Meet the Penn Lake Railway

[nbrodar]

History of the Penn Lake System

During the mid 1920s, the Delaware & Hudson and the Reading Company, began to purchase the stock of an anthracite shortline named the Penn Lake Railway, in an attempt to increase their anthracite traffic. While neither road was successful in gaining complete control of the line, together they acquired the majority stake in it and were able to prevent the PL from falling into the hands of either the Lehigh Valley, or Lackawanna. However, the ICC prevented either company from exercising operational control. As a result, the Penn Lake continued to operate independently, much like the ACL and L&N’s Clinchfield. The acquisition also provided a connection to the New Haven for both roads.

Originally, the line carried mostly anthracite. Iron ore and cement soon eclipsed coal as PL's money makers. Following World War II, Penn Lake became a crucial link for bridge traffic between D&H's Canadian connection at Montreal, and Reading's Midwest and South connections at Hagerstown. Soon after Norfolk & Western acquired a direct connection to Reading, CP Rail and Norfolk & Western began the Canada Direct expedited run through trains. Similar New England Direct trains operated in conjunction with New Haven.

Penn Lake’s locomotives carried Penn Lake marking, but followed the motive power policies of it’s parents. It's diesels sported Reading's unique equipment and D&H's black paint scheme. By the late 1960s, PL operated with hand me down RS3s and S2s. Penn Lake quickly gained a reputation as an Alco lovers paradise. Increasingly though, the priority trains ran with the parent's front line power. The Canada Direct trains used CP and N&W run though power almost exclusively.

On April 1st 1976, the Reading’s interest in the PL transferred to Conrail. Conrail, uninterested in the line, soon sold it’s holdings to the D&H. The D&H integrated PL’s operations into it’s own, but never bothered to formally merge company . During it’s purchase by Guilford, D&H lost control of the PL to a group of Pennsylvania and New York investors.

The new ownership consolidated the Penn Lake Railway with other Conrail spin offs and renamed the line the Penn Lake System. Built during the late 19th Century, the PL had generous clearances. The PLS quickly rehabbed the track and instituted double stack service from the Port of New York/New Jersey.

The PLS, using it’s Anthracite Speedway slogan, developed a reputation for fast, on time service, and prospered. By the early 1990s, PLS and it’s lucrative traffic from the Port of New York/New Jersey attracted the attention of the expansionist CP Rail. CP began to acquire interest in the PLS. In 1996, CP acquired 100 percent of the PLS, and merged it back into the D&H.

[nbrodar]

Modeling the Penn Lake

Initially, I modeling my HO scale Penn Lake in its mid 1990s incarnation, on the eve of CP Rail's takeover. That lasted until a friend "donated" a D&H PA to me and Atlas's then new Reading MP15 caught my eye. The PL quickly slid backward to the mid 1970s just before Conrail.

My layout centers on Falls Junction, where Penn Lake's Mountain and Bourbon River Subdivisions, meet the D&H's Penn Division. Staging yards represent the High Bridge Sub/New Haven and Anthracite Sub/Reading.

Originally, I used Delaware & Hudson and Reading equipment to operate the railroad. Recently, thanks to Highball Graphics and Champ Decals private name sets, Penn Lake acquired a substantial amount of it's own rolling stock.

Nick

[nbrodar]

Right now there are Penn Lake, Delaware & Hudson, Reading, New Haven, Norfolk & Western, CP Rail, and Pennsylvania locomotives roaming the rails. If my roster wasn't so vast already, I'd probably add some Lehigh Valley units. Although, the prospect of building some of LV's dynamic brake equipped SW8 is VERY tempting.

Nick

[nbrodar]

Here's the over all Penn Lake Railway system map:


And track plan:

This is an older version of the plan, that doesn't include the staging yards.

Nick

[icghogger]

WOW, Nick, that looks Great!! Can't wait to see it in action!!

[nbrodar]

This photo set is several years old, but it gives a good overview of a typical local run...The Falls Turn

Sitting in the crew room, at Lampson Yard, discussing the days work, you and your crew ignore the persistent rumors of this new thing called Conrail. It's a fine late summer day and the Falls Turn has work to do:

* Ristuccia Plastics - spot loaded hopper of pellets.
* Consalvi Stone - spot loaded hopper of cement, and a gondola of stone blocks. Pull emtpy gondola.
* Brodar Woodcraft - spot loaded boxcar of hardwood boards.
* MNB Publishing - spot loaded boxcar of paper.
* Dave Brewing - spot loaded grain hopper.
* Byrd Building Supply - spot one boxcar of lumber, one boxcar of plywood, and one boxcar of roofing material. Pull empty boxcar.
* Interchange track - no cars to deliver. Pick up any cars there.
* R. Nicholas Steel - spot empty coil car. Pull loaded coil car.

Finishing the briefing, you tromp out to your train with nearly new MP15 2771 gently idling on the point.


After a quick air test, you get the highball from the conductor, and the OK from the yardmaster to depart. The engineer notches out on the throttle, and 2771 roars to life. The train rumbles past the yard office, and around the curve to the signal at Elise.


You call the operator at Lack Tower, to request 30 minutes on the main to work Ristuccia Plastics and Consalvi Stone. Lack says you'd be holding at Frank anyway and gives you permission to open up and work.

Spot the cement hopper then pull the empty gon:


After finishing the work, and closing up the switch, Lack OKs you to pull up to Frank in time to see one of D&H's cement trains fly by:


Lack continues to hold you for a Pennsy freight plodding along in the other direction:


After the Pennsy clears Frank. Lack lines The Turn through the plant. The engine sways back and forth as it weaves through the crossovers and onto the Plaster Falls branch.


Spotting up Brodar Woodcraft & MNB Publishing:



Working Dave Brewing:


And Byrd Building Supply:



Pick up the caboose:


And head back to the yard:


Nick

[icghogger]

Great Work, Nick, thanks for sharing!!

[Lfire83]

A switchlist in pictures! Nice!

[rem5142]

Is the name based on the small borough just north of White Haven?

[nbrodar]

Wow...I didn't know Penn Lake was actual place. I made the name up two decades ago. The location has varied from central PA, to north central PA, to it current location somewhere between Wilkes-Barrie and Haucks

Nick

[rem5142]

It's a stones throw away from the former CNJ and LV trackage between White Haven where the tracks come out of the Lehigh Gorge and the next stop, Mountaintop, where the tracks start down the mountain and into Wilkes Barre. I've seen your layout before on a forum or two and I have always wondered if there was a connection.

Bob

[nbrodar]

Bob,

Nope no intentional connection. It's just an odd coincidence. Although, eerily appropriate.

Nick

[quadk]

Very nice work Nick!! Thanks for sharing!!

[nbrodar]

Developing the Penn Lake Roster

At first my Penn Lake Railway, didn't have locomotives of it's own, using it's parents' power. At the time, I didn't want to piece the lettering together from alphabet sets, or go through the cost of custom decals. Then, I stumbled onto Champ's (moment of silence please) private name sets, which allowed me to easily create Penn Lake lettering.

Next came the hard part, what locomotives do I use? How do I detail and paint them? My ALCO-haulism helped narrow the field some. So did my I idea that PL would use hand-me downs from the Reading and D&H. Both roads had sizable fleets of Alco RS3s and S2s, that were purged in the mid-60s. So Penn Lake received a
fleet of RS3s and S2s.

I like Readings unique details, like the V shaped drip strips, that make it's units stand out in a crowd. In addition, I find the Delaware & Hudson's black and yellow scheme very appealing. Luckily, Highball Graphics prints the proper decals. I modified the D&H scheme slightly by adding a yellow stripe along the sill. All the units received Reading style horns, bells, radio antennas, etc, and D&H style graphics.

In addition to the locomotives, I also worked to create a homogeneous look for the cabooses, again drawing on the Reading and Delaware & Hudson prototypes.

In keeping with my late 60s/early 70s era, I "plated" over the end windows of Penn Lake's cabooses and removed the running boards where possible. To be different from the sea of red cabooses, I chose the same John Deere Green I used for my S2s for the cabooses. Lettering is a combination of Champ private name sets,
and radio decals from Highball.

Reading used large numbers of Northeastern Cabooses. So, part of my caboose fleet is NE Cabooses. The P2K models retained their running boards, because they were molded on. The MDC based models lost theirs.


Most of PL cabooses, however, are D&Hesc bay window models. All are modified Athearn models.

So in the end, I created a locomotive and caboose roster with a family appearance, that links back to both of Penn Lake's parent roads.