It's only in my mind!

I'm referring to the unmodeled portions of my HO scale Kings Port Division that aren't represented by bench work, track, and scenery... and exist only in my imagination.  Although imaginary, these parts of the layout play an important role in my model railroad operations, especially the "virtual ops" between my layout, John's New York Central Train Layout, and hopefully in the future, Neal's Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (A.P.R.R.).

I've recently been devoting considerable time and mental energy clarifying the nature and purpose of the unmodeled parts of the Kings Port Division, making sketches and bouncing ideas off of John, a patient listener to my model railroad mulling!   

Why spend so much time and effort on imaginary parts of the layout? I'll try to explain...

The general scheme between our three layouts (my K.P.D., John's N.Y.C.T.L., and Neal's A.P.R.R.) looks like this in our imaginings.    Emulating the Penn Central River Line on the west side of the Hudson River, but not attempting to model it accurately, trains from Neal's A.P.R.R. reach Weehawken where his terrific looking orange A.P.R.R. locomotives are exchanged for Penn Central power.  

This way when we take pictures of the train action we can photograph the cars we have in common and not worry about our different locomotive rosters.  Trains then run up-river from Weehawken through West Mill and Kings Port on my layout to Selkirk...

...where another motive power change will take cuts of cars from the train to John's Terminal Yard. The power change at Selkirk allows John to select his favorite locos for photographs of the train coming onto his layout.

I'm lucky to be the one in the middle of this scheme because I can portray Penn Central run-throughs in either direction, remove or add cars to these trains at West Mill Yard, interchange cars from these trains with the KP&W for my local industries, branch lines, and the car float at West Mill Yard.

...as well as for trains that wil leave West Mill for the KP&W mainline headed west.

If you've read some of my previous posts about proposed KP&W route maps you know that I originally imagined both a Penn Central yard (Williams Yard) and a KP&W yard (Fulton Ave. Yard) located at Kings Port.  Here are a couple of older pics of the route map.

I've recently been questioning the plausibility of locating the two yards so close together, especially since West Mill Yard has been expanded to become an important hub.  Why have another PC yard so close to West Mill?  Why would the KP&W have a yard there too?   Obviously there needs to be some significant Kings Port & Western Railroad presence in Kings Port..hence the name...right?!

 I thought about making the KP&W Fulton Ave Yard important by creating a connection with the B&M railroad there.  I have a number of B&M cars that could filter onto the Kings Port Division via this connection.  But, I didn't really like having a B&M connection being so close to the Penn Central's Williams Yard in Kings Port since the PC interchanges with the B&M a little to the north at Albany.  Thinking about the route map both in terms of real geographical features such as Selkirk Yard and totally fictional locations like West Mill is a bit awkward at times and discouraged some ideas I'd accept if I just viewed it all as a complete fantasy.

After some thinking, I decided that I'd abandon the two yard concept at Kings Port, but I changed Williams Yard into a KP&W facility.  This is now the eastern terminus of the KP&W and I also decided it CAN have its own B&M connection.

Here is the route map as I imagine now...

Orange lines represent the KP&W; green lines are the Penn Central.  The KP&W has running rights over the PC line between Kings Port and West Mill.   

Here is how I currently apply all of this model railroad mulling about imaginary locations to my actual layout:

Pictured below is the tunnel at the south end of West Mill.   Penn Central trains from Weehawken will emerge here as will KP&W trains from Salmanca and other points to the west on the KP&W mainline.  I imagine the KP&W and PC split from their joint trackage just beyond the tunnel.

This tunnel to staging represents both the KP&W's Mayfield Branch with all its industry, and the so called Mountain Branch to rural and touristy Bloomberg.

West Mill, the KP&W hub for branch lines, PC interchange, car float, and access to the KP&W mainline to the west.  Its also the site of PC run-thru trains from Weehawken (including those originating on the A.P.R.R.) to Selkirk and eventually to Terminal Yard on the N.Y.C.T.L.....and of course, vice versa in the other direction. 

The entrance to Williams Yard in Kings Port (staging) is through the overpass in this photo.  KP&W trains will be seen coming and going here.   KP&W trains headed south to West Mill can be transfer runs to set out cars for the branch lines, or thru trains that continue on the KP&W mainline west.  Penn Central trains from Weehawken or Selkirk  can be staged to set out or pick up cars at Williams Yard.  The KP&W can also serve nearby K.P. Steel from Williams Yard.  

Well, that's enough imagining for now.  I hope to further illustrate how this all works by photographing future virtual ops with the N.Y.C.T.L and the A.P.R.R.

Thanks for taking a look at my recent mullings about parts of the layout that aren't really there!