Brian Sheron's
Long Island Rail Road
May 18, 2008
Brian provided the
following Welcome to the Long Island Rail Road.
Please enjoy your visit to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). The time is about 1964, Barry Goldwater is running for president against Lyndon Johnson, and the world's fair is being held in Flushing Meadow on Long Island.
The Long Island Rail Road (yes, rail road is two separate words for the LIRR), with its logo of "dashing Dan" and "the route of the dashing commuter", is the largest class one commuter railroad in the united states. First steam, and then after 1955, only diesel engines, would pull strings of P-54 passenger cars (known affectionately as "ping pongs" because of their motion when coupled between two PP-72 heavyweights) from the Long Island suburbs into Jamaica station each morning. There, throngs of commuters would "change at Jamaica" onto third-rail electric trains that would carry them under the East River and into Penn Station and their jobs in Manhattan. Every evening, this ritual would be reversed.
The branch I have modeled is the Port Jefferson (on Long Island it is simply "Port Jeff") branch. Which runs from Hicksville, in the center of Long Island, to Port Jefferson, on the north shore of the island, about 60 miles from NYC. Some of the towns along the way include Syosset, Huntington, Greenlawn, East Northport, Kings Park, and Port Jefferson.
I started the layout about 6 months after we moved into our house in 1988. The part of the layout that is in the larger 13' x 19' room was essentially complete by 1996. It was the featured article in the September, 1997 issue of Railmodel Journal. From 1996 to 2003, I took a break from model railroading (one too many drops of solder dripped on my ankle while working on wiring under the table).
In 2003, Nick Kalis called and asked if I would be willing to host an open house for the Potomac Division. I initially debated, but agreed and used it as a good excuse to get back to model railroading and "tune up" the railroad. My last open house was in 2004. For those of you who may have visited the layout then, I have since redone the Jamaica station passenger platforms, the third-rail electric trackage coming out of Jamaica, converted to Digitrax DCC, installed sound in most of my engines, and removed most of the undertable turnout machines and associated indicator lights, wiring, and control panels, and replaced them with hand throws (I wasn't joking about the solder problem!) I am currently in the process of upgrading my Digitrax system to radio-controlled wireless.
While I have not modeled any scenes exactly (except for the Sheron's marine building, which is a replica of my dad's marina on Huntington Harbor in the 1950's), I have tried to capture the general "feel' of the area during this time. Many of the businesses modeled on the layout are named after actual businesses that operated in the Huntington and Northport areas during this era. The LIRR did not run close to the water on the Port Jeff branch. However, I took a little artistic license to model some waterfront scenes next to the trackage, because I like to model waterfront scenes!
The latest addition (which I started about 3 years ago) is the model of New York City and Pennsylvania Station in the smaller front room. I chose the "center island" layout concept rather than "against the wall" because of practical concerns, such as access to the water meter, furnace, and hot water heater.
After they leave Jamaica, the third-rail electric trains go down-grade and into the East River tunnel. They travel under the river and arrive at the LIRR's underground platforms in Penn Station. The underground retail shops and the LIRR ticket office directly above the LIRR platforms are a fairly accurate representation of this part of the station.
Although the LIRR did not run above-ground trackage onto Manhattan, I again exercised "artistic license" and ran a loop around Manhattan so trains arriving at Jamaica could turn around and "head back out on the island" without having to back out of Jamaica.
To capture the hustle and bustle of NYC, I have modeled an elevated train, or "el" system, perused ebay relentlessly and obtained out of production Bachmann "cityscenes" buildings, built 3 CMR kits, and kitbashed numerous City Classics and DPM kits to create the tall buildings found in a large city.
All of the engines and passenger cars are accurate models of the engines and passenger cars that ran on the "Port Jeff" branch during that era. The diesels you see include RS-1'S, RS-3'S, C-420 high-hoods, H15-44'S, CPA24-5'S, and DS4-4-1000's. In addition, although they did not run on the Port Jeff branch, there are two Budd rail diesels on the layout that were known as the "Babylon Scoot." The third-rail electric trains are also accurate models of the P-54 MP's that the LIRR ran from Jamaica into the city.
The layout has over 300 vehicles, and I have lost count of the number of people, but it is also well over 300.
Because the NYC layout is an island, photos will unfortunately show a pipe, window, or workbench in the distant background. To deal with this, I purchased a 4' x 8' styrofoam sheet, and have not attached it permanently to anything, so it can be slid around behind any part of the layout and used as a backdrop for photos. However, building flats still need to be built and glued to it.
Brian Sheron
Click on thumbnail for larger picture.
Please enjoy your visit to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). The time is about 1964, Barry Goldwater is running for president against Lyndon Johnson, and the world's fair is being held in Flushing Meadow on Long Island.
The Long Island Rail Road (yes, rail road is two separate words for the LIRR), with its logo of "dashing Dan" and "the route of the dashing commuter", is the largest class one commuter railroad in the united states. First steam, and then after 1955, only diesel engines, would pull strings of P-54 passenger cars (known affectionately as "ping pongs" because of their motion when coupled between two PP-72 heavyweights) from the Long Island suburbs into Jamaica station each morning. There, throngs of commuters would "change at Jamaica" onto third-rail electric trains that would carry them under the East River and into Penn Station and their jobs in Manhattan. Every evening, this ritual would be reversed.
The branch I have modeled is the Port Jefferson (on Long Island it is simply "Port Jeff") branch. Which runs from Hicksville, in the center of Long Island, to Port Jefferson, on the north shore of the island, about 60 miles from NYC. Some of the towns along the way include Syosset, Huntington, Greenlawn, East Northport, Kings Park, and Port Jefferson.
I started the layout about 6 months after we moved into our house in 1988. The part of the layout that is in the larger 13' x 19' room was essentially complete by 1996. It was the featured article in the September, 1997 issue of Railmodel Journal. From 1996 to 2003, I took a break from model railroading (one too many drops of solder dripped on my ankle while working on wiring under the table).
In 2003, Nick Kalis called and asked if I would be willing to host an open house for the Potomac Division. I initially debated, but agreed and used it as a good excuse to get back to model railroading and "tune up" the railroad. My last open house was in 2004. For those of you who may have visited the layout then, I have since redone the Jamaica station passenger platforms, the third-rail electric trackage coming out of Jamaica, converted to Digitrax DCC, installed sound in most of my engines, and removed most of the undertable turnout machines and associated indicator lights, wiring, and control panels, and replaced them with hand throws (I wasn't joking about the solder problem!) I am currently in the process of upgrading my Digitrax system to radio-controlled wireless.
While I have not modeled any scenes exactly (except for the Sheron's marine building, which is a replica of my dad's marina on Huntington Harbor in the 1950's), I have tried to capture the general "feel' of the area during this time. Many of the businesses modeled on the layout are named after actual businesses that operated in the Huntington and Northport areas during this era. The LIRR did not run close to the water on the Port Jeff branch. However, I took a little artistic license to model some waterfront scenes next to the trackage, because I like to model waterfront scenes!
The latest addition (which I started about 3 years ago) is the model of New York City and Pennsylvania Station in the smaller front room. I chose the "center island" layout concept rather than "against the wall" because of practical concerns, such as access to the water meter, furnace, and hot water heater.
After they leave Jamaica, the third-rail electric trains go down-grade and into the East River tunnel. They travel under the river and arrive at the LIRR's underground platforms in Penn Station. The underground retail shops and the LIRR ticket office directly above the LIRR platforms are a fairly accurate representation of this part of the station.
Although the LIRR did not run above-ground trackage onto Manhattan, I again exercised "artistic license" and ran a loop around Manhattan so trains arriving at Jamaica could turn around and "head back out on the island" without having to back out of Jamaica.
To capture the hustle and bustle of NYC, I have modeled an elevated train, or "el" system, perused ebay relentlessly and obtained out of production Bachmann "cityscenes" buildings, built 3 CMR kits, and kitbashed numerous City Classics and DPM kits to create the tall buildings found in a large city.
All of the engines and passenger cars are accurate models of the engines and passenger cars that ran on the "Port Jeff" branch during that era. The diesels you see include RS-1'S, RS-3'S, C-420 high-hoods, H15-44'S, CPA24-5'S, and DS4-4-1000's. In addition, although they did not run on the Port Jeff branch, there are two Budd rail diesels on the layout that were known as the "Babylon Scoot." The third-rail electric trains are also accurate models of the P-54 MP's that the LIRR ran from Jamaica into the city.
The layout has over 300 vehicles, and I have lost count of the number of people, but it is also well over 300.
Because the NYC layout is an island, photos will unfortunately show a pipe, window, or workbench in the distant background. To deal with this, I purchased a 4' x 8' styrofoam sheet, and have not attached it permanently to anything, so it can be slid around behind any part of the layout and used as a backdrop for photos. However, building flats still need to be built and glued to it.
Brian Sheron
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