Details

Kategorie: The Model RR Club, Union, NJ

TMRCI = The Model Railroad Club, Inc., Union, NJ, USA

After reading the first article about this layout, I got very excited. And I collected all information I could get:

Main source of information:

This is the layout Paul Mallery has written about in his books

• Operation Handbook for Model Railroads; Paul Mallery (Second Edition, Carstens Publications, 1991); the first Edition of this book is called "The Complete Handbook of Model Railroad Operations", Paul Mallery (Tab Books, 1979); comment: if you want to get the actual status, get the second (new) edition; if you want to see the development, and get some additional information and track plans, get both.
• Design Handbook of Model Railroads; Paul Mallery (1979; Carstens Publications, third printing 1990)
• Traction: Handbook for Model Railroads; Paul Mallery (1974; Carstens Publications 2008)

At their website there is the following information:

"Welcome to one of the oldest Model Railroad clubs in the USA. Founded in Murray Hill, NJ by inventor and NMRA Master Modeler (#4) Paul Mallery and three other gentlemen in 1949, we subsequently moved to our present site in 1974 and are now part of the Lenape Park grounds located in Union County, Union, NJ."

If you are living as far away as I do, and if you want to see the layout in motion, a good starting point is the video of Allen Keller: Great Model Railroads (TM) videos #32 (European persons please watch: this video is in NTSC format, which does not run on some German video players).

The layout can be visited: 

This layout can be visited at special times every week (see their website).

And if you are a model railroader with interest in operations, you can arrange a meeting at operation days.

The layout is designed to operate as realistically as possible:

Did you know that the layout was designed first, and the huge building was built afterwards? And that the building has been set up in steps, so it can grow with the railroad?

What is the best way to operate a model railroad? 

Walkaround control?

• many operators would say: yes
• for me, this was sure, too. I learned to know how good it works when I was operating at FREMO modular layouts.
• this method is used at the Trenton Northern Traction, the interurban railroad of the TMRCI

Engineers on balconies, towermen and brakemen at every station?

• this could be a better idea for large model railroads? What do you think? You can find an answer at pages 38ff in Paul Mallery's book "Operation Handbook" (1991)
• this method is used at the Hudson, Delaware & Ohio RR, the class 1 railroad of the TMRCI

What I did using the information:

Track plans:

• Here are track plans of two junctions with active interchange.

Data to operate on Train Dispatcher software:

• Jamestown Northern Traction Railroad
• The Jamestown Northern Traction Railroad is a freelanced railroad. Its prototype is the Trenton Northern Traction of the TMRCI The Model Railroad Club, Union, NJ.

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