Modeling Franklin Jct. Franklin Jct. track diagram
Buttonwood Branch
Solomon’s Creek Division St. LV Eastbound to Mountain Top New tower Old trackage LV Westbound
CNJ Eastbound to Ashley Old interlocking
Bad order storage
Franklin Branch CNJ CNJ Westbound To Wilkes-Barre
that it would be a while before the next train came through the Junction. This once busy junction served these fallen flags for over 100 years, but barely a trace of its existence can be found today. Fortunately for railfans and modelers, Sherman Shook record- ed some of its history.
Modeling the junction It’s impossible to model everything we would like to on our layouts. Just to duplicate the prototype junction track- age would take up most of my 17′×19′ layout. My goal was to incorporate as many of the aspects of Franklin Junc- tion as possible within my space con- straints. These included multi-track mainlines serving two railroads, an in-
terchange, branchline, multi-track work- ing signal bridges, a road crossing, and the Franklin tower. The biggest compro- mise was not being able to incorporate a branchline; however the CNJ crossing is operated like one. I’ll describe that a little later in the article.
The trackplan Some modelers are fortunate enough
to design their dream layout and build a space to fit it. Others take the space they have available and design their layout accordingly. My first major mod- eling effort was two modules which I used to participate in our local NMRA Tidewater Division module group. The six-foot straight and four-foot corner modules formed a ten-foot long double
South Wilkes-Barre Franklin Jct. layout
track mainline and a mine branch. My second effort was a 10′×12′ around the wall layout, which was also built in modules using Radio Shack connectors for the wiring.
After remodeling my garage I had a
new 17′×19′ layout room available. While some of my friends recommended designing and building a totally new layout, I felt that I had too much time and money invested in my earlier lay- out, and that I could easily expand on the original design because of the mod- ular construction. The new layout is ba- sically an around the wall design with a large 7′-6″×14′ peninsula which provid- ed the opportunity to model a junction. I primarily model the Lehigh Valley,
South W-B #5 Mine View block Hazard Wirerope PRR L&WV staging L&WV interchange Union Station Armour Franklin Jct. CNJ PRR interchange Wilkes-Barre CNJ interchange 64 LV Freight station
which consists of a double track dog bone with a large division yard in the middle and the staging loops stacked under the peninsula. My secondary in- terest is the CNJ. This is a single track running point to point with three stag- ing tracks on each end. When facing any section of the layout, the prototype’s eastbound direction is to the right and westbound traffic heads to the left. My first two modules formed most of one side of the peninsula. I added a third track along the outside of the double track mainline on them. This gave me my multi-track mainline. The outer two tracks form the Lehigh Val- ley mainline with the CNJ single track main on the inside. Two new modules form the end of the 7′-6″ wide peninsu- la where the junction is located. The CNJ crosses the Lehigh Valley main- line
at grade using two Atlas 60°
crossovers, and then descends along the Lehigh Valley Wilkes-Barre yard on the other side of the peninsula to
AUGUST 2013
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