DVX -Smoke Along the River 70 Years Later - Layout Engineering Report

[rickb773]

DVX -Smoke Along the River 70 Years Later

Alternate Title:    “At 80, Do I Have One Last Layout in Me?”

Background History of the DVX / DelValX / Delaware Valley eXchangeRR

The background fantasy story of the creation of the DVX RR is that the railroad presidents of the late 1950s had genius level foresight into the future of the railroad industry (instead of being the inflexible idiots that thought their industry would go on under the same influences as the preceding 100 years).

They could see the government subsidized road network would lead to unfair competition from a rising trucking industry that didn’t have to pay for its own “roadbed” and continued government taxation of their historical cash cow, the railroads. With all that land and buildings, they were easy tax targets.

So to survive, they put their heads together. They had to downsize labor costs and find a way to return their WWII worn-out right of way to a passable status. Besides the obvious low hanging fruit where else were savings available?

Enter new forms of less costly, easier to maintain locomotion. Electrifying rail corridors was possible but only in high density profitable areas that would justify the enormous costs of electrifying the mainline. But that was basically the Washington to New York corridor and Philadelphia to Harrisburg. It was also justifiable in the Pacific northwest mountain ranges that made steam operations extremely costly. But that had basically already been completed.

Diesel locomotion came to the rescue in vast water scarce desert regions and the Sante Fe and Union Pacific reaped the benefits. The remining railroads also saw the value in eliminating the ponderous supply requirements for their steam fleets.

The slab-sided diesel locomotives would also provide a colorful canvas opportunity to show the railroads were following the population into an unlimited exciting future. The first-generation diesels streaked across the rails in beautiful paint jobs.

Transporting large heavy bulk products like coal and oil should remain safely in the hands of the railroads. And operations could be streamlined with longer single commodity trains to meet the shippers schedule needs. Adding single crew diesels to the front end was a lot cheaper than adding additional helper steamers and their crews.

But the trucking industry could bite into just about every other area. Well geniuses what are you going to do about that? Well, we can form our own trucking companies until the government inevitably forces us to sell them off under monopolization laws.

Then maybe we can talk a major truck line or 2 into loading their trailers onto flat cars to take them cross country (we can do that more efficiently than they can), and that leaves them stuck with delivering their cargos through slow, crowded city streets. (He He!)

Passenger revenues are down due to the new-fangled airlines. (We tried adding airlines also but lost them to the same monopoly laws). Gas electrics can handle the branch lines and Budd’s new RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars) helped with the downsizing but we have to get the government to stop making us provide service in areas without enough ridership. (Amtrak’s a’coming, please hurry!).

So, what’s left that we can do? We have so many overlapping rail systems and government regulations preclude rate wars for the barely surviving victors.

So, as a last straw, how about we cooperate. We’ll form a conglomerate rail network of slimmed-down highly maintained right of way that we all can share. We share the costs and each company can provide motive power. We will schedule high speed profitable service that benefits us all!

Where do we start? How about where traffic is the densest: Midwest to New York and Washington DC with coal traffic from the Appalachian Mountain ranges to to Atlantic seaboard ports.

We end up with a high traffic line from Harrisburg to New York and Baltimore running through a Philadelphia hub along the Schuylkill River. A line to Reading will tap coal fields and we will attempt to continue to control the Atlantic City shore traffic. (Maybe that configuration is where the “X” in the name comes from???)

Initial sign-ons: PRR, NYC, B&O, RDG, LV.
With occasional run-throughs from AT&SF, UP, GN, CB&Q, and NP.

There are my history “eXcuses”!

In the next chapter(s), we will trace the path leading to the destruction of my completed 15-year-old Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines layout to go from running a fully protypical PRSL daily switching schedule to a completely non-protypical fantasy layout the runs every color under the sun just for fun. (Without the crappy Penn-Central history dead weight.). And then we will follow the tedious layout construction steps. When I was younger, I could pretty fully complete a mid-sized layout in about a year. I estimate this will take 3+ years.

Stay tuned!

Keep 'em rollin'
Rick

[wm3798]

Excellent backstory, Rick.

Sounds a bit like my HCD.  A scenic race track where I run whatever I like!  Only you've applied economic logic to your scenario. 

Watching with interest...
Lee

[rickb773]

Chapter 2: My Long Model Railroading Journey

To understand how we got to the DVX (working title) we should probably review the path to get to this point and my reasons/choices. For my own review I put together a short (4 minutes) YouTube presentations of my layouts from a pre-teen in the 1950s to the recent Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines.

I documented the construction of the PRSL in a blog starting in 2011 until Google killed off their free blogging ap. Its remains can be found at: https://rickb773-prsl.blogspot.com/2011/

I have been blessed with magazine coverage of my last 3 layouts:
     * The PRR Haven branch (“The Perfect 4’x8’ Trackplan”, N Scale Magazine, Sept/Oct 2012)
     * The PRR Schuylkill River Div. (“Smoke Along the River 50 Years Later”, NSM Nov/Dec 2011)
     * The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines:    (NSM Nov/Dec 1016 & Jan/Feb 2017) and (Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine, Jan & Feb 2022)

So, here we are using a Railwire “Layout Engineering Report” to document my latest modeling attempt. Entering my 8th decade, this one may be a race against father time (backup plan: I have already built (4) T-Trak modules in case I end up in an assisted living complex 😊).

So, the first question would be why did you do it? I already had an almost fully complete model railroad highlighting my boyhood home railroad in the towns in which I grew up. I had regular operating sessions with several modeling friends that always provided a great time.

What happened? Answer: The COVID Years!

Several members of my group were traveling an 80-mile round trip to be here when the travel restrictions clamped things down. A few of us were already in our sixties back then. Some of the guys just aged out.

The idle years did no favors to the layout’s condition (located in a hot loft). Several issues cropped up, especially in a 5-turnout complex located in an area that was very difficult to access.

And then there was Atlas. My go-to for engines (along with Kato). Their new engines pulled a third less than their old engines. Suddenly it took 3 engines to pull what 2 engines used to pull up the grades on my layout. My protype usually ran 2 engines and most of my trains were 20 cars. Bummer!

And then there is always Boredom!

The main PRSL engines were black (DLGE) Baldwin rectangles and even though I am partially color blind I longed for a splash of color. Plus, the layout was located in flat southern New Jersey which didn’t offer a whole lot of topographical interest.

I also missed the signature scene from the basement railroad in my previous home (family medical issues had forced us from our 2 story home into a senior community).

I really caught model railroading fever from a Model Railroader Magazine “centerfold” (Nov 1958 issue). It showed a scene from Carl Appel’s Norfolk and Ohio OO gauge layout. In it he modeled his representation of the real N&W Island Yard. His modeling was one of the first I had seen with eastern mountain scenery. I was in love! (Pre-teen, remember?)

Carl Appel's "Centerfold"


My basement layout version:




I tried to recreate the scene on my PRR Schuylkill River division basement layout and will try to reprise a shortened version of it on my new layout.

There you have it. After 6 decades of prototype modeling, I think I have earned the chance to go off and just run trains for the fun of showing them off. A little color never hurt anyone!

In the next Chapter we will begin documenting the layout construction process (I am 9 months behind already.)

[rickb773]

Chapter 3: The End and a Beginning.

In October of 2025 I began putting more than 200 cars from the layout into their plastic storage boxes and set up 2 trains for a “Final Run” over the layout. A mixed freight led by a pair of Pennsy RS-3 and a shorty beer can train led by a WP geep. They were filmed for posterity: Youtube:

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And with tears the teardown work began. Since I am living on Social Security it was imperative to keep whatever material I could salvage, track, all the turnouts, lumber and even wiring.

For the time being the 30th street station and Manayunk “dioramas” (enclosed by bookshelves) remain.

Philadelphia 30th Street Station and Manayunk bridges:


At some point the 30th Street Station “box” will probably be replaced with an industrial switching area and the 30th Street scene turned into another T-Trak module.

Camden City got torn down and the location will house a shortened version of the Westville “module” will go in its place.

Camden, NJ


Westville, NJ


The "Squatter":



Status October 10, 2026

Destruction!
And destruction reigned upon the earth!
And it became void (almost).









Next chapter we will look at a sketchy track plan and show construction beginning.

[wm3798]

Such a great record of the evolution of your layout experiences.

This makes me wish I had time, and all the missing images, to revisit the construction phase of my lost WM layout.  The discussion exists in the original engineering report, but many of the images are crippled by broken links, especially the track planning images that were posted by DKS prior to his server's untimely demise.  (Gratefully, he's still with us, but all of his files were lost)

A lot of mine also got evaporated in a laptop my daughter used in college, or because they were originally hosted in Snapfish or some other ancient photo storage platform that slipped beneath the waves.

Thanks for doing this work.  It will help your efforts long outlast all of us.
Lee

[rickb773]

Chapter 4 - Track Plans and Other “Fun” Stuff

OK time to discuss track planning. My previous layouts all were probably on the drawing board for 1-2 years. I was a John Armstrong wanna be. I devoured John’s “Track Planning for Realistic Operation (1963) and picked up key insights along the way (don’t place tracks parallel to the layout’s edge to avoid toylike appearance, etc.)

The 4x8 used on my first 2 layouts (HO & N) was inspired by John’s “The Big Panhandle (Track Plan #18, “Atlas Custom Line HO Layouts” (1957)). The N scale PRR Schuylkill Division expansion was added to be able to emulate Carl Appel’s N&O Island Yard.

I’d been sketching plans around my hometown’s trackage since the early 1970s figuring sooner or later  I would have to abandon my coal hauling tendencies to “go home”. Our “medical” relocation in 2010 and the incurring loss of my basement layout provided the opportunity. The new loft would house the protypical trackplan and accurate schedules.

The 1950s Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (2010-2025)


Weary of the limitations of a prototype layout, age, and boredom led to giving in to the temptation to start over (one last time) and have some fun. I wanted to reprise the “Island Yard”, keep my hometown (Westville) (Woodbury will have to be another T-Trak modules in order to house the custom station), and have lots of staging to house all those colorful first generation diesel trains. [The NS Heritage fleet will still power the Christmas trains.]

Unfortunately, I don’t have the space to fit it all in (2 gallons of water into a 1 gallon pail!). Even after going to 15” radii (from 19” R) the yard will need to be shortened and probably cease being double ended. Trying to fit in 2 or 3 spans of those beautiful Klawndyke arch bridges doesn’t help either!

Section to model from the basement layout


Target DVX Plan (used to ID electrical blocks)


When construction issues stabilize, I will try to get a good track plan drawn up. DKS did a beautiful job on the published 4x8 NSM article but they forget to credit him for it but he has enough issues of his own to deal with currently.

November/December 2025

Where I had the room, I did use some of the salvaged 19” radius track sections (unfortunately hidden trackage)



 
Old pieces of Plywood (boy, did plywood get expensive) were scraped and reused

 
The wall staging yards became the new Mystic Yards staging (the 6 tracks on the right) and the Seidelmann Siding staging (4 tracks on the left).


The island yard remnants sitting on the layout


Midwest Cork was having one of their periodic N scale stock outages so to prevent being stalled I purchased some local “Brand X” at Yankee Dabbler. I was not impressed. Tough to work with and bend and somewhat brittle. OK for a yard area which kept work progressing.




Had to buy another 23/32” sheet of plywood


Which brings us to the end of 2025.
Yeah!    Only 7 months behind in logging!
Stay tuned for all the “excitement” 2026 brings!

Keep ‘em rollin’,
Rick

[rickb773]

Chapter 5 - Winter Cometh

January 2026

My son’s friend recently had been gracious enough to use his pick-up to deliver a 23/32” sheet of 4’x8’ plywood to my garage. (Although it is theoretically possible to get a 4x8 sheet of 1/8”Masonite or plywood curled into my 2015 CRV, that ¾” stuff just doesn’t bend!) They wrestled it upstairs in 54” and 42” sections, so now it was time to carve it up.



I had performed some cookie cutter work on the plywood and now applied a base coat of “Dirt Brown” paint



I use all Atlas code 80 flex track and Peco turnouts, but the Kato track is great for marking curve “center” lines


Being a certified Pepsiholic, my mug is never far away.

Laid the turnouts for the north end leads to the hidden staging yards


Laid the roadbed for the 2 levels. The right side of this turnback will be hidden in a mountain.
The staging yards will also not be in public view.


I used liquid nails to affix the roadbed and held the cork in place while it dried with “push pins” (which actually needed to be hammered a bit into the plywood).



February 2026

A belated Christmas present: Bob!
Bob was one of the original members of my PRSL operating group. I believe I met him when I was active on N Scale.net. He became my go-to guy for complex track work. We had recently gotten together for a trip to the Timonium, MD train show and he graciously volunteered to help me build the DVX. (I think it was voluntary, I don’t remember twisting his arm or threatening him with a Guido visit.)


"Bob"


Bob was the one that got the North & South yard lead complex working on my old PRSL.


He is just one of those extremely nice, helpful guys who seems to thrive in the background but is actually a very skilled builder. For example, here is just one of his home T-Trak modules


Laid the south end staging yard turnouts


Laid track on both levels. These picture highlights a critically necessary tool: The Grabber!
Without it you could add about 2 years to my project’s schedule! 😊 I just don’t bend well anymore!




The “Grabber”
Harbor Freight $3.99


Drop something?



Next chapter will deal with the joys of wiring!

Can’t wait!

Keep ‘em rollin’,
Rick

[N Scale Train Boy]

Looking good Rick! Seeing the progress is really fun, can't wait to see when we're all caught up!

[rickb773]

Chapter 5 – Wiring, Turnouts, and Other Distasteful Things

March 2026

When I disassembled the PRSL I saved all the wood, screws, and wiring I could, to save money. So far, I’ve only had to purchase a ¾” 4’x8’ piece of plywood for the big turns at both ends of the peninsula, a 1/8” sheet of Masonite for the riverbed, and some 1x3 & 1x2s for the cross pieces over the main L girder supports in the peninsula.

I ended up with 9 heaping card order box pockets of screws, mostly 1¼”. I had to throw away about 30% with stripped heads. The attached picture shows what remains in July. The smaller screws are for the terminal blocks and the bolts were used to hold together the 6’ box frames I previously used in the center portion of the PRSL.



The next picture shows my wiring “rack” in March. This is about 1/3 of what it started with. I sorted it by color and lengths (3 range groups from 18” to 5’). Most of the black and a significant portion of the red have already been consumed. I still laugh (usually out loud) when I hear someone say how simple it is to wire for DCC: “You just attach two wires!” The peninsula already has 37, usually 6 poles each, terminal blocks. Approximately 170 connections and I haven’t even put the yard in yet or counted the wall side terminal blocks.  Remember: “You just attach two wires!”.







The layout will be divided into 4 electrical sections for short circuit protection. (One for each of the three “yard” areas and their adjacent tracks, and the wall area.). I run terminal joiners to every other track joiner, hence the number of connections. And yes, I also saved them from the previous layout. New ones list for $4.95 per pair. Most of mine were done myself to save money. [I outlined the process in the Railwire Weekend Update 10/21/18.] I may need to make some more.

I shimmed some more turnouts [see my post: Shimming Peco turnouts, 10/24/25]. I had always thought my derailing issues were due to truck wheel problems until someone in the club explained to me that this was a tolerance problem Peco needed to employ for their turnouts to work on N scale and 1:150 scale.

When I switched to DCC on the PRSL, it was a nightmare which I never would have survived without the help of several New Jersey Southern M.R.C. members. Some of the issues were from wiring mistakes that DC forgave but DCC did not. I still quiver at getting the DVX up to speed. My biggest DCC advisor recently passed away suddenly in his 50s. It was a big loss both socially and technically to our club. I still miss his smiling face and booming voice.

April 2026

Laid the roadbed for the long uphill mountain side trek (opposite the Island Yard) and the track.





Started on the photogenic curve at the base of the hill.



Coming up next: the "Base of the Hill".

[rickb773]

Chapter 6 - May/June 2026 - Bottom of the Hill & Things That Don't Fit

Started work on the lower end of the Penisula.




This will be a compressed attempt at the scene below from my old basement layout.


These are the tracks leading to the lower bookend section of the layout.




I bought a double (4 spans) Klawndyke Arch Bridge kit but it is never going to fit so I just ordered a single (2 spans).
These are absolutely beautiful bridges, reasonably priced, but the postage is a killer (they are very heavy kits).