The New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company
Owner: William Shanaman
Welcome to the HO version of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company’s Hartford Division in the 1950’s. 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. The “Hartford Line” 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 is the “Valley Line” a single track line which runs south from Hartford though Middletown to Saybrook and a connection with the New Haven’s busy Shoreline Route to New York City. 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-
Construction began on the current layout in September of 2004 using the open grid method with plywood laminated to Homasote. It is an HO scale around the walls 25x35 foot double decked layout with a peninsula and a double track helix on the middle wall area. The top level is the Valley Branch and the lower level is the double track main line called the "Hartford Line" or "Springfield Line" during it's use by the New Haven RR. Hom-a-bed is also 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 170 cars and on the lower level. There will also be a 5 track passenger coach yard and an engine facility in New Haven,. A 2 track -5 turn helix will link the top and bottom levels. There is also a 8 track 21 foot long staging yard bulit on the lower level.
The layout is powered by a North Coast Engineering Powerhouse Pro DCC system. All rails are code 83 flex track with pre-built turnouts from Atlas, Walthers, Shinoharra and Tillig. Some engines have BLI Quantum, Soundtraxx LC series and Tsunami sound and all have DCC decoders. Turnout control is by Tortoise Motor 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 Power Shields. The railroad will be a TT&TO operation with either switch lists or car cards. I will also be using a 6 to 1 fast clock and running a 24 hour time period set in the 1948 to 1953 time period. I reserve the right to change eras or add cars that I like. This is after all, mine to change.
Operating sessions have started and will be scheduled when time permits when it doesn't interfere with other Rocky Rail operations layouts. The schedule permits the 1st Saturday of the month as the normal operation day.
If you would like to view photos of my layout go to: http://rides.webshots.com/album/145199856bFDImR You can leave a comment or email me with comments.