Operating on the NEB&W

It's been a roller-coaster week between the election, the Missus finding out she'll be out of a job as of the end of next month, and then her dad going into the ER for low blood pressure and being admitted on his birthday.

But there've been some highlights as well, starting off the week with a visit to the New England, Berkshire & Western railroad at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. They have operating sessions there in the fall & spring and, since I can never make the spring session due to my work schedule, I always try to make it in the fall.

As usual, there were MANY trains to be run, including full dispatching via phone and the layout operated very well, especially considering its size and age. I always enjoy running a local freight (shocking, I know) and this time I also took a number of reference photos since I'm starting scenery on my own layout.

I won't dump all of those pics here, but here are a few of the better photos I took along the way. . .

Since I'll be modeling Wethersfield Lumber, I figured I'd take some shots of any lumber companies on the layout.

I also hope to model some farmland along the Valley Line, so I definitely had to shoot this scene.

Passenger service is long gone on my layout by the late 1940s, but not on the NEB&W. This is a shot of my local freight passing the station at Proctor, having finished its work at the marble company.

Local freight heading south out of Chester. This scene is very closely based on Chester, VT - but on the prototype, this train would be heading northbound to Rutland. Though the NEB&W has many scenes modeled perfectly after the prototype, their order and actual location on the railroad is dependent on what works best for this "proto-freelanced" layout.

Speaking of modeling scenes to strict prototype fidelity, here's the famous Bartonsville covered bridge. The prototype for this scene was made famous by Jim Shaughnessy since he used it for the cover of his book "The Rutland Road."

Speaking of Rutland, this is the "back" of the Rutland yard and car shops. LOTS of activity and detail here - especially for such a large layout!

And just to give you an idea of the scope and size, this is downtown Troy, modeled as faithfully as space will allow. What a scene!

The NEB&W has been covered extensively by the model press, so I won't repeat any of that here. Suffice it to say that a visit has to be on the top of any model railroader's bucket list - especially if they're a fan of eastern NY and New England railroading.

I, for one, got a big shot in the arm to get back to my layout and make some more progress. And I have! - which I hope to share with you over the next few days....