Welcome to the update to last year’s N-Depth column, home of soul-searching, destiny-deciding, and taking the road less traveled… among other exaggerated, sentimental page clutter that serves no real purpose. So, considering that the above fluff is not my topic, why would I open my article like that? What the heck has happened to MRN’s wandering Pennsylvanian writer?In many ways, I am still in a state of in-betweenness right now. I’m not a teenager at home any longer, but I’m not out on my own. I’m beginning to reach beyond being just a student, but I’m certainly not in the workforce yet. And most of all, I’ve got an idea of my life plans, but I am still waiting for the time when those plans can really take off. I know that I will be in-between quite a bit longer, for a couple of years yet, and I want to make the most of this time. Just because I’m waiting does not necessarily mean I wish the time away.
In trying to enjoy this transition time, I am working on building a model railroad to fit with this period of change and relative instability. So I have planned and begun work on a model railroad that will fit well in my transition time and also function well during my early adult years. Thankfully, being an N scale model railroader gives me advantages that other scales lack in making a layout to adapt to limited stability, space, and time.
Concepts of the Keystone Line
I started planning my new model railroad during the summer of 2009. I went through the usual long series of track plans, refining the overall size of the layout and combining the best features of many track plans. I had a specific set of goals in mind to push the quality of this railroad beyond my previous efforts. First of all, I decided that I would not use Code 80 rail. I have brought my models and scenery skills up to the point that the oversized rail is the greatest visual drawback of my photographs; I knew it was time to upgrade. The release of Atlas’ Code 65 True-Track in N scale allowed me to consider a smaller code of rail while also conveniently eliminating my least favorite model railroading job of all: ballasting the track. With the gravel roadbed already built in and the rails made closer to scale size, True-Track was the ideal track system for my current wishes.
Secondly, I had continually seen the need for staging space for trains. Mere storage yards for loose freight cars were not good enough anymore; I needed tracks hidden from view that had the length and connections to hold entire trains, and let those trains run out and onto the visible layout with ease. I determined how long of a train I would want to run, and planned sidings to exceed the measured lengths of those trains.
Finally, I needed to build a railroad that allowed photography from many different angles. My past model railroad efforts have often resulted in railroads where only a few scenes are easy to photograph well. I wanted to set up this railroad to run along the outside of a small table, keeping all tracks accessible while having sufficient backdrop behind them all. By running a double-track mainline around the outside of a rectangular table, I gave myself a lot of ground to pose photographs on, and by planning a mountain in the middle of the railroad, I ensured sufficient near-background material that given a good distant-background poster, I could take excellent photos from any angle.
The Keystone Line's track plan is split into two parts to more clearly show the two levels. On the surface, there are really two levels: the gray track on the right and top sides leads to a coal mine, which is above the surface-level mainline. the mountain it sits on is shown in a darker shade of green. The blue track is inside a tunnel, and the arrows indicate the point where the surface becomes the staging level.Railroad History
I didn't give much of a history for the railroad originally, but I have since developed a logical backstory for it. In the early 1950s, the Pennsylvania Railroad saw a need for a more direct shortcut from Harrisburg, PA to Pittsburgh. The original winding, low-grade line worked well for long trains, but the PRR wanted to shave time off its top passenger train schedules and allow higher speeds for express trains and the newly popular Truc-Trains. Grades were no object to the team planning the new line; this route was meant to charge right up the mountainsides, aided by cuts, fills, bridges, and tunnels wherever possible. The line would also pass through almost completely unpopulated and inaccessible territory.
The line opened in 1953, after intense construction efforts. The work paid off, and the route was geographically arrow-straight over more than half of its run. Trains could hold maximum speed over the line, and locomotives could even reach greater-than-designed speeds on the many downhill runs. Engineers would run at full throttle uphill and coast downhill, gaining speed on the downhills and just struggling to maintain speed on the uphills. Trains moving at high speed needed no helpers short of their own momentum. But, in case a train had to make an unplanned stop, the PRR installed helper locomotive bases throughout the line to help stopped trains get up to speed again.
The only exception to the rules of straight, high-speed track was the town of Keystone, PA. The PRR had planned to blast its way through a mountain at this location, but had not counted on discovering a rich coal vein. Their initial tunnel became a single-track access tunnel for a local branch up to the actual town, and the line itself made an uncharacteristically sharp 180-degree turn to go around the mountain and enter a new tunnel, clear of the coal vein. Since the trains had to slow down for this point anyway (and it was already one of the highest points on the railroad,) the PRR made Keystone into a passenger train stop, and developed a town around the coal mine. A helper pocket was installed here too.
The Keystone Line worked very well, and the fast passenger and trailer service it allowed kept the PRR well afloat. The line did eventually pass to Norfolk Southern's ownership, and NS continues to operate the line much like the PRR had. Amtrak inaugurated an express version of the Pennsylvanian, whose only stop between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh was Keystone. Roadrailers and doublestack trains ruled the rails, and the PRR's massive coal vein was still producing. Since long coal drags would not run well on the steep grades of the line, NS elected to run more and shorter coal trains. The line may be unconventional with its steep inclines, but the route still gives NS the fastest freight service in the nation. And the reward for that more than pays the diesel fuel bills for extra locomotives howling at full speed the whole way.
Features and Dedications
I designed the Keystone Line to be distinctly Pennsylvanian in every way, and as such, I named a few of the trackside industries for the parts of Pennsylvania that I most like. The railroad itself is named for the state symbol, also adopted famously in Pennsylvania Railroad paint schemes. I chose this to avoid placing the railroad in any one actual town, since I’m not sure what part of the state I’ll live in after school. I greatly reduced the number of lineside industries on the layout to remove clutter and focus on running a variety of trains, not just local freights.
The largest industry on the layout is the Huntingdon Coal Company. Although the coal vein the PRR was not in the town of Huntingdon, it was a group from that small town on the Juniata river that arranged to build and operate the mine.
Another business that sprang up in the area is Galeton Farm Supply. A mom & pop tractor store in north-central PA saw an opportunity to open a new store in Keystone. Most of the Keystone Line region was inaccessible by roads, and full of farms. So, the store owners had a siding built to deliver anything from tractors to feed, and the innovative, rail-served store is still fueling agriculture in the region today.
Keystone also contains a number of less-than-carload sidings. The town freight station hosts a business called Bluebell Express, which specializes in gathering less-than-carload freight and loading it rapidly onto express trains during their brief pauses in town. This business also handles the shipping business for Nazareth Musician's Depot. The store is similar to Galeton Farm Supply, but instead of supplying farms, this shop sells musical instruments and related books & equipment. A general-service transloading track (often called a team track,) and the railroad locomotive servicing facility round out the on-line industries in Keystone.
The Project
The Keystone Line project has gone beyond merely building a model railroad, and now includes plans to allow easier product testing and magazine photography. The mainline is two tracks, and one of those tracks is built to be completely level and easy to measure its circumference/running length. This will serve as a speed testing ground for reviews. The variety of scenes (town, country, mountain, single-track, double-track, local tracks,) will allow for the Keystone Line to provide MRN with a variety of convincing photographs, possibly even cover shots. The layout itself will be a major test bed for Atlas True-Track, and Atlas has generously provided the track necessary to build the railroad. The track must blend well visually into a scenicked and detailed railroad. It must handle grade changes and must also stand up to being disassembled and split into multiple parts for storage and transport. Most of all, the track must be entirely reliable and derailment-free, as the mainline spends half of its time out of sight.
Considering the importance of the hidden staging tracks in the plan, True-Track is getting a very serious test in this project. Its quality will make or break the railroad. But I’m not worried, not in the least. I trust that the new N scale track products will measure up in every way. It’s Atlas, after all.
I will write frequently about the project both in the printed magazine and on the Internet, either on MRN’s website or here at MRN Express. You can track the progress of the railroad and see how each idea plays out. The space constraints and demand for detail of the Keystone Line make it a railroad only possible in N-scale, so keep watching. We’ll see how N-scale can provide a stable and enjoyable model railroad for someone whose life keeps changing over the years.
-Steven Goehring
Model Railroad News Associate Editor
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