Mine Site Clutter

Possibly the first thing that crossed your mind is the fact that I haven't been sending these "inches" of late. Number 9 came out in November and, while I've done some modeling since, nothing more had been added to the layout. As I mentioned last week with "Iceberg" chap 14 which was also devoted to mine site clutter. I got inspired. Even though I enjoyed a lot of the pictures in "Anthracite Railroads and Mining Vol. II. I based all the modeling work on photos I'd taken myself. Many of my slides were taken at the same locations shown in the book. (just a few years later) Case in point: My photo at Jeddo Highland #7 (8-86) where I showed and described a small mountain of "detritus" is a scene that appeared on page 24 of Chuck's book. The photo Chuck chose to use was taken by Bernie Perch in 1-74 from the same vantage point. One of the things that should be mentioned is how the formation of OSHA in 1970 and MSHA* in 1978 changed the visual scene at any extractive industy (quarry's mines, etc. Everything got cleaned up under threat of heavy fines! Trust me I speak from first hand knowledge. Modeling a prototype with a time frame in the 21st century can be a lot easier, though less visually interesting.

As for modeling the "clutter": There's commercially available "junk" from many companies, notably Woodland Scenics and SSLtd. I think one could break the "hobby" bank going that route and you'd still need all kinds of rusted scrap metal, old boards and timbers and a miriad of other things. The approach I took was to use selected pieces of old sprue material, scraps of styrene left over from scratchbuilding and a wealth of other ersatz things that looked like they'd been "something". If it seems like a mindnumbing proposition to select, cut-up and paint individual pieces, I only made up a few hundred over a spread out period of time. Last year (2011) Jim Homoki (on this contacts list) showed a 52' gondola load of scrap made the same way at Collinsville. What a standout!

Except for the 55 gal. drum (Revell) and the sledge hammer (SSLtd) everything was just from the scrap box. Don't forget this stuff can make great loads for trucks.

Based on the Jeddo Highland #7 prototype scene from 8-86.

Try for some variety in color, size and texture. Not everything is rusted metal. 

These little chapters are always informal and freely shared. My contacts list is limited. If you know of others that may like this material please forward.

Hope you all enjoyed seeing what I've been up to,

Wayne Sittner

Work Train

Rob Dennis on a work extra through Cresent, CPF 477. Tie gang headin to Whitehall on August 18th 2012.

Thanks,
Bill Kozel

Twin Junction

Not much work going on, on the SVRR, but there sure is lots of thinkin! This is sort of "The Plan". 

 

I can't tell you how many hours I have into building the Munns O&W Station. Inspite of my best efforts, the slate roof is crooked. Maybe if I hadn't have said anything, you wouldn't have noticed. It ain't done yet.

The M of W area, at the north end of Skenesborough Yard, is coming along. I still need to plant some grass and trees and a crossing or two needs to get put in. It'll happen someday.

Jim LaFayette

Mine site clutter: You can never have enough!

The image of a Euclid passing the old shaft housing at Jeddo #7 8-86 and the desolation at the Huber with the struggling birches in 4-81. Now 30 years later, that area is an absolute forest. Reaching back to the subject of "Iceberg 13", I found another box car used for stores at the Blaschak breaker in 8-86.

I haven't done a chaper of my "Inch At A Time" series on extreme layout detailing since #9 in November. I've got a few hundred more pieces of "junk" made up and ready to add to the mining areas on the layout. Once I get them in place I may do #10.

As for Chuck's book: When doing the layout and captions he often described the pictures as "bottom of the birdcage", colorful terms but, while I photographed many of the areas myself there were a lot of earlier photographers that were out there trespassing too. There are quite a few great images going back to the late 40's and 50's, many of the which I consider priceless. Thanks for putting them in one place for us Chuck.

Hope you enjoy,

Wayne Sittner

More Saratoga & North Creek

First run to Bartons (around mp NC 6), #5 just north of the southern route 28 grade crossing.

 # 5 coming around the curve to Ordways crossing.

 NL sign in the woods next to the tracks.

 Bill Bibby waiting for #5.

 #5 crossing longer bridge a bit farther north.

#5 going north over one of the crossings that crews have dug out in the last few weeks.

In North Creek, the SLRG 518 to the right, SNC 5 then the passenger train on the station track.

Look who's come out to play! SNC 821 all cleaned up and the front stripes have been fixed. Gonna see some service soon.

Brad Peterson

Saratoga & North Creek August 8, 2012

I had to stay on the 8524 to get the train out of the way then spot it for our departure.  That's Ed Ellis on the caboose....

Fox News...Long Abandoned Railroads Get Back On Track

Brad Peterson

Station in Slingerlands

A month ago I was driving through Slingerlands and had “Albany Main” on the brain. I took a swing over to check out the old Station in Slingerlands. Attached are two photos of it. Circa 2012 and Circa 1995. It’s a lot nicer than it was in 1995 and has been lovingly restored as you can see in the picture. The train that is seen in the pic was the celebration train to abandon from Voorheesville to Delanson. Well as you all know from my previous emails the only abandonment would happen five years later and it would be the section of railroad this train is sitting on.

Dean J. Splittgerber

Duanesburg, NY

Fort Edward Freight House

During my return from Plattsburgh I stopped in Fort Edward to do some snooping around the old 1880's built freight house which amazingly still survives.....Thanks to a confirmation of its existence by Rob Dennis I was rewarded with some pics to share. I gotta say I am a sucker for old Board and Batten Freight Houses especially those built in the 1800's. God only knows how much longer this one has. If it still survives by fall I am looking forward to making another trip over to document it when all the vegetation has dyed down. Its interesting to note the differences in freight houses that were located on the A&S versus the north end. The Battens on A&S freight houses are square, if you look at the Battens on a North end freight house there kind of ornamental like crown molding. The same goes for the rafters on the underside of the roofs. You don't see that on A&S style freight houses but there is Gingerbread molding along the roof line. Fort Edward yard looked pretty busy from the view I had from the freight house. Two CSX Ge's were waiting for a loaded Sludge train while one of the Finger Lakes GE's was switching around in the GE Dewatering facility. A ratty CP Geep was parked in the yard. As I was leaving #253 was coming north.

Dean J. Splittgerber
Duanesburg, NY

Lewistown Jct., PA

Jim Thomas deserves credit for being the first to recommend I visit Lewistown Jct., PA. I rolled into the parking lot here late one morning just before sunrise. Wow I thought.........look at the station! Once I was standing on the platform, Wow I thought............look how far away the tracks are! LOL! You can leave your wide angle lenses in the Civic here Gary. If I was fortunate enough to shoot a Heritage Unit here, I wanted to feature the engine in the photo, more than the station. Of course, this was an “if” statement! The view to the east here ends quickly as the double track main disappears into pretty much a blind curve, while the view to the west runs down a short stretch of tangent track before doing the same. As I walked the platform, I couldn’t avoid noticing the purple benches with plaques dedicating each bench to a train watcher from the area. Gawd, what a place to watch trains this must have been in the steam and early diesel days with the four track main and two tracks close to the platform that are gone in 2012. Trains would come around one curve to sweep past and disappear into the opposite curve! I left that morning to continue reconning the line. A week or more later I returned one night early, mounted the 100mm lens on the 5D and went for a walk along the far side of the tracks here. Liking this angle I set up the lights and stepladder. Train speed is twenty to thirty mph here, and the position light signals protect me from westbounds quietly emerging from the blind curve. Set up finally for an eastbound, westbounds start rolling by me. So I wait, waving to the locomotive cabs as they pass by. The crews seem to notice the light stands further away on either side of the tracks than myself next to them on the lawn! This is a good thing. The hand held scanner picks up lots of broken conversations between crews and before long an air horn is heard off to the west, advertising an eastbound approaching! By contrast, westbounds coming out of the blind curve behind me are much quieter, the nearest grade crossing further away. Thus began the passing of three eastbounds. With no Heritage Engines in the line up tonight, I am free to pick the best set of b&w power I get tonight, and the 7675 passing at 04:33 takes the prize! What a wonderful location! Special thanks to Jim Thomas! Please enjoy the view! Shot in Lewistown Jct., PA. on June 6, 2012 at 04:33 with the 5D and Zeiss ZF 100/2 lens. Comments are welcomed!

All The best In 2012;

Gary Knapp

"Iceberg" Chap 13A

Translating an idea from the prototype into a model.

For those of you who are model railroaders this is a cheap and simple addition to your yard scene. I included a couple photos of the prototypes that got this idea started for me. The 40' steel box car resided in the D&H Hudson, PA yard. I took the slide in 1982. This was shortly before the yard closed and operations moved north to Taylor, PA. The model is made from an old Train Miniature kit. The prototype idea for my wooden car came from seeing this image of the M&U car in Middletown circa 1950. (the slide is not mine. It came from a folio I recieved in an email) It resided south of the present M&NJ engine house in Middletown. My model represents what may have appeared in a Lehigh Valley setting. I don't know the manufacturer of the model I used. I got it unboxed at a train show.

I did not include cars from two eras just for show. I have a modest sized layout. To increase my enjoyment, I'm set up to change out as many as three eras in the same space. In addition to railroad equipment and vehicles I have to switch out quite a few buildings. The two box cars, having the same footprint, make the change easy.

 

Interested in the idea? As said, the re-purposed box cars or containers are simple to model. Want more of a challenge? Try a model of the D&H passenger car from Oneonta that Kip Grant included in his response to Chapter 12.

Hope you enjoy,

Wayne Sittner

My Trip To Vermont (Vergennes Edition)

After leaving the old D&H freight house in Fort Ann I ran up to Whitehall and then over into Vermont taking 22A north to Burlington as my destination was Essex Junction where I would end up swaping motorcycles with the dealer before heading back to Albany. I stopped in Vergennes and took a little break admiring whats left of the "Rut" and its surroundings. What a great little place. I have never been to Vergennes other than switching it on our club's layout (NEB&W). Check out the attached photos taken by the "Master Himself" Jim Shaugnessy courtesy of our clubs website compared to my crappy I-Phone pics. The old creamery, freight house and station are awesome with the Creamery being the best preserved by the Kennedy Brothers. Per there website (Kennedy Bros. Inc. located to Vergennes, Vermont in 1960. The white section was built in 1909 as a Milk Plant Creamery and the red brick plant was built by Sheffield Farms in 1931 for Casein Manufacturing. After they moved in, a complete production area as well as an adjacent gift shop was constructed. Making this a favorite stop for tourists, who enjoyed watching the wood ware being made.) You can learn more here http://kennedybrothers.com/

In one of the pics you can see the baskethandle arches on the side of the freight house which I have never seen before done.


Dean J. Splittgerber
Duanesburg, NY

SC-1's Caboose

A little research suggests that 35799 started its life with the Reading and then came to the D&H right around when Conrail was formed. The Atlas wide vision caboose is a good match for the Reading prototype and it was available in D&H paint - great news for anyone using the caboose in the pre-guilford era. It looks like when Guilford took over the D&H, they welded over some windows and painted it orange and thats how it is today.

 Gotten Rusty in the 10 years since the last shot -- on the Troy I.T in 2011

 Prototype in 1999

 

Working from photos, I determined that all the windows needed updating. On the sides of the caboose, I cut out the windows that are welded over and moved them to the location of uncovered windows. I filled in the middle windows with styrene, and then using a drill-press cut new, smaller windows that I squared up using a file. On the ends of the car, window gaskets shaved off and covered over using thin paper to represent the sheet steel. The paper was glued on using thin CA. The windows on the ends of the cupola don't match the prototype but I left them alone. On the sides, I glued 1x4 material over the top of the window opening to represent work on the prototype.

Stainless caboose steps from Plano metal products were installed over the original plastic ones - these are easy, cheap and really make the model look a lot finer than it is.

I sprayed the model orange with Tamya paint -- something I wouldn't likely use in the future, but it came out OK.

The lettering on the side of the caboose seems to match D&H lettering and I used Highball Graphics F-118 for decals. On the ends, the lettering looked more Guildford-esk - but they are so small, I stuck with the D&H lettering.

 

William Gill

 

 

Point Of Rocks

Another of the many attractive photo locations around the public campground in Brunswick, MD. is the photogenic station at Point Of Rocks! This medium telephoto view has long been a favorite of mine here! Tonight CSX 5242 is coming off the line that goes past Gaithersburg Station which we visited earlier in the trip. I remember getting dusted off by the sixty mph freights there! The freights pass through here at a much slower speed, as behind me they enter onto the double track main west to Cumberland and beyond. Out of view to the left here is the double track main to Baltimore. Let me tell you, it is something else to be standing atop the stepladder here, watching through the Mamiya 80mm as a westbound quietly (and quickly) rolls into the scene! What a backdrop to photograph a train against! Shot on May 16, 2012 at 02:27 at Point Of Rocks, MD. with the 5D and Mamiya 80/1.9 lens. Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

All The Best In 2012;

Gary Knapp