Jim Miller

Here we have the ore cars lettered and you can see the caboose in the back ground is ready for lettering. History Tidbit: In the early years the Cornwall Railroad had virtually no competition but in 1883 all that would change. In that year, the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad opened. Robert H. Coleman incorporated this line, directly competing with the Cornwall Railroad for access to the ore mines. Interestingly enough, Robert Habersham Coleman was the cousin to the then president of the Cornwall Railroad, William Freeman, and was the son of the North Lebanon Railroad founder, William Coleman. The two lines quite simply did not get along with each other thus creating an intense rivalry between them. Several lawsuits between the lines were filed over rights to the mines and at one point the C&L’s tracks were torn up by men under the command of Freeman. Originally the Cornwall & Lebanon had a level crossing over the Cornwall Railroad’s line in Cornwall in order reach Mount Gretna and Conewago. However, there were arguments over who would protect the level crossing, and as a result of the disagreement, a large fill and iron bridge were constructed to carry the C&L line directly overtop of the Cornwall’s. Both lines retained high standards for their appearance resulting in very well kept equipment and locomotives. Each line even had their own parks to generate more passenger service. On the C&L there was Mount Gretna and the Cornwall Railroad had Penryn Park. The rivalry even took part in the form of train races from Cornwall to Lebanon. James Kercher describes it best in his book “Cornwall R.R.:†“Often the passenger trains of the Cornwall Railroad and the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad would race each other from Cornwall to Lebanon. One train would sometimes delay its schedule to wait for the other – and then the race was on! This must have been a great thrill for the more hardy passengers. I have been told that Mr. Robert Coleman himself took over the engineer’s job on a few occasions in order to race. From their Cornwall Stations to the 12th & Walnut Street crossing the tracks paralleled each other on a level grade for almost five miles and made an excellent race track. Some of the oldtimers tell me that often the “Corny†(Cornwall Railroad) would not be able to stop at the Donaghmore station. It would skid to a screeching stop several hundred feet away and then back up to the station.â€

I have two and they run great. They have been completely re-designed with new drive and smoke unit. Never had a problem...............Jim A couple shots of one in this video.

Jerry, nice looking and sounding steamer.............Jim

I really like Piko buildings and think they are a good value. Just finished some new ones for the new Northeast village for next tears track expansion............Jim

LGB bobber caboose arrived yesterday. It will need new wheels, it came with spoked plastic wheels so I ordered some Bachmann 31mm metal wheels. Removed the lettering. Next Idid the couplers. Used USAT for now and had to remove bumpers on both ends of caboose. Now as you may have noticed the grooves between the vertical boards on the caboose sides are raise flush to accomodate the lettering and logo. this is not acceptable so I cut grooves with small files. History Tidbit In 1865, a second rail line was constructed in Cornwall. Referred to as the Spiral Railroad, this line was constructed by the Cornwall Ore Banks to ease mining of the three ore bearing hills by loading the ore directly into North Lebanon Railroad cars. Later on, the Cornwall Ore Banks used rail lines constructed in a series of switchbacks to ease the mining of the open pit, just south of middle hill. This operation lasted until the mid-1940’s when the grade for the rail line finally became too steep and the operation was taken over by trucks. The vinyl lettering for the ore cars is on its way....................Jim

Photo of the Union Canal Tunnel. . I removed lettering from one ore car. Below is a video link of the method I used. I had to leave the SuperClean on much longer than the video, about 75 minutes to remove the logo and text. Seams it may depend upon manufacturer of car. After removal of all letter color there was still an etched outline on the base paint. To remove the outline I used glass stove top cleaner. Just used a small drop on my finger tip and lightly rubbed. Presto, it is gone. Below are photos of before and after. History Tidbit The first railroad to reach Cornwall was the North Lebanon Railroad. It was incorporated in 1850 by George Dawson Coleman and William Coleman and opened in 1855. The railroad extended for about six miles from the ore banks in Cornwall to the Union Canal in Lebanon City. Originally ore laden carts were pulled by teams of mules. This type of operation only lasted seven months until a locomotive was purchased, capable of pulling the same weight as a team of one hundred mules. In 1870, the name was changed to the Cornwall Railroad. In 1857 the Lebanon Valley Railroad reached Lebanon and built an interchange with the North Lebanon RR there (the Lebanon Valley RR quickly became part of the Philadelphia & Reading RR). I grew up in North Lebanon and still reside there today...............Jim

Real nice. What did you use fro the striping?...............Jim

I got the AML 0-6-0 at the last York trainshow back in March 2014 from RLD (good price). I have run it 3 times. The grand kids ran it one time. I like to let them run the ones with metal gears. I installed a Phoenix P8 sound board and a REVO R/C system and it is wired to run on track or battery power. This Loco runs strong and smooth. It will make the trip to Florida in Sept to Ed Headington's K&E RR. Picked up some SuperClean to remove lettering on caboose and ore cars and stopped at the Lebanon Historical Society for one more book about "Railroads in Lebanon County" which includes the Cornwall RR. I finished sizing up the lettering for the ore cars. Now I need to place order and determine which road numbers to use. Here's another tidbit of history: Ever since Peter Grubb found ore in Cornwall (now part of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania) in the 1730's and built the first furnace, there was a need to transport iron products. At the time, roads were nearly all dirt and the density of iron did not help the situation of shipping it. Even with wagon wheels that were six inches wide, weather conditions would make roads almost impassable. As a result, in 1848, a plank road was incorporated to ease the process of shipping the iron to the Union Canal. It only took a couple more years to come to the next step of creating a railroad. The Union Canal is another piece of history and here in Lebanon we have the oldest transportation tunnel in America, the Union canal tunnel.

Chris, welcome aboard..................Jim

This is my first attempt at a project like this, so here we go. The Cornwall RR operated from 1850 to 1964 and ran various type of engines over that period. I'm starting with the No. 10 0-6-0 which operated from 1920 to 1950. Photo of actual engine. My model to date. An AML 1/29 scale 0-6-0, a close match. Next, paint white walls on wheels. Photo of actual caboose I should receive today an LGB bobber caboose to transform to Cornwall RR. I also have 4 USATrains ore cars that will be re-lettered. Still waiting for the new Aristo ore cars. After this consist is finished, the next one will be the No. 15, a 2-8-0 which is very close to the Aristo Consolidation. This will get a USATrains Reading center cupola caboose. Cornwall purchased 2 of these cabooses from the Reading RR for $600 each. These will be re-lettered for Cornwall RR. I have photo of these cabooses and should be an easy conversion. I intend to list some historical info here in the future about the Cornwall RR and mines. The Cornwall mine operated from 1739 to 1973 and produce cannons for George Washington's Army during the Revolutionary war. The mined closed due to flooding from the Agnes hurricane. STAY TUNED................Jim

Wow, what great weather and I finally passed my kidney stone.

I like the modern USAT tank cars. If you think the beer can is heavy you should try the 40 & 55 footers................Jim

I have a few of them and they are quite heavy, well built.............Jim

When I was a kid setting up my HO stuff in my bed or living room I would use anything like books pieces of wood that was available to level up my track. So you used bricks, 2X4's and rocks. Most important thing is to run trains. Next is to make it look nice.................Jim

I just use Chrome...................Jim

Polk's GeneratioNext is starting to show up at dealers.....................Jim http://www.trainworld.com/manufacturers/polks-generation-next/ http://polksgenerationext.com/ http://rldhobbies.com/prrart31901.aspx

I believe he is an authorized dealer. I purchased my MTH 4-8-4 from this dealer. It should run on DC and should have chuff sound plus puffing smoke without TIU. To be sure go to MTH site and download PDF file of operating manual. Good price !............Jim http://www.mthtrains.com/sites/default/files/download/instruction/70st14088i.pdf Basic Operation RailKing One-Gauge locomotives can be operated with AC or DC power output transformers. When using DC output power supplies, the user can only control the lcomotive speed and direction. The locomotive will still make engine sounds but no bell or whistle control is possible when using a DC output power supply unless the user wishes to hook up the power supply to MTH’s separately sold Digital Command System

Check SideTrack trains.......................Jim http://develop.sidetrackhobbies.com/scripts/silverware.exe/moreinfo@D:/ELEVCLIENTS/SIDETRACKHOBBIES/ELEVATOR.FXP?item=M70-3022-1 Seems to be the Russian (blue) Iron. I'm soon going to charge finder fees................Kidding

Nick, I have had good luck on Ebay but the Triplex has a history of being damaged in shipment even from MTH direct. If you decide to buy on Ebay make sure the seller uses best shipping practices and get it insured.................Jim

Nick, need to come clean on the bridges, the most work I have done was pop rivet kits together and paint. The bridges come from 3 sources and first two are out of business. Hope they reopen when economy picks up. http://www.gardenmetalmodels.com/ http://www.lynellmodelsupply.com/index.html http://mainlinebridges.com/ ................Jim

My railbroom is powered by 8 AA rechargeable batteries. Put batteries to opposite end of car from brush to get good balance. The key to get the railbroom to operate good is the elevation above the track so there is not a lot of drag on brush but still low enough to clean top of ties. I do have the cleaning pad on the Aristo car and sometimes pull an additional Aristo cleaning. Brush will not remove tree sap and cherry juice so pads are required. .......................Jim

I own a railbroom and could not live without it because my layout is under trees. Lots of twiggs, acorns, seeds and leaves. work great...................Jim

Most MTH steam engines come with spacers to change height of tender coupler but unfortunately that is not so for the GG1. I have fitted USAT streamline passenger cars with Aristo freight car coupler to match up to Aristo E8's. Not sure it would solve your height issue...............Jim

The prices at Polk's GeneratioNext are list price. Scott will be selling thru dealers. My best guess for now is $950 for 4 car set and $230 for add on cars. These are available at RLD's under Aristo at these prices. These are probably an older run so the next one maybe a little more expensive. ...................Jim

I believe Polk's GeneratioNext just got some PRR heavy weights delivered last week along with FA's