What's new

Hi everybody,

Well, funny thing happened on the way to the mill sidings. Lou Cross(a great guy) of Right-O-Way, had sent me code 83 instead of code 100. I was able to call him yesterday. Lou said he'd get the code 100 out asap.

I haven't started the detailing of the ties yet. I need to make a sanding block and give the ties a good sanding before doing anything to the ties. I was at the "Depot" last Saturday and found another shade of brown Minwax. It's call Early American. From the colored sample, it products a grayish brown. Maybe what I'm looking for.

I also have been thinking about the roadbed and track and how it should look. With the HC, I was going to go the beginnings of signs of neglect route. But now that I've back dated to 1959, I think a better kept track work would be better. More like what the StJ&LC trackage was like. Well kept but not class 1 mainline.

See ya next time.

Gandy Dancers have begun

Hi Everybody,

Today I laid the ties for the mill sidings. I first glue the foam board down. Yesterday I glued wooden supports to the backside of the sub-roadbed, which I also used as a gluing spot.

For the color of the ties, my ties will be on the brown side. I picked three different shades of Minwax. One is on the light side with one coating. The second is medium brown which I think I can make a wash out of it using lacquer thinner. I'll try that out doors in the back yard in case it explodes or something.

There is a railroad I have always had a liking to. Today it is operated by the Mass Central. The railroad is the ex-B&A/NYC Ware River Branch. At it's longest it was 49 miles long. It runs northeast out of Palmer MA. Today it only goes as far as So. Barre MA, 25 miles from Palmer. The railroad used to continue north to Baldwinsville MA were it crossed the Boston & Maine's Fitchburg mainlines. From there the railroad continued north to Winchendon MA where it connected with the B&M's Chesire Mainline.

Back in the 80's I worked as a volunteer on a tourist train which was operating on the Ware River and I got to photograph the whole 25 miles from the train as well as on foot. Anyway, the roadbed on the railroad is what I like. Good ballast in places, good ballast with grasses encroaching into the main line, many places where the ties are buried by the ballast. Most of the mainline north of Ware MA is country running. I will have to pick out some of the photos and scan them so I can share them with you.

Tomorrow I get to start detailing the ties and get them ready for coloring.

See ya next time.

The 1950's

Hi Everybody,

As I have mention, I am back dating the railroad to an earlier time period. I decided to set the time period as the fall of 1960. This was chosen mainly because I have a copy of the Jan. 1962 Railway Register. I chose 1960 because it was the beginning of a new decade, of a time that would become completely different that it was in the 1950's. But as I searched, 1959 looked a whole lot better. So 1959 it is.

As I began my search I started with all the information I had acquired over my life time. Some of it wouldn't be of any help as a good third is devoted to narrow gauge railroading. But the rest all covers the time between the 40's and earlier to the present.

My search began with two magazines called "Modeling of the 1950s Railroads" and the other one called "How to model Railroads of the 1950s". Both are put out by Model Railroader magazine. Even though both are directed toward the HO world, they still contain plenty of information. There is much that can be done to convey a time period. The architecture of buildings and the different model of automobiles are good markers of the time period you wish to convey. The HO people have it made when it comes to vehicles. Just about any year can be modeled just by the car you choose. But we people who have decided to live in our world of 1:48, have to put up with over and under scale vehicles. I haven't found many vehicles in 1:48 never mind the late 50's. 1:50 has a large selection of contruction equipment but the selection of automobles is almost zero. And none of those are American autos. And 1:43 is so large you can't place any 1:43 scale vehicles next to any rolling stock or buildings so it isn't even worth looking at. I'm still searching the internet hoping to find the jackpot, but it doesn't look very promising.

See ya next time.

I just had to see

Hi Everybody,

What do ya think? Looks pretty good if I say so myself. I just had to see what it was going to look like. I put in the ground filler between the backdrop and the sub roadbed. Looking threw the risers you can see some vertical pieces of wood. These are the uprights I cut to support the mill structures. There is another piece that lies on top of the uprights that the extruded foam lies on. Used my "Hot Wire" to do the cutting of the foam. In the days, months & years ahead, it'll be used quite a bit.

I have been doing a bit of research into the late 50's and early 60's. Even though I grew up in those years, I didn't get to do any train chasing. My train watching was limited to the open field at the end of the street I grew up on which over looked the "Springfield Hill" of the Boston and Albany. It is located on the east side of Springfield and begins right after leaving the station. It was great back then, you could hear the Alco FA's and FB's, RS-2's and 3's opening up to hit the grade. There wasn't as much noise as there is today. At night in the summer I could listen to the switchers going about their business in the station and the freight house yard. And I lived a good 5 miles as the crow flies from the station.

Well, just a couple of small things to still do and then Track laying begins.

See ya next time.

The best laid plans.............

Hi Everybody,

Saturday afternoon I started putting down roadbed. I started by locating the end of track. You can see the pencil marks across the sub roadbed.

Next I started laying down a bead of caulk on far inside three stringer the length of the roadbed.

Then I line up the center edge of one piece of roadbed. I'm keeping the saw cuts, which by the way appear to be made by a thin knife blade of some kind as there isn't much of a gap in the cuts, on the inside. That way the solid edge is on the outside of the roadbed.

Once the piece is located, I just started pressing down on the roadbed, letting the caulk get a hold of it. When I was satisfied with the first piece, I then began to continue with the next piece. But as I was moving along the stringer into the switch area something didn't look right at all. The stringers had pull themselves into a bent shape right in the middle of the intersection of stringers. Plus, the spacer blocks that are glued between the stringers popped apart. I repaired it by getting the stringers in line again and as I was gluing everything together again, I also drove in some additional nails to help in holding the stringers together against the forces to pull them apart. After I got the gluing done I went ahead and started with the other siding.

So today I went down to the railroad and finished up the roadbed. The pieces I glued down the day before where glued down good. I began with the inside piece and continued up the grade. Then came back and filled in the outside pieces. And finished by filling in the rest of the sidings and the switch.

Tomorrow I'll come back and fill in the cuts with drywall mud and sand the top of the roadbed smooth and make it ready for ties. Before I start laying rail, I believe I'll start filling in the area between the backdrop and roadbed with the pink extruded foam to begin the ground base. Will also be able to use it to hold supplies while I'm spiking. When I do put in the ground base, I will have to make a support structure under it to support the mill buildings. Already got that one figured out.

See ya next time.

The time has come

Hi Everybody,

Well it's time to get back to work on the railroad. Today I will be starting the laying of the roadbed for the mill sidings. And tomorrow if everything goes as planed, I should be gluing down ties.

There are some changes in the railroad coming up. No the design won't change, just time. When I started designing an O scale railroad, I had planned on using a pair of GE 70 tonners as my motive power. But some where as I designed, the bigger railroad intervened and changed everything. Bigger railroad meant bigger locomotives. I already had one of Rich Yoders 70 tonners and was looking for a second one when this change happened. As the new plan didn't involve the 70 tonner, it was sold.

Well that railroad didn't even get off the ground when I realized that it was not what I wanted for a railroad. So I decided to go back to my previous plan and go from there. As I had already started the RS-2, I change the why there for's and decided to go with the RS-2 and an S-4.

I set the time period as 1970. I spent the 60's in school and a tour in the Navy, so there wasn't much train chasing, but the 70's was different. I remember more of the 70's than I did the 60's. But I was collecting equipment that was more suited for the late 50's and early 60's. This kept bothering me. Just about all the textile industries were gone from the Northeast by the 70's yet a textile mill was one of the biggest customer on the railroad. I was having a hard time in excepting this qua-drum.

Last week end my friend Leo Landry and I went to the Hudson, MA O scale show. During the drive out and back we discussed some of these problems. My concept for the railroad was that the state had purchased the railroad, up graded it and found an operator. For the late 70's, this was easily believable but not for the 60's.

Rich Yoder was at the show and I picked up four sets of P48 Bettendorf trucks. While I was talking with Rich I noticed a flyer on his table for O scale GE 70 tonners. I asked him if he was gone to re-issue them and he said "Yes" and all the mistakes in the first run will be corrected. This was way to cool. I should have signed up there for a pair but didn't, but by the time I got home the decision had been made. I sent an email off  to Rich reserving two. And why this news is so great you ask?

I have a CD for the Jan 1962 Equipment Register. All my equipment is for the late 50's and early 60's. The feel of the railroad now made sense. By using the 70 tonners for motive power, the feel of a small railroad is quit evident . The feel of the Barre & Chelsea, the St.J & LC, the Montpelier & Wells River, Belfast & Moosehead Lake is all there. And with all these changes, it will mean that a name change will be required too. The railroad from now on will be the Hopedale & Barre RR. And the time period will be the fall of 1960.

So what about the RS-2 you ask? It will be finished and used on the railroad.

And with You Tube, I know what a 70 tonner sounds like too.

See ya next time.