HUTTON BRICK CO. Kingston, NY

 

HUTTON BRICK CO. Kingston, NY circa 1969

What do you do when there's a freakish amount of snow accumulated outside?

Get into a freakishly challenging modeling project of course.
I've thought about modeling this operation ever since I first encountered it over 40 years ago. Hutton Brick was located on the Hudson River in Kingston, NY. In addition to the forming buildings and kilns there was an open clay bank (think strip mine) that was accessed by a narrow gauge railway. Two gas mechanicals, a Plymouth and a Vulcan, were used. The finished brick was shipped out by barge but, there was a branch of the NYC (PC) that crossed the property on it's way to serve the Independent Cement Plant. I used to pass both these operations every Friday while going to a work assignment in East Kingston. Thankfully I managed to take some pictures over a period of a few years. Ultimately I'll build an operating diorama in HOn30. Here are the first steps to that end:

The Plymouth is a moderately enhanced MinitrainS (BCH International - Johnstown, PA) R-T-R model, while the 4 side dump cars were finally made available in a matched set. The loader is totally scratch built from Evergreen styrene I had on hand. (reminds me of a #97 Lional loader) It may not look it but, for it's size, it was quite a challenging project. Getting the geometry right took some effort. With Floquil unavailable, I have to find a new paint supplier I'm comfortable with in order to finish it.

Onward,

Wayne Sittner