Revising Plans

From the Department of Planning, PoNY RR

I've obtained a leaked document from the PoNY Department of Planning dated today that indicates there may be some 11th hour adjustments to the Hoboken Shore plan in the works. A cursory gaze reveals a new overall configuration compared to the last published plans for the HBS.

The layout has shifted from an "E" plan with 3 aisles to a  panhandle configuration with only 2 aisles. A quick measurement reveals that there is approximately 17 more feet of linear aisle footage (fascia feet), which indicates more operational opportunities.

Coming from information obtained from the real estate report posted several months ago, the new plan takes into account a more accurate track arrangement and several priority shifts. Of note is the continued emphasis on the Bethlehem Steel Co. facility but in a more straightforward presentation with much better reach characteristics. Along with this, the car float operation is much more pronounced with a scale treatment of the trestle and float bridge. This reflects the emphasis company officials have placed on car float modeling operations recently.

Also of note are the two aisle-piercing piers representing the US Maritime headhouse with Holland-America lines as well as a Hoboken Dock Stores pier near the end of the HBS trackage. This will provide better opportunities for ship and pier modeling, which were elements missing from the earlier representations of the waterfront.

There is also a notable expansion of the size of both the HBS and Erie Weehawken yards which indicates a strong desire to model the interchanges between those railroads. A cryptic "6' RO-RO" (roll on roll off staging unit from ro-ro.net) notation at the Erie yard could be a sign that there will not only be traffic coming down the Weehawken Branch from Croxton, but also that this could be used as the interchange between the New York, Ontario, and Western, NY Central, and Erie Northern Branches as well. We could see some Erie RS-3s and maybe the occasional F unit trundling down to Weehawken, and who knows what the foreign roads will use to pull their cuts into the yard? Could be an exciting railfaning location. There is also a hint in the bottom right of the document that the Weehawken Docks will be operational which means maybe some icing operations for fruit as well as automobile crates and other goods for the island of Manhattan.

Stay tuned for this reporter will be on the look out for any more evidence of what is going to happen next...