Layout Concept and Design
Design Considerations
I've built several layouts over the years, and had the privilege of operating on more than I can count. I've always enjoyed getting ideas from others, with the hopes that one day I would have the opportunity to build that 'Dream Layout'. When my wife and I bought our current house, I decided it was time to put all that information gathering to good use. There were several things that I decided from the very beginning were important to enjoying the hobby. Some of these are...
The list goes on and on, but I think you get the idea. I also made the commitment to myself from the beginning that I would not sacrifice these requirements, that I would take my time in building the layout, and if things did not work out that way I wanted, I would do it over again until it was to my satisfaction. This philosophy has already proven itself as I had planned the Northumberland Yard area totally different than it turned out. I had laid the yard out two previous times before arriving at it's current configuration and am very happy that I made the changes that I made.
My main interest in the hobby is operations. Naturally, the layout was to be designed for this purpose. Before the layout was started, many hours were spent planning and designing the layout for the type of operations that I wanted. I knew early on that I wanted to model a portion of the railroad that provided the following features...
In addition, as much as I like urban scenery, I also love the rolling hills and greenery of the countryside. So, I wanted to model an area where I could hopefully capture all of these features.
Finally, putting all of this together, I love the fellowship of working with other modelers and wanted a layout and layout room that was inviting and fun to operate. I hoped that one day when it was complete, I would have a regular operating crew with whom I could recreate the operations of a railroad, yet have fun doing it.
Putting the Concept Together
Once we moved into our house, I began the planning process immediately. I measured the basement area, began to plan out how to finish it off, and even began laying out several possible benchwork configurations. As much as I love the PRR, my only real exposure to the railroad was in the Philadelphia area, so my original thoughts were to model a fictitious road that interchanged with the PRR, thus allowing me to incorporate all the features I wanted without worrying about 'prototype fidelity'.
Thanks to the help of my good friend Al Buchan, I was steered towards modeling the Sunbury - Northumberland area. Since I was not familiar with this area of the railroad at all, a lot of research went into familiarizing myself with the area, including several trips to the area. What I realized early on was that this area of the railroad had all the features I was looking for, as well as an interesting history. Mainline traffic between Harrisburg and Buffalo, two branchlines - the Wilkes-Barre Branch and Shamokin Secondary, a large yard (Northumberland), and plenty of interchange traffic, including with the Erie Lackawanna, Delaware and Hudson, the Reading and the Lehigh Valley. Both Sunbury and Wilkes-Barre gave me that urban look (sort of) that I was looking for, but lots of rolling hills in between. (For more information on the prototype, see the page entitled A Brief History of the Northern Division.)
The trips to the area really helped me better visualize what I was going to model and also motivated me to attempt to model certain select scenes. I never realized just how helpful this is, and would certainly recommend it to anyone that is planning to model a prototype area. Even though I had already looked at track charts, pictures, read about the area, etc., it is amazing how different the area really is than I had pictured in my mind. I think the first trip to the area is the best as this first exposure will leave the best impression on you. And there are always certain areas, or scenes that catch your interest. They set the mood. And if you can incorporate them into your layout, they help to bring greater life to the layout as well, because that area really exists!
At this point let me say that I do not consider myself a 'purist' or 'prototype nut and bolt' modeler at all. While I did all this research, I did it because it was fun, but in no way did I ever consider trying to model the area tie for tie. In looking back, I think I simply wanted to add some legitimacy to what I was doing in my basement. I wanted to see what the area looked like, try to understand how the railroad operated, and get some ideas I could use in designing my layout. For me, this process was very helpful and very motivational, but I am the first to admit that in many respects I have deviated from the prototype and applied 'modelers license', allowing me to model things that may not have appeared in that area. My philosophy is that this is a hobby first; do what you want to do, as long as it is fun for you!
Track Planning
Early in the design process, I wanted to try to model certain areas as closely as possible. I was able to obtain the track charts of the area, and used these extensively during the track planning stage. Needless to say, it would be almost impossible to model this entire area accurately. Selective compression had to be incorporated carefully so as not to loose the feel of the area. For example, one unique feature of the area is where the Wilkes-Barre branch comes off the main. The trackage arrangement at the time was what was known as a 'flying crossover'. While this was a unique feature of the area, to model it would take up most of the railroad room. This, unfortunately, had to be sacrificed, but I feel that I still managed to maintain the flavor of the area.
As the track planning process continued, I quickly realized that in the basement area I had available it would be tough enough to capture the 'flavor' of the area let alone to try to incorporate any prototype features. Concessions has to be made! In no way did I have the space available to me to model the mainline of the Northern Divison and do it any kind of justice. Since my main focus as a modeler is in operations (switching, etc.), I settled on the goal of representing specific towns on the various branch lines modeled, incorporate those industries that I had information on, and let the rest come from my imagination. I would continue to try to incorporate certain scenic features unique to the area, represent other features such as interchanges, etc. and try to simply capture the flavor of the area.
I ended up modeling that portion of the mainline between Northumberland Yard and the town of Sunbury. From these two points, north and south, the modeled portion of the mainline disappears behind the scenery and decends down to a 12 track hidden staging yard that represents destinations for those trains that depart the area. This approach allows me to represent the mainline traffic through the area, provide for a strong 'beyond the basement walls' concept and generate traffic for the modeled portion of the railroad.
I focused the rest of the modeled portion of the layout on the two lines that come off the main line at Sunbury; the Wilkes-Barre branch and the Shamokin Secondary Track. This design concept would allow me to model the through freights that fed the area from the north and the south, yet focus on the area of operations that I really enjoy; local switching operation. Between interchange traffic and local industries, both branch lines generate plenty of local switching to keep operators busy.
I should point out at this point that I never imagined myself going to this extent in building a model railroad. What I came to realize though is that the further I dived into the research, the more questions that I raised. And it was so rewarding each time I found an answer. I never set out to recreate the prototype in 1/87th scale, and will never come close to it. Rather, I am trying to recreate the atmosphere of the area, with a level of legitimacy. The research process turned out to be more fun than I would have thought it could be. Traveling through the area on various occasions gave me a good feel for how things should look, even though little of the railroad exists today.
Some Final Thoughts
As I mentioned above, I never set out for 'prototype fidelity'. In fact, I just wanted to build a layout that I considered reasonable. I was well on my way to putting together a fictitious road, paint schemes, local, traffic, etc. But the more research I did into the prototype PRR, the more interesting it got. And the more I learned, the more challenging the modeling part became. Translation... it was fun! And I have no regrets. In fact, I'm always interested in learning more about the area. Now, I feel as if I've recreated the atmosphere that once existed in that area, and brought the railroad back to life, even if only in 1/87th scale!