History of the Penn Lake System
During the mid 1920s, the Delaware & Hudson and the Reading Company, began to purchase the stock of an anthracite shortline named the Penn Lake Railway, in an attempt to increase their anthracite traffic. While neither road was successful in gaining complete control of the line, together they acquired the majority stake in it and were able to prevent the PL from falling into the hands of either the Lehigh Valley, or Lackawanna. However, the ICC prevented either company from exercising operational control. As a result, the Penn Lake continued to operate independently, much like the ACL and L&N’s Clinchfield.
Through the steam and early diesel era, Penn Lake’s locomotives carried Penn Lake marking, but followed the motive power policies of it’s parents. By the mid 1960s, Penn Lake’s independent image was disappearing. As it’s own equipment wore out, PL’s parents provided hand-me down equipment from their own fleets, primary Alco RS and C series road switchers. By 1970, PL operated completely with Reading and D&H locomotives. Penn Lake quickly gained a reputation as an Alco lovers paradise.
On April 1st 1976, the Reading’s interest in the PL transferred to Conrail. Conrail, uninterested in the line, soon sold it’s holdings to the D&H. The D&H integrated PL’s operations into it’s own, but never bothered to formally merge company . During it’s purchase by Guilford, D&H lost control of the PL to a group of Pennsylvania and New York investors.
The new ownership consolidated the Penn Lake Railway with other Conrail spin offs and renamed the line the Penn Lake System. Built during the late 19th Century, the PL had generous clearances. The PLS quickly rehabbed the track and instituted double stack service from the Port of New York/New Jersey.
The PLS, using it’s Anthracite Speedway slogan, developed a reputation for fast, on time service, and prospered. By the early 1990s, PLS and it’s lucrative traffic from the Port of New York/New Jersey attracted the attention of the expansionist CP Rail. CP began to acquire interest in the PLS. In 1996, CP acquired 100 percent of the PLS, and merged it back into the D&H.
Nick
Take a Ride on the Reading with the: Reading Company Technical & Historical Society http://www.readingrailroad.org/
Metro very interesting and very, very nice. Can we expect another chapter perhaps? The more I get into this hobby the more I realize there is more to it than actually building a layout and running trains. When I was a teenager I didn't have the patience (not that I have a hole lot now) to do things right. Nor did I listen very well to others who obviously knew much more than I did. Now that I am much older and wiser hopefully my skills will match my imagination. As mentioned previously, I am a couple of years away from actually starting my layout so reading stories like yours provides a lot of food for thought and many ideas that I will incorporate into my own History of the BW&D railroad.
Thanks again,
GUB
GUB wrote:For those who freelance a railroad do you also develope, write, invent a fictisious history to go along with thhe railraod?
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LIKE IT!
GUB wrote: Thank you one and all for sharing. It is conforting to know that there are others like myself. Again thanks for all your responses. GUB
Thank you one and all for sharing. It is conforting to know that there are others like myself.
Again thanks for all your responses.
It would scare the heebey-jeebies out of me!
Why stop at history?
Fictitious Geography, Geology, Rule Book, Schedule, management, Livery, Documents... the whole works.
(I was going to say "the whole shemuzle" but I'm not sure how to spell it... or if it's rude - sorry bergie if it is )
I was thinking that one of the founders of the Buffalo, Windsor and Detroit would be no other than Ebenezer Bedford. Being somewhat of a spoiled rich kid, Ebenezer gained most of his wealth in a most dubious way. I imagine he is what we would call him today a sleazeball. His father Zacharia died of rather suspicious causes leaving all of his wealth to his only son Ebenezer. The details still need to be worked out. Always looking for an opportunity to increase his wealth and standing in the community Ebenezer schemed and connived the New York Central and Michigan Central to route there trains via the BW & D rather than the accepted route through St. Thomas corridor with promises of extremely exagerated revenues and service.
Of course, the BW&D would not be his only source of revenue and/or business interest. Will need to work out the additional details.
We worked out the history for our freelanced prototype, the Roanoke & Western Railway after coming up with the name. It was also kind of added to over a period of time once we came up with a very loose outline of what we were thinking.
Below is what we wrote up, it still needs some work and details, but is pretty good so far.
A brief history of the Roanoke and Western Railway
The freelanced prototype R&W is an Appalachian coal hauler much like the Norfolk & Western, Clinchfield, and others.
The R&W was originally built eastward from the Virginia/West Virginia coal fields toward the coast by a consortium of coal companies who preferred to control their own product and destinies. When it became apparent the N&W would reach the coast first, the consortium wisely decided to strike a deal with the N&W whereby the consortium would stop construction of their railroad at Roanoke, Virgina. As part of this deal, their coal would be turned over to the N&W at a connection in Roanoke for haulage to N&W's own coal piers at the coast. This was a very cost-effective move at the time for the consortium, but was to limit the R&W's ability to compete in non-coal, time sensitive traffic such as merchandise and much later TOFC/COFC traffic.
Through the purchase of several strategically located smaller railroads and then filling in the gaps, the R&W was able to extend the mainline from Roanoke, Virginia to Sciotosville, Ohio. Sciotosville would be the interchange point with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad and the Norfolk & Western Railway for the movement of traffic westward.
Later, a secondary mainline was constructed to further tap the coal-rich areas of Virginia and West Virginia which was named the Southern Division. As this line grew in importance and traffic, it became apparent an outlet to the south would be needed and could be had by building a line to Elkhorn City, Kentucky, where an interchange with the Clinchfield Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad was established. This became the Little Creek Sub-Division running from Little Creek, West Virginia on the Southern Division, to Elkhorn City, Kentucky.
After this period of growth in the late 1800's and early 1900's, there followed a prosperous period of relative quiet and stability for many years. This lasted until the coal consortium (Much to the dismay of railroad management.) sold a large enough block of stock to the Norfolk & Western Railway, thereby giving N&W a controlling interest in the R&W. This was ostensibly done to raise capital to allow modernization of existing coal company and railroad facilities, although very little of this was actually done. This led to the widespread belief that the bored (And now very wealthy.) members of the consortium just wanted to grab some quick cash for personal gains. Although this association with the N&W was not viewed as advantageous by the R&W management at the time, it almost guaranteed the continuing financial prosperity of the railroad and would eventually come to be viewed as a very wise, if unintentionally so, move.
The most immediate effect on the Roanoke & Western Railway was the adoption of many of the N&W's standard practices, including motive power design for steam as well as many other areas. Due largely to the N&W's policy of operating steam locomotives until well after most roads had already adopted the diesel locomotive wholesale, the R&W didn't dieselize until after the period of F-unit, or carbody-style locomotives. Instead, the first road diesel power purchased would be GP-7, and GP-9's from EMD, along with RS-2's, RS-3's, RS-11's and RSD-12's from ALCO. One feature noticeably absent from R&W power is the high-short hood and the practice of running long-hood forward used by the N&W. R&W management deemed the extra cost of high-short hoods excessive and the long hood forward operation of locomotives not necessary.
And that's as far as we've gotten, we still need to fill-in names of the coal consortium and the coal companies. Some day.
While we base the look and feel on the N&W, we figure the R&W is roughly the same size as the Clinchfield, so we based the total number of units on our roster and the mix of units on the Clinchfield's roster.
We also developed a roster with a timeline that showed what units we had and the years they were on the roster, from 1st generation power in the late 50's and early 60's to the late 1990's. It isn't detailed down to the year, but more by the decade, which gives us some built-in flexibility. A lot of this was inspired by the Utah Belt, Allegheny Midland and the Virginian and Ohio.
Absolutely it is worth the time to write the history of your freelanced railroad. In my case, both my railroad and the towns it services are fictional but it connects with real railroads in real towns. Writing a history gives my layout both plausibility and purpose. It will help in developing your traffic patterns and schedules. A history will help define the goods your railroad ships as well as to and from points.
If you just like running trains back and forth over your layout, a history is probably not going to be of much value but if you want your railroad to operate with a purpose and create the illusion that it extends beyond the basement, a history of your railroad is invaluable.
Quote from GUB: "Have you gone as far as developing the players? By that, I mean, what about the founders and the owners? Have you gone so far as developing the fictional characters that run or did run your railroads and industries?"
I have not done that for the RAILROAD, but I have done it for scenes, structures and towns.
This scene on the residential part of Station Street implies the story of the fictional Messy family and Mrs. Neatnik:
No names for the moviegoers, but at the Eastwood Theater, I know the kids who have left the theater expect their mom to pick them right at the front curb and don't see her down the sidewalk. But she sees the lone man lurking in front of the ice cream parlor who is eyeing the kids.
The woman in the slinky white dress at the apartment stairway near the jewelry store thinks she is the local approximation of Marilyn Monroe.
Photo not immediately available- my First Methodist Church has a sermon announcement kiosk out front with the name of the minister character in the "Great American novel" I started to write when I was a college student.
My Santa Fe affiliate is named for the city of Santa Vaca. My favorite prototype is Santa Fe from the time I got my Lionel warbonnet streamliner set in 1950-something. The Lionel catalog had an artist's painting of the train going through what looked like Monument Valley. Romanticized Southwest. Southwest. A mission station like Albuquerque or San Diego or like SP's in San Antonio. So many Santa Fe stations and towns had names in Spanish with some kind of a religious connotation. Santa Fe = holy faith. San Diego = Saint James. Santa Cruz = holy cross. And so on. I thought of a real Santa Fe town in California-- Victorville in the desert. And that reminded me of Vacaville, where there was some kind of prison disturbance. And the name Santa Vaca came. It means Sacred Cow, or Saint Cow, or Holy Cow!
My railroading got started with a train around the Christmas tree, and after a while, I thought of a way the name Santa Vaca relates to Christmas. I will tell you in advance it is entirely made up.
The Legend of Santa Vaca
In one of the early Spanish missions established in Texas to convert the Indians, a priest was telling his congregation they should give to the church even though they didn't have much to give. He said that God can use our gifts more than we know, and he told the story of the cow who gave up her feeding stall to make a place for the Baby Jesus to lay. He said the cow's gift-- the manger-- became more a part of the Christmas scene than even the expensive gifts of the Wise Men.
But the Indians confused the cow in the priest's Christmas story with a buffalo cow who was worshipped in their pre-Christian native religion and they began to bring back the cult of the Holy Cow. The Church tried to discourage the practice but could not stop it entirely. The village near the mission took on the name Santa Vaca, and it grew into a major city served by a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railway.
At the cathedral in Santa Vaca near where the mission once stood is a stained glass window with the manger scene featuring the Baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the Holy Cow, each with a halo.
I haven't built the city scene or the cathedral yet but I created art for the stained glass window and used it for a "company Christmas card" for my imaginary railroad.
Have you gone as far as developing the players? By that, I mean, what about the founders and the owners? Have you gone so far as developing the fictional characters that run or did run your railroads and industries? I' ve been thinking that the only way to make my railraod more plausible is to actually have the a history of the major players. In my case, I am basing there story albeit, rather loosely on the people that lived in the area and owned businesses. Obviosly, since none of this ever happened I will have to use alot of imagination. My aim is to model the 1930's and the 1940's. Having said that, the individuals involed in this story would in all likelihood have been born in the 1880's to 1890's, perhaps in Europe and later imigrated to the US or Canada and eventually finding their way to Western Ontario seeking there furtunes? Of course, there has to be a little controversy with the characters and even some scandel involved.
Anyone else done this? Just wondering .....
I came up with my history to cover all I wanted to do and allow me to "get away with it". The history is one of the best parts I think. Either it can tie it all together, or give you some direction when building your layout.
Me? I made it up as I went along to tie it all together. I posted this in another freelance thread a week or so ago. Basically, I came up with it so I could run my steam and modern day in dual era's on the same layout. I love all of it, from steam to modern power, Classif Fallen flags to the Class One Roads of today. I came up with the KVR to give me a way to run just about everything. Plus, it helps if you have a wide margin of "creative light" to help with your finds and deals..
Here are some good examples.... I scored 2 Hudsons super cheap at Trainworld, but what the heck was I going to do with NYC on a Arizona based road? I got a Cab Forward from my mom and wife a few years ago, how do I pull that off?
So, I came up with this one night...
Kiva Valley Railway History
My road is based in central Arizona between Flagstaff and Phoenix. It started as a small line that was supposed to compete with Santa Fe for movineg freight and passengers between the two. After 18 years, and 3 owners it never went very far. The line stopped in Kiva Valley, more or less halfway up, heading north of Phoenix. But ended 80 miles south of Flagstaff. Laying trackage to the north became quite difficlut as the mountain grades became exspenive with bridges, tunnels and huge fills to make it work.
It was purchased in 1928 by a new family who had a better vision and bigger plan. Instead of trying to catch up at this point with SF and spend alot of money over some nasty mountains, they went east and west instead. They connected a bunch of small towns with rail service that could be reached from Phoenix. Things went well as industires moved to the high terrain to get away from the heat (this was before AC ya know). The list of customers grew slowly and by 1938, the Kiva Valley Railway had become a mainstay in Arizona Railroading.
When WW2 began, Arizona became a huge resource for everything from production industry, lumber, mining, Army Airforce training centers too prisoner of war camps (German POW's were quite popualr out here). Kiva Valley, saw the boom, and found banks too loan the money to join up with the Santa Fe line outside of Flagstaff.
Once the northern half of William Hunter Line was built, business was good through the war. They also made money by allowing other roads to run acorss Arizona when the ther lines had MOW work to be done, damaged by storms, or were overloaded with all the traffic going to California for the war.
After the war, there was a small scale back of operations, but it was shortlived. Soon, they "Were Coming Home", and the towns around the Kiva Valley and acorss central Arizona were perfect for new families, new business and new growth. Passenger traffic was so-so, but the freight was a boomer. Mostly due to the moutian roads around made trucking, almost a dangerous act. Even with the interstates being built, they still couildnt comepte with the railroad.
By 1950, things were in full swing again and there was no turning back for the little road. 2 old Hudsons were purchased from NYC to fill in for extra road power. They werent the best for the grades and freight, but they were cheap. As by 1950, steam was going faster than the sunset and deals could be had . Also, a Southern Pacific Cab Forward was on loan to help with the big drags to Phoenix and to Flagstff. No one was ever really knew for sure how KVR managed to get it. Some say back room deal, some say poker was involved, but the Cab Forward survived much longer on the KVR because it was out of the SP's sight and out of mind. Old 4124, turned out to be the last AC-4 to be retired because of it. It was officialy retired in 1954 and SP wrote it off the books, but the KVR managed to keep it away from the scrapper until the spring of 1957. When at that point, parts were getting harder and harder to find. If you search the world and the internet, pictures of the 4124 are hard to find as it spent the last 6 years of its life tucked away in the valley
In 1952 KVR stepped up to the plate and purchased their first modern power, a SW7 to work the yard and the Central local. Followed by in 1954 a SD7 to take over the drags "up and down the hills". These two can still be seen working along side the GE U-33 purchased in 1984 from Santa Fe. There is, and was more power purchased, but at the moment, all that is listed (still saveing my pennies for more engines)
As of today, business is steady in the valley. Too small with too much local traffic to attract attention of the bigger Class1 roads, by has had enough of a loyal customer base to keep it busy, the KVR is doing well. Currently, it still leases power from BNSF which KVR has had a good business dealings.. Both roads have had a great relationship dateing back to the 1940's and the Santa Fe (BNSF still uses the William Hunter Line occasionaly when the Peavine Line, BNSF's main run into Phoenix is overload or damaged). It has been rumored that UP has tried several times over the 70's to as late the 97', to buy out the line to give them access to the north-south route across Arizona but the still family owned comapny has refused.
So, in 2006, KVR is ticking away and the rails around the valley still screech and protest to the grind of the daily work. If you come in the right part of the year, KVR still runs one of the 2 remaining Hudsons for Fall excusrions
Ya know, one could almost belive that eh?
Best Regards, Big John
Kiva Valley Railway- Freelanced road in central Arizona. Visit the link to see my MR forum thread on The Building of the Whitton Branch on the Kiva Valley Railway
Back when I first decided what I wanted to model, I worked up a complete politico-economic history of the geographic area starting about the time that the Tokugawas ousted the Toyotomi Shogunate and working up to 1964 (which, at that time, was the present.) How things got named, who was important and why the various rail links were built, changed ownership, merged and evolved was laid out in several pages of closely-spaced prose. I still refer to the printed copy from time to time, even though I know it by heart.
The history is totally fictional, unlike the railroads (which have rather more than a nodding similarity to the prototypes that inspired them.)
Chuck (who models the JNR and its connections in the Central Japan Alps in 1964)
dragenrider wrote:Absolutely! My railroad needs a theme and a justification for existence. Therefore, I must have a history.
Ditto! Heck, writing out the history was fun!
The Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry is owned and operated by the CDB Industries and is one of 7 short lines owned by CDBI.The C&HV came into existence in 1978 when CDBI bought the old Athens sub-division of the Chessie System.During this purchase 2 other short lines was bought,the Parkersburg & Ohio Valley RR that ran from Parkersburg WV to Athens Oh and the Ohio Midland Ry that ran from Jackson,Oh to Newark,Oh.These 2 roads was quickly merged into the new C&HV.By purchasing these roads the CBDI finally had the long sought after southern Ohio coal fields and industries.The CDBI relaid the track from Nelsonville to Athens which had been removed by the C&O some years ago.The old Logan yards was rebuilt and upgraded during this time as it would serve as the home shops and the only major yard on the C&HV since it was centrally located on the line.The second yard would be located in the old C&O(nee CHV&T) Mound Street yard and would require trackage rights over the Chessie to reach..A agreement was struck with the Chessie for those rights.The former P&OV yard in Parkersburg was upgraded as was the OM yards at Jackson and Newark.
The C&HV connects with the following roads.CSX(c&o) at Columbus.NS at Columbus.
Ohio Central at Newark.Scioto Valley Lines at Lancaster.Ironton Northern at AthensCommodities haul: Grain,Lumber,coal,coke,steel,fly-ash,food stuffs,sand,glass,corn sweetener,corn starch,vegetable oils,scrap,pipe,chemicals,paints,news print,pulpwood,wood chips and other general freight.Total cars handle 32,584 a yearThanks to a aggressive marketing team freight traffic has climb a staggering 33% since the CDBI started the C&HV.
CDBI owns the following roads.Cumberland,Dickersonville & Bristol Ry.Cumberland to Bristol VA.The CD&B is the flagship road.The CDB in CDB Industries is the same.Kentucky Central.Cumberland Ky to Maysville Ky.Artemus-Jellico Artemus,Ky to Jellico TN.Toledo & Southwestern. Maumee Oh to Fort Wayne INCincinnati & Lake Erie.Cincinnati to Toledo.Detroit Connecting.Detroit MI.Columbus & Hocking Valley Ry.
GUB wrote: For those who freelance a railroad do you also develope, write, invent a fictisious history to go along with thhe railraod? Just curious. GUB
For those who freelance a railroad do you also develope, write, invent a fictisious history to go along with thhe railraod? Just curious.
Absolutely! My railroad needs a theme and a justification for existence. Therefore, I must have a history.
Since my RR is a small mountain shortline only a little history was needed. Following WW II, the Missouri Pacific began to abandon some of the less profitable branch lines. This one was bought by local interests and has managed to do fairly well with its handful of local customers. With the surge in traffic thanks to a new Weyerhaeuser wood plant, the future is bright!
The Cedar Branch & Western--The Hillbilly Line!
I guess in my case i am actully or will be proto- freelance as the BW & D will connect with the CP and CNR as well as other roads such as the Michigan Central and New York Central to name only two which actually ran through the area if not through the actual location i will be modeling. Another feature i would like to have is a small electric line that would run from a town to a small mining community which would be similar to the one that ran from Woodstock to Ingersoll. Only instead of electric i would use a Doodlebug. Since the actual train room needs many things such as finishes, electrical, climate control and a host of other things and will not be ready for a year or so i thought it would be fun to write a History of this fictitious railroad. Along with the railroad I imagine the owner/s of such a railroad would be involved in other industries as well, either out of necesity or design which would be intertwined into the history of the are. I thought it might be fun to write a purely fictional history based on this railroad. As well, I wondered if others have done the same. I would appreciate hearing from those of you who have.