Mike Kieran

Not many people get the reference. One of my favorite of Peter Sellers movies.

PORT ABLE RAILWAY Reporting Marks: PA The railroad is about a mile long and handles approximately 650 cars per year. Customers Maximum Weekly Carloads In/Out Wattsup Dock & Transloading 4/4 Ed Ibble Foods Inc. 4/1 Hertz Uranus Chair Corp. 2/0 Total 10/5 Back in 1970, with the collapse of the Paddle Creek Bridge due to fire and thus severing the branch to the Port Able Navy Yard, The Atlantic Lines decided to abandon the Navy Yard Branch. The last 3 customers on the line, Wattsup Dock & Transloading, Ed Ibble Foods, and the Hertz Uranus Chair Company did not wish to end rail service. Enter recently retired Port Able Division Supervisor, Artie Fischel, who decided to supplement his retirement income as well as relieve his boredom by purchasing the 1 mile industrial track and creating the Port Able Railway. He started operations at the Port Able headquarters at 22 Twain Street with a GE 45 tonner purchased from government surplus and an old caboose. Since there were no longer any runarounds, the train would travel up the branch line caboose first. In it's first year of operations, the railroad handled a modest 250 cars. by the end of his tenure at the helm, it increased to 650 cars per year.In 1979, Artie decided that he no longer had the energy to run the railroad. It was time for his full retirement and he wished to sell the short line for a modest profit while doubling the traffic that he started with. Two of his railroad employees, Andy Scores along with Pat Onnabach, purchase the railroad and resumed operations. While I've been off the grid for a little while, a new abode will allow me to pursue my model railroading endeavors. I still don't have access to permanent wall space, but I will still make use of my dining table which measures out to a standard 5 feet by 3 feet (por table). The layout will measure 60x40 inches and fold in half. As many of you know, I love short lines, switchers, no runaround caboose shoves, industries that receive AND ship freight, and portability (portable) It will fit in the tailgate of most cars in case I want to transport it and it will have storage for the locomotives, cars, and DC/DCC power pack (in case I run older engines). The track is Atlas Code 83 with an 18 inch minimum radius and 4 Snap Track 18 inch radius turnouts. I know that this roundy round layout isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I hope to share that there are possible options out there. As usual, I put out a car loadings chart. The purpose of this is so that I can plan out the traffic with car cards and to decide on the inventory that I wish to have with regards to rolling stock purchases. I will use a variety of rolling stock. With the transload/team track, I can literally have any freight car on the Port Able Railway's tracks. The operation is simple. I will shuffle my car cards (each piece of rolling stock will have it's own card), then roll a dice. if it rolls an even number, there are 2 cars at the interchange. When cars are ready go back to the interchange, the same will happen in reverse. I downloaded a dice rolling app to my phone and I will use 2 colored 6 sided die, green for incoming and red for outgoing traffic. I figure that setup, operation, and putting away the layout will take approximately 1 hour. I will use a 4:1 fast clock (1 hour is 15 minutes) and only operate 2-3 hours of a crew's work day. A friend on my Tonawanda Island Railroad page in Facebook was the railroad's General Manager. From discussions with him, I learned that he had many varied daily duties. He would run the train; handle billing & paperwork; the railroad's own bills; make phone calls to Conrail the Delaware & Hudson regarding routing and charges; talk to customers and local politicians; maintenance; fueling; filing and typing; and cleaning the toilet (his words). I then came to the realization that the train operations didn't happen for 8 hours each day. My apologies for the terrible puns. Incidentally, the names of the railroad workers are puns as well as the railroad's address, 22 Twain Street. Reading the names with nausea medicine is advised.

I've seen it Jim. Thank you, it's a great website. I actually got onto Dolton Industry Park via YouTube.

Thanks Wendell!

Besides bad humor, I don't have to worry about copyright infringement on the names like John Allen had to deal with. When he was building the Gorre and Daphetid, he saw a business card for Hillside Lumber in Los Angeles. He used it as a sign for a lumber yard on the G&D, took a picture of it, sent it to the company, and he was served with a cease and desist order.

Thanks Jack!

One of the track plans that I am considering for the Port Able Lines subsidiary, the Penvan Railroad. I don't have space in my apartment for a permanent layout and I want a layout that I can take to train shows. The back story is that the line's biggest customer, the Rikol Auto Parts Corporation closed (which was responsible for about 5,000 car loads per year) and Conrail was not interested in serving the final 3 customers. The city of Penvan bought the track for the industrial park and named the Penvan Railroad as the designated operator. The Penvan Railroad was later bought by the small short line company, Port Able Lines. It's 90x18 inches so that I can fold it up into a 45x18 inches with 22.5x18 inch wings so that I can store it out of the way and transport it to train shows. At 45inches long, it will fit in the back of my car much easier than if it was 48 inches. The buildings will be removable and I plan to store the cars, locomotives, and DCC controller inside of the framework for the layout. I will either set the layout on a table or attach removable legs. All 4 turnouts are Atlas Snap Track Code 83 18 inch radius and the minimum radius is 18 inches as well. The drill lead is 27 inches long, so I can fit 2 cars and a switcher. I will only have 3 cars maximum dropped off at the interchange for an operating session The parking lot/loading dock on the right side of E. D. Ibble Foods is elevated so that the overpass acts as a view block along with the trees. I added a yard/sorting track to the plan for car storage and to make switching easier. I'm going with the story that it was once part of the passing siding for the industrial park. Hardley-Able Manufacturing has 2 car spots, one loading dock and one overhead crane. E. D. Ibble Foods also has 2 car spots, one loading dock and one covered loading dock for tank cars and covered hoppers as well as a loading dock. Reece-Eichel Salvage and RU Ready Mix share a track with an underground cement loader and clearance for forklift operations when unloading flat cars of lumber. My car flow chart is figured for 2-3 car loads operating session (15 cars per week maximum): Customer In/Out Hardley-Able Manufacturing 4/1 E. D. Ibble Foods 4/1 RU Ready Mix 3/0 Reece-Eichel Salvage Yard 0/2 Total 11/4 Approximately 650 car loads are handled annually.

That's the one! It's where the New York Dock Railway's Fulton Terminal was. There's what may be the best pizzeria in NYC and a great ice cream joint right by the water which used to be a fire station for the FDNY Marine Unit.

I was right the first time. That's not the Chrysler Building, that's the Woolworth Building. If you look in the lower right corner of the picture, you'll see the old Pier 17/South Street Seaport building. What a difference when I put on my reading glasses.

My mistake, The shot may be from the old Long Island Railroad's float bridge in Hunters Point In Long Island City.

I believe that it's taken from the Brooklyn Promenade right above where the New York Dock Railway was located.

It's the New York City Skyline pre-freedom Tower. DavKnigh is correct in that the two lines in the background are searchlights pointing to the night sky as a memorial tribute to the World Trade Center Twin Towers and it's victims.

BTW, next month's Model Railroader is doing an article on British Freemo.

I was only aware of it from 1975 on, but kudos to them because the trackwork and wiring on modoles makes things more tricky.