Wordless Wednesday #221 - Transportation Evolution

Then

Now

Wordless Wednesday #138

Brand-new New Haven RR 8600-series coaches on fantrip
through Shailerville Bridge, Haddam, CT 

Photos courtesy BillS

Wordless Wednesday #121

Still busy with special session at work, but still making progress on the layout - with a little lot of help from the gang. Here's a taste of Bill's work at Shailerville to whet your appetite if you're visiting during the NERPM this weekend!

Wordless Wednesday #119

The Golden Spike - Modeling Shailervile Bridge, Pt. 2

Click here for Part 1 - The Mockup

An additional prototype view, at low tide, showing how tall the abutments are.

How the scene looks today. Apologies for the poor lighting. Road bridge is much higher today than it was 100 yrs ago.

Topo map to give you an over all sense of the area. North is to the left. CT River is at the top of the image.

Val map to give you more detail

So, with all these bits of prototype information, here's the area where the scene needed to go:

As you can see, we mocked up the backdrop and fascia to get a sense of the scene and how it would impinge on the aisleway.

And I just happened to find this photo for inspiration which shows how another modeler dealt with a very similar scene.

At the end of Part 1, I mentioned needing to change the grade to get the mainline from Middletown to match the level of the bridge. Click here for the story of how I did it. The photo below shows me gluing down the track - and gives you a good idea of the constraints I was working with (and in).

After doing a general mockup of the scene and taking some measurements, Bill took some foam home and started roughing in the terrain and abutment supports.

Here's what it looked like when he brought it back a bit later:

The bridge is an unmodified Micro Engineering 50' deck girder, so no big mystery to that. But I really need to see if Bill would be willing/able to describe a bit how he went about modeling the abutments themselves. All I know is that he used some stone-embossed styrene sheets he'd discovered in England and glued them to the foam formers he, um, formed.

Here's how the scene looked after adding the stone sheets (as always, you can click on the image to make it larger):

And with a section of backdrop placed behind it:

I have to say, I had no idea the stone styrene sheet could be made to look anywhere near as good as a hydrocal casting (a la New England Brownstone), but apparently it's all in doing the coloring right. And Bill is a true artist when it comes to that. I, on the other hand, am colorblind. Literally.

Here's the bridge scene with the abutments colored - and a couple photos temporarily taped to the masonite backdrop for some depth:

And, finally, a photo comparing the model to the prototype, so far:

I think it looks pretty fantastic - and can especially say so since this was all Bill's doing. Thanks Bill!

Obviously, this scene is far from done. But what it DID finish was the mainline(!!). Yes, in all the hubbub of my construction frenzy - not to mention working on another part of the layout while Bill was installing the bridge track - it totally failed to dawn on me that the railroad itself was nearing completion. I had no idea until Bill announced - "wanna try running a train over it?"

We'd been working so fast and so focused, we didn't bother with a formal "golden spike" ceremony. So, in lieu of that, here's a video of the first train over Shailerville bridge - and, incidentally, the first train to make it from Old Saybrook to Hartford on the Valley Line!

March 9, 2016 10:58pm

Shailerville Bridge? Not!

One of the signature scenes on my railroad is going to be the Shailerville bridge in Haddam, CT. As pretty as the Valley Line is, meandering its way alongside the Connecticut River, it isn't all that dramatic and the high bridge at Shailerville is arguably the most dramatic feature of the line. Click here for a more detailed introduction.

The other reason I wanted to model the Shailerville Bridge is that it figures prominently in the opening credits of the Doris Day movie It Happened to Jane which was filmed primarily on the Valley Line in the late 1950s.

Or so I thought.

It's pretty standard fare 'round these parts to refer to the Shailerville Bridge as "that bridge that's in the opening credits to It Happened to Jane" - so much so, that it's become "common knowledge" that that's the fact.

Problem is, it's not.

I recently found the movie (at least the opening credits - all I really needed) in order to get some additional - and color - images of the bridge I plan to model. The bridge in the opening credits is definitely carrying "the ol' 97" (nee NHRR J-1 #3016) and its train over some waterway. But that waterway isn't Mill Creek. And that bridge - with its center pier - isn't the bridge at Shailerville.

This type of discovery is part of the, um, "charm" of prototype research - but it certainly won't keep me from modeling the Shailerville scene as planned.

But do any of you have any idea which bridge is in the opening credits of IHTJ?? Inquiring minds wanna know!

Friday Fun - Valley Local southbound at Shailerville Bridge

Shailerville Bridge Mockup

Shailerville Bridge - as the most dramatic engineering feature on the Valley Line - will be a signature scene on the layout.

It's located along the Middlesex Turnpike in the Town of Haddam, right next to the Connecticut River. While it is one of the highest - if not the highest - bridges on the Valley Line, what makes it even more distinctive are the long stone abutments. Looking at the photo, it appears that they've been added to over the years. And my best guess is that they originally supported a covered wooden bridge. But by my era - in fact, by the late 19th century if the photo is any indication - the bridge itself is a non-descript steel deck girder type. But the cool abutments remain.

On my layout, Shailerville bridge is the next scene "north" (left) from East Haddam and the last scene before the track goes through the wall and under (and up to) Middletown. Flipping the map shows how you'll see the scene (remember, Essex to East Haddam, north is to the left).

Couple of pretty cool features here, besides the abutments and the bridge itself. Middlesex Turnpike (today's Rt. 154) crosses the same brook (Mill Creek) that empties into the river - but does so at a much lower level (the prototype photo was likely taken from the road bridge). Also - though not shown on the map - is CT's last shad shack.

It's been here since 1930, so needs to be on my layout, and will make a neat model.
Image from here.

It's a lot to try and get in a small area, and it's especially difficult to try and imagine it in the ether, so Bill suggested we do a mockup.

I guess by "we" we mean "Bill"

While Bill made a mess of static-charged styrofoam dust the mockup, I removed some benchwork to make room for the gorge, stream, and the rest of the scene. I had to remove the L-girder flange to make room for the creek bed. There was also a joist and riser there which will need to be shortened before it's replaced.

The mockup is roughed in - just need to level things up to see where the grade will need to be.

Don't forget to mark where things are before you move them and forget exactly where they were.

Even with just a rough mockup, you can really see how this scene is coming together. I'll put in some plywood to support the foam base and make the whole assembly more sturdy. My biggest challenge though will be changing the grade from Middletown to drop the track an additional inch to meet the level of the foam. Fortunately, all that track is on risers, so it should be a simple matter of clamping them, unscrewing them, refiguring the grade, dropping them, and rescrewing them. Sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty easy - especially with my handy-dandy grade-figuring tools.

The track needs to go where the foam is - and be about 1" lower

What'll be more complicated is trying to move the existing track - and remove the plywood subroadbed and cork laminate from underneath it - all in a tight corner underneath the Air Line.

Wordless Wednesday #95 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Over the River and Through the Woods....
Valley Local carrying passengers southbound
over Shailerville Bridge, Haddam, CT

Wordless Wednesday #45 - Happy Thanksgiving!

Over the River and Through the Woods....