Hey guys! I know its been a while since I updated this thread but Im back regarding modifcations and additions to my Northeast Corridor Project. This time, I’ve decided to devote this post both NEC North and South instead of focusing on individually. Just because I feel the content for either routes wouldn’t warrant their own posts.
For NEC North, I haven’t expanded the route in any way since reaching New Haven. I have, however, been working on adding catenary poles, gantries, and wires. Adding electrification here (at least in the way Im doing it), is very time consuming and would better to do it than wait until after I expanded to Bridgeport or Stamford. There places where I have placed down wires prior to reaching New Haven, so my job now is to link up those sections. So far, the longest section of electric wiring is between Branford and where the lines runs along Leetles Island Road. There’s a section of electric wiring where the Guilford station and at the rate Im going at, it won’t take as long. Although I will admit, it can be very tedious having to place down every single pylon and link them up with small wire spline instead of one long spline, but in a weird way its quite therapeutic. Anyways, my hope is to get most of it done by the end of the summer, by which I can then expand the route to Bridgeport.
For NEC South, I’ve been doing the same, though unlike North, I have extended the route north of Phili, and as of Last Friday, I’ve reached Trenton. I would like to preface that this was apart of the plan. Initially, I only wanted to get the line to North Philadelphia station but google map’s update at the beginning of the year sent me into a panic of not being able to adapt Midway Interlocking before the wooden ties were replaced with concrete ones faithfully. For any new viewers following this thread, these routes are set around the early 2010s (around 2013), so any additions made to NEC after 2015 are omitted. This makes it difficult when there is a change and I pretty much have to work backwards using photos and videos to recreate how a certain section initially looked, which is easier said than done. At the time of writing this, the view of Midway is still the same as it was before the update so I may have overreacted but better safe than sorry I suppose. I still have the replica model I made on the route to go back to. (Side note: if you see a four track interlocking south of the Susquehanna bridge when exploring the route, that’s midway interlocking).
Anyways, instead of jumping straight to Trenton, I thought it would be fun to go through certain areas along the route because unlike the line between Philadelphia and Wilmington, there’s a lot more to discuss. And its not as bare as that portion was when I reached Philly. First is North Philadelphia, which is one of the least used stations along this portion of the line, alongside Newark Delaware and Cornwell’s Heights. Which is a damn shame when you consider how important this station was for Pennsylvania Railroad. And if you realize how much potential this station has. Its location next to the former Reading Suburban Lines make it perfect for a transfer station in the vein of Secaucus Junction. Yes, I know Septa connected the PRR and Reading lines via Market Street but having a station here would be a lot better for riders and cut their journey times in half. For example, if you wanted to go from Bristol to Norristown, a transfer at North Philadelphia would make the trip shorter without having to travel into city. But that’s just my opinion.
After this is Frankford junction, a location which feels pretty cursed, mainly because of the 50mph curve. This is the second major speed restriction on the NEC between Philly and New York, next to the Elizabeth curve in New Jersey, until the latter was raised up to 80 and 85 recently. Looking at the Elizabeth curve, I was pretty confused as to why it was 55mph. Yeah, it was an S curve, but it didn’t seem that sharp to where a 55mph restriction was warranted. The Frankford junction curve, by contrast, definitely warrants its 50mph restriction, and I'm genuinely surprised that it took until 2015 for a train to jump the tracks here, in the nearly 200 or so years that the line has existed. I do know there was another one in 1943 but from what I’ve read, it seems the incident didn’t involve the curve in any specific way
After that, the line is relatively straight, running through the northern suburbs of Philly before we reach Cornwells Heights, the other least used station on the NEC. I was quite nervous here that place an invisible station here would f*ck up the super elevation but for the southbound track, I can safely so it wont. I cannot say the same for the northbound track but at least the platforms aren’t for the mainline tracks (the middle two ones). As a side note, it does feel quite refreshing to not build a ton of station along this route like I had to for the Wilmington section. Most of the Septa stations here are spaced out and small, sometimes being nothing more than a shelter. It seems this area north of Philadelphia wasn’t as developed as it was south of the city up until the end of World War 2. Its probably why you don’t have 6 stations within a 2 mile stretch of track like there was on the Wilmington Line.
Speaking of post war suburbs, this brings up to our next stop which is Levittown, Pennsylvania. The only station that was opened to serve one the communities built by the Levitt brothers. There’s not much to see here and I would’ve skipped it if not for one thing. If you look on my youtube channel, you could see a drive through of one of my older northeast corridor routes. On that specific route, I only got as far as this station before putting a halt on the project due to my first year of college. That was almost 3 years ago and now in 2023, I’ve reached it again with this route. Because of this, I know have a point of comparison between what I had down previously and what I can do now.
After Levittown is Trenton but before that is the stone arch bridge crossing over the Delaware River. For each location, you’ll see what I had done for this project, and the original one:
The differences here are night and day, especially in regards to bridge. Part of the reason why I abandoned the initial project was my discovery that the line was too high up in its elevation, which is why the bridge looks much higher in the original when compared to the current route. Back then, I wasn’t as patient for the focused and detail-oriented approach I do now. So my routes weren’t as one to one as mine are now hopefully. Not dumping on the work 17 year old me did of course. That original route became more of a learning experience for me and I do still play it from time to time.
Finally we get to Trenton, and I’ll be doing the same thing by showing off how it looks in the current route and what I did in the original:
Honestly, apart from the spacing between the tracks being not as huge in the newer version, the scenery in the original route, both are pretty much the good in terms of failthfulness, although the overbridge in the newer one is much more in line with its real life counterpart since I placed two walkover bridges on top of each other instead of placing just one.
Anyways, I would stop here but Im sure I will. I do see myself continuing to work north of Trenton and see myself reaching New York in NEC South before the end of the summer (at the time of posting this, Im about mile away from where Jersey Avenue Station will be), and much earlier than I would in NEC North. That does throw a wrench in my plans of having the release of this route be between Philadelphia and Washington but I guess its whatever. That’s all I have for now. I’ll come back soon with more updates regarding both routes, and maybe a drive through video for NEC South real soon! Cya
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