Typical operating Crew: 2-3

Eye Level (Owner)- I'm 6'2",  so my eyes are probably somewhere just below that.

Other considerations:

Considerations for catenary are a must.  This means I need the vertical clearance, but it also means keeping the track in the electrified areas relatively simple.

I would like to have a multi-deck layout where the lower level is staging for longer passenger trains and mainline freights. 

Trackplan attempt.

I did attempt to make a "Stiles Street Yard" trackplan in my space, but it strikes me as being a bit "much".  To start, the GM plant tracks (and to a lesser extent, the Merck tracks) stick out very far.   I am considering making these spurs be detachable modules so they can be stored when not in opreation.     Next, even with just the yard in place, it will be very deep going back to the mainline.  There are no switches back there (and I'm not crazy enough to model the industries on the westbound side of the tracks) but that could still be an issue to reach that far.    My train club has a special "platform" that can sit on its station tracks and support my weight for when work needs to be done in the city out of reach,  so I might need to do something similar.   There would also need to be a "duck" under and pit in the top right corner, so that  operators could more readily switch the "B" Yard and industries. 

Almost all the mainline switches are just "place holders",  the big gray circles are helixes where the outside radius is I believe 42", to accomadate a 4 track broad helix.    The switches are long enough to accomodate the 86' boxcars and 89' autoracks where necessary, though on shorter stub tracks I've employed tighter curves and switches. 

I am proud of getting many of the tracks in, even though I know I will cut a few of them in the end.    Its just a shame there isn't more depth in my space.   If i was able to build the layout slightly away from the wall, i could make pop-ups from behind to access it.

   

Welp, thats all I've got for now.   Very much open to ideas and suggestions, because I am far from satisfied.
Modeling New Jersey Under the Wire 1978-1979.  
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#2
Is it possible to make a separate room(s) for the sump pump and the breaker box? That would remove the temptation to build layout over and around them.
No furnace? Water heater?

I operate (when there's no Corvid) on a friend's layout. My description is "A train set in its time plays many parts". We have 6 or 8 numbered trains that depart the station as one train (10:10 to Manchester) and return as another (2:15 parcels from London). It then departs as ... We have 2 mainline trains and 2 local/suburban/commuter trains and some others. Operation is changing locos and turning around any one-directional cars.
David
Moderato ma non troppo
Perth & Exeter Railway Company
Esquesing & Chinguacousy Radial Railway
In model railroading, there are between six and two hundred ways of performing a given task.
Most modellers can get two of them to work.
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#3
(01-18-2021, 09:17 PM)BR60103 Wrote: Is it possible to make a separate room(s) for the sump pump and the breaker box? That would remove the temptation to build layout over and around them.
No furnace? Water heater?

The  sump  pump is in the one space with nothing built in it,  so i am a little forced to  share the area with it.   That said,  I think things can be done to avoid making it inaccessible. The circuit breakers are technically "in the next room" on the  bottom right hand wall of the diagram.   

The diagram does not show the whole basement.   In this case,  the hot water heater and furnace are on the other side  of the basement from the planned layout area, in what would be the bottom  left.  I didn't represent it since it is  what I  would  consider  "out of  bounds". 

Also,  there are no clear  measurements of my basement.   I am  reasonably confident that its  about 41'  across, maybe 42',  but this is based on measuring the  basement in segments.  Certain objects,  like  the stairs, shelves, "walls"  and my 4x8  layout table are for sure since I could measure those then define them as shapes in the program I'm using.  

Quote:I operate (when there's no Corvid) on a friend's layout. My description is "A train set in its time plays many parts".  We have 6 or 8 numbered trains that depart the station as one train (10:10 to Manchester) and return as another (2:15 parcels from London). It then departs as ... We have 2 mainline trains and 2 local/suburban/commuter trains and some others. Operation is changing locos and turning around any one-directional cars.

I was kind of  hoping to get away with maybe having two layouts in one,  an ISL kind of  layout attached to a "continuous" mainline  layout.   It  would  be prototypical  for an eastbound  freight to  drop  a cut of  cars for the  yard and  pick up  a cut of outbound cars,  but that  would  be the only connection.
Modeling New Jersey Under the Wire 1978-1979.  
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#4
Wow that is quite an ambitious track plan. I like how you prioritized what you want to do with your layout. On my first two attempts I did not and I think that lead to my major dissatisfaction with them. Now that I am doing a rebuild I am looking at my wants and expectations more closely. Since I grew up within a mile of the NEC and my earliest memories of it are in the wanning days of the Penn Central and the birth of both Amtrak and Conrail I will being following your progress with interest.
Tom
Silence is golden but Duct tape is silver
Ridley Keystone & Mountain Railroad
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#5
Hello Green Elite,
I just discovered this thread, although 3 years late.  Eek
Any update on your layout?  It looks very ambitious.

You might want to consider a physically separate switching layout, not connected to the dogbone NEC traffic layout.
You could have a blind spur representing a connection to the ISL. The independently located ISL could have an incoming track.

I had wondered where you had gone, you used to post a lot of pics from your 4x8 layout (which I very much enjoyed)
--Hillyard
(another 4x8 operator)
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