PRR mainline

[PRR]

I am starting a new set. I want replicate the PRR Philadelphia mainline.  Maybe start with Ardmore and Narberth and the expand to Paoli and 30th street.

Know anyone who has done this?

[trainman203]

I presume that you do not mean a line down to Philadelphia Mississippi.

😂😂😭


Better ask someone from Philadelphia how to model Philadelphia.

[Len]

This fellow has been modeling the Philly area for quite awhile. You might get some ideas hitting the links on his site:

http://www.prrnortheastcorridor.com/model_railroad_photos.html

Len

[jward]

I live along the PRR mainline just east of Pittsburgh. The sheer scale of this railroad makes the mainline difficult to model. This was a 4 track mainline, with junctions like freeway interchanges in many places, signals everywhere and trains that ran like streetcars. In the Philly area you'd also have to model the overhead wires for the electric locomotives, and the incredible number of commuter trains in addition to what we have where I live. If you have alot of room I'd say go for it. It would be quite impressive if done right.

[PRR]

This fellow has been modeling the Philly area for quite awhile. You might get some ideas hitting the links on his site:

http://www.prrnortheastcorridor.com/model_railroad_photos.html

Len

Yes!  This has great Philly detail. Thanks

[PRR]

I live along the PRR mainline just east of Pittsburgh. The sheer scale of this railroad makes the mainline difficult to model. This was a 4 track mainline, with junctions like freeway interchanges in many places, signals everywhere and trains that ran like streetcars. In the Philly area you'd also have to model the overhead wires for the electric locomotives, and the incredible number of commuter trains in addition to what we have where I live. If you have alot of room I'd say go for it. It would be quite impressive if done right.

Yes that would be mammoth. So, growing up in Philly the mainline is also the area of towns in the suburbs that had commuter service, plus.  I'd start there, but you've given me some vision. Thanks.  I loved horseshoe curve. Altoona

[jward]

The PRR literally had something for everybody. And it was often all close by. For example, in the Altoona area you had the steady parade of trains over the mountain via Horseshoe CUrve. You had the locomotive shop, where almost everything on the system came for heavy repairs. Hollidaysburg was the freight car shop, and a hub of lightly traveled branchlines. It also had its pwn line to the top of the mountain in a mirror image of the mainline, including its own Horseshoe curve (called Muleshoe) but with only two tracks instead of four. At the top of the mountain, Cresson was a terminal which served the coal branchlines, which originated an incredible amount of tonnage, completely different from the ones out of Hollidaysburg.

One thing about PRR in the diesel era. People look at the incredible amount of different types of locomotives PRR had, and try to model one of each kind. But that's not what you would have seen if you were there. Rather than have everything roam the system, they tended to parcel out specific locomotive to certain areas where the shop people were familiar with the oddballs. The most common locomotives, like F7s and GP9s, roamed the system on the high priority trains, but things like Baldwin sharks, Alco Pas and FAs, and anything from Fairbanks Morse worked in specific areas out of specific terminals. This practice continued under Penn Central and Conrail. As these assignments shifted somewhat over the years, your best bet is to look for pjotos of the area you want to model and see what showed up on trains. 

[Len]

Since New Have was so Alco heavy in the early diesel years, PRR farmed out repair of their early Alco diesels to New Haven until they got their own shops up to speed. Could make for some interesting traffic for both PRR and New Haven modelers of that time period.

Len