The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company

Owner: Bill Shanaman

Location: Sugar City, Colorado

Welcome to the HO scale version of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company’s Hartford Division in the 1948 to 1954 time period. This is the steam to diesel transition era. The New Haven RR was located mostly in the state of Connecticut and in the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York. The modeled railroad consists of two lines located in central Connecticut in what's known as the Connecticut Valley. The “Hartford Line” or "Springfield Line"as it is known, is a double tracked line which runs south between the cities of Hartford and New Haven Connecticut , and north to Springfield, Massachusetts (not modeled). The other line is the “Valley Line” a single track branch line which runs south from Hartford though Middletown to Old Saybrook, CT and a connection with the New Haven’s busy Shoreline Route to New York City and Boston. I have chosen to model the lines from Hartford south to Old Saybrook on the Valley line and to New Haven on the Hartford Line in the space provided with future expansion of the railroad as time space and funding permit.

The Layout-

The layout is an HO scale around the walls 25x35 foot double decked layout with a double track helix on the middle wall area connecting both levels. The top level is the Valley Branch and the lower level is the double track Hartford Division main line.  It runs as a point to point railroad with off line staging.  Construction began on the current layout in September of 2004 using the open grid method with plywood laminated to Homasote.  Hom-a-bed is used for both mains and sidings from California Roadbed Co. Hartford yard is a 14 track yard, 21 feet long with industry switching on both ends of the yard. It has a capacity of 422 cars and is on the top level. New Haven Cedar Hill yard will have a car capacity of 270 cars and on the lower level. There will also be a 5 track passenger coach yard and an engine facility in New Haven. A two track/five turn helix links the top and bottom levels. A 1.99% ruling grade is in the helix. 2.0% in other areas of the layout. There is also a six track/21 foot long staging yard built on the lower level.

The layout is powered by a North Coast Engineering Powerhouse Pro DCC system with radio. All rails are code 83 flex track with manufactured turnouts from Atlas, Walthers, Shinoharra and Tillig. Engines are equipped with either BLI Quantum, MRC, Soundtraxx LC series and Tsunami sound decoders or NCE, TCS, Atlas or Lenz DCC decoders. Turnout control is by Tortoise Motor style switch machines with LED indicators to show route selected and Caboose Industries manual ground throws. The layout is divided into power districts using Tony's and DCC Specialties Power Shields.

The railroad utilizes a Time Table & Train Order (TT&TO) operation with car cards and four sided way bills. There are both freight and passenger time tables for scheduled trains. Time is kept using a 6 to 1 fast clock condensing a 24 hour day into 4 hours.

Operating sessions are scheduled on the first Saturday of every other month starting in January or when scheduling time permits. FUN is expected by all who operate my railroad and is printed in the rulebook.