South Penn

                                                 

History

The South Pennsylavania Railroad The first South Pennsylvania Railroad was originally chartered as the Duncannon, Landisburg, and Broad Top Railroad Company on May 5, 1854.
Its intended route began in Duncannon, passed through Landisburg and Burnt Cabins, and ended on the Juniata River via the Broad Top Mountain coalfields. On May 5, 1855, it
was renamed the Sherman's Valley and Broad Top Railroad Company, and the planned eastern terminus was changed from Duncannon to the mouth of Fishing Creek, in Perry County near Marysville, in order to connect with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Another amendment to the charter on May 12, 1857, allowed it to connect with the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad. Around this time, two miles of the proposed route were in fact graded. On March 31, 1859, it was given the grandiose name of Pennsylvania Pacific Railway Company, with the rights to extend into Maryland and Virginia. On April 1, 1863, it was renamed as the South Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Despite feverish promotion, including plans for 200 miles (322 km) of line from Marysville to West Newton (on the Youghiogheny River), no further work was completed. The two miles (3 km) of grading were sold off in 1872 and the charter became dormant on May 31, 1879.

The Model South Penn

The South Penn layout. The South Penn is an N Scale layout located in Mount Barker South Australia. Constructed by  Steve Weedon, the layout reflects what might have been on a Harrisburg to Bedford Division of the South Pennsylvania Railroad.

The layout has been constructed with Atlas Code 55 track with all switches being  hand made. A number of sidings have been hand laid with Code 40 rail.

Main yards are located at Harrisburg and Bedford on the layout, with hidden staging representing Shippensburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and Dillsburg.

Steve has set the timeline as  1950’s at the transition from Steam to Diesel on the PRR.