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The PWRR 4 - New Jersey Journals/Blogs
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Regular poster 374 posts royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

Before we leave Philadelphia and begin our run through Eastern PA, let's take some time to visit the other side of the Delaware River. Southern NJ was largely served by the Pennsylvania/Reading Seashore Line. I model the first two cities heading east after the river; Camden and Collingswood. My parents moved to Collingswood from West Philly so I spent much of my youth there.

I commuted to my job at Conrail in Philly on the PATCO High Speed Line, one of the best run rail lines in the country. That's where I observed some of the industries that I modeled.
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Mohrfeld fuel was a popular local fuel dealer. They went out of business in the 90's. I worked hard to hand paint the distinctive "M" that Morhfeld had on it's buildings and trucks. The concrete slab is foamcore and the chain fence is screening.  

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The Peter Lumber Co. moved from Collingswood and there are condo's being built on their old property. I observed it from my train window and made a special trip to take several photos upon which the structure was based. It's made of heavy card stock.
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Whiteground Models made an ice house based on John Allen's Atsan Ice Co.

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Angelo Bova's produce is a Lehigh Valley Models S kit. The produce shed is scratchbuilt from an MR article.

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Campbell Soup Co. is a Korber kit. Korber is based in South Jersey which probably explains why he made the kit for Campbell Soup.
 

The NJ portion of the PW is a 2' X 16' switching layout and maintains its interchange with Philadelphia via carfloats. As you can see, the main industries are produce, lumber and fuel oil.


 

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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feldman718 Prolific poster 1,358 posts
feldman718

Car Floats

Do you model the interchange via carfloats? If you do I would love to see what you've done.

Irv
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BlueHillsCPR
BlueHillsCPR

Really Inspiring!

WOW!  Such great scenes and background information.  Really enjoying the photo tour!
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jeffshultz MRH Staff 7,996 posts
jeffshultz

Interurban elevated line...

You know, I think that's the first time I've seen a train of any sort painted in as background - usually we're too busy trying to cram in the additional line as operable track!

Nice idea, and nice horizon block.

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Jeff Shultz - MRH Technical Assistant
DCC Features Matrix/My blog index
Modeling a fictional GWI shortline combining three separate areas into one freelance-ish railroad.
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Bruce W. Regular poster 183 posts
Bruce W.

WOW

We S gaugers sure can be a multi-talented lot, Roy great work on the backdrop paintings realy like the elevated line in the back ground

Looking forword to more pics of your great S layout. How about a short video of the trains running?

 
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royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

Carfloats

Irv,

I'm only using a 4-car float right now, but hope to build a 6 or 8 car float some day.

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Docked in Camden, NJ

 

 

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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feldman718 Prolific poster 1,358 posts
feldman718

4 cars on the car float

What size car floats did they really use?

How did you make the one you are using?

Irv
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royhoffman Regular poster 374 posts
royhoffman

My Car Float

I used a slab of ceiling tile since it was lightweight, easy to shape and lay track on. I glued strips of bass wood to the sides for bumpers. When I build a larger one, I might take the same approach although I'm open to other ideas.

Judging by your comments on your blog, etc. you've done a lot of research on NY harbor car floats. I would have to do some research on the PRR floats that were used at Philly to ascertain their size and capacity. There may have been some that were 35' by 250' which would come to almost 4' in S.

 

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Roy Hoffman

The S/Sn3 Scale Penn Western Railroad -
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feldman718 Prolific poster 1,358 posts
feldman718

Reasearch is just the tip of the iceberg

I have done the research but it hasn't helped me make one yet.

I do like the idea of the ceiling tile. I have about a dozen in my basement so I'll have to see what I can do with them. It may work!

Irv
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