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3 - History

The Hudson Model Railroad Club (HMRRC) moved to its current location above the Polish American Club in 1982. This particular building was across from the Delaware and Hudson's massive railyard. We have a blue print of the yard showing the location of this building. We have also enjoyed having the local D&H freight from Binghamton NY stop on the siding outside our club and having the crew (fellow model railroaders) join us for the evening. This past holiday season we were indeed honored to be one of the clubs featured on the local PBS TV station's program on model railroading.

Our layout has expanded from 1100 square feet in 1982 to currently approximately 2000 square feet. The original layout had about 2100 linear feet of track. The current amount of track has not been measured, but it is believed to be a minimum of 2500 linear feet. There is almost five miles of wire running under the layout for controlling the railroad from the control tower and the Branch Line Yard panel located on the floor for local control. We use block control and hoggers and control master 20s for power. We can control the trains either from the tower or from the floor. We have a number of local control panels for yards, the steel facility and the trolley line.

The railroad is divided into two lines; one double track mainline (the Lehigh & Susquehanna) and one single-track branch line (the Pocono & Hudson). Transfer between the main and branch lines can be made at several locations. The Branch Line is fully operational with passing sidings and a fully operational yard (achieved in 1998).

Most of the main yard is now also operational and has a capacity of several hundred cars. The East End of the main yard also has a passenger yard. The yard has both an East and a West control panel. The roundhouse is in place, however the turntable is not yet operational.

The Clinker Steel Company has purchased an area served by the Pocono and Hudson and a steel manufacturing facility has been built on this site. This includes a blast furnace, electric furnace, coke facility and a rolling mill. This operation will involve a number of specialty railroad cars such as slag, hot metal, ingot, coke and quench. In addition Clinker Steel will have its own 70-ton locomotives and a specially built coke engine. It is anticipated that this investment will lead to economic growth and industrial activity in this somewhat depressed area. Construction of the facility has been handled by the Flybinyte Construction company, with electrical installation by the Short-Circuit company. The subcontractor for the water and gas supply is Drip & Gurgle. Burns & Burns are underwriting the insurance for the project. The facility went on-stream in November 2000 and has been shipping a variety of steel products. A contract has been negotiated with the D&H to handle all steel shipments.

All visitors are reminded that this is a hard hat area!

In order to meet the coal demands of both the power plant and the new steel facility, the coal mine has been expanded in order to double its output. The steel facility has also provided additional revenue for the Iron Hill Rock Quarry and Crusher, which now supplies the limestone for the blast furnace. All this activity has caused an upgrade and replacement for hoppers and road diesels and the railroad scrap yard in little Virginia is expanding and providing scrap metal for the steel mill.

During our holiday show we try to keep a minimum of 3 trains running at all times. We try to run on average 4-6 depending on the lengths of the trains. We have on occasions run as many as 9. On average our trains will pull 30 to 50 cars. We have the capability to pull much longer trains and have done so several times. Since our railroad does not depict any particular era, you will see both modern diesel and old steam running together. Periodically, an electric (GG-1 or Little Joe) will go through their paces too! The individual members own most locomotives and rolling stock (many of them custom painted and detailed) that you see on the layout