Tom's Model Railroad page

I have been 'playing with trains' as long as I can remember. My father had some Lionel equipment set up on two 4 x 8 sheets of plywood in the basement. We also went out to watch trains at a couple of special locations. The strongest memories that I have are sitting along the Susquehanna River watching the GG1s and E44s move quietly(for a train) by. At night you could see the sparks from approaching trains for miles. The GG1 has been my favorite ever since.

When I got older I acquired a small N scale layout as a concession to the space limitations at my parents house. The layout was set on the edge of a small hard coal mining town, Locust Grove, with a yard and a small breaker. A unit train for the Susquehanna Valley Electric Co.(my own utility, reporting marks SQVX) was loaded at the breaker. I liked N scale but I like to scratch-build cars and structures so I got permission to switch to HO scale and use up some of the recreation room for my new layout.

At this time I developed the Susquehanna West Branch Railroad, the SWB is based on the Lehigh Valley and Delaware & Hudson but it survived the Conrail merger. I have developed a 'history' of the railroad beginning at the time of dieselization. The layout was a high level platform with a mixture of hand laid and flex track. I did a lot of experimenting with different benchwork techniques with idea that some day I would have to dismantle the layout and move out. I built most of the turnouts from scratch on homasote roadbed. My first detailed HO locomotive was an Atlas GP38 converted to GP39-2 7411 lettered as one of the units the D&H inherited from the Reading when Conrail was formed.

In 1984 I met Deb and progress on the layout came to an abrupt halt. We got married and built a home with a dedicated layout room. After completing our home I went back to the parents house and dismantled the old layout. Most of the trackwork was scrapped as it did not fit into the new plan, much of the benchwork was re-used.

I have been working this layout for about 9 years. It is a high level layout based on Conrail's electric operations around Harrisburg, PA from 1976 to 1981. It is presently a loop with planned extensions to staging yards for point-to-point running. There is a large yard with provisions for the engine changes that CR performed at Harrisburg. I hope to string catenary over most of the layout. The trackwork is complete, the sky and clouds are painted and some of the landscape has been foamed in place. Computer generated mockups of all of the structures are in place and a few are under construction. My old CTC-16e system is being replaced with a new homebuilt DCC System. Signals are PRR position light types.

Diesels are mostly B-B types as was typical of Conrail in this area. My electric locomotive fleet is currently limited to a trio of GG1s but I hope to add a pair each of E44s and E33s. The two EMD demonstrators GM6C 1975 and GM10B 1976 will round out the group. As I favor GE's early 'U Boats' I plan to have one of each model represented. Amtrak will be represented by a condensed Broadway Limited and a two-unit Metroliner.

A staging track represents the interchange with the SWB. I hope to add a lower level dedicated to hard coal country and the SWB when I finish the Conrail section . . .

For the last few years I have been spending most of my 'train time' working on the Conrail Cabins & Cabooses web site. I have switched back from the virtual world to the layout and models and will not be making updates as frequently as I had done in the past.
This all started July, 1996 while I was on lay-off, I decided to build some accurate models of Conrail's cabooses and could not find the information to do so, this site is the result.
Many thanks to all the contributors, keep the data coming.

• Middletown Division Rendering
• Track diagram Including Signals
• Locomotives
• Layout and Model Photos

• Locomotive Renderings
  • F7A 530 last active F unit, 1972.
  • GP40 312 as repainted, early 1980's.
  • U23B 335 as delivered, early 1970's.
• Route Map
• 1976 Locomotive Roster