Hudson Point & Hawthorne Railroad
MAJOR REVISIONS UNDERWAY!
June 1, 2007 was the 10th anniversary of the
Hudson Point and Hawthorne Railroad.
Above: In late May 2007 a final run before the line is closed for "renovation."
It's been a lot of fun building the HP&H, I've learned a lot, have had vistors from all over the world, and just as this is being written, the HP&H was published in MR. So, why tear it down? In a word: Improvement. There are some things about the Hudson Point & Hawthorne that have been bugging me for some time. The three major ones affect the visitor experience. Firstly, the aisles are too narrow (They can never be wide enough but I could have done better). Secondly, continousuly running trains (during open houses) are out of view too much of the time. Lastly, long grades in to and out of hidden turning loops at either end are too steep. (I'd like to run realistically longer trains behind a single Consolidation for example).
Others things I'd like to change are the width of the yard. At five feet wide it allows four tracks to loop gracefully below. Great for staging hidden trains - but difficulty switching above. The Wye for turning trains has grades as does much of the industrial track. So there are lots of switching and operation opportunities but rolling cars are a nusiance. My goal is to fix all these annoying things and have a better Hudson Point & Hawthorne.
I'm starting right away. My current modeling tool is a Makita Reciprocal Saw:
This cut is being made at the same tunnel portal shown at the top of this page. The gas station has been removed to save it from the imminent earthquake.
In the NEW Hudson Point & Hawthorne the goals are to eliminate the problems noted above, while retaining a continuous running capability and improve industrial switching. The track plan is in the works. The current concept is that this will be either the Western or Northern division of the Hudson Point & Hawthorne (which were "off line" on the original HP&H).