Springfield Freight House Mountain Ave. Springfield, NJ view NW This view is c.1975. Photo/archive: Steve Lynch What a great little subject to model!
Hey! I can model that freight house for this: View attachment Rahway Valley HCD.pdf It's the Rahway Valley Railroad on a hollow core door! My .pdf writer is acting a little funky, but you can get the idea. Just rotate it 90 degrees clockwise. It's got it all: the DL&W and LV interchanges, Overlook mountain in Summit, Springfield, the Wye, a nod to Newark Heights, the Monsanto branch, the Kenilworth shops and office, the Ford glass factory spur, and more! Even the diamond crossing in Roselle Park! OK, not all... It is only a hollow core door. I know it looks busy, but that's life when you work with a 36x80" benchwork. I'm OK with it. And, yes, I have to put in that infamous plate girder bridge over Broad St in Summit!
It's the Rahway Valley Railroad on a hollow core door! Wow, I reviewed the .pdf and will ask more info later, but..Nice. Is this in Z scale, or? Too bad, we are the only 2 folks on here..such is life! Best, Steve
Sorry, I should have mentioned... I work in "N" scale. Most curves I drew are 9-3/4" radius, but like your earlier photo showed, the RVRR had tight turns! Turnouts are a mix of everything - An Atlas or two, Peco mostly, I think. I have to recheck the file to see what I used. "Z" would give you a huge amount of room on a door. Just too tiny for my fingers. Only two of us? I guess that make it "quality, not quantity"! :tb-biggrin:
It's the Rahway Valley Railroad on a hollow core door! Very nice... I recognized the wye immediately! Adding the Springfield station and little business across the street just west, bridge over Rahway River? I see you have the LV diamond crossing added. Here's a part of the story: "...The entire line in that area was to run at "yard speed" and that limited them to a max of 15mph being able to stop short of any obstructions. A switch that had about a 10 foot high switch target on it. (Note: It was not connected to anything but the high target.) It was set one way while the LV switched the stub, and set the other way for the RV...." The photo looks west. The track heading out of the picture in the upper right is the RVRR to Kenilworth. Behind the camera is the yard. To the left are the tracks that connect with the LV. To the right is the stub industry track. Note that the diamond was in Roselle Park...not in Cranford. Photo: David Newall 1985 Commentary: Tom Piccirillo Read more about the "Diamnond Crossing Mystery at: http://www.trainsarefun.com/rvrr/rvrr.htm
The diamond crossing is just short of an urban legend, I hear, so I just had to add it to the door plan - even though it is not functional in both directions. I've read it served a depot or factory but I've never been able to actually find the existance of either. It almost looks like a team track from aerial photos with a parking/loading/unloading area alongside. Springfield is the passing track area along the left side. I used curved turnouts to save space, but schematically it is pretty close. I did leave out the lumber yard spur, but included the coal yard (trestle?) spur and the team track by the depot. I'd love to fit in the Rahway River trestle and have an idea how. I just threw this together in a night of drawing, a day of thinking and a night on the computer with the track planner program. Still tweaking it... Unfortunately, no Route 22... ...yet!
RVRR Roselle Park Crossing Diamond track with LV proven info At my website: http://www.trainsarefun.com/rvrr/rvrr.htm is the section:THE DIAMOND CROSSING MYSTERY SOLVED It took 10 years of searching to finally get the map from Keith Bednar and the photo from Tom Piccirillo. It is not a myth/legend. Aldene Plan first day of operation: Sunday, April 30, 1967 If you refer to the LV map it is listed as location #10 as a M&W track during the Aldene plan as the guantlet track is shown 09/15/1985. That time the track was a M&W siding. It was a previous freight station siding. When built, razed, etc. unknown. Best,
Hey! CarlH is here too! Welcome! I first became aware of the Rahway Valley RR by the infamous train trestle over Broad Street in Summit (mentioned in my first or second post here). I was 19 then. Then, one day (30 years later), I was on Google Maps satellite vew and just looking around at random points of interest when I thought "Hey, where the did that train track with the crazy low bridge in Summit lead to?", so I followed the ROW all through the town, into Springfield, and just kept going and going... The ROW is still easy enough to make out - just follow the green weeds and vegetation in an amazingly fluid curving and near straight line, as seen from space! I came across the Wye and thought that it was quite strange and maybe I got the ROW wrong. Later I found out it was there and I was right. How I finally found out it was the Rahway Valley RR, I can't remember, but I do recall it was a major "Aha!" moment. Probably from finding Steve's website and recognizing the wye or the interchange to the DL&W - purely by accident. I grew up in Maplewood. My folks used to get the home heating oil for our house from Wolley Fuel - a RVRR customer. I used to get lumber at Jaeger Lumber - another customer. Seems the Rahway Valley RR was part of my youth without me even knowing it!
I grew up in the area, and remember driving (or being driven) under those railroad bridges with the low clearances in Summit. I also occasionally ride on a NJ Transit train which goes through Summit, where one can see the elevated track on the south side of the small "yard area" just east of the Summit station which I believe used to be the start of the RVRR. Often I have seen some sort of NJ Transit maintenance cars parked up there.
On Steve's website, here... http://www.trainsarefun.com/rvrr/summit/summit.htm ...you can see in the blue LDE diagram, the "Summit Lumber Company", on Broad Street. My first job out of high school was working at this location when it was a car dealership "Colonial Pontiac". Now, according to Google Maps, it is "Salerno Duane Dodge". Here's a screenshot of Google Maps Street View showing what remains of the Rahway Valley RR trestle - just the bridge abutments are left. You can see my old car dealership just beyond. Look at the small thumbnail overview in the lower right hand corner and you can see the bright green overgrown ROW I mentioned. You can't miss it! I had no idea the Rahway Valley RR interchange was right in my workplace's backyard!
Spotting freight at Springfield Great, Hi CarlH! I have more material to post on the net. One item is a diagram showing the signals in the Aldene area LV/CNJ/RVRR locale with the diamond crossing showing in the LV owned yard in Roselle Park. OK, ya all just motivated me to post a item. RVRR #15, Caboose #102, SLSF boxcar with brakeman on the runaround track as the switch stand is off to the left. (See article/map below.) Builders Supplies located behind the station at far left. At far right, cars spotted in background on team track with lumber shed beyond. Springfield station view NE 01/06/1951 It really is a terrific photo IMHO.
Thanks NYandW! Those are great pictures you post! When I model, I think of a layout, especially one on a HCD, as a series of dioramas, connected by track, much like T-Trak, N-Cat, ...etc. Take it a step further and connect the dioramas with curves and you can get continuous running, like my M&E Div of the EL. And schematically accurate, at that. It also makes it into one heck of a switching layout too. My point here is, while it is nowhere near possible to accurately duplicate even a shortline on a HCD, it is possible to include many vignettes. This photo of the Springfield depot is one that could be duplicated on the HCD scale (and the photo is very much appreciated!). If Disney can fit the entire world - and then some - in a few square miles in Florida, I'll be happy with a layout on a HCD.
Yes modeling scenes or LDEs Htek: The photo is really neat. The dioramas, scenes, or vignettes are exactly what Tony Koester in MR mag has termed LDEs: Layout Design Elements. Create the scenes and link them with track. Aldene/Kenilworth/Springfield/Summit foe example. I wrote an article for Model RR Planning back in '04 that described the LDE's for modeling the LIRR branch to Oyster Bay: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/oyster bay/lirrob2.htm I did LDEs for three towns of the twelve on the branch. Here's an example of Roslyn, the middle town: If you have the Model Railroad Craftsman article "The Rahway Valley" 03/2006 you will see the train plain is really LDEs connected by track. Since the RVRR was already a single line railroad; easy. OK, not an advert for my articles, BTW. But examples of what you are saying.
Played around with the layout design some. Not even sure if the structures and roads are to scale - just rough sketching... I know there is much to be desired and many changes to be made but it is easier to draw than to lay track. Still trying to find a way to get the Rahway River bridge in there. They do sell a 3' x 8' hollow core door (special order at my local Home Depot). It would definitely fit on that! Hmmmm... Looks like a bunch of LDE's stacked on top of each other!
Wow, that's looking pretty neat. I like the little chunks of the two multi-track mainlines. 3 x 8 HCD would make it work beautifully. :thumbs_up:
About the small "chucks of mainline" I got the idea from one of you photos on your website of the RVRR loco switching the LV interchange in Rosell Park. It's the one with train on the mainline above the RVRR loco on the interchange. I thought it unusual for there to be such a difference in elevation, considering that somewhere near that photo there was a switch down to the interchange tracks. Must be some grade there! Anyway, the difference in elevation is the effect I wanted to capture by doing that. The RVRR loco switching down low in the weedy twisted and bent interchange tracks while there is a perfect LV mainline about 8' above in elevation. I'll send the you the trackplan file tonight and I'll be sure to check your website!
My mistake - The photo I referred to is not on Steve's website, but in his magazine article. However, the photo posted just above shows what I'm talking about. If you look just behind the white covered hopper, behind the RVRR loco, you can see how much of an elevation difference there is between the interchange track and the LV mainline behind the hopper. My comment about the twisted and bent rail doesn't show here but is much more clearer in the magazine photo. I kinda like the bent and twisted rail. First, it makes it easy to model. No need to to even try to straighten out that flextrack, just lay it down all crooked. Second, it adds contrast between the weary RVRR and the mighty and well maintained rail of the LV at the interchange. Last, it just adds loads of character! Hey! Matt's here (PW&NJ)! Now we can have a party! Now you know where I've been moonlighting from my boxcab project!
