It's just "Arthur Kill" -- from the Dutch 'achter kill' meaning the channel around the back of Staten Island.
The LV coal docks in my home town of Perth Amboy NJ, fronting on the Arthur Kill River, across from Tottenville Staten Island NY. The main hotel in our town was re-named the Packer House, as Mr. Packer (President of the Lehigh Valley RR) was a regualar visitor back then. As a kids in the 60's living adjacent to the still active LV staging yards at North end of town we would walk the tracks leading down to the AKR and play on top of the decaying coal barges that had sunken into river mud. The concrete track supports were still in place at the time up on the beach, but the elevated coal tippers were gone by then. We had to be very carefull especially at low tide not to fall of the side hulls of the barges into the thick river silt, as the wooden interior coal bunkers had rotted out years before. If anyone fell in it was like being stuck in quick sand with incomming tide. We hung ropes off some of the barges further out for swimming off of at high tide in the summer (kids do crazy things) including catching a free ride hanging on to a moving box car.
Only one coal tipper remains in North Jersey at the former Reading RR coal yards in Carteret., it's listed on the NJRR Historic List to be restored but no public funding is currently being offered , only private donations. Bayway Terminal NJ
The Colorado Midland's crossing of the Continental Divide at Hagerman Pass, between Arkansas Junction and, say, Hell Gate, as it was before the Busk-Ivanhoe tunnel was built.
Alternatively, the Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek District, using the original Hoosier Pass routing into Cripple Creek, from one namesake town to the other. I imagine the vertical gain in HO for both of these routes would probably be a couple of stories, if done to scale.
http://mprailway.blogspot.com
"The first transition era - wood to steel!"
D&RGW Tennessee Pass in Colorado
If I had the time and resources, I would model the twin train stations in Omaha. Omaha's Union Station and Burlington Station were joined by a connecting concourse at one time. I believe Union Station had 7 platforms and Burlington 3. Combined, it was the fourth busiest passenger complex in the country. I think there were 9 different railroads that used one station or the other. The Walther's Union Station kit is actually a slightly scaled down version of the Burlington Station. The Omaha Union Station would have to be scratch built. Both stations used a common bridge across the Missouri into Iowa but Burlington had a second line that turned south and crossed the Missouri near Plattesmouth. That is the route Amtrak takes now.
Both stations are still standing and both were repurposed. Union Station became the Durham Western Heritage Museum while Burlington Station was remodeled to become ABC affiliate KETV's news studio.
UPDATE: I should have included a few pictures. First, the twin stations during the heydey of passenger train travel looking east toward the Missouri.
aerial37.jpg (576×453) (historicomaha.com)
Burlington station as it looks now. The balcony is where the concourse used to emerge from that connected to Union Station.
28642250375_f9d2cc1411_b.jpg (1023×680) (staticflickr.com)
A few shots of the Union Station, looking much as it did when it was built around 1930:
56_big.jpg (600×294) (wikimapia.org)
And the refurbished interior restored to its former splendor:
The+Durham+Museum%2C+Omaha+Nebraska-781034.jpg (1280×720) (bp.blogspot.com)
The East Broad Top railroad from Mt Union Pa south to Wood Pa.
The EBT is in western Pa.
I too would love to see Donner Pass layouts. I've seen one or two but would love to see more.
I would also love to see the Virginia and Truckee set in the 1800s. I've been collecting locomotives and cars to build one in the future.
If anyone has any links to either of these please post them. Thanks.
Jared the Artist This sort of piggybacks off another thread I started but I wanted to keep both discussions separate. So if you're interested, daydream with me for a bit... If you could walk into a room and see any area in North America modeled to scale (not 100% of it but portions of it) in ho scale what would it be? For example: "I'm a NS fan and would love to see their triple main modeled from Beaver PA through Pittsburg, Braddock, Johnstown, and Altoona and into Harrisburg." or "I'm CN fan and would love to see the CN in Whistler, through Birken, along Seton lake and into Lillooet. Again, we're daydreaming here. No talk or thoughts of the possibility of actually building it. Simply, if you can imagine it, it's there. What would it be? No pressure to participate. Just curious. And if you have more than one place in mind please feel free to mention them. Thanks :)
This sort of piggybacks off another thread I started but I wanted to keep both discussions separate. So if you're interested, daydream with me for a bit...
If you could walk into a room and see any area in North America modeled to scale (not 100% of it but portions of it) in ho scale what would it be?
For example: "I'm a NS fan and would love to see their triple main modeled from Beaver PA through Pittsburg, Braddock, Johnstown, and Altoona and into Harrisburg."
or
"I'm CN fan and would love to see the CN in Whistler, through Birken, along Seton lake and into Lillooet.
Again, we're daydreaming here. No talk or thoughts of the possibility of actually building it. Simply, if you can imagine it, it's there. What would it be?
No pressure to participate. Just curious. And if you have more than one place in mind please feel free to mention them. Thanks :)
There are several railroads that I'm a fan of, but I especially like the Southern, Seaboard Air Line, Erie (pre-Lackawanna merger), Nickel Plate, and New York Central.
In my own daydreaming for the layout I'd eventually want to build, I've considered modelling either the Southern Railway or Seaboard Air Line between Atlanta and Birmingham.
The Erie between Marion, Ohio and Huntington, Indiana would also make for a great basement-sized layout, with plenty of fast freights and interchanges.
I would go for Cincinnati Union Terminal because of both the fabulous building and the variety of beautiful, famous passenger trains that used it.
Look up Little Canada in Toronto (the Canadian Miniatur Wunderland). An amazing display. Visited last month. They have an HO scale Quebec Bridge, as well as many other Canadian landmarks.
Jared the Artist BEAUSABRE THE CURVE, of course. But also, as a bridge fan I'm also a bridge fan and I don't think I could stop the drool coming from my mouth if I saw the CN Quebec bridge modeled.
BEAUSABRE THE CURVE, of course. But also, as a bridge fan
I'm also a bridge fan and I don't think I could stop the drool coming from my mouth if I saw the CN Quebec bridge modeled.
https://www.funiculaire.ca/
Simon
Great Northern's original line west of Kalispell, over Haskell Pass.
Don; Prez, CEO or whatever of the Wishram, Oregon and Western RR
New Brunswick, NJ to New York 4 track electricfied mainline in the 60"s. Used to watch those GG1's screaming down tracks one after another. Lots of different colors and paint schemes on the GG1's.
Brooklyn Trolleys.In and around the old Ebbetts Field and the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Maybe someone's done this (probably so). I'd like to see a complete representation of the tiny desert settlement of Owenyo, California, where SP's last surviving narrow-gauge line made its connection with the company's standard-gauge network. Except for 3-rail track and equipment for swapping NG and SG trucks, I believe that Owenyo had every type of facility known for exchanging between the two gauges. It was abandoned in 1960, and by the time I first saw the location in 1981, there was almost nothing but sand, scrub vegetation, and some surviving concrete.
If someone got really ambitious, he could also include the nearby movie-set "town' where Spencer Tracy got off a train in the movie "Bad Day at Black Rock," but that's optional!
The PRR Main Line from Philadelphia including Zoo to Parkesburg Pa. Including the Trenton Cutoff, The P&T and the east end of the A&S.
I'm a fan of all the railroads that operated in Western Washington, and everyone loves the Milwaukee Road around here in particular because they boldly pushed a railroad through the lowest of the passes across our Cascade Mountains, even though it was thought to be too much trouble by the other, bigger, better funded roads. The army captain George B. McClellan (who later became the general who so frustrated Abe Lincoln by never being where he was supposed to be), led an exploratory engineering expedition and gave Snoqualmie Pass a miss altogether, recommending another route to his employers, who funded a route through the easier but higher Stampede Pass instead. The Milwaukee Road carved a path through the rock of Snoqualmie Pass, which because of its lower elevation remained clear in the winter, giving America's Resourceful Railroad an advantage over the other roads that lasted for many years.
I grew up traveling up the pass and seeing the numerous old wooden trestles spanning the gaps between the shoulders of McClellan Butte, Humpback Mountain and Mount Washington, and the mile-long tunnel at the top.
I would like to see this line modelled from Cedar Falls, hard by the old town of Muncton (which was abandoned in 1914 when the newly dammed reservoir on the Cedar River began leaking and flooded the town to the tops of its rooves -- you can still see their foundations when Rattlesnake Lake is low), up over Snoqualmie Pass and down into Eastern Washington with its bridges across the mighty Columbia, and into Spokane, including the old multilevel river crossing there.
-Matt
Returning to model railroading after 40 years and taking unconscionable liberties with the SP&S, Northern Pacific and Great Northern roads in the '40s and '50s.
Hello All,
The narrow-gauge line between Cripple Creek and Victor, Colorado, along with the accompanying streetcar system that served the district.
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
For me, there are so many that I would like to model. Of course, anything narrow gauge. Standard gauge in the 60's and 70's, the Penn Central, the Illinois Central, and the Family Lines System. In the 80's, the Paducah & Louisville.
I really like the coal roads.
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
Tin Can II Would love to see the Cleburne shops modelled in the late 1960s when they were rebuilding F units into CF7s.
Would love to see the Cleburne shops modelled in the late 1960s when they were rebuilding F units into CF7s.
The CF7 program was in the 70's. My dad and I took a tour of the Cleburne shops in 1976 and I remember seeing some CF7's and a bunch of F units waiting their turn.
Ruby Canyon near the state line of Colorado and Utah on the former D&RGW.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
My favorite place (Tehachapi Pass) has already been done.
La Mesa Model Railroad Club HO Scale DCC Layout Tour Tehachapi - Bing video
Dan
I would LOVE to see the clinchfield in HO
Hello,
I would like to see Rowlesburg, WV to Parkersburg, WV using the old B&O Line to Pakersburg what followed from Clarksburg to Salem to Pennsboro, along US route 50.
Sounds Great! I'm in Buffalo and would love to see a layout set in the late 60s early 70s. It was amazing how many different railroads came through here. Our small club is working on a smaller freelanced layout that will include some Buffalo elements.
The Ferro Kid Buffalo, New York in the early to mid 1960s. Which I am setting about to do in HO, but of course greatly compressed. You'd have a hard time doing it justice with a basement sized layout in N Scale. There was an incredible amount of trackage. Buffalo Central Terminal still hosted passenger trains, and there were two hump yard operations, Bison and Frontier. And numerous other flat switching yards. Trains came in from Canada via the City of Niagara Falls, particularly the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo, but also C&O and Wabash with trackage rights thru Canada from Detroit and the Midwest. The South Buffalo RR served Bethlehem Steel. The Buffalo Creek shortline served the grain mills. And mainline trackage emanated out of the city in virtually every direction.
Buffalo, New York in the early to mid 1960s. Which I am setting about to do in HO, but of course greatly compressed. You'd have a hard time doing it justice with a basement sized layout in N Scale. There was an incredible amount of trackage. Buffalo Central Terminal still hosted passenger trains, and there were two hump yard operations, Bison and Frontier. And numerous other flat switching yards. Trains came in from Canada via the City of Niagara Falls, particularly the Toronto Hamilton & Buffalo, but also C&O and Wabash with trackage rights thru Canada from Detroit and the Midwest. The South Buffalo RR served Bethlehem Steel. The Buffalo Creek shortline served the grain mills. And mainline trackage emanated out of the city in virtually every direction.
CP Sherbrooke, QC to Magog, QC in the 70s.. lots of interesting s curves.. mountains.. bridges... MLW power almost exclusively.
To me the ultimate in railroading I'd like to see modeled but I'm definitely not going to do myself is the Very Large Array in New Mexico.
Beyond that, some other things I'd love to see are modern passenger operations on the Alaska RR, modern Iowa Traction switching, the classic Auto-Train, or the Arcola High Bridge.
Blue Island Crossing in Blue Island,Illinois back in 1975.
TomO