Touring Ken McCorry’s Conrail

The Allen Keller tour of the massive HO scale Conrail railroad of Ken McCorry begins in the first town that the line reaches – Pennsylvania. This is train UBL-300, headed for New York. The train runs through a large unfinished area before arriving at Montgomery. Here the lead SD-35 encounters its first crossing of the Susquehanna River. The line follows the river all the way to Renovo. At East Allens there is a Co-op Grain Elevator on the side of the river and the line on the left heads to Newberry Yard. Train UBL-300 will continue through an area that’s being renovated. After the hidden scenes, the SDs emerge from Carther’s Tunnel. Here they encounter an eastbound coal drag headed to the Pennsylvania Power and Light Plant.

The track rises to the next level. The 3% grade begins towards Keating Summit. The grade is over 100 actual feet long on the Conrail railroad, almost two scale miles. Coming into Renovo, the SDs will stop to add helpers while two Alco C-630’s will couple on for the attack up Keating Summit. The helpers move past Rockton Tower and UBL-300 leaves Renovo under the Highway 120 Bridge. The four lead units and the two helpers are beginning to work the grade past the Allegheny Coal Dump.

The tunnel is the start of the driftwood ranch. UBL-300 works up the ALlegheny Mountains with the Needham coal processing plant below. The plant is reaching from the branch line starting at Renovo while the Farmers Valley branch in the foreground heads to Erie Staging. This is the arduous approach to Keating Summit. Cresting the summit, the SDs will soon stop to cut off the helpers. The helpers head back towards Renovo. For more Allen Keller videos, visit the Model Railroad Academy archives.