Operations on the NYW&B
and New Haven diesels and electrics. I model the “X” configuration cen- tered on Cornwall Bridge, which has a through passenger station, a stub-end commuter terminal for m.u. cars, and the line’s motor shop for electric loco repairs.
Common trackage of the NH&N and NY&NE Divisions runs from South Cornwall Junction to Springfield Junc- tion. The road’s home office is located at Springfield Junction, where the lines to Montreal and Springfield di- verge. Beyond these points each divi- sion is separate and terminates in its own staging yard.
Troy Union Station serves passenger trains of the NYC, NH, CNR, and of course the NYW&B. There is also a freight yard at Troy, as well as the min- imal loco facilities mentioned before. A branch line to Port Hudson serves a float yard and barge operation on the Hudson
River, and there’s also a
branch line from Cornwall Bridge to South Cornwall that serves several in- dustries, including a bulk fuel depot and a whey processing plant.
Construction notes These days, S scale standard gauge
track products are plentiful. We have vendors who provide flex track in vari- ous rail sizes, No. 6 and No. 8 turnouts, and made-to-order items like cross- ings, three-ways, and slip switches. That said, trackwork is my favorite thing, so I have hand-built some 67 turnouts, five crossings, one double- slip switch, and nearly all the visible track. I have used commercial trackage only on the farthest tracks from view and in tunnels. Although I am somewhat saddened that I have no more track to lay, I am still getting a kick out of completing the catenary. I get my catenary spans, column bases, and rain caps from Mod- el Memories, and I scratchbuild my catenary bridges from old code 172 steel rail. It’s always a challenge to fit catenary properly over complex track- work, but I really enjoy puzzles so this doesn’t bother me. At this point in time the catenary is about 80 percent com- plete. You can get a detailed look at how I build it in the NMRA’s March, 2009, issue of Scale Rails magazine (“Juice for Your Juice Jacks”). When I began building this layout I knew I wanted walkaround control. I had experimented with wireless CTC- 16 on my previous layout but aban- doned it because it was prone to cross- channel interference. This time I opted for Aristo-Craft’s Basic Train Engineer, a wireless system that controls the track, not the trains. At the time, transmitter-receiver sets were avail-
46
Industrial shipping patterns and local freights are integrated into the NYW&B’s opera- tions. An RS-1 on loan from the New York Central, No. 8201, works Citywide Coal on the South Cornwall branch of the line (top). Above it switches out refrigerator cars at Federal Whey at the end of the South Cornwall branch. Some of this freight traffic moves online. The reefers are S Helper Service and S Scale America products, and the RS-1, Railmaster.
able in four different frequencies, so I used two frequencies to control each of the two tracks on my double-track main line. I installed power routing all over the place using the auxiliary con- tacts on the switch machines. This al- lowed the power to follow the train through whichever off-main route I chose. Troy Terminal, the float yard, the South Cornwall branch, and the NY&NE were separately controlled. This all worked great—at first. As I added and activated more trackage and route alternatives, the control sys- tem required the addition of several se- lector switches. Then I discovered that if I didn’t operate the railroad at least
a few times a week, I would forget how. Ergo, it was time to bite the bullet and convert to DCC.
This time I went for the wireless North Coast Engineering DCC system, including a power supply, command station, five handheld controllers and two antennae. I also purchased an ar- ray of equipment like locomotive de- coders, auto-reversers, and power-dis- trict controllers. Honestly, I could not have pulled off this conversion without the help of my friend, Roger Nulton. We had to undo all the power-routing wiring, install four power busses and hundreds of feeder drops, and all the connections had to be made with the
JULY 2012
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