...although I'm already well underway at this point.
I'm modelling the region of central Pennsylvania along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, circa. 1956. This area was still a hotbed of railroading at this point, with the demise of steam and the rise of diesels well underway. The Reading Co. and New York Central were also active in this area, with a major interchange of the three lines at Newberry on the western fringes of Williamsport.
The Pennsylvania Railroad's Harrisburg - Buffalo mainline skirted the edges of the Susquehanna for several hundred miles, including the famous Rockville Bridge, Northumberland, Milton, Williamsport, Renovo, and then down the western slope of the Alleghenies and on into western New York.
The Reading leveraged much the same flat, West Branch Valley topography as the Pennsy on its Shamokin Division, but largely followed the western shores of the West Branch, crossing north of Montgomery, PA and proceeding up the eastern shore to its terminus in Newberry. The New York Central came south through the Pine Creek Valley to the Susquehanna River basin, and from there eastward to meet the PRR and RDG at Newberry.
My original plans were fairly grand--including Enola and the Rockville Bridge--but there's only so much space in my house, even for N Scale. I've got roughly a 20' X 13' space, with some bumps and coves here and there. The current track plan I've developed includes the Pennsy mainline from Milton, PA to Williamsport and Linden, PA, including the original double track mains where possible. This covers a distance of approximately 32 miles, give or take. I've taken some liberties with double-tracking, mainly where I didn't feel I had enough space to accurately capture both track and scenery, and in some cases just to spice up operations once complete!
The Reading is also represented, largely for show in Milton, but with an interchange at Montomery and then on up to Newberry. The NYC makes a bit of show as well at Newberry.
I've been doing a lot of research on what-was-where for the Pennsy, Reading, and NYC in this area, and I've been marrying that up with what I remember was left of these lines as the Penn Central and Conrail in the mid-seventies and early eighties, when I was a kid in Williamsport. I'm striving hard for an accurate representation whereever possible, but obviously there are some limits and compromises to be made.
As of this posting, my L-girder benches (6 of them) are built, and I'm adding joists (cross-members) now as needed to support my track plan. I hope to be able to post photos and keep a running diary of what I'm doing, as time (and my wife and kids) permits!!
Stay tuned!
