The HO Piermont Western Railway circa 1915

Blake

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Jul 19, 2002
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I plan to build a small freelance HO railroad that will depict the Erie Railroad's Piermont branch (in essence). The time frame is 1910 to 1919 (with some exceptions). As you may know, I model the Erie RR circa 1952 in N scale but I thought this would be fun as well. My plans are to build all of the equipment that goes on the railroad. I am super detailing all of it. I had decals made by Rail Graphics and I have started doing some rolling stock. I have 5 locos that will be altered and / or superdetailed. Here are some of the cars that I have done so far. Let me know what you think.

MDC 2-8-0 camelback conversion
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Atlas 36' wood reefer
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IHC gondola
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Train Miniature Goshen & Deckertown Ry milk car
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MDC Pullman car
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MDC caboose
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Last but not least, an old Model T
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Good Morning, Blake!

Very nice...the Mother Hubbards of the anthracite roads are pretty much overlooked. Yours is coming along greatly!! And in N scale to boot! :thumb: I'm originally from Hawthorne myself and lived 5 minutes from the Erie station. Although I model traction, I also model Erie, DL&W, & NYS&W from the mid-50's. I model in HO and have an assortment of locos and cars. My most recent project is a re-paint job on a JJL Models welded side steel HO caboose. I went to dull coat it this past summer and there was enough humidity in the air to blush the dull coat lacquer. :curse: While working on other kits, I finally got around to stripping it and getting it repainted. I had to order another set of decals from Prime Mover and I'm finishing the blasted thing up. Took long enough! What models do you have in Erie? I'm curious to find out what's available to Erie modelers in N scale.

Russ :wave:
 
Nice work Blake! I grew up in the area, over on the Erie's Pascack Valley Branch in Pearl River, but spent a lot of time in the 50's and 60's over on the river fishing for striped bass and shad from the end of the pier. I've never seen photos of railroad cars on the pier, but I can't imagine Erie would build a mile-long pier and not run tracks out to the end. If you model part of the pier, don't forget to include a kid fishing out there, trying hard not to hook an eel..

Was the Piermont depot ever restored?

Your photos reminded me of the long strings of old Erie cabooses that sat for years on the tracks in Orangeburg. I wish I had the foresight then to try and acquire one.

Keep us posted with progress on the Piermont Branch.

Wayne
 

Blake

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Hold on there. I'm not giving up the N scale. I'm doing both. The way I figure it, most of the N scale stuff is pretty great right out of the box. So I will continue with that because there are only a handful of in depth projects for what I want. Plus, I love the 1950's stuff. The HO stuff is for building. I have brake rigging, coupler cut levers, the works. I have also loved the 1910 -1920 time frame. So much cool stuff. Hey Russ, check out my website, I have lots of my N scale stuff there. Wayne, the cabooses that were sitting at Camp Shanks (Orangeburg) were O&W 8300 series wood cabooses. Wish I had gotten to see them.
 

Blake

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Westerfield makes a gang of cars for that time period. Tichy also has a few. I plan on scratch building some of the more specific cars like an Erie reefer as well and one for the NYO&W. Also Art Griffin makes some fantastic decals for that period.
 
It's easier to model this era in HO than in N.

Westerfield makes exactly the ore car I need for this period. Unfortunately it is HO and it's N Scale trains roaming these mountains. I've emailed them about shrinking it but they're not interested.

Is it unethical to buy one and use it as a guide for casting my own in N Scale?

Wayne
 

Blake

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Wayne, I don't think that's unethical at all. It would be wrong if you were to just make molds of the Westerfield car, cast a bunch and then sell them for profit. But you will just be using their kit as a guide so I see no harm in that.
 

EL3625

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Dec 23, 2004
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Blake,

Next time you're up at Ray's give him a big Hello for me.:wave: I don't get over there as much as I'd like. Just tell him John Durant from Conrail, he'll know.
I can't afford Overland anything.. I'm stuck with Atlas, Kato, P2K etc., but that's ok they run great.:) :thumb:

John C. Durant
 

Blake

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Hey John, when it comes to today's models, there's no being stuck anymore. This new stuff blows brass out of the water. Stamping or etching brass just can't compete with today's mold technology. And most of them run very well, and pull quite a bit to boot. I'll tell Ray you said Hi.