EAST PENN
JUNCTION
By Stirling Woodin
The East Penn
Junction, affectionately called the Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe by me
and my train buddies, is based on the Lehigh Valley Railroad between
the years 1936 to 1976, depending on my mood. The architecture in
the Lehigh Valley didn’t change much in the intervening years, so
just changing the automobiles in town and the rolling stock on the
railroad gives it a quick era change. The scenes depicted here
aren’t designed to represent the Lehigh Valley and it’s environs,
but rather to suggest a geographical location.
East Penn Junction is an actual location that is just outside of
Allentown, Pa. It formally was the confluence and interchange
tracks of three railroads; the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the
Lehigh Valley Railroad, and the Reading Railroad. By selecting this
location to model, it allows me to operate equipment from any of the
three railroads mentioned previously.
Construction began in 1993, and has steadily progressed from then.
The framework consists of 2x4’s, with Homasote laid over 3/8”
plywood. It has been designed as sectional pieces, so that it can
be moved in the event of a job transfer. The layout has 11
electrical blocks, and has the capability of supporting 4
conventional MRC throttles, one Soundtraxx sound throttle, and one
Atlas Master DCC system. 15 locomotives have been converted to DCC
operations, almost evenly split between steam and diesel. The track
is Atlas code 100 flex, with Shinohara code 83 on several sidings.
A mix of Atlas and Peco turnouts are used, operated by Tortoise and
Peco under table switch machine motors.
Almost all of the buildings and streets are lighted, (over 156 bulbs
at last count,) and they receive their power from two 12V AC garden
type lighting power supplies. I have the nigh activation photo
cells mounted on the layout fascia, so the layout lights only come
on when the house lights are extinguished.
The layout is an inverted J; 21’x17’x12’, is a walk in type with one
duckunder, (needed to operate the Pal O’ Mine yard area), and takes
up the portion of the basement that isn’t used for my O gauge
layout. Two 50’+ main lines, Pal O’ Mine coal yard, A&B beef
processing plant with an associated icing facility and stock yards,
a granary, a rock quarry, warehouses and paper products
manufacturing can keep four crews busy for hours.
Thanks to Jonathan Sodaro and Jim Beuchel, without whose help this
layout would not have been possible.
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