About

The Delaware Valley HiRailers was originally formed in 1986 as the Delaware Valley Tinplate Trackers by Neil Yerger and Vernon Vercoe. We built our modules using Al Bailey's original Tinplate Trackers standards. When we began we were limited to working the Greenberg Train Shows, who supplied their 0-72 corner modules for us to use at their shows. This worked fine and allowed us to earn money to build our own corners and expand our modular layout. Early on we observed that the 40-inch height of our layout was too high for small children to see and was tiring for the parents who had to hold their children to see the trains. Subsequently, we lowered our modules to the 36-inch railhead height currently used by HiRail modular groups today.

In 1989 Steve Horvath joined us at a Greenberg Show held in conjunction with the national convention of the Lionel Operating Train Society in Baltimore, Maryland. Steve used Gargraves track on his module and installed a third track between the 8 1/2-inch spacing of the tinplate tracker standards. The inability of the K-Line Heavyweights to negotiate Lionel's 0-22 switches prompted us to convert all of our modules to the three track mainline and Gargraves track.

When the Reading Terminal was dedicated as the Pennsylvania Convention Center the Delaware Valley Hi-Railers were setup as the only model train display. It was the only time we had to wear suits to run our trains as the governor and mayor and other public officials were in attendance.

Today our modular layout, complete with scenic details, measures 28 by 60 feet. We now have eight 45-degree corner modules with track radii 120" and we aspire to model and capture the essence of railroading with realistic scenery and detailing. For more information about our group please e-mail Carl Person at Carltrnfsh@juno.com

Below is an overall view of the layout.