'Designing & Operating Yards' - Available for Preorder!

Some very exciting news for us here is the announcement of the pre-order status of my next book, Designing & Operating Yards which is due to arrive in November 2024!  It is available from the publisher Firecrown Media at bookstores and hobby shops, as well as on Amazon.com or your favorite online bookstore.   

Like Signals & Interlockings several years ago, this work is an effort to provide an overview of prototype railroad yard design and operations as well as a discussion on how we can model those same elements on our railroads.  The book look at history, engineering, and operations for a variety of prototypes and includes essays by a variety of experts on how different railroads managed yards.  

This work is only possible because of the generous contributions of many talented people and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with them to create the finished product.  

The larger world today seems to be a bit of a wild ride that is accelerating, and this book helps us to focus on real and tangible activity as much as it provides some philosophy on railroading and modeling railroads.  I hope you enjoy it!

The Good Times

This year is the second year that NJ TRANSIT has done the 'Hoboken Heritage Display' setup in September.  Once again I was able to be present with both boys, and this year there were some great displays in place once again.  These are a reminder of the 'good old days' to use a cliché, and also a reminder that there is always a chance that September 2024 will be looked at as the good old days as we move forward. 

We had the 4101 in the NJDOT 'Bluebird' scheme, applied by Conrail crews at Raritan Yard, as well as the 'Erie' decorated 4210 on display.  The GP40PH-2 repaint ideas are some I put a lot of effort into and to be able to share them with the boys is a real joy.  Thanks to Marc Glucksman for the photo!

Also displayed for the first time this year, to commemorate the 'Last Run' of the Edison MU cars is newly restored DL&W Parlor Car 2454, which was a daily car into and out of Hoboken for decades on the Gladstone Branch.  Really cool to see it next to U34CH 3372, and a showcase of how the United Railway Historical Society (URHS) and the Whippany Railway Museum can work with NJ TRANSIT to make good things happen.  

Ahead of the event crews were able to tidy up the yard tracks and to put some time into making the platforms as good as feasible, a benefit that helps customers on regular trains on a daily basis.

The boys loved being able to get into the equipment and look around.

Despite challenges what we do for the railroad can still be a lot of fun and holds a tremendous wonder for our young people.  To be able to share what I do for our family's living with my kids is something I will treasure for the rest of my time!

25 years

Now and again, it is worth nodding here to my day job as a manager at NJ TRANSIT Rail Operations, in the infrastructure engineering group.  The first of September was always a date loosely tied to school starting again, while looking forward to fall colors, crisper air and weather, and football.  

After school I'd hired out as an intern at NJ TRANSIT in Newark, NJ, with my fresh civil engineering degree.  It is a long story that is tied to a longer story, so I will save that for a future post.  But, the key for this post is that I was able to work that internship into a full-time position, my first.  My first railroad job became 'Junior Project Engineer' working out of Red Bank, NJ, on September 1, 1999.

24-year-old Dave Abeles, at CP Plain, Plainfield NJ
Winter 2001

And so when September drew near this year, it gave me pause - as September 1 is my 25th anniversary at work for NJT.  25 years into the Railroad Retirement system, which at NJT is a significant date also as it provides medical coverage for me and my family from here forward.  In my family as many of you might have learned that is no small deal, and it brings me comfort for which I am very thankful.  

Promotion to life in a cubical.  Spring 2004

There is still plenty of time left and a story that is still being written, but I thought for posterity and for all of us who fight the good fight that this date is worth a post of its own.  25 down, and more to come!

Be Prepared

It's an old boy scouts saying that this Eagle Scout won't forget:  'Be Prepared'.   When we think about it, those two words are saying a lot about how to live life.  It is a motto that changes how we look at life.  

Here we have newly outshopped Conrail SD40 6286, a model whose prototype was a veteran locomotive of the B&O, then CNJ, then on to Conrail.  I've modeled it to fit its appearance circa 1994, and it looks the part.  However, that is not the only thing that matters.  The rest is harder to see in a photo.  The wheels are in gauge, and cleaned.  Couplers are at the right height, and work.  The track was cleaned.  New lighting works, sound is leveled and adjusted.  The unit is speed matched to the others in the fleet on the Onondaga Cutoff, just as all the B23-7's in the distance are matched, as well as cleaned and ready.  

It is a lot of work, but cleaning ahead of each session means that dirty track and wheels won't be a problem as we run trains.  In other words, we eliminated a few variables that can make a session less fun. Part of being prepared is doing what we can to avoid problems.  

The Onondaga Cutoff is a small way in which I can live by that same old motto, and thanks to the help of others, it is part of the fun.  It is true that a setup night doesn't fix the other problems in life or in our world, but it is a beginning, and a start, and a way we can make something better.  Being prepared allows us to take a deep breath and enjoy that moment where things are in good shape, ready to start.  It's a good place to be.

Visiting with a Master

 I have a lot of respect for masters of their craft.  That can take many forms, of course, but in the hobby of modeling railroading there are a handful of people that clearly have become a master of their place in the hobby.  Tony Koester is one of them.  

Thanks to the great fortune of having been born in New Jersey, I early on had exposure to reasons to return here after college, and of course this state is also the one where Tony settled many years ago as well.  His career took different turns but he remains a resident of the state, and to add to my fortunate location, his home is about 35 miles from mine.  I am grateful to count Tony as a friend and as someone who has come to operate on the Onondaga Cutoff.  I am a regular member of his crew on his Nickel Plate Road, too.  

A few years ago, Tony was inspired to create a few of his popular and well-regarded 'Trains of Thought' columns that featured my two sons and their youthful exuberance about model railroads.  In each of the December 2021 and April 2022 columns, Tony used a photo of the boys and offered thoughtful reflection on how the hobby is growing - and how to keep staying both grateful and excited for that.  I thought it would be fun for the boys to have Tony sign the columns for them to take with them as life goes on.  The boys had yet to see his railroad, and it was time to change that.  

So,  I asked if we could make a visit.  Tony accepted and welcomed us, giving the boys a full tour of his fabulous masterpiece - the Nickel Plate Road 'Cloverleaf', the 3rd Sub, his HO scale railroad.  

Always a gracious host, Tony showed the boys different parts of the railroad and reminisced on stories he had from people he knew in the towns.  

Before leaving the boys were curious about the stairs and the 'secret passageway' as they called it to Charleston Yard.  Tony invited them up and an iconic image presented itself.  I call this one 'Looking up':

After the tour, Tony sat in the kitchen to sign the magazines, with the boys appreciating the moment and the opportunity that it was to be there.  

It will be a day they remember, and now we have a little token of printed and signed articles to carry along for the ride to come.  There are masters out there, and any time you can spend time with a master you can find ways to learn, to appreciate, and to grow.  I am excited for what the hobby is becoming - and especially excited that the boys enjoy it with me.  

Little here, Little there

 The heat and humidity found us as soon as July did this year, and it has been well timed with the onset of summer activities.  We had a more busy June than normal, with Susie's promotion to the new school for her upcoming 7th grade year along with the school play and family vacations.  As we get past Independence Day and settle into July, there is time here and there for some smaller layout projects that help to keep momentum on progress.  

I am happy to report that the two CP intermodal flats we started last month are finished and have turned out great.  Rapido really filled a niche in the HO market with these.  

Check out the details here!  What I remember most seeing these in the 90's was the faded CP 'Action Red' paint and the open grating in areas where there were unlikely to be tires.  This saved considerable weight but kept the car safe for personnel and mechanical workers.  It is awesome to see these in HO scale!

 Meanwhile the guys at ScaleTrains continue to impress, with two recent offerings really just continuing to set an extremely high bar for the hobby going forward.  Each of these two are stunning models.

These are stock offerings, all I did was add weathering to these.  They are so beautifully rendered that I had to take some outdoor shots too.

 

Utterly amazing details - look at the lettering on this medallion!  As you can see this unit ended up very clean looking even after weathering, and that is because it is: the Onondaga Cutoff is set in 1994, and this unit was delivered in springtime 1994.   The D&RGW GP30, on the other hand, is more than 30 years old by that point, and is showing more age.

We have discussed that principle here before, but it is a major reason I enjoy weathering so much (especially as the hobby advances and delivers better and better models out of the box) - weathering customizes each model to fit an era and location.  It is part of modeling and is one that as time passes we can get better and better at.  

Speaking of that, too, the 3D printing world is getting to the point where it is hard to believe our fortune.  A well-known Conrail fan purchased an old Conrail hi-rail truck at auction, then had it 3D scanned and now it is available as a kit from a seller on Facebook.  Mine got some paint last night.

Modeling maintenance of way has a lot to do with railroading, and things are so good these days we even have perfect scale model kits of maintenance trucks!  

Can't go wrong these days, everyone.  There is a lot to enjoy now and more to look forward to.

A lucky photo

 Sometimes we just get lucky.  Today I came across a photo that ended up in a scroll on the Facebook page, and realized something familiar about the image.  It was another Conrail unit from a location in Harrington, Delaware, a spot with lots of Conrail activity back in the day.  

Wait - I know that number!  That's what is so familiar.  Athearn about 10 years ago did a nice looking release of EMD SD40 locomotives, a model on the prototype that was the predecessor to the famous SD40-2.  Conrail had a number of SD40s that were handed down after the consolidation merger and 6286 was one of them, a former CNJ nee-B&O locomotive, and Athearn chose this one to be part of that release.  

This photo, by Ken Carden and posted on a Conrail photos group, went from just another Conrail image to one that shows important details.  First, it was taken in August of 1994, which is exactly my era.  Conrail SD40s were rare by then but this one was still out working.  It also has nice clean paint and black-on-white numberboards, without the white frame stripe, which makes this one a 1989 or early 1990 repaint.  I will need to do new numberboards as Athearn's are the original white-on-black, but besides that my version is ready to go.

What this shows is the importance of keeping our eyes open as modelers, all the time.  You never know when you'll find a helpful photo or text that suddenly verifies what you're doing, or gives you new information so you can better do what you do.  Progress comes in many forms!