Completing the Main

I have working to complete at least one scene on my layout. A local CP switcher is heading over the Barton River on the way to service the Ethan Allen plant at Orleans, VT.

You can see the plant in the background.

To finish the main line on the layout I need to build a  lift out. I used 2 pieces of 3/8 hardboard and 1/2 homasote sandwiched and glued and screwed together.

Sides attached and level.

Once the track is in, I'll cut the main and add power.

Rob D

BFPO at Bernardston

 

The weekly unit Slurry Train operating out of Riverside Yard near Bellows Falls, VT. destined for Portland, Maine and paper mills beyond is a natural assignment for Pan Ams newly acquired 4000 h.p. ex-CSX C40-8s. When I first learned they were assigned to the job, I drove down the next Sat. night, arriving at 23:00 to find the train gone, so I arrived the next Sat. evening at 21:00, and the train was gone! This past Sat. I arrived at 17:00 and found the train with C40-8s parked in Riverside Yard, waiting for a crew! I was reminded of Winston Link relating how it took several visits to capture a certain steam powered train with a grade crossing watchman in the photo. Winston mentioned how the train kept running earlier and earlier in the night, until one night it came by at 01:00. LOL! Tonight, in true Pan Am form, the crew arrives by light power, not taxi, riding in a third C40-8. Seeing this I grabbed a Veggie-Delite salad from a nearby Subway and parked alongside the yard in an obscure truck unloading lot.

 

While I am eating the salad a car enters the lot, stops and the driver steps out to talk. I’m amazed he stumbled onto me back here! He asks if I know of a good hotel in the area, I don’t being from out of town. He explains he is going skiing and has no reservations for a room. I tell him, it’s Sat. night, good luck! I direct the man to Hetty Green further into town as he did’nt like the nearby hotel. I finish up the salad while the crew does brake tests, then, obeying Railfan rule #14, I wait until they are pulling around 21:30 and head for the interstate. My focus is to catch the C40-8s on the bridge in Bernardston with snow, the shots around Bellows Falls can wait. You see, with Amtraks Vermonter running over the bridge now on its new route, there is a twenty five mph slow order in effect. Amtrak plans to eliminate the slow order likely in 2017 by resurfacing the bridge. This attention from Amtrak will undoubtedly bring a cantilever safety walkway installed on one side of the bridge. Any guesses which side will get the walkway? (Big smile).

 

I arrive around 22:15 near the bridge, and immediately think how being here early on a weekend will draw attention, and sure enough, later on while I am waiting on BFPO the town cop shows up! He hollers down to me from the parking lot where the Civic rests, maybe twenty to thirty yards away............”Can you come up here?” LOL! I holler back no, I’m sorry officer I am waiting for a train, I don’t know where it is. I was thinking HELL NO! Talk about inviting BFPO to appear, that would be the time! So the officer, to his credit, negotiates the path in the hard packed snow in his street shoes to interview me. One of the neighbors, as I feared, had spotted the tiny red lights on each flash unit and become concerned. I do a quick scan of the nearest houses imagining a concerned couple on the back deck watching intently that I could wave to but disappointed, see no one. Once he checks my id and learns what I am up to, the officer has no problem with my activity and satisfied, heads out.

 

After a long stake out, which included a large skunk wandering through the snow in the scene, I hear an air horn that sounds like Amtrak! Smiling I remember the C40-8s have similar sounding horns.........here they come! The wait is ovah! After whistling for two more crossings headlight glow silhouettes bare trees on the far side of Fall River, I fire off the lighting and find my marks up on the bridge using the ol’ headlamp as headlights appear in the darkness, then start across the stone arches at maybe twenty mph. Watching the leaders headlights moving above me, when I think they are where I want the pilot plow to be I say to myself........”Wait”, then press the shutter thus overcoming the tendency to shoot a hair early. The colors comprising my second favorite CSX paint scheme reflect back with the stone arches for a split second, then darkness envelopes the scene again! Success appears on the rear lcd monitor as an endless string of white tank cars filled with limestone slurry roll by above, sixty two in all.

 

To me, the photogenic C40-8s are a great addition to the variety of locomotives that call New England home. The benefits from embracing the New England trait of frugality is certainly not lost on Pan Am. I like the black “add-on” cab door on leader 7643! They can run around in this paint scheme for as long Pan Am management desires and no complaints will come from Gary! Shot in Bernardston, MASS at 00:30 on February 19, 2017. Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

 

All The Best In 2017;

Gary Knapp

Robert Gould's Cheshire Line

The Cheshire Line, is the layout of Robert Gould, who, interestingly enough, lives on Cheshire Place. The layout is a freelanced layout styled along the lines of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad on its trek from New Jersey to Chicago; passing through some of the same cities. It is a loop around the cellar layout with some built out areas for industries and cities, rail yards and staging areas.

This is not Rob's first layout. He received a Lionel train at eight years old and it wasn't long before his uncle and dad built a platform on which he could set up the trains and add details. His uncle had a large Lionel layout that provided considerable inspiration. He has built a couple since. Although this layout was started in August of 1981, it is only within the last couple of years that he has had regular time to work on it. Rob has had full-scale railroad experience, having worked for the D&H, CSX, and now as a railroad inspector for the State of New York.

Robert uses a Digitrax system with circuit breakers for six districts. Although he doesn't have regular op-sessions, he still has a car card system for directing and monitoring car movement. And he has a lot of cars – well over three hundred – so yards and staging areas can easily become clogged with rolling stock. He has a couple of large wall-mounted cabinets for handling extra cars and engines, but there is now more than they can handle, too.

There is plenty of freight traffic moving through on the adjacent mainline tracks and it is being faithfully watched over by the old switch tower.

An Erie-Lackawanna freight operation is busy with contract freight and items that are too big for UPS. That cab-over tractor was typical of the period and the location. The long frame was used mainly in the mid-west.

Having enough coal cars to run a forty-seven car unit coal train adds a lot in itself. And to get all three hundred plus cars to work well together, he recently went through the process of aligning all coupler heights and replacing all axles with ones with metal wheels. He says that this has made a great difference as the cars can be pulled so much easier and do not string-line on curves.

Form19 Editor Bert Pflegl for the copy, Rob Dennis photos.

West Waterford Update!

A view of the river going through the sawmill.

 

 Grandpa's camp on Lake Champlain next to the D&H.

 Overhead of work continuing on sawmill.

Wan's Wonk Wagon!

Enjoy,
Mark Oliviere

Going To Church

 

The first night photo of 2017 is taken on Friday the 13th of January, on a full moon night, in the rain outside the Green Mountain Baptist church in Center Rutland, Vermont. Vermont Rail System (VRS), has applied the finishing touches to one of their two ex-Florida East Coast SD70-2Ms, 431, that has been repainted by the shop forces on the Providence & Worchester into VTR red & white! The white part being striping and lettering applied in Rutland. Once 431 emerged from the Rutland enginehouse with its white striping and lettering, fortunately for me (and you) the unit was turned on the Rutland wye to face east! This move made it possible to shoot it going past the church in Center Rutland, one of my favorite locations! I’ve been saving the location for the return of 431 over the past month or so!

 

I thought of Winston Link when 431 made its debut run over to Whitehall and back the previous night, LOL! I was just starting the drive down to Center from home, when I learned the crew was already headed back eastward just after midnight, light power! I was too late. So tonight I headed out earlier, leaving around 22:45, arriving at the church at 00:15. And this night the crew aboard 431 came by after 04:00. Winston, in a video done of his work at night, had lamented during an interview about how the unpredictability of freight train schedules became an accepted risk/part of the hobby, LOL!. Some photos he took required several consecutive nights before he got a chance at taking the shot.

 

Tonight, I am all set up by a little after 01:00. The weather is outstanding for a night photo, windy with temps in the forties in January! It deteriorates as the hours pass into a steady light rain with temps falling into the low thirties. Still excellent for a night photo and that is what matters! Ratty weather for humans produces great night photos of trains! After 03:15ish I hear the CLP 263 job departing from Whitehall on the car scanner. I do the usual tweaking of the lighting to keep moving around, not that it needed it. Being careful not to do something I’ll regret, lol! Around 04:00 I hear an air horn, but from the wrong direction! It belongs to the VTR GP 38-2 201 leading the job going to Burlington coming out of Rutland to meet the Whitehall train at Center. Several minutes later I hear 431 coming in from the west, blowing for crossings in West Rutland. I’m thinking how this could be spectacular! Visualizing the 431 wearing VTR red & white at this location.

 

Atop the stepladder, I hear 431s engineer blowing for the Rte 4 crossing, then a secondary road followed by silence as the train climbs Boardman Hill toward me. Finally I see brush trackside below the church start to lighten up, I fire off the lighting, and watch. Headlights appear behind the evergreen in front of me and I look away at my mark, then as the 431 starts to follow the curved track to my left I look back and watch as the pilot plow slowly drifts up and past my mark. I wait a second then fire. Red and white reflects back! Wow! I give conductor Dominic Cioffi a wave as his side of the cab passes by, the dark shape of 431 towering above me. Then I check the photo on the GRs monitor.............Holy Cow! Dosen’t 431 look great here? Glistening in the rain?

 

This historic trackage, incorporated as the Rutland & Whitehall Railroad in Nov. of 1848 before being acquired by the Delaware & Hudson, who would eventually sell it to VRS subsidiary Clarendon & Pittsford, saw all the exotic D&H diesels passing by the church here, RS-3s, PAs and the Baldwin Sharks to name a few models. The 431 certainly fits right in tonight with the addition of the evergreen, which I’m sure is a recent improvement to the location! SHot in Center Rutland, Vermont on January 13, 2017 at 04:11. Special thanks to Michael Ricketts! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

 

All The Best In 2017;

Gary Knapp

"Inch At A Time" Chapter 22 - Modeling Piles Of Old Ties

While I don't keep up much with manufacturers offerings I don't think anyone's come up with this commercially!

 

Over the years I've photographed many piles of discarded ties.  I've found that, while they differ in size, texture, condition, etc., they do share some commonalities.  And, they're oh so simple to recreate in model form.

 

After looking through my slides and digitals of prototype "piles" - I settled on the ones found in Saugerties, NY (along Conrail's West Shore line) and Pittston, PA (along the former Lehigh Valley) as my guides.

I did add some Campbell per-cut ties but, mostly I used old wooden matchsticks I cut to proper length.  If your wife burns as many candles as mine you could accumulate quite a lot of the

I made the impressions of removed tie plates and spike holes in some.  For a few, I attached Monster Model Works tie plates to represent the few that were left in place..  Everything was glued together with Elmer's Glue-All before painting/staining.

I trust the photos work well as a guide if you want to include yet another of my prototype observations on your layout.

Regards, 

Wayne  Sittner

North Shore Electric

This is all my Uncle Paul's 2 rail O scale from his basement in Gloucester MA.  I have been storing all of his equipment and salvaging the layout for restoration.  I am planning on setting up the pieces to set up as modules.  Hopefully I will have a few more sections ready for display next year.Standard gauge O scale Nehigh Valley Transit East Bay Terminal.  

 

North Shore Electric Rwy (42 inch gauge trolleys) set up in my garage.  The Nehigh Valley Southern cuts through (3 ft narrow gauge railroad).

 

 

NVT set up at its first train show...Upstate Model Railroaders show in South Glens Falls.

Brad Peterson

Tree Modeling

If you've been keeping up with the sporadic "chapters"  you know I'm a stickler for trying to accurately portray the scenery found in the Northeast.  While I make no claims to being a botanist, I am an observer of nature.  That said - there's a wide variety of tree species that CAN'T be modeled with "Super Trees" alone.  So far I've found ways to successfully portray Oaks, Maples, Pine, Hemlock, and Birch (among others) but Sycamores escaped me.  Fortunately for my size layout one signature tree was sufficient - 'cause modeling them somewhat accurately is TIME CONSUMING.

 

 

For my model Sycamore I used stranded picture frame wire to make the basic structure (This technique has been written up many times over the years in the model press.) After I was content with the form I created I coated it with Liquitex Modeling Paste and Gesso.  I referred to my photos at every step including (of course) the final painting and addition of Poly Fiber & ground foam foliage

.

This tree is a signature model and as such you only need (depending on the size of your layout) to make one or two.  While the Sycamore may not grow in the area you model, Cottonwoods can be done using the same technique.

As for Sumac - STILL trying….

Regards to ALL,

Wayne Sittner

 

Model Railroading isn't Just Trains!

I'm full up on buildings and I have enough railroad equipment to populate my layout several times over.  I've been concentrating on vehicles lately.   Actually portraits of cars & trucks I'm intimately familiar with.  All 1/87th of course! First Is my old '76 Celica (winter beater)

My son-in-law Jeff's work truck with its refueling set-up

 

 My '90 Saab 900T and what I went through to build it accurately.

The Stegmaier beer truck is for one of Wilkes-Barre's premier beers.

.

Jeff's VW camper bus.

This model railroading can have many avenues worth exploring.  

Wishing you well,

Wayne Sittner

Railroad Royalty

 

We have visiting royalty this weekend in New England railfan circles! The Norfolk Southern, Norfolk and Western Heritage engine wearing its one of a kind paint scheme! Even better, it was arriving in the preferred position...........LEADING its train, a 28N, which terminates at Ayer, Mass on Pan Am Southern (PAS) and has the same train number both coming and going, an oddity to me at least. Announced well in advance of 28Ns arrival in the area, when the train finally arrived at the PAS yard in Mechanicville, NY around 6 a.m., it sat in the yard all day and into the night waiting for a PAS crew to take the train eastward into Mass.!  Crews were called then reassigned, another crew call time was set back a couple hours into Friday evening. I found out about this crew being set back a couple hours afterwards, and it dawned on me that I might get lucky tonight!

 

So it was that at twenty one minutes after midnight I was driving through downtown Hinesburg southbound for PAS at Eagle Bridge, NY! I have never done well with eastbounds coming out of Mechanicville on PAS because of this variability in departure times, but here was a Heritage engine! Certainly worth making the effort to shoot! I have shot the N&W engine once before, down in Summerhill, PA. during spring of 2012. My plan for this adventure was to arrive at Eagle Bridge (over two hrs. away) and check signals, hoping to get some indication of 28Ns whereabouts. If an eastbound is out of Mechanicville the signal would be other than all red indication. The dreaded sunrise would come around 06:21 this morning. I had a small window of time for 28N to appear in darkness.

 

Arriving in Eagle Bridge around 02:40ish, the e.b. signal was displaying red over yellow over red, indicating an e.b. was indeed out of Mechanicville! The westbound Home signals were all red, telling of a meet planned at Eagle Bridge. I scampered over to nearby Hoosick Falls only to find both my locations featured a dump truck in the view! That would’nt do! I headed out further east for North Adams, meeting the westbound heading for Eagle Bridge roughly half way between the two towns around 03:15ish, and figured to have ninety minutes at minimum before this unknown e.b. would be in North Adams. My window of opportunity before sunrise was closing fast! I finished my trip, arriving across from the yard office in North Adams and setting up the lights and all by 04:45ish. As I wait the dispatcher comes on air talking to a 28N asking to make a move in Mechanicville Yard! I stare over at the car scanner perched on the half open window, saying to myself............”You gotta be kidding me!” 28N has been there for a good part of the day and they are just now switching out the train?! I conclude this 28N must be todays 28N, not yesterdays with the Heritage engine leading that I am set up for.

 

I can hear the unknown e.b. slowly approaching for over twenty min. Air horn blasts and GE prime movers revving up! It is well after five a.m., the surrounding mountains are silhouetted by the brightening sky. My window of time before dawn closing faster! Suddenly, the equipment detector west of town comes on air, proclaims no defects, and silence returns. I’m happy, this guy is going to make it past me before dawn! But........is it 28N? And, will he stay on the main? If he comes up the (closer to me) passing track...............I’m screwed! Headlight glow brightens the area below the bridge over the Hoosac Trench, I fire off the lighting and watch as headlights come into view...........ON THE MAIN! Yes! Holding up the tiny Ricoh GR I’m watching my edges and the level indicator as the leader rolls upgrade into the scene at around twenty mph. I glance up at the leaders number boards..............8103! That’s the one! Passing my mark, the shutter is released and the lighting reflects back SUCCESS! What a location to see the N&W engine!

 

Shot in North Adams, MA. on August 27, 2016 at 05:19. Special thanks to John “Cully” Cullinan for pointing out this location to me and train info! Also to Richard Wingler for his help! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

 

All The Best In 2016;

Gary

Ed, Sarah & EJ

I was approached by NECR engineer/conductor Ed Ferguson earlier this year about the chances of meeting me during the summer sometime, in Gorham, NH, to take a night photo of Eds family with SLR train 393 coming by. I of course, said sure! Knowing of the increased appeal that having people in night photos of trains brings. We settled on last Friday evening to meet and the scene with the church for the composition. A classic New England scene, only available to be enjoyed with a train during the four nights a week the Saint Lawrence & Atlantic (SLR) operates presently. I had shot the scene a few times before with the late Don Provencher and friends posing, so I was comfortable with what I was getting into. I invited Dons sister Linda to stop by and say hello, (she could not make it) and............I invited Lin and Hugh Chapman from over in Gilead, Maine, with the understanding beforehand that it was to be a family portrait for Ed. Inviting Lin and Hugh turned out to be a stroke of good fortune!

 

The big unknown in the days leading up to Friday was what time? My previous week spent on the west end of the SLR in Island Pond at Lakeside Camping had seen 394 departing later than normal from town, once after 2300. They exchanged trains with 394s crew in Berlin, NH around 0200 to 0300. The Chapmans, who live trackside in Gilead reported hearing 393 going by recently between 2330ish and midnight thirty! I suggested to Ed and The Chapmans that we meet at 2200, thinking it better to be safe and hang around waiting, than late and get no photo at all. So I came rolling into downtown Gorham around 2130, happily noticing the temp readout at a bank of 69 degrees, pulled to a stop at the town green and began to set up the lighting for the church and house. I was soon joined by Ed, Sarah and four years young Ed Jr. (EJ) and we exchanged greetings. EJ was full of energy, seeing me again he knew the orange train was coming! LOL! Ed and Sarah corralled EJ while I finished setting up a flash unit, then we moved over across the tracks to where we would shoot the photo.

 

I was halfway through setting up the lighting for the train when the Chapmans arrived, and they brought news! Lins brother had been recruited to be the lookout for us and he had just called to say 393 was going through Gilead at that time! Earlier than expected! How out of character for the railroad. Ten pm was looking like a good time to meet. Lin and Hugh get another Gold Star for driving over with such timely train info! We figured Gilead to be around thirty minutes away by train so we were all happy at the prospect of 393 coming by before midnight. Fifteen min. later found everyone in their places! Gary atop the stepladder, Ed, Sarah and EJ down below me on the lawn and Lin and Hugh Chapman standing off to the side (happy to be watching and not posing?). Several minutes pass by as I tweaked the flash units and moved Ed, Sarah and EJ around, then we waited, shootin’ the breeze until 393s locomotives could be heard just before the engineer began whistling for the first grade crossing coming into town.

 

Once over the grade crossing, 393 heads up tangent track which brings them through our set up by the church, and I fire off an awareness flash of the lights for the crew. I get a couple toots acknowledging they saw it. A mass of headlights appear coming up to Glen Road crossing just below us, dissolving into the triangle shape of locomotive headlights and the shape of a cab emerging from the darkness. Spellbinding to watch at night, as the locomotives complete this beautiful New England landscape! Once over Glen Road crossing the leaders pilot plow comes into position and the lighting flashes out, reflecting back.........success! Then the engines are rolling past me at maybe twenty to thirty mph. A short consist follows then silence slowly returns. Only in examining the photo afterwards does Ed point out how both of the SLRs (rare) GP 40Xs were in the engine consist! 3806 leading with 3805 trailing! Shot in Gorham, NH on July 29, 2016 at 22:32. Special thanks to all involved! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

 

All The Best In 2016;

Gary Knapp

Background Modeling

 

 

 

Wayne Sittner

My Specialty

One of the new locations I got to enjoy while staying with my sister in Wells, Maine was the station on Pan Am in nearby Kennebunk. Built in 1872, an example of “stick style” architecture, there are plans in the works for converting the west end of the building into a stop on Amtraks Downeaster route. Hopefully Amtrak will not get carried away modernizing/scarring the building and surroundings. Westport, NY comes to mind with its Amtrak wheelchair lift storage shed installed at the north end of the platform. One good thing here is the building already is equipped with an elevated platform of sorts! For now, Kennebunk station makes a wonderful location for shooting eastbound Pan Am freights, and on slow nights even Amtrak Downeasters cruising past! Unfortunately, the west end of the station lacks a “Kennebunk” station sign at present, making it less appealing for night photos of westbounds. I am not knowledgeable about traffic yet, relying on friends in the area as to what to expect. The trains to and from CSXTs Selkirk Yard from Portland I saw each of three nights I shot here but no eastbound Pan Am freights. Until tonight!

 

This time of year, I take my chances with the shortest nights to shoot in. Unless it is overcast, the “dreaded dawn effect” is evident around 04:30! My last night here for this visit, a saturday night, I enjoyed lobstah for dinner, my sister treated, then came up here, a mere five miles from Wells, determined to at least give my specialty at night a try, the “all night stakeout” (a.k.a. stare down with the railroad) hoping to get a chance at a passing Pan Am freight. Arriving at nine pm, an extra Downeaster move went past as I set up, then silence until around 01:00 when a scheduled Downeaster sped past. Around 3 a.m. I got a call from Brian Jennison west of me in Newmarket, NH telling of an eastbound Pan Am freight spotted going past his house! At the time we talked the signal west of my location had been green for a while and I was ready to shoot what turned out to be a long Pan Am POED (Portland to East Deerfield). Afterwards, as I happily went about relocating the lights for the eastbound Brian reported, the unknown was “IF” the e.b. would be held up meeting POED long enough to pass by too late, after dawn?

 

Happily, as you can see in the attached photo, the eastbound delivered success! The fog delayed the brightening of the sky which helped. Not knowing what to expect for a leader, I was hoping for one of Pan Ams group of SD 40-2s. Standing next to the stepladder, it was quiet enough to allow me to hear the train blowing for the crossing five miles away in Wells. The engineer was accelerating out of Wells, I listened to the EMDs through a muffling highway overpass, out the near side then he throttled back and silence returned. Up atop the stepladder I was smiling to myself, thinking how of course the westbound must have mentioned to the crew of a night photo up at Kennebunk when they met earlier! These guys are coming in in “stealth mode”! At night, trains can be amazingly silent, foggy conditions like tonight muffle train noise even more it seems. Looking down the tracks, time seems to stop. A minute passes perhaps before headlight glow can be discerned in the fog, I fire off the lighting for the crews benefit, then a mass of light appears, becomes the triangle shape of headlights and ditchlights, and I watch as the shape of the leader comes into the scene out of the haze, glancing at the number board, see “600”! Idling along at track speed, maybe forty mph, 600s nose passes my mark and the lighting, with the GR, captures the moment! Then the head end glides past with a short consist, minutes ahead of dawn.

 

That was worth waiting for! I hope you agree. Cloud nine stuff for me! Afterwards I met Gordon Collins, who lives up the street from the station, out walking his lab “Trapper”, and we had a pleasant conversation. Gordon thought, not knowing what I was up to, that I might have been surveying for Amtrak, and contributed as to how plans were to convert a portion of the station into a stop for the Downeasters. He was more interested upon learning I was taking train photos with flash units to share with others, and he now joins you on this list! Welcome Gordon! Shot in Kennebunk, Maine on June 5, 2016 at 04:21. Special thanks to Brian Jennison, for getting out of bed at 3 a.m. in time to confirm the passing train was an eastbound! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

 

All The Best In 2016;

Gary Knapp

RPI Op Session

On April 30th Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY had a operation session, here's a few photos.

 Port Henry, NY

Summertime backyard in Troy, NY