• 1. Q. I can’t find any other information on the South Jersey & Western other than this web site, nor is there any evidence of it in the towns you listed! How come?
  A. The SJ&W exists only as an H-O scale railroad. There was, to my knowledge, never a real South Jersey & Western.

• 2. Q. If it is only a model railroad why make the web site look like one for a real railroad? Why the “history”?
  A. To make it more “real”. It also allows me to keep things honest and allows others to make models or interchange their model railroads with the SJ&W.

• 3. Q. Hey! I model the (insert SJ&W controlled road here) in present times, like they were still around.
  A. Well, that is the beauty of doing “fictious history”. Different people can have differing view points of the same thing, even though we know what really happened. So you can model the NYO&W with SD90MACs, as if it thrived instead of going belly up in 1957, and I can say the SJ&W bought it, and guess what, it still could be using the best of today’s power in their scheme. That is one of the reasons I said the differing railroads kept their identities.

• 4. Q. Speaking of the history, how accurate is it?
  A. From 1830 to 1871 it is quite accurate and easily researchable. There are events in 1871 that I changed a bit, but they could have happened as I shown in the modified time line. 38 million dollars of wealth, in 1871, is a pretty grand accomplishment. Any event, that has at least a month and year, happened in real life. The line completion between Newfield and Atlantic City did actually occur in 1880. Basically, after 1871 anything that has UC or SJ&W in the subject line, or has the word "purchased", is totally fictious. See the note at the end of the history that explains how to interpert the changed time line.

• 5. Q. In the same vein, how real is the trackage?
  A. All trackage in southern New Jersey plus named PRR and CNJ trackage is/was real, with the exclusion of the Mall Branch and Atlantic City Airport Line, and they could be built. The same holds true for the Octaro Secondary, West Chester Branch, Chester Creek branch, the trackage to Phoenixville and the Columbia, PA – Frederick, MD line. Any other line, as far as I know, is totally made up, though may parallel real trackage at some points.

• 56. Q. Speaking of trackage, how feasible are the routes?
  A. I feel they are very feasible. In the early 1900’s the railroads were still expanding and were the 800lb. gorilla. They could do almost anything they wanted. However the SJ&W would’ve been a late comer to the mid-west, so some funky track routings would’ve been required, in some places. I can imagine the mess they would’ve faced trying to enter Chicago. Probably some sort of trackage rights would’ve been needed, most likely over one of the smaller roads, like the Erie.

• 7. Q. Why opt of Amtrak and weren’t all railroads, with long distance passenger runs, required to go into it.
  A. I’ll answer the second question first: No, the railroads were not required to go with Amtrak. It was in their best interest to do so. Two notable hold outs at the beginning were the Denver and Rio Grande Western and the Southern Railway. They finally did opt in, but it was almost 10 years later. As for the first question, it is fun to imagine another railroad competing against Amtrak, especially between the east coast and Chicago. Also it allows me to run modern SJ&W equipment in full passenger trains other than in excursion or inspection services.

• 8. Q. Speaking of passenger equipment, how can you justify such uniquely other railroad equipment (such as the Milwaukee Road Sky Tops) on the SJ&W?
  A. Simple, a matter of profit for the builders. Take for example the first heavyweight Solarium Observations. They were initially built for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy, so the rear portion was usable all the time. However other railroads saw the cars; thought it was a grand idea and they bought them too. So what was initially a CB&Q trademark was used throughout the US. I can see the same happening with the Great Domes, which the Santa Fe did own a version of, and the Super Domes. As for the Skytops, an official of the SJ&W saw them, thought they were neat and convinced the correct officials back in Camden that they would be great between Atlantic City and Chicago. Talks between the SJ&W and the Milwaukee led to the construction of five Skytops for the SJ&W at “cost plus ten percent".

• 9. Q. Why include cars for the California Zephyr and the City of San Francisco?
  A. The Pennsy had equipment for those two trains, however they ran to New York City. The SJ&W ran the connecting equipment from those trains to Washington D.C. You will note that the CoSF car is dedicated to go to Los Angeles, so that the two cars didn't duplicate service. If you wanted to go from Washington, and points west on the SJ&W, to San Francisco, you got on the CZ car. To Los Angeles you got on the CoSF car. It also allows me to run a car with the CZ train name on the letter boards with todays equipment. Though today Amtrak owns the CZ name, the car would predate their take over and would be grandfathered. And yes the CoSF car would be in the standard UP "Armour Yellow" scheme.

• 10. Q. Can I model SJ&W equipment?
  A. Sure you can. That is one of the reasons for this web site. However you will, at this time, have to make your own heralds. You will also need to follow the numbering sheets and painting sheets for the proper look. I would ask that you stay away from the low end of the numberings though, as I will probably model them first. Also remember that any dedicated The Phantom equipment, light weight cars, will very rarely, if ever, show up in another passenger train’s consist.

• 11. Q. Why are you calling your versions of Superliners® Westliners and Viewliners® Comfortliners?
  A. Because the terms Viewliner® and Superliner® are registered trademarks of Amtrak. Remember that I’m trying to make the SJ&W as real as possible, so those terms can’t be used. I also work for Amtrak and I don’t want to have problems with possible copyright/trademark infringement issues. That is also the reason I use the term “Comfort Car” instead of Quiet Car® on the Speedliners. Quiet Car® is also a registered trademark of Amtrak. I use Speedliners because they are not Acelas®, but based off them. There is an actual diesel turbine Acela® style train, and it is called the "Jet Train", though my interpertation is not 100% accurate.

• 12. Q. In the same vein why do you call the "Mountain" type (4-8-2) steam locomotives "Jersey"?
  A. For the same reason the New York Central called their Mountains "Mohawks". It seemed to be the wrong name type to apply to a locomotive for a railroad that got is start in the relatively flat portion of New Jersey. Also the "M" class designation was taken already with the Mikados.

  Do you have a question that is not addressed here?
  E-mail me at demiller@sjwrr.com .