A Visit To The Valley

Chris Adams has a wonderful layout that prototypically recreates the Valley branch of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. This branch follows the west side of the Connecticut River Valley northward from a junction with the New Haven Shoreline at Old Saybrook Connecticut to a second junction with the New Haven Air Line at Middletown Connecticut then continuing onto Wethersfield and E. Berlin Connecticut. Several locations between Old Saybrook and Wethersfield/E.Berlin are prototypically modeled. The well thought out layout design allows accurate prototype operation.

Open House at the Valley

Chris graciously hosted a layout open house on the Friday evening before the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association Reunion that was held at the The Valley Railroad in Essex Connecticut on October 22nd.
I had hoped to visit Chris's layout for some time now and it was our good fortune to be in the area for a family function, so my wife and I took some time out and visited The Valley. We had a wonderful time, Chris gave us at walking tour of the Valley branch and his work shop, we then had the opportunity to chat with some old friends and meet some new.

As one enters the layout rooms the first scene encountered is the nearing completion Old Saybrook diorama seen below. The Old Saybrook diorama is cleverly a layout within a layout, staged shoreline trains can run from staging continuously in a loop first westbound then returning eastbound. Trains from staging for the larger Valley branch portion of the layout take to the wye here at the interlocking for the northbound run to destinations along the branch. 

This scene features the Old Saybrook station, freight house, signal station 102 interlocking tower and small business structures. All these prototypically accurate structures were expertly scratch built by Valley crew member Bill Schneider, the station and tower both have detailed and lighted interiors too!

This photo from the opposite direction also shows one leg of the wye and Chris's finely detailed RS-2, blog posts on the RS-2's construction can be seen here. I will soon use the details and methods outlined by Chris to upgrade my RS-2's.

Thank you Chris,we had a great time visiting the Valley branch! Hope to return for an operating session sometime.        
 

Railfan Bridge

Overview Bridge

Lately I have been pursuing some of the many interests that I have other than model railroading. These interests get a grip on me during the warmer late summer and early fall months here in the Northeast that take me outside and away from the modeling bench. One such interest is watching modern railroading first hand, this in spite of the historic New Haven Railroad modeling that I pursue.

A favorite location to railfan is the Overview Bridge at the north end of the large Norfolk Southern Railway Enola classification yard. This yard was originally built by the Pennsylvania Railroad at the turn of the last century, by the mid 1950's was claimed to be the largest freight yard in the world. Now under Norfolk Sothern ownership this yard is still a very busy place, traffic fluctuating with the state of the economy. The yard is located in East Pennsboro Township on the west shore of the Susquehanna River a few miles north of Harrisburg Pennsylvania. The overlook bridge can be located on Google Maps by entering in the search bar the GPS coordinates, 40°19'04.7"N76°54'55.4"W

When the bridge was built in 1999, the East Pennsboro board of commissioners was nice enough to provide openings in the bridge fencing to allow for photography. The bridge has very light traffic with a large area outside the traffic lanes on both sides to safely stand and watch the action. Note the openings in the bridge fencing in the photo below.

Click to enlarge photos.

Photos From The Bridge

Below are some photos from a few days ago, all action is in a short span of time. In this first photo two trains depart from the north end of the yard. The train on the right is heading for the westbound main to Altoona PA and beyond. The train to the left with the tank cars is holding for clearance to cross the Susquehanna river on the Rockville bridge about a mile to the north, once on the other side of the river it will go ether north to Buffalo NY or south thru Harrisburg.

The train with the tank cars has been cleared and heads for the bridge followed by trio of locomotives deadheading across the river to Harrisburg yard.

Power arrives from the Enola ready track for the next west bound, then backs to train.

 

A train of auto racks slowly arrives from the west.

Passing under the Overview Bridge the train heads for a meet with a pair of yard switchers.

The switchers take the track to the lower west bound departure yard as the auto racks continue to the arrival yard.

Yard switchers head to work the departure yard.

Next west bound leaves the departure yard.

The bridge good place to photograph rooftops, open loads and get great detail shots of locos. Wish I had some overhead photos of New Haven diesels like these.

Something special being able to listen to the cadence of a prime mover idling a few feet below you!

Finished up the visit to the area by catching the NS Conrail heritage unit on a west bound after crossing the Rockville bridge, also saw the Southern heritage unit in the same place last year.

The Overview Bridge is a wonderful place to visit, if ever in the Harrisburg PA area don't miss it! 

 

A Day Out Of The Train Room Down At The Bridge

The Norfolk Southern Railroad hub centered at Harrisburg Pennsylvania and the radiating rail lines in the area offer rail fans many great vantage points to watch the numerous daily trains. A personal favorite location is the 48 arch stone and concrete Rockville Bridge.

Rockville Bridge is located a few miles north of the city of Harrisburg. The 3800' bridge completed in 1902 for the Pennsylvania Railroad links the East-West shores of the Susquehanna River.

Fellow rail fans can often be spotted with their cameras on either shore. There is also a recently completed inn on the West shore where the lodgers can comfortably sit on the deck and watch the action.

My absolute favorite spot at the bridge is from the seat of a kayak in the center of the river near a small island just South of the bridge. This treed island can be seen in the lower left corner of the June 2015 Trains magazine cover photo and from a kayak seat in the below photo.

Weekdays in August and September are the most enjoyable, when the river is clear, low and slow. A cooler with a foot long Subway sandwich, chips, bottled water and camera are all that is needed for several hours of train watching here. This is a very tranquil place, rippling waters, many birds, a quarter of a mile from the noise of either shore only to be interrupted by the sound of approaching locomotives.

Witnessing two trains on the bridge at the same time is not unusual. In the photo below I tried to time my shot so the Amtrak locomotive on the North side of the bridge appeared to be pulling the freight train that was actually passing in the opposite direction on the South track.
The concrete repair work to the spandrel wall of pier 19 just below the cab of the Amtrak locomotive was necessitated by the wall failing under the weight of a passing unit coal train in August of 1997. Four fully loaded 100 ton hoppers were dumped into the river.

The "Pennsylvanian" a daily 9 1/2 hour Amtrak train from Pittsburgh to New York's Penn Station usually crosses the bridge a few minutes before it's 12:55pm stop at the train shed of Harrisburg station.

I often think about that spandrel wall failure when paddling to get out of the sun for a few minutes in the cool shade of one of the arches!

A few years ago on my way home from a day at the bridge I happened on a rare sight today, a caboose on the bridge. I had to stop and get a photos of that!