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The railroad is based on a "what if?" scenario where the Alphabet Route railroads were allowed to combine into a system as an efficiency move during WW II. (This is similar to the Family Lines during the 1980s where several railroads painted equipment in the same scheme even though they were not legally one entity.) There is equipment of the combined Allegheny & Western system along with equipment of the member roads.
The modeled A&W mainline runs from the New Jersey waterfront of New York Harbor to Harrisburg, PA. There are two major subdivisions branching off from the main stem. One goes from Easton, PA to Maybrook, NY (A major gateway to New England). The other goes from Topton, PA to Scranton, PA and beyond to Buffalo, NY. The system hub and headquarters are in Allentown, PA, a midsize Pennsylvania city.
This is a large and diverse territory; Even though we have a substantial space, we could only model representative parts of it.
Major modeled locations from west to east are:
- Wilkes-Barre, PA - A rich source of traffic in anthracite.
- Palmerton, PA - NJ Zinc plant
- Hershey, PA - Home of Hershey Chocolate "The sweetest place on Earth"
- Reading, PA - Regional yard
- Fleetwood, PA - Original "Body by Fleetwood" plant
- Allentown, PA - Company offices, hub of the system, main yard (a modern rider hump). Also the terminus for short-distance passenger service to New York.
- Bethlehem, PA - Bethlehem Steel works
- Plainfield, NJ - Suburban area with substantial local industry.
- Bayonne, NJ - Refinery and chemicals
- Greenville neighborhood of Jersey City, NJ - Busy waterfront car float operations
It takes a lot of people diligently working to keep a Class One railroad fluid. From the switcher slowly dragging hot metal cars at the steel mill to the dispatcher safely moving the traffic there are a wide variety of jobs for everyone.
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