Updates

I have not really kept up with posting here on this blog, mainly because I post updates primarily to the Facebook group for the layout, Northeast Kingdom Model Railroad. Much progress has been made on the layout since the recent posts have been made here though. That said, not sure I really want to go through the effort of posting lots of updates here, it just takes more work to do, especially when photos are involved. And writing up text is work that could be directed towards model railroading activities. Not sure how others feel, but publishing and consuming content through a web site like this seems a little more "old school" It is easier to do things through an app on my phone to quickly share something out. Not sure if there is a "Blogger" app that would help in that regard.

Anyway, some updates.

Major scenery efforts were done in East St. Johnsbury and Gilman. Those areas are largely complete looking, although there is always more that could be done.

Track was laid for Lyndonville and sceniced around the edges, leaving the flat areas ready for development. This combined makes the whole peninsula look somewhat completed. 

I did a major scenery effort to Morrisville, including building out the Lamoille Grain structure. Work is underway on the engine house structure, and I need to plan the background structures that will go along the wall to finish this up to a relatively complete stage. But just getting this track ballasted and and scenery in place really transformed things. This along with getting scenery all around Johnson except for the spot where the future talc mll building will go really makes this also look very finished. 

A number of structures were done. The ET&HK Ide building progressed to a good state, although I do want to build out some of the attached buildings and address the underpass and lower building level at some point. Also the Caldbeck Cosgrove building was built out, at a reduced scale, although it still needs the roof top structure element. 

For November, I decided not to join in on the open house tour this year. I have had a very small turnout the past few years and with other things going on I just did not want to dedicate a day or two to being available to the few who might show up. Maybe next year...

I will be at the Syracuse train show Nov 1-2 participating with the Free-mo layout. First time going to this show, although I have been to an NER NMRA convention there a while back. Good rail fanning, but I am not sure I will get the time to do that as we'll be doing full ops on the Free-mo layout at the show both days.

In January I will be back at the Springfield show, again with Free-mo. Always a great time, lots of model railroad fun packed into 3 days.

Here are some quick pictures from around the layout just to show things.

Whitefield

Feed Mill kit I picked up at Springfield in 2020 - fitting it into Whitefield area

Beecher Falls - Ethan Allen with completed NSRC S1 and 44 Tonner

Gilman

St. Johnsbury - structures in progress for ET&HK Ide and Caldbeck Cosgrove

Lamoille Grain - Morrisville

Morisville

Johnson

East St. Johnsbury

East St, Johnsbury

Lyndonville

Open House on Sunday November 20. 2022

After a few years off, my layout will be open again for the annual MD-DE-PA-NJ model railroad open house schedule for November. Go to http://www.modelrailroadopenhouse.com/ to see the whole schedule.

I will be open on Sunday, November 20th, 2022, from 11:30am to 4:30pm.

Since last being open in 2019, there is a quite a bit of new scenery to see, primarily in Gilman at the paper mill and East St. Johnsbury around the Maple Grove Farms plant. Will try to take a few pictures and post here (I know, no posts for a year! Sorry about that!)

Wordless Wednesday #31

 

Santa Fe car remembers a personal friend

I sent the photos and text below into our local NMRA Division, the NJ Division, as part of their newsletter series of "what I have been working on during these unusual times". It describes a freight car project with ties to my friend who passed away last year, Sam Natal.

Sam Natal at his Santa Fe layout

I have been taking advantage of extra time the past few months getting to some projects that have been on the back burner for quite some time. If you are anything like me you have a number of unstarted, partially started or nearly complete freight car, locomotive and structure projects that, for whatever reason, never made it across the finish line. For me these tend to get back into their boxes and placed under the layout.

I have completed a number of freight car projects over the past few weeks, including a bulkhead flatcar conversion to a pole car complete with new telephone poles. The starting point cars for this were purchased 5 years ago! I also built a few Intermountain and Branchline kits I purchased many years ago. I often post pictures and some info to my Facebook page for my layout, Northeast Kingdom Model Railroad. If you are on Facebook, search for it and request to join - it would be great to have you aboard.

One project in particular I was very glad to finish. As many of you know, Sam Natal passed away late last year. Sam was a longtime NJ Division member (you can see his name on the original list of charter members on the Division web site) and he served on the board for many years. Sam helped guide the Division when I was superintendent, and revised our bylaws at the time to bring them up to date. Sam was a good friend, and served as a judge for the State of New Jersey. Sam was kind enough to perform our marriage ceremony in his chambers in 2002 when Tanya and I got married.

In the late 1990’s while Sam was building his layout, a number of us would join him for weeknight work sessions. One time while I was there Sam pulled out a painted but unfinished 2 bay covered hopper. It was in his favorite prototype’s mineral red pain, with Kadee trucks, gloss coated and ready for decals. Sam explained that the car was too modern for his early 1950s layout and asked if I wanted it to finish and use on my future layout, Sam offered it as a thank you for helping him with his layout, which was unnecessary I was getting plenty of enjoyment being there. But I agreed and took the car home that night. 

It has sat for quite some time as I forgot about it and never looked into getting what I needed to complete it. A couple of years ago I came across some Microscale ATSF covered hopper decals. Remembering the car Sam gave me, I picked them up. For whatever reason though I still did not get started on finishing that car.

With extra time the past few months, I have been going through all the stored items I have, and found the car. I thought I had the decals, and when I checked the decal box, sure enough there they were. Not wanting this to sit any longer I got to work. 

As the car was fully assembled and painted, I decided not to do any upgrades to the roofwalk, which shows its age (it is the old Ramax 2 bay covered hopper kit from the 1980s). I could not find a good prototype picture of this particular car on the Santa Fe. I figured I would just use the set diagrams and decal it to what the Santa Fe did on their other covered hoppers.  I like to follow the prototype when possible, but allow leeway on my model railroad. And I really wanted to have this car finally done!

Decals complete, I gave it a flat finish, then some light weathering with pan pastels. Couplers were added and it was ready for an official builders photo before going onto the layout.

The completed Santa Fe covered hopper ready for service on the layout

Somewhat belated, but thank you Sam, not only for the car but for your friendship, guidance and assistance, and also for being there for me and Tanya on our special day.

Below is text from newspaper article about Sam from 20 years ago or so.

Wordless Wednesday #30

Wordless Wednesday #29

Wordless Wednesday #28

Ken Patton photo from nerail.org - link

Annual Open House Dates for November

Just a quick note about the annual open house dates for this year. My layout will be open as part of the overall NJ/PA/DE/MD open house schedule (see http://www.modelrailroadopenhouse.com for full schedule).

I'll be open on Sunday November 10th from 12:30pm to 4:30pm.

I'll also be open Saturday November 16th from 12:30pm to 4:30pm.

There are other NJ layouts open as well, plus ones in PA, so use the open house web site to plan your route.

Hope to see you!

Recent work has included adding trees along the backdrop of Whitefield.

Things look a lot better now with trees in place!

No much posting,,,,

Sorry for the lack of posting here. It is not due to inactivity on the layout or model railroading in general. I just find it much easier to throw out an update on my Facebook layout page, than to take the time to post here. I will admit that this blog is a little easier to search and write longer form, but it definitely requires setting aside a segment of time to prepare and upload pictures, and then do the writing. So probably will not be as much here regularly, but I will try to post now and again.

Recent work has been on getting North Stratford started. Until recently it has been a shelf only, good for storage and initiating/terminating the MEC TY/YT trains to St. Johnsbury and back. I have now gotten all the track in place and run to Beecher Falls and the Ethan Allen plant to be serviced by the North Stratford Railway (using a little license here on the timeframe of when MEC operated to N. Stratford and when NSRC was in operation).

ABOVE: The start of North Stratford comes through the wall of the closet on the elevated shelf above Groveton. I added some scenery to disguise this opening. I have also been working on a Sheepscot kit, acquired in early 1990s, for a Maine Central freight house. Here I am checking the placement. I have since moved the spur in front to make more space for the loading dock (not built yet).Behind the depot is the MEC main line, and behind that are the Grand Trunk tracks.

ABOVE: The corner of the shelf section, I have the station I built earlier this year in place to represent the Grand Trunk's North Stratford station. The 2 tracks here represent the GT. The one closest to the wall will be non operational. I plan to stage freight cars there to help hide the transition to the photo backdrop. The very corner itself will get disguised with some trees. The closer track is operational and will be used as the interchange between MEC and GT.

The 2 tracks in front of the depot represent the MEC Line up to Beecher Falls and a passing siding.

ABOVE: The end of the shelf will terminate with 2 tracks serving the Ethan Allen Furniture plant. The rear track will be inside the factory (a shallow building flat) while the front track will be for overflow car storage. The NSRC will need to switch cars for the plant, pulling loads out of the building and spotting empty 40' boxcars inside. The loaded cars will then need to be delivered to the GT/MEC interchange.  A true short line operation! Below is part of the paper mill building mock up for Gilman VT, served by the MEC.

As of right now, all track is in place, wired and painted and weathered. I did test runs and applied CRC 2-26. The turnouts (6 total) have ground throws installed, pulled out to the front edge. I also installed magnetic uncoupling ramps to make things easier on the operators. The height makes them hard to see from a scenic perspective, and should reduce needing to reach in to manually uncouple. I tried to strategically place the magnets so they can serve multiple purposes using delayed uncoupling.

I need to update my paperwork for the NSRC train (which has never run yet) and the MEC TY-2 train, which will need to assemble its cars into a train instead of just pulling out from what was essentially a staging track.

ABOVE: Overview of the corner of the layout, with the paper mill in Groveton NH seen below, and North Stratford NH above. To the right is Beecher Falls. I had to pull out all the buildings in Groveton to do the wiring above. Really, it makes sense to do the upper levels first before the lower levels, but alls well in the end!

I'll probably hold off on any scenery until I get another Op session in and run up top to see how things go. But it won't take much really to get scenery in most areas. It will just be dirt and static grass mainly. There will be a need for trees near the station and out to the Ethan Allen plant. And then the plant structure itself. We'll see how that goes as I do need a number of trees in other parts of the layout to get them looking more finished.

Wordless Wednesday #27

TBT - Kadee Ad 1980

I was going through the October 1980 issue of RMC to get an article for someone, and while paging through I cam across this ad from Kadee. It really took me back to my earliest days in model railroading with the simple fascination of a working coupler like this. A huge leap from the X2f couplers I had on all my equipment.

Also interesting to note the style of the ad. Look at all that text! You never see anything like that today. A lot of information and salesmanship going on there, but times sure have changed in advertising!

Interesting to note this is the days before the Kadee patent ran out and no one but Kadee made these couplers. A point they mention. The interesting thing is that I (and many others) still feel they make the best version despite new competition. I think that only helped drive them into new products, lie the scale head coupler.

I like the line that you should use Kadee couplers because your friends are!

Homabed

A question came up on a comment about obtaining Homabed, as I mention it own some posts and it shows up in photos.

July 15, 2003 - Homabed on top of spline in Hardwick Vermont. Homasote section to left is staging for Richford VT.

I first ordered Homabed in the early 1990s when it was made by B.O. Manufacturing in New York. Later it moved to California Roadbed company. I believe CA Roadbed is out of business.

April 10, 2009 - Homabed installed on my Woodstown Jct. Free-mo module 

But good news! A new source of Homabed is Cascade Rail Supply. You can get to it easily using homabed.com. They have been around for a few years now, and I have heard positive things about their product, although I have not had the need to order myself (I still have a little Homabed supply to use when needed). They also seem to have a much larger catalog of products.

Cascade Rail Supply - https://cascaderailsupply.com

Springfield 2019

Yes, it is that time of year agin, the Springfield train show! I'll be attending again with my Woodstown Jct. Free-mo modules in the Mallary building. Hopefully if you are attending also we'll get a chance to say hi!

Here is the working plan for the Free-mo layout this year, as designed by James Koretsky of New England Free-mo.

My Woodstown Jct 3-section module is at the lower right, a separate peninsula to itself

End of 2018, into 2019

First off, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to all of you who follow along with the blog, and for some who also see the layout in person. I'm glad to be able to share what I am doing with you and I enjoy the interactions and friendships that have developed over the years.

As I wrap up 2018 and move into 2019, I thought I would share a couple photos and some information on recent work. As noted earlier, I focused on some scenery prior to the November open house. I also did some work on the town scene for Whitefield. I have had mocked up buildings there for a while but I decided to start roughing in the roadway and sone of the scenery. I also finished off a couple buildings adding some interior details and lighting with LED strips.

I roughed in scenery tasing foam, then added some Sculptamold to smooth the contours. I applied another coat of Fast 'n Final to the road, using a much lighter color to better represent older asphalt.

I restaged the buildings I have and plan to use. The first 3 from the left are essentially complete. I created sidewalks using a photo from actual concrete, wrapped around gator board. The interior for the diner was finished and I paved the parking lot with newer looking asphalt. The second building was completed well over 20 years ago and is just dropped in place on the sidewalk section I created for the diner. Across the B&M tracks I created the Whitefield Tavern, finishing off a DPM kit with signs and interior details. Inside a band is playing. The remaining structures are loosely placed and will be worked on over time. The white farmhouse will get a prominent spot across the road up on a hill side.

I should mention that the photo image I used for the sidewalks came from Lance Mindhiem's site. He has lots of great information and also some nice images to download.

Here are a couple of close up shots showing the interior details a little better.

The darker section in the middle of the road is from  a gloss coat I sprayed as I get ready to apply yellow stripe details.

A band is playing inside on this Saturday afternoon,

I have my layout open for the New Jersey Division Meet coming up on Saturday January 12th, so I've held off doing to much other work. With holidays, there was not much time to work anyway.

After the open house, I'll start getting ready for the Springfield show at the end of the month. I'll be taking the modules on the road again to include in the large, multi-group Free-mo layout in the Mallary building. Stop by and say hello. Although I may be away from the layout at times, but hopefully I will not miss seeing you.

Back to Christmas, and I got this really nice Exactrail bulkhead flat from my wife,. I confess that I did provide her a wish list, but still I had not seen the car in person and sorta forgot it was on the list, so it was fun to open on Christmas morning.

The wood deck is a separate laser cut piece that I look forward to weathering before applying. Note that the 2 consolidated lube placards came off (see the white spot to the right. These seem to have been glued with a less than stellar product, but luckily I retrieved both small pieces before they were lost.

I received a really nice Christmas card and layout update from Greg McComas who lives down in Texas. It was a really nice picture he staged with his Michigan Interstate Railroad locos in the snow. Check out Greg's blog, it is really interesting how he keeps the railroad up to date and writes about the projects for his layout with a prototypical slant.

And finally, my wife and I visited Longwood Gardens during the holidays. It is a really spectacular location with gardens, fountains, a spectacular conservatory and much more. I particularly enjoy the outdoor beer garden and food. We are members and go often - I highly recommend a visit if you live in or find your self in the Philadelphia area.

For the holidays they have outdoor lighting that was the main attraction for us. But we also got to check out their garden railway display, which is set up just for the holidays. Really nicely done, and lots of greenery despite the cold winter weather.

Multiple trains running at once on what I believe were 5 separate loops. You can see part of the beer garden buildings and tents in the background.

Really nicely done as I would expect from Longwood. I'm just surprised that do not have a garden railway all year long given the work involved in building it.

A railfanning break

It was a good open house last weekend. I had 50 or so people, some who had not stopped by in a few years, and some first timers. Glad to talk and share the layout with those who made it.

Taking a break from the layout posts, here are some pictures from a rail fanning excursion. 2 years ago in October 2016 I was up in Bethlehem PA for a work event. I had a few hours to get trackside before the evening's events so I drove around a bit and found some good spots to catch trains. I saw plenty of trains, all  Norfolk Southern. But lots of activity.

Going through pictures in my Photos app, I came across these and did a little editing on them and trashed the ones that did not come out too good. Here is a quick look at some of the shots from that afternoon.

It was a nice fall day to be out, a warm mid-October day, with some good colors in the sunshine. I came across these GP38-3's in the yard at Bethlehem.

Driving a bit further west I found a good spot where the main line came right up to the road. I'm sure it is a popular spot to watch trains, but I was the only one there that day. I saw quite a few trains and some light engine moves while I was there.

And plenty of crew around as well, doing various things.

Here was a crew change in progress. A van had pulled up and a crew came out. The crew on board had just dropped a trash bag out the locomotive window (the white spot in front of the lead truck). This was cool to watch the changeover.

Further to the west was a large yard but I really could not find a way to get anywhere to easily take some photos. I could see things from the road as it elevated on the adjacent hillside, but there was not a good spot to pull over. A lot of engine movements came in and out this end of the yard.

Hey, got one of those Spring Mill Depot PD3000 covered hoppers that needs some current day weathering? Here is one in a plain NAHX paint scheme.

This was an interesting movement. This was an RPU6 slug, attached to an SD40-2. More info on the RPU6s here.

The steel mill stacks in Bethlehem are easily seen from all over the area. 

The old mill is now an interesting area with a museum, an outdoor theater, bar, restaurant, and more. It is adjacent to the casino. I have a lot of pics of the museum, but that could be a separate post really. Well worth a visit. 

A nice elevated "park" gets you up close to the stacks and other parts of the mill. There are even a few old hopper cars here on some elevated track showing how coal was delivered.