The Bellefonte Central... in N?

[Dave V]

Ever have a moment of inspiration?

When I atteneded Penn State I hiked the abandoned roadbed of the 20-mile Bellefonte Central Railroad from the campus to a town called Waddle.  I traced the rest by car.  Parts of the Bellefonte Central still remain, including the beautiful PRR Bellefonte station.

But I never gave much thought to modeling it.  Until the other night...

In the last years of steam, the Bellefonte Central operated 3 ex-PRR H9s class 2-8-0s.  I realized, as I ran the PRR H10sb I kitbashed in N, that it looked an awful lot like BC #20-22.

What a great layout the BC would make!  The gypsum plant required lots of switching, along with the PRR Sunnyside yard where the cement hoppers would be exchanged.  So, one operator works the gypsom plant while the other works the PRR local to Bellefonte and Sunnyside.  A third operator takes his train all the way to Penn State, switching the Penn State Foods Building in State College, OW Hout's at Strubles, and finally hoppers of coal to the Penn State Power plant.

One could have a flexible era, too.  BC rostered an SW9 and an SW1200.  Could the Kato NW2 be a good DCC-ready mechanism for a bash?

This is a giant leap away from mainline Pennsy ops, but awfully doable.  Plus, I have a deep connection to Dear Old State.

The BC cut service to State College in 1974, and eventually went under in 1984.

My dad gave me this book for Christmas and it gives you every agonizing detail you'd need to model the road:



This photo, copyright Jim Appleman, shows the short-lived ressurected K4 1361 passing the Gamble Mill in Bellefonte on what was BC trackage to its Coleville engine terminal.  That mill is now a restaurant, and I had my Penn State graduation dinner there in January 1996.

[wm3798]

Dave Closes the Door on Middle Division, Goes Point to Point to Penn State... Film at 11 ;D

Walter Cronkite

[Dave V]

Dave Closes the Door on Middle Division, Goes Point to Point to Penn State... Film at 11 ;D

Walter Cronkite

Just thinking aloud Lee... ;D

[John]

Actually, when you get to GWC, you can use the existing middle division, with a shelf layout around the room .. and build this

[randgust]

The job I had back in 1977-1979 required a quarterly trip driving across Pennsylvania.  I got to stick my nose into ALL kinds of places it didn't belong, and it turned into regular railfan / business drives.

I usually drove through Bellefonte, and was fascinated by the railroad.  Beyond Bellefonte, it operates through one of the tightest little valleys I've ever seen, sharp curves, houses up to the ROW, bridges over a scenic creek, really nice modeling stuff.  I finally screwed up enough courage to find the enginehouse one day, and knocked on the door.  They weren't running, but the agent/engineer/ opened up the doors so I could at least get a decent shot of the gray and green SW's.

It's a great little railroad, and it is still that way.  The depot is the Chamber of Commerce, nicely restored, and you can walk right in. There's two RDC's there, and the Bellefonte Historical Railroad operates them in the summer with volunteers, so you can ride the railroad as well:
http://www.bellefontetrain.com/

I think any era you pick on that theme is a winner.  If you're looking to have a PRR independent branchline module to the Middle Division, great choice!

"Twilight of Steam" by Ron Ziel has a beautiful shot of one of the 2-8-0's on a curve as the signature shot of the railroad.  That's how I came to know it.

While you're digging, research the Bellefonte & Showshoe line and the ridiculous switchbacks and grades in that area to get to the top.  There's a good reason why PRR finally gave up on every route they ever built up there and used the NYC Sinnemahoning line to get Clearfield coal out.

[asciibaron]

i did a ton of research on the line when i was working on my Montandon Secondary layout.  the BC is neat, and you can model the Penn State game trains.

-steve

[Dave V]

I'm re-reading the sections of the book that deal with operations.

Like most shortlines, operations were somewhat limited.  Cement traffic was the vast majority.  Penn State stopped receiving coal by rail in the late 40s.  By the early 50s, the run to State College was down to 2-3 trips weekly, with 1 per week in the 60s.

I wonder if doing 80% cement traffic from the plant just a few miles from the interchange, with the rest of the layout used maybe 20% of the time, would still be interesting.  Also, with only a few locos to choose from (H9s and SWs), it could get a bit boring.  I would have a wide era, basically from 1953 to 1974.

I would probably have to "bend" history a bit, with PSU receiving coal by rail well into the Penn Central era and game trains more frequent than in real life.

There is an upside to that; if it's football season I can model autumn, which is my favorite time of year up there in PA.  I just haven't tried it yet because it's so hard to do convincingly.

Oh, well...  More thinking aloud!

[cv_acr]

One could have a flexible era, too.  BC rostered an SW9 and an SW1200.  Could the Kato NW2 be a good DCC-ready mechanism for a bash?

What about the Proto2000 SW9/SW1200 ?

[wm3798]

It sounds like the route and the countryside are more interesting than the operations...  I would just embellish the traffic a little to make it do what you wanted to do to add interest.  Maybe an active mine, a gravel pit, lumber mill... stuff you would expect to find tucked between the hills in PA.  Basically make it a composite of several sleepy branchlines.  That narrow canyon sounds like it would be fun to model...

Personally, I'd do it in the mid-Penn Central era, and use beat up scrubby geeps, or an old forgotten oddball PRR Baldwin.

Lee

[asciibaron]

Personally, I'd do it in the mid-Penn Central era, and use beat up scrubby geeps, or an old forgotten oddball PRR Baldwin.

the Montandon Secondary used a VO-660 into the 1970's!  i never could catch a train switching the line near the mall - i knew the line was active cause the cars would be different every time i went up there.

-Steve

[Bob Bufkin]

I'd backdate it.  Run a train that picks up cans of milk and maybe even a creamery on-line.  There were several smaller RR's that exchange milk cars with the PRR in central PA.

[Greyryder]

This thread title messes me up, every time I see it. I live in a town called Bellefontaine. :-[

[Mark5]

Heh, this comes to my mind each time:

[randgust]

Here's the 1909 Topo quads of the area, which are pretty detailed for track, and shows the BC line down beyond State College.

It's amazing how complicated the track was then in that area.

http://historical.maptech.com/quad.cfm?quadname=Bellefonte&state=PA&series=15

If you look up in the NORTHEAST area of that topo, you'll see that god-awful 6-level switchback headed up the mountain toward Phillipsburg.  I actually have that topo mounted on the office in my wall to remind me what really, really, bad railroading looks like.  That's also the 'real' locations of what sounds like a madeup name - Gum Stump & Snowshoe Railroad - came from.

If you look on the PRR side down by Axemann - that's the valley that always fascinated me with the curves, creek, road, and stone houses.  Classic Pennsylvania in a modelable scale.

[asciibaron]

If you look on the PRR side down by Axemann - that's the valley that always fascinated me with the curves, creek, road, and stone houses.  Classic Pennsylvania in a modelable scale.

continue east on the line and you get to the 2 tunnels - that's why i like the line.  not much traffic in that area - sadly this part of the state was just filler for the PRR

you have to look closely, but the PRR and BC did not connect in Scotia - that always seemed strange to me, i have researched the heck out of it, but they did not connect.  there is a swamp between them.



-Steve