Layout #2. The Ramapo Valley Railroad in Oakland, NJ, USA
This is a history of a train nut and of model railroading spanning the continuing life of Joe Jordan not quite sixty years. This history relates to the building of four different layouts over a period of fifty years. These four layouts range from the one my father and I built in Rutherford, New Jersey, USA in the attic of our house, through the monster which replicated the New York Division of the Erie/Erie Lackawanna from Hoboken to Port Jervis. The layout currently under construction relates to the Port Jervis division point between the Delaware Division and the New York Division of the Erie Lackawanna Railway.
Before the first layout:
As a youngster in Rutherford, NJ and
having a reasonable train enthusiast as a father, I was bent to be one
of the "train nuts" of the future and so having my destiny written in the
tracks for me, we began at age 5 sometimes riding the steam trains from
Rutherford into Jersey City and taking the ferry into New York City.
My father worked in Manhattan and high above the financial district at
120 Wall Street. From this vantage point, I could look out the windows
of my father�s office onto the entire harbor of New York. The Statue
of Liberty,Brooklyn Navy Yard (during World War II), the docks on both
sides of the Hudson River and,most importantly, the terminals of the Central
of New Jersey, Erie and the Lackawanna Railroads on the Jersey side.
The activity of this harbor was an unbelievable sight during the last years
of World War II. Warships, large passenger liners, troop ships, ferry
boats, tankers, cargo ships of all types were heavily evident in the harbor
at that time of my life. The movement of trains was extremely heavy also,
so the Rutherford part of the Erie mainline was full of trains on a constant
basis. In those days it was mostly steam Pacific�s running the passenger
trains and the real steam heavies moving freight.
The Model Fever
My father, right after the war,
bought Lionel O27 trains for us?? and had a layout in the cellar of my
first home in Rutherford. Our cellar consisted of a coal bin, a platform
for the washing machine with wringer and sinks, a finished recreation room
and the train room. The Lionel trains creeped out to the recreation
room. The rec room was fully furnished with a bar with four stools
and platform for a musical group and lots of room for parties. This
was used almost every summer weekend and relatives were always on the premises.
I can�t remember when there wasn�t a keg of beer on tap down our cellar.
The Lionel trains ran from the train room, under the stairs, through the
coal bin and behind the musical group platform along the back of a bench
seat about 30� long, up to the bar where drinks were delivered to attendees
on flat and gondola cars by a Lionel Hudson. The layout was small
by comparison shoved into a room less than 12 foot square with the extension
into the rec room. Dad added to the original train set with cars
and another engine and then with the purchase of the original Lionel Santa
Fe passenger set. After a while, the bug was caught by my uncle and
his two boys and they built a Lionel train layout in Carlstadt, NJ in the
attic of a six car garage that was overwhelming.
We moved from that house to another larger house in Rutherford, NJ
(sadly away from the Erie mainline) when I was 12 years old. At about
that age, going into high school, the discovery of girls and cars, model
trains became a secondary thought. My father and I worked on an HO
gauge layout when no one knew what HO gauge was. We built a layout
in the attic of the new house that consisted of a double track oval
with a track off the inside to a higher elevation and then back down to
the inside track. It never went any further. I was too busy
with other activities and Dad lost interest and there are no pictures,
however I have to count this as Layout #1.
Add sixteen lost years in a misspent youth and we arrive after my
marriage. My new wife had no idea that I carried this latent gene
called "model railroading". After buying our first house in Oakland,
NJ, I staked off our finished second floor of what was to be two extra
bedrooms (hell, we already had two bedrooms downstairs) for a model railroad.
Not in my right mind at the time we bought our starter home, I neglected
to make sure it had a basement. The dumb place was built on a concrete
slab. For two months, I bought lumber and started to construct a
base for the railroad. My wife, finding it very curious I was working
on something upstairs, wondered what was going on. Questions ensued
such as: What are you building?? furniture for the upstairs?, what�s
going on up there?? what is it??? I finally had to confess.
It was time to buy trains. She never knew about trains prior to this
point in the marriage. She grew up with two sisters and no brothers
and had no idea what "model railroading" was and even worse, thought they
were cute. Little did she understand the impact this would have on
her life from this point forward. She even took pictures of the layout
and me working on it still thinking, "Well, it keeps him out of the bars..."
Layout #2. The Ramapo Valley Railroad in Oakland, NJ, USA
Oakland, NJ is New York, Susquehanna & Western territory and
had a line that ran through it, although with little action. However
the Erie Lackawanna was just two towns away in Mahwah, NJ and I started
spending time running up and down the mainline taking pictures. The
layout was based loosely on a mythical railroad in Oakland which interchanged
with the Erie Lackawanna and was built for continuous running, freight
switching, and small passenger traffic. The only engine the Ramapo
Valley had was a blue and white BL-2. All other engines that ran
on it were Erie Lackawanna engines with trackage rights.
The layout started as a base framework of 12" squares across the
10� span of the room. After putting in the base, I used pieces of
a mangled white picket fence for risers. I found the fence on the
property when we bought it. A track plan was developed that involved
four spurs for industries, one passing siding with industry and a continuous
run layout with the possibility to run two trains. As an after thought
and the purchase of too many cars to fit on the layout, I added a yard
for storage and interchange. To view pictures, just click on the
underlined areas. Here�s the final
plan (not to scale).
.
The following is sixteen pictures of the layout in various
stages of construction. The layout provided a lot of fun with complicated
way freight switching and interferring run through trains where the passing
siding was really to small for a full train. By the way, it never
got finished. It was left for my brother in law when I sold the house
to my sister and him. It eventually was dismantled.
Coaling
trestle in upper middle and manufacturing plant in lower left.
The town
passenger station appears. In the upper middle, the farm
is started.
More of
the farm is installed and a hotel is added to the town.
Same scene
as above. Some scenery, road added and stores in the town.
A better view of the town.
Local passenger train
glides into the town in January 1970.
Risers form the skeleton of the
mountain. Another spur appears.
Looking
right towards the unfinished mountain over the town
Further
into the layout as scenery is developed from left to right.
The "skeletonized"
mountain with tape ready for the hydrocal application.
The semi-finished mountain
Nov.
21, 1970
Looking up the finished
mountain from the bottom.
The Interchange yard
is full of waiting trains
in August of 1971.
Mainline passenger motive
power is on our local today in August of 1971.
Motive power
line up. Blue and white BL-2 on the right is the Ramapo Valley Railroad's
only power unit.
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