OVERVIEW: Located in the lower level of my home in Northeast PA, my proto-freelanced 1957-62 era Central New York & New England HO layout is being constructed in my 12’ x 20’ finished train room. The theme is loosely based on the Maybrook, NY area railroads, but my version of Maybrook has the same basic railroads from the 1957 era, but I have added much more industry, passenger operations and many new fictitious shortlines. The layout is a modified mushroom type multi-deck design with the lower deck set at about 41” above the floor and the upper deck is about 57” high. There is also a 6’ diameter helix and staging tracks located in an adjacent room, shared with my workshop. There are about 50 industries and interchanges, 2 large 125 car capacity yards plus several other smaller yards for local work. The two decks are connected by a single track dedicated mainline on the helix. The railroad has plenty of very heavy industrial switching of the many interchanges and industries. Passenger operations include lots of head-end business, there is a Hudson River carfloat operation in Port Hendrick that crosses the Hudson river to compete with the New Haven RR Poughkeepsie bridge route. Through freights make appearances from the West and East setting off and picking up car blocks along the way. Instead of using the typical 4 cycle waybill car-card system used by many, I have developed an Excel based switch-list concept that prints switchlists for yard and train operation. You carry one simple sheet that tells you what to set- out and pick-up.
I am in the process of adding a major expansion to the layout in the adjacent Family Room, consisting of an 18” X 17’ double deck addition which connects to the main train room on both decks. I was having OP sessions before Covid hit and plan on continuing them in the near future as the world returns to a more normal state. This is a very basic overview and I will give more insight to the CNY&NE in future posts.
I am in the process of adding a major expansion to the layout in the adjacent Family Room, consisting of an 18” X 17’ double deck addition which connects to the main train room on both decks. I was having OP sessions before Covid hit and plan on continuing them in the near future as the world returns to a more normal state. This is a very basic overview and I will give more insight to the CNY&NE in future posts.
My passenger operations on the CNY&NE RR include several through passenger trains that stop to perform headend work and interchange passengers with other local passenger trains including some RDCs and motor trains. Several passenger trains are included in a typical OP session and I try to vary the trains that run from session to session. They provide an important "interference" with our typical through and local freight operations adding interest as they must clear up in time for their passage.
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