Teach me about the D&H in the 80s

[Tristan Ashcroft]

A freight car note, basically every general freight needs one or two of those cheesy "I heart NY" D&H 50 foot boxcars.  Those things were everywhere.

[Tristan Ashcroft]

Link to a pic and a bit of text of those cars:

https://bridge-line.org/rollingstock#dh50000 

[EL3632]

I am in the planning stages of an N scale layout which models the Susquehanna Division between Oneonta and Binghamton (staging).  At Nineveh, the layout follows the Penn Division to Hudson Yard (staging) just outside Wilkes-Barre.  It will include a section of the former Erie EL main at Lanesboro and the connection at Jefferson Jct which will go to Binghamton (staging).  the time frame is slightly before what you are interested in; 1979 to 1981.

Please keep us updated on this. The Penn Division is my dream layout, running from Scranton/Carbondale to Lanesboro with Jeff Junction and Starrucca viaduct included. I am modeling dual era 1975 & 1981. I have no means of building a layout right now, so am looking forward to seeing how yours comes out!

[645diesel]

Please keep us updated on this. The Penn Division is my dream layout, running from Scranton/Carbondale to Lanesboro with Jeff Junction and Starrucca viaduct included. I am modeling dual era 1975 & 1981. I have no means of building a layout right now, so am looking forward to seeing how yours comes out!

i will create a thread in the Engineering section.  selective compression and available space are real challenges for this project, there is only so much one can fit in 12x9, even with two decks.  the Penn Div right now as planned is Nineveh Jct and Lanesboro/Jefferson Jct with the track going straight to staging.  i would love to have the helper district over Ararat, but i'd rather showcase Belden Hill with the tunnel and helpers as a centerpiece scene.   having a single staging for Hudson and Bevier either complicates or simplifies things, not sure which.    with no on-line customers to serve on the Penn, and barely any on the Susquehanna between Binghamton and Oneonta, keeping it from being little more than just running thru freights, having a local with industries to service becomes important and i'd like to automate the bridge traffic when possible.

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[Ed Kapuscinski]

Awesome info!

So it sounds like geeps it is. Sad, but still a bit of additional color. I was really hoping for a weird Alco or two, but when you're already messing with history, it helps to keep some things "right".

Tristan, thanks for the heads up on those cars. Guess it's time for another eBay alert...

[Point353]

So it sounds like geeps it is. Sad, but still a bit of additional color. I was really hoping for a weird Alco or two, but when you're already messing with history, it helps to keep some things "right".

Alco C424 locos were still running in the '80s.
Also, there were some chop-nose RS3 locos. Would that be weird enough for you?

[Tristan Ashcroft]

So it sounds like geeps it is. Sad, but still a bit of additional color. I was really hoping for a weird Alco or two, but when you're already messing with history, it helps to keep some things "right".

How about the Springfield Terminal SD26's?  Not Alcos, but also not normal...

[645diesel]

Alco C424 locos were still running in the '80s.

In 1980, the D&H ordered nine Hornell GE C424m rebuilds which came from Reading and EL via Conrail.  Three of the units were financed by Gennesse and Wyoming for the run thru salt trains and in 1985 were moved to G&W ownership and taken off property.  of the remaining 6 units, three were transferred to CP/ST by Guilford as they were cash strapped and needed the money.  When the D&H went bankrupt, CP transferred them back to Guilford and the MEC took over the lease.   Four of the remaining six went to LA&L in 1997, the remaining two were unserviceable and scrapped. 

the RS-3m (RS-3u) "club foot" units did not stray very far from Colonie under Guildford.  they were overpowered at 2000hp for their lightweight frames and loaded up poorly (wheel slip!), hence the nickname. 

the D&H is an interesting study in what could have been had the railroad gods been a little bit more kind a dozen years earlier.  Conrail needed competition, and sadly, D&H was already on the ropes and every once friendly western connection was now Conrail Blue. 

[Mark5]

Fun stuff: https://scotlawrence.github.io/DH/index.html

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh, I know the stuff existed. But it also sounds like it didn't make it onto Conrail rails.

[Point353]

Oh, I know the stuff existed. But it also sounds like it didn't make it onto Conrail rails.

[peteski]

I snapped this photo in 1987 in Somerville, MA yard.

[645diesel]

Oh, I know the stuff existed. But it also sounds like it didn't make it onto Conrail rails.

in the mid 80's the C424's traveled Conrail extensively on the Lehigh Line and could be found in Philly after coming down the Reading Line via Allentown.  the RPPY/PYRP trains were EMD with cab signals on the NEC until 1987, then they would be a hodge podge of Chessie/NS/Guilford EMD power coming down from Philly on the B&O.   

[sirenwerks]

... trains would go through Lutherville and Parkton rather than Perryville and Columbia...

Trains didn't run through Columbia.  The closest trains got to Columbia was the old GE plant on the south edge and nearby businesses in that industrial park, Guilford and Dorsey Run Rd way.  Otherwise, you're talking Ft. Meade and Wimpey Minerals and the auto transload in Jessup.  I never understood why, after GE left, MARC didn't extend up that line and build a station in Columbia, like it did in Frederick.

[645diesel]

Trains didn't run through Columbia.  The closest trains got to Columbia was the old GE plant on the south edge and nearby businesses in that industrial park, Guilford and Dorsey Run Rd way.  Otherwise, you're talking Ft. Meade and Wimpey Minerals and the auto transload in Jessup.  I never understood why, after GE left, MARC didn't extend up that line and build a station in Columbia, like it did in Frederick.

i believe the Columbia referenced is Columbia PA on the Port Road.

as for why MARC did not build to Columbia/Guilford... why have a 3 mile spur that would require a massive headache in operations and dealing with the auto ramp lead track at Jessup yard?   far easier to build the station at Savage (named to prevent confusion thinking a connection to Annapolis possible) right off MD 32.  if you are coming from anywhere in Howard County, what is 4 more miles to Dorsey Run Road?