Sunday Trip Causes Layout Revelation...

[ljudice]

My nine year old is doing a class project on the Delaware-Raritan Canal. The feeder canal was built along the Delaware River and is partially here in Hunterdon County. So yesterday we went out on a photo field trip to find remnants of the canal and er... of course the old PRR Bel-Del line which paralleled the canal.

Well, what an interesting trip...  Although we've lived here for 15 years we never really spent time exploring the old canal and railroad. Talk about model-able...  Riverside running, bridges, stunning little villages with tracks right alongside houses, old mills, etc.

A little research last night showed that the PRR Bel Del was a heavy freight line well into PC days, with four symbol freights daily, plus ore and coal trains - and locals.  Gregg - maybe you can fill in some details here!!!

This all fits in closely with my current modelling direction - a railroad mostly parallel to a river with a canal and locks, etc....  New thought:  do something reflective of the Bel-Del in late PC - and of course how it would look if it was still open today. Perhaps the Maybrook bridge didn't burn down, perhaps NJ decided to buy the old Reading Trenton line for commuter service so perhaps CR's Philly-North Jersey link was still over the Bel Del? Whadya all think???

Of course for CR days the line would use typical CR power, but get this - in PC days, the line was the home of mostly GP30's SD9's, RS11's and GP38's - which of course are easily available.

Here are some photos if you don't know the line too well: http://www.thebluecomet.com/pcbeldel.html

Thanks,
Lou

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think, anyone who would model a Conrail / PC what-if-it-didin't-die line is a fool.

Welcome to the club!

I think the Bel-Del would be great. I know there WERE actually plans to use it as the gateway to New England, since it + the L&HR (I think) would allow a bypass around the NYC area.

[wm3798]

Scha-Wing!
http://www.thebluecomet.com/pc2227pburg.jpg

Good thing I already have a PC GP-30 or I'd have to go out and buy one!
Lee

[ljudice]

If you liked that, you're going to love this:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=80805&nseq=36

[sirenwerks]

I think, anyone who would model a Conrail / PC what-if-it-didin't-die line is a fool.

Wooooh, sarcasmeter just went off the chart.

[Wlal13again]

It`s a great idea Lou, I grew up in the Easton area. The operations are endless. Grain up the Bel Del to Con Agra at Martins Creek, Coal to Portland Met Ed. Interchanges, bridge traffic, The Bel Del is pretty cool..


And yes Ed, the L&HR missed NYC. Warwick to Maybrook to interchange with the New Haven

[tom mann]

someone needs to post track diagrams right now ;D

[Dave V]

Wow...

I also gave serious consideration to the BelDel...  but as a PRR 1950s/CR 1980 thing.  In the 50s, passenger power was a doodlebug.

My wife's family is from Easton and Philipsburg area.  Very cool.

Of course now you can ride behind the Chinese 2-8-2 south out of Philipsburg.

[3rdrail]

The Bel-Del was hot and heavy prior to the PRR-NYC merger. As New York Harbor became more congested and the cost of running carfloats with tugboats skyrocketed, PRR and NH decided to use the L&HR via PRR-Philipsburg-L&HR-Maybrook-NH and established run though power between Chicago on the JET trains, St. Louis on the ASTronaut trains and Cedar Hill. This started drying up almost immediately after the merger and really dropped off when the NH was absorbed the next year, 1969. The trains were symbolled JET-1 and JET-2 as well as AST-1 and AST-2.

[ljudice]

Gregg, what were the JET and ASTRONAUT trains?  I thought the PRR intermodals were TruckTrains or such? Or were these NH symbols?

If things had gone differently could you see the LHR being used for perhaps a route from Morrisville to Selkirk and Morrisville to Allentown?  That would capture several trains in the 1990's Conrail world  - ie. looking at where trains start and end and seeing other ways of routing them.

Lou

[Wlal13again]

Heres a map of Hudson Yard in Phillipsburg..

http://www.gingerb.com/l&hr_hudson_yard_to_easton_schematic.htm

[Bob Bufkin]

I've got a ton of PRR photo books showing this line.  Lots of Alco's in the 50's early 60's.  Would make a great line to model if only they had more passenger trains.

Lee:  I believe the doodlebug you got off of me is modeled after the one used on this line.

Bob

[3rdrail]

The Jet and Astronaut trains were intended to capture high revenue miscellaneous merchandise traffic in boxcars and perishables in mechanical reefers. Remember, at that time much was still made here and not in China and moved in boxcars rather than containers from manufacturer to warehouses. For example, New Orleans Retail Merchants Association had a car or two loaded every weeknight on Manhattan Island, floated to Greenville Piers at 5PM, arriving at the warehouse leased from the Southern Rwy. in New Orleans second morning at 10AM.  Beat the manifest sent by US Mail. Cars contained designer dresses, furs, jewelry, shoes, etc. and PRR and SOU got a handsome tariff for the haul.

By the mid 1970's, Penn Central and then Conrail decided this required too many people and gave this type of traffic up to truck. They hoped it would go intermodal...

[GaryHinshaw]

Scha-Wing!
http://www.thebluecomet.com/pc2227pburg.jpg

I liked them better before they were repainted:

http://www.dogcastradio.com/images/Bulldog.jpg

 

[Frank Amato]

I am building a tiny chunk of the Bel-Del under the LV bridge at Easton.  The PRR yard at Phillipsburg handled interchange traffic from the LV (and CNJ maybe?), so that's a cool source of interchange ops.  This is also where ore trains were sent up from Philly, headed for the Bethlehem steel plant.

The single-track line along the river would be a neat layout for sure!

  Frank

[edit: spelling]