Overview of the SR&W Ry

The HO Scale Shark River & Western Railway is owned by Danny Seymour. Danny is an excellent modeler, but he would be the first to admit that the layout would not be nearly as far completed or have the degree of realism that it has without the help of fellow modelers, Bruce Abbott, Jeff Mockler, Ernie Derby, Ray Rettger, and Danny's dad Bruce. Thus a lot of locations, towns and industries were named after these people. He also has his lovely new wife to thank for the space allocated in their new home. Bill Nesbitt, Joe Weisbrod, John Swift, Jeff Rauch, Bill Hook, Ed Elwell and Bill Hilzel have also contributed to the continued progress of the layout.

The layout setting is somewhere in S.E. Pennsylvania being a small North-South branch of the PRR. It is October, 1955 and Steam is still KING. (It is currently a hanging offense to have a "Noisy Boxcar" on the SR&W). Connections to the outside world go to Harrisburg on the West, and Philadelphia on the East. The interchange is located somewhere on the Pennsy main line between those two cities. Python Lines has trackage rights for passenger traffic (Doodle Bug) system wide, and a Freight interchange at Melville. A connection to Port Dianne in Delaware has been added.

The construction of the original layout began in January of 1992, and proceeded until June of 2001, when construction was halted and the layout cut into pieces and put into storage until the new location was ready in Howell, New Jersey. The pieces were brought together in September of 2002 and the process of construction has continued. The new location has also afforded upgraded facilities, including additional yard and running space and much wider aisles. The new layout has a minimum of 30” aisle width at one point, with most of the aisles over 4 feet wide.

The track plan was adapted from a plan in Model Railroader magazine and redrawn in Auto Cad. The original layout has remained much as it was, with the additions being the increase of distance between the existing sections. The main engine terminal at BAS has been separated from Abbott and Rettger yards by over 6 feet in each direction. The loop at the end of the island has a radius increase from 30” to 48”, and the grade dramatically flattened! Bridges are being added at least six! A new interchange track is being added at Derby Gorge, and a waterfront scene is being added behind New Kutherton. As a point of interest, the basement room design, layout track plan, benchwork , building placement, Control panel design, and some of the structures were ALL designed in Auto Cad !

The benchwork is L-girder with 5/8" plywood subroadbed with ½" homasote base. The track from the origial portion of the layout is Atlas code 83 flex with Walthers code 83 turnouts all weathered before installation. The new portions of the layout are predominantly hand laid code 83, 70 and 55 track on Campbell and Micro Engineering ties on Homabed.

Train control has taken a few different incarnations up to this point. The layout was originally designed for block control, then it was decided that Dynatrol command control was the way to go and finally now DCC with a DIGITRAX chief system is installed. The railroad runs as good as it looks if not better. The signal bridges were constructed using kitbashed IHC water bridge kits with Oregon Rail supply signal heads. The signal system is operated through block detection and interconnected through the turnouts to show not only block occupancy but also next block occupancy and routing conditions.

The scenery was constructed using several methods, which include: Chicken wire covered in plaster wrap, Cardboard webbing with plaster wrap, plaster rocks molded in place, commercial rock and retaining wall castings, and lots of ground foam and home made trees.

The Control Panels are AutoCAD designed line drawings of the layout, etched onto magnesium sheets. These sheets are the same used in the newspaper industry for printing pages. The positive of the AutoCAD drawing was etched and then the holes for the led’s and switches were drilled. The sheets were then taken to a car repair shop and given a coat of Automotive paint for durability. Once completed, the lines and letters were painted and returned for a gloss coat.

Freight car forwarding and operation is being slowly integrated using Ship-It. The operating sessions at this point lasted about 1 ½ hours with freight to and from Harrisburg and Philadelphia, with deliveries and pickups at the industries at Melville and Abbott. It will become much more interesting when the Industries at New Kutherton and Port Dianne come on-line and the passenger traffic is implemented.

The layout has been shown on three New Jersey Division meets, two at the old location and one at its present location.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief overview of the SR&W Railway. Be sure to check out the pictorial layout tour. (more pictures added as progress continues).