PCCM 56 New Haven Tribute

Our group of model railroad bloggers decided to have a joint session to commemorate the inclusion of the New Haven into the Penn Central on January 1, 1969. Several of us have a real affection for the old Penn Central. I go a little farther back and was able to railfan and sometimes ride the New Haven throughout the 1960s. It's been a major inspiration on my layout. Here ae the blogs of the guys who are celebrating:

New York Central Layout
Atlantic Pacific Railroad
Kings Port Division
Ralston Creek Railroad

Several areas on my layout have specific New Haven inspiration. I was really impressed with Lou Sassi's New Haven project layout in the December 1992 Model Railroader, an article called "Building the Berkshire Division". I was so impressed with it that I stole his plan for one scene. I kept the track plan for the town, "Cornwall Bridge", almost exactly as it was in the article, but changed the name to "Woollett". I made the prototype a more generic New England location. I changed some of the structures and scenery and kept others as they were in the article.

Here's a Walthers DL-109 on a passenger through town:

I have two structures that are New Haven prototypes and another kit under way. The two that are finished are both towers. Below is a Crow River Products model of a pagoda tower:

And a laser-cut kit for a standard New Haven-Boston & Maine wooden tower:

I had a work assignment in Connecticut in 2001 or so. I commuted there each week from California. One of the benefits (if there were any) was that they'd let me off at noon on Fridays to fly home, and on the way to Hartford-Springfield airport, I'd stop at a couple of hobby shops in Wolcott, CT. One, The Caboose, had an amazing assortment of brass. I picked up a pair of Overland FL9s. These have stayed in a display cabinet. I'm not inclined to put them on the layout -- I'd rather put the wear and tear on Chinese plastic locos. But here they are in the cabinet with some of my other treasured items:

The other Wolcott shop had various limited-production New Haven paint jobs on Roundhouse and Athearn bluebox kits, as well as Thomas Yorke building kits. These also made it onto the layout. Here is a G Street Warehouse that I picked up and made into a Railway Express terminal:

Here's an Atlas/Kato RS-11 that was undecorated, which I painted for New Haven close to 40 years ago. I believe the only choice for decals at the time were Champ, and the NH was too small.

A few more photos: