Model Railroading on the Cheap

The town of Yardley got into the passenger train business long after I had my freight-handling layout built and well into operation. I then realized that there was no place for a passenger station at the town of Yardley. However after acquiring a complete B&O heavy weight passenger train with 2 matching F7 A units, I felt motivated to try an unusual trick. With the main line on the other side of the yard, maybe I could locate the passenger station across the mainline, embedded within the concrete retaining wall, and have a bridge overhead to support the upper lap of the mainline. When space is gone we are tempted to try desperate solutions.  The way I figured, if they can do this in the big cities, why can’t I?  So, after months of deliberation, I took drastic measures:

    It took a while to work up the courage to try such a scheme. I had found a nice curved end steel plate bridge at a local hobby shop that I cut in half to slip under the existing track and roadbed.  I cut the paper ‘concrete’ wall supporting the upper level track that passes above and behind the Yardley classification area. After cutting the bridge in half, I painted it primer red, I used my computer scanner to copy the painted bridge to get a color sample into the computer for making the unusual style Y&H sign. After fiddling to get the matching color, I printed the sign with white lettering onto card stock paper and attached it to the bridge with a couple dots of Goo. I also made yellow ‘glazed brick’ background for beneath it. I wish there were room for a parking lot; maybe commuter rider ship would increase. This whole idea may not very realistic, but I had fun doing it anyway.

     My “Desperation Station” at Yardley is the small Plasticville Passenger Station, which has been produced for longer than anyone can remember, under a steel panel bridge. It is a small station that would fit between the vertical supports for the track overhead. After all, if this does not work out, I will consider it a bad experiment, close the hole in the concrete, remove the bridge and forget about it. The town of Yardley, heavy with freight operation always needed a passenger station. After all, I think a passenger train has no business in a freight classification yard.