Thought I had written about this at some point in the past, but didn't see it in the 'My Topics' listing. Maybe it was on the earlier version of the website.

Concept: Commonwealth of PA about the time of the Korean War, to prop up the waning anthracite industry, decided to guarantee bonds by the RDG and PRR to electrify a route from Philly to Scranton, that would also foster economic development along the route.

Route: Reading and PRR to Pottsville, then over to Tamaqua, up to Hazleton, and down into Wilkes-Barre, and into Scranton.

Time Period: My layout will be dated some time between about 1973-2000. By this time, Amtrak has come about, and the route became part of an expanded North East Corridor. I'm particularly interested in the Post- MU Metroliner era, + Silverliner IIs, E60's, E33s, Ef/EP3/4s, and a few others.

Space: Roughly 34' x 28' more or less.

Scale: HO

Here are some photos from this week:
Franklin Street, with Klaperthall Curve in the distance.


Reading Freight Yards, & Outer Station.


East Penn/Belt Line Jct.


Philly Freight Yard, similar to RG Tower. Bridge at other end. 9th St Branch behind, and above. In the distance will be a viaduct he passenger trains take to get to Franklin St.It will be like the PRR Manyunk concrete curvedviaduct over the river. Freight line will go around and connect to E. Penn/Belt Line Jct. Locos are old Tyco GG-1's, that Ill ewpower using Athearn Trainmaster chassis, and paint into several RDG Schemes.

That certainly is one huge explosion of ideas and materials.
You've got Most Of eastern Pennsylvania covered...
My experience with layout construction at this point is to de-clutter as
Best you can, get your basic track plan roughed out around the major turnout clusters, and get the main line down and running as soon as possible. I know time is limited, so Best of luck, and keep at it.

I'm pretty much skipping the Mainline from somewhere near Philly, to almost Reading.

If I went double deck, then I might have a route from Bethlehem Union Station, or there abouts, following the CNJ to Jim Thorpe, then to Hauto, thru the tunnel, to Tamaqua, also. THAT, is more than one person could build, for me at least, in this life time.

I'm hoping to get from Philly to Port Clinton running as well as some side tracks, by the end of 2016.

Here's a view of Port Clinton, looking south.

I remember the article from either the RCH&TS, FD&S, Railpace, or perhaps somewhere else, regarding the Reading/AMC Motors, auto operation/transloading site, along the Blandon Low Grade line, somewhere a while back.

On the P&S, inspite of the catenary, and no current plans to model much more than a few feet of the East Penn, from Belt Line Jct., I'm planning to do something very similar on my Reading Pennisula, behind the Reading Freight Yard, in what I'm currently calling my 'West Reading Belt Line' scene. Only I'n my protolanced world, it will with Ford, not AMC, and involve bilevel autoracks, not flats. Eventually, I will paint these two cars into different scheme, and use old Atlas Ford model vehicles. The cars are from Life Like, which I think Walther's has discontinued. As my curves are only going to be 'average,' @ between 26-30" radii, these cars are a happy compromise.