What's this then?

This blog is about model railroading, specifically modeling in N scale. There will be quite a bit of narrow gauge as well since the locale that I am trying for is central Pennsylvania, in the southern tier of counties that border Maryland.

In that part of the country you will still find the East Broad Top, a coal hauling road that ceased common carrier service in 1956 and was bought by the Kovalchick Salvage Company. Smart money was that the Kovalchicks were going to scrap the road and sell the land, but the owner had different plans.

The story goes that Nick Kovalchick had always wanted a model railroad when he was a boy and had been disappointed every Christmas. The EBT was a dream come true.

I don't know if the story is true or not, but it deserves to be if it isn't. What I do know is that the Kovalchicks have been keeping the dream alive at considerable personal expense for the past 50 plus years now, and you can still go to the Augwick valley and see the smoke and hear the whistles.

And that is where our story begins.

The Path Valley Railroad is a model operation built on a proposed line that never was. The humble beginnings of the planned line was the narrow gauge Newport and Sherman's Valley Railroad, who's tracks ran from a connection with the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad in Newport PA, down Sherman's Valley to New Germantown, and made it's meager living hauling forest products from the foot of the Conococheague Mountain.

The proposed line was to have used the narrow gauge Newport and Sherman's Valley Railroad as it's seed. Continuing from the actual end of line for the NSV, the Path Valley Railroad would cut through the Conococheague Mountain via a tunnel to the Path Valley. It would send a branch through Concord Narrows to join up with the East Broad Top at Shade Gap while the mainline would continue down Path Valley to Fannettsburg.

Before it was all over the plans got to be pretty ambitious. A line through Burnt Cabins and the New Grenada-Sideling Hill Gap to the coal seams on the east side of the Broad Top mountain was planned, and the entire line was to be relaid in standard gauge. However, the contractor that was hired to drill the Conococheague Tunnel abruptly went bankrupt and the bore was never completed.

Without the Conococheague Mountain tunnel the PVRR was not to be. This was probably good news to the EBT since they were able to keep the Broad Top coalfield traffic on the east side of the mountain for themselves.

In my alternate version of the history of southern Pennsylvania the plans didn't get this ambitious, the tunnel contractor was quickly replaced, and the Path Valley Railroad came into existence to run alongside of the East Broad Top, even buying coal, excess locomotives and rolling stock from them as well as copying their designs.

The PVRR will have a few EBT trains on occasion, delivering coal and picking up the empties. There will be some aspects that are unique to the railroad, but the line will reflect the character and operating practices of the neighboring lines as well. I'll post the plans and histories as they are available.