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I have been following this thread for a while now & was thinking about chiming in but didn't until now. 

So here goes. I have had a house in upstate NY in the Catskills on the old route of the D&H that ran between Lackawanna, PA. & Kingston, NY. The Route was used to bring PA coal to the barges on the Hudson in  Kingston for transport to NYC & other places. There are about 6 or 8 D&H historical sights along Rt 209 in NY, a few old stations, & RR history still exist along the way. 

My kids & Grandkids & my self use the old right of way which is the track bed now,as an ATV trail. Along the trail there are a bunch of old copper minds dug into the Shawngunk  Mts. that you can access right off the trail, really very interesting. The Shawngunk Mt,s is the mountain range within the lower Catskills that run from Port Jervis up north to Kingston & above. The D&H Right of Way was cut into the side & base of them.

Along with the right of way runs the D&H barge canal & tow path. The canal pre dates the D&H RR. The Barge locks are still  there although a little over grown but still very visible & massive. They were made with blocks of local granite most the size of Volkswagons fit in place with the precision the  Egyptians   built the Pyramidswith it is really very impressive & amazing.  Along the barge canal there are still a few of the houses that the Lock Masters lived & operated the locks from. A few have been maintained & people still live in them.  40 years ago or more I made friends with an older fellow named Bob Louis who still lived in one of the houses & his Great Grand Father was the lock master of that particular lock. Bob has since passed & I don't really know who lives there now.

Most all of the towns along the canal have a street called the Tow Path & Burme Rd. runs along the Tow Path almost from Port Jervis NY to Kingston NY. The Burme was built along the canal where the earth wasn't high enough to dig the canal.

Just a little local history      

Jerry Del posted:

I have been following this thread for a while now & was thinking about chiming in but didn't until now. 

So here goes. I have had a house in upstate NY in the Catskills on the old route of the D&H that ran between Lackawanna, PA. & Kingston, NY. The Route was used to bring PA coal to the barges on the Hudson in  Kingston for transport to NYC & other places. There are about 6 or 8 D&H historical sights along Rt 209 in NY, a few old stations, & RR history still exist along the way. 

My kids & Grandkids & my self use the old right of way which is the track bed now,as an ATV trail. Along the trail there are a bunch of old copper minds dug into the Shawngunk  Mts. that you can access right off the trail, really very interesting. The Shawngunk Mt,s is the mountain range within the lower Catskills that run from Port Jervis up north to Kingston & above. The D&H Right of Way was cut into the side & base of them.

Along with the right of way runs the D&H barge canal & tow path. The canal pre dates the D&H RR. The Barge locks are still  there although a little over grown but still very visible & massive. They were made with blocks of local granite most the size of Volkswagons fit in place with the precision the  Egyptians   built the Pyramidswith it is really very impressive & amazing.  Along the barge canal there are still a few of the houses that the Lock Masters lived & operated the locks from. A few have been maintained & people still live in them.  40 years ago or more I made friends with an older fellow named Bob Louis who still lived in one of the houses & his Great Grand Father was the lock master of that particular lock. Bob has since passed & I don't really know who lives there now.

Most all of the towns along the canal have a street called the Tow Path & Burme Rd. runs along the Tow Path almost from Port Jervis NY to Kingston NY. The Burme was built along the canal where the earth wasn't high enough to dig the canal.

Just a little local history      

Very interesting Jerry. Thanks for sharing this history.

Thanks for the kind words, Earl!  

As for the track, I started off by spraying it all (rails and ties) with Rust-Oleum Camo Brown flat.  This was done before ballasting.

Next, after ballasting, I applied a thinned-down rust color with a small brush to highlight the very bottom of the rails, tie plates and spikes.  Then I went back over the rail sides with a dark-colored paint pen to add some variation to the Camo Brown and to cover up the rust color that I accidentally applied too high up on the rail sides.  I finished by cleaning the tops of the rails with a fine sanding block.

Finally, I dry brushed some gray and black on the top of the ties to simulate weathering and some random grease/oil drippings and stains.

Quite the process, but since this is a small module that I built for photographing my trains, I was willing to put in the time and effort.  Not sure I would have the patience to fuss that much with a large layout!

Last edited by CNJ #1601

Finally got down to the basement for the first time in a while today... pulled this off the shelf. It is a Lionel RS-11 from around 2000 (TMCC). Love the front end.

IMG_1085

IMG_1086

And, based on some comments from Peter (Putnam Division), I picked this up from Amazon.

IMG_0996

Only had a chance to browse through it so far, but seems like a good resource of info. Two things I've noticed so far... the D&H had some WEIRD looking steamers, and they had an incredible headquarters building in Albany (looks like it is now headquarters for the State University of New York). Here is what it looks like today:

IMG_0997

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Thanks for the kind comments Paul - No, not a new layout. This one was removed from our home when we moved in the fall of 2012. I used all ScaleTrax and was striving towards a more overall realistic appearance for it. Had to dismantle it before it was finished!

Have always liked the D&H and am gradually building up a roster of some diesels. This week I acquired this nice U30C from a Forum member. It has a completely different horn from the sister Santa Fe U28c behind it. Both Lionel models from 10+ years or so ago. I like the rich blue used as well.

IMG_9932IMG_9935

 

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Last edited by c.sam
Scotie posted:

85-74154Can't forget the I love NY box car, quick search didn't for a prototype, I believe this is MTH HO.

As someone born and raised in Brooklyn, still gotta love NY. Here is the Lionel version (9475)...

IMG_1111

Here is a link to George Elwood's Fallen Flags website where I found some photos of prototypes. The site is a treasure trove of train photos, sorted by line:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/dh/dh.html

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Apples55 posted:
Scotie posted:

85-74154Can't forget the I love NY box car, quick search didn't for a prototype, I believe this is MTH HO.

As someone born and raised in Brooklyn, still gotta love NY. Here is the Lionel version (9475)...

IMG_1111

Here is a link to George Elwood's Fallen Flags website where I found some photos of prototypes. The site is a treasure trove of train photos, sorted by line:

http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/dh/dh.html

And here is the Correct Atlas O scale version:

I love ny2I love ny1I love ny3I love ny4

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  • I love ny2
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