Staying Alive

I haven't posted for a while, mostly because there hasn't been much movement on the Path Valley Railroad. I'm at a standstill due to time, funds and space constraints.

One of the things I have been trying to do is come up with a suitable track plan. This relies on two factors, both having to do with real estate. The first factor is the type of layout, I haven't decided on an island (in which case it would be a 4x8) or an around-the-room (in which case it depends on if I get to keep my room or not). There are pros and cons with both approaches, but I'm leaning towards an around-the-room in a modular format.

I want to represent three different railroads, which presents problems of it's own. The first railroad to be represented would be the mighty Pennsylvania, with it's four track mainline, in Duncannon. This would actually be simpler than it sounds because I would only need a relatively short stretch. I'm thinking of a double-track dogbone with the sides close together to simulate the four tracks. That way I could have a passenger train orbiting in the center and a freight working the outsides to interchange with the Susquehanna River & Western in Duncannon. PRR locos would range from Consolidations and Northerns to F-7 diesels. My Pacific would handle the passenger trains.

PRR purists will shudder, because none of the steam engines are PRR prototypes and the F-7's aren't detailed with the proper antennas and such. Also, I'll be using steel cabooses because that's what I have. It's my railroad, I'll run it like I want.

The second railroad, therefore, would be the SR&W from Duncannon to the dual gauge yard in New Bloomfield. It would serve strictly as a connector, so it can be fairly simple - the two terminus points and some straight track between. I have some 4-4-0's and a Spectrum Consolidation that will call this road home.

Last, but certainly not least, will be the narrow gauge Newport and Sherman's Valley railroad. Here's where it gets interesting. In the real world the N&SV ran from Newport to New Germantown with a spur into New Bloomfield until 1921. At that time the road from New Bloomfield to Newport was taken up and the road then ran from New Bloomfield to New Germantown. It left New Germantown for the last time in 1933 and steadily retreated from there, tearing up it's rail behind it, until finally it's backwards march brought it to it's New Bloomfield terminus in 1934 and it was no more.

In my world, the line from New Bloomfield to Newport was saved and a railcar ran the route for passenger and LCL traffic. I'm not really interested in representing Newport so much, a line running off "in that direction" is good enough for me (in actuality that line will run up the backside of the Conococheague Mountain to the Conococheage Gap). So for the narrow gauge portion of the line it's very likely that only New Bloomfield and the mines at the Conococheague Gap will be modeled.

That is still a lot of railroad for a relatively small space, so until I get my real estate woes solved once and for all, most of this is still up in the air. In essence I will have two roundy-round type circuits, one double-tracked, joined by a point to point line. I have several ideas on how to make it all work, but so far they are all just ideas.

But the armchair modeling is fun, too.