Here is a start, Jas...

Plenty of information online - the Allentown hump yard is still popular with the NS railfan crowd.  This link contains modern shots, but does give some history of the yard.  I lived a few blocks away in the '80s Conrail days and could hear the cars coupling from my house.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures (I was too poor to have a camera, lol), having just gotten married.  Enjoy -  http://www.parailfan.com/Guides/ns_allentown_bethlehem.html

Also, you might want to order a few videos from John Pechulis - these are mastered from period Super 8 movies taken by operators on the Lehigh Valley, Reading, Lehigh & Hudson...  Here is a link to the online store.  I have many DVDs by Mike Bednar, who is a very colorful engineer who worked for Lehigh Valley.   http://johnpmedia.com/mediastore/

-bill

Thanks so much...

Bill,

The links are greatly appreciated and I'll look into those DVD's as they will help immensely if they are around the layout era.  Being in Australia it is great to get prototype information so I can attempt to recreate the feel of the area in our scenery.

Jas...

Another idea

Trying to shoehorn a freelanced trackplan into a prototype area can lead to greater perception issues than using freelanced names.  Real town names carry baggage.  I use actual town names for staging, while using freelanced (but hopefully plausible) names for modeled locales.  Make things look right and the viewer/operator should have no trouble placing the layout right where it should be.

Another idea +

I'll add to what Rob says.... named towns where loco is in one town and caboose is in another is an illusion killer. Personally I got around this by identifying (labeling) specific parts of the same town. Only where the railroad goes through a complete view block do the town names change. In one spot on the LK&O a train length section of track spans three states! A loco can be in Maryland and caboose in Michigan with Ohio in between completely missing. However, the viewer/operator cannot be on both sides of the backdrop at the same time and thus the illusion is preserved.

Jas,One way to preserve your

Jas,

One way to preserve your illusions of the specific locations would be to try and model a signature structure or two for each spot. If scratch building realistic replicas is not going to work for you naming the structures and industries for what is there and freelancing the location should allow some workable solutions. The purist will know this is not Harrisburg for example but would also concede the fact that your layout is not big enough to model one town to scale let alone several.

Going with the place names is a compromise and a different one than Alan and Rob have taken with their layouts. I have seen nice model railroads that used all of the methods talked about in this thread. The key to making the different methods work is the quality of execution. All three layouts, Rob's, Allan's and yours seem to be done to a very high standard of excellence and I suspect that what ever means of compression and fiction the three of you employ will turn out very well and produce a great looking and operating layout.

Several of the guys I hang with

railfan and model that area regularly - though their model work is in N scale.

Start with my good friend Ed (and you can tell him I sent you).  He's modeling the York, PA yard in the 1980's as a Conrail outfit. http://conrail1285.com/

My other friend Lee (http://www.wmrywesternlines.net/) is not a big Chessie fan, but he too has a wealth of knowledge about that part of the world.

If I think of any more folks, I'll let you know.

All really great points, and greatly appreciated...

Thanks again Rob S, Alan, Rob (Tx) & Philip for your ideas, thoughts and help it's always greatly appreciated.  

I have to agree with Rob & Alan about the prototypical towns having baggage and being illusion killers and I guess this would weigh heavily into the prototypical debate and one train spanning multiple areas at once.  I really have just struck dumb luck that the track plan geographically is similar and could me plausible for the real area (although compressed) around Harrisburg, York, Columbia & Lancaster Jct.

To add a little to the caveats for this project my plans are always fluid enough to be able to skew away from initial concepts so that when suggestions or other ideas are offered I can always take another track.  So at this stage I think I'll take a little from Alan & Rob (Tx) and place the scenes in a portion of a town, so the Paper & Pulp Mill will be the York Haven Paper Mill in York Haven, Pa, and so forth.

I'm thinking that the system map will show the actually towns but the physical layout will have no naming on the fascia that identifies the actual areas, or for that matter a specific town.  The buildings and key structures (which will be freelanced) will have the name identifying the general area along with interstate and a few road names too.

I think part of the fun will be for operators and visitors to guess where the actual layout areas reference against the actual location.  I'm not fussed at all if it doesn't match the prototype completely or even loosely for that matter, it's about referencing an area and setting a loose scene based around the three railroads.  I guess if this was a MythBusters episode the end conclusion would be (in my eyes) PLAUSIBLE...

The one visual aspect I do want to try and achieve is to get some actual backdrop photos from around the key scene areas, and then trying to get the scenery to roughly match the backdrop too, this is what I think Rob S was referring too about getting things to look right.  You have to remember that for the most part the people operating & visiting this layout won't have a clue if it matches the real area or not, it's 16,414 Km away and most,will not have been there.

Thanks Philip for those links too, I'll be in contact with the guys for sure to get some more stuff from them, I actually found Lee's website and blog yesterday while researching so his is gold for references.

Again to finish off I like to use the term IML (It's My Layout) so as long as I'm happy that's all that matters, if it all comes within the realms of being plausible to the actual era, area, and prototype then it is just a massive bonus for me.  I'll aim to get it within the ballpark but not fussed if it's not quite there either.  

For me the whole layout is about the three railroads, the modeling, the journey and finally the operations.  With an overarching end result of having something that myself and my two boys can do, and have fun with for a very long time to come...

Jas...

PH Gladfelter is in Spring

PH Gladfelter is in Spring Grove, PA outside of York, PA.  Coal is now delivered via NS but in past was delivered by Chessie and Western Maryland before that.

http://davecathell.tripod.com/sg.html

I am modeling the CSX Hanover Sub and am including a version of the paper mill on my layout.

I looked at Spring Grove...

But it fell a little out of the way for where I actually wanted to model the Pulp&Paper Mill on the layout.

Thanks for the link I'll be interested to see how your Paper Mill comes out.

Jas...

is it wrong for a train to be in 3 towns at once ?

I ask this  because here on the Holly sub of the CN < old Grand Trunk Western> theres a area where a train if long enough can be in 3 towns at once and Alan can confirm  Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge then Royal Oak  Pleasant Ridge is only .57 sq miles.  So it is possible... so it might not be so wrong come up with right back story if you use freelance towns and city names.  Its how Im planning out my version of the Grand Trunk.  Just an Idea hope it dont make you more confused Jas.

Kevin

One town

I like the idea of making the entire layout in one town.  Instead of each location being a different city, each location can be a different part of the town.  I would pick a town with a paper & pulp mill.

Art  

To be honest Kevin...

No it's not wrong...  If your happy and the plausibility works for you then it's ok.  Remember IML (It's My Layout) I'm actually not completely opposed to the idea actually, I just think the suggested idea of having key structures to give the reference of the area fit our layout better than naming the towns.

The train length on the layout will rarely get above the 6' mark, more shorter locals with the occasional longer consist to run interference with switching during ops sessions.

No confusion here at all...

Jas.