If you were - or still are - at the 12th Annual New England Prototype Modelers' Meet and happened onto this website, "Welcome!" I hope you'll take some time to poke around and see my attempt at recreating the New Haven Railroad's Valley branch in HO scale.
As a first stop, and by way of introduction, click on the About Me link. The last two paragraphs describe a bit more fully what I'm trying to do.
Once you get the overview, you'll want to be sure and take the Layout Tour. There you'll find a rough trackplan and the line is operational (benchwork & track) from Wethersfield to Middletown. Unfortunately, it's not yet scenicked, but you'll hopefully get a good idea of what it will look like when I'm done.
If it's scenery you're looking for, you can check out my first attempts on the "Somerset & Mill Hollow" - two modules I built using (exquisitely detailed) structures I salvaged from a friend's old layout and that are standing in for the Airline branch of the layout.
Links to all these areas are embedded above and also located at the left side of the webpage. I hope you'll enjoy browsing around and if you have any feedback on how I can do things better or if you have any information or photos on the areas I'm modeling, please be sure to let me know!
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Saturday, March 22, 2014
Little River Bridge
There is a large stream that empties into the Connecticut River which forms the boundary between Middletown & Cromwell. This stream was originally known as the Sebethe River and is today known as the Mattabesset River. But in 1947, it was known as the Little River.
The above photo, which has been posted before on this blog, is from March, 1948 and shows K-1d #466 crossing the Little River southbound from Cromwell to Middletown. As beautiful a railroad as the Valley Line is overall, there aren't many outstanding scenic highlights, so whenever there's a neat bridge scene - especially one for which I have a photo - from the era I'm modeling - I just have to recreate it in model form. Bonus: That's John Wallace there holding down the fireman's seat (you can barely make him out).
Based on this photo, I decided that the (admittedly small) space between Middletown & Cromwell on my layout would include this scene. Here's how that spot looks right now:
I'd originally planned on using one of those Micro-Engineering 30' deck girder bridges here, cutting out the subroadbed from the joint on the left to the riser on the right. But looking at the Cochrane photo, I knew I'd at least need to change that plan to using one of the M-E 50' plate girder bridges.
And that was the plan. Until today.
I cross the Little River twice every weekday on my commute. Unfortunately, you can't see the railroad bridge from the highway, so I wanted to take a field trip up there on a day off to get some additional photos. I finally got the chance today, and here's what I saw:
As you can see, it's a LOT longer than I expected! In addition to the two abutments, there are actually three intermediate piers, of two different types of construction. And, as if that weren't enough, there are two short deck girder spans on each end between the abutments and the main bridge itself.
Heh - those 30' M-E bridge kits I have will come in handy after all: as mere approaches to the larger plate girder spans. Go ahead - scroll up and look again at the amount of space I have for this scene.
Ugh.
Once I got over the initial shock & awe of meeting the Little River bridge in person, I decided at least to get a contemporary shot of that Cochrane photo from '48:
I should have gotten a little closer, but I was composing it from memory. It's amazing how little has changed - except if you panned just slightly to the right, you'd see the Route 9 highway:
So I'm not quite sure now what my plan is for my model of the Little River Bridge area. As if the shortage of space didn't complicate things enough, this whole area is on a curve where (as you can see) the prototype is straight.
This is yet another example of how doing a thorough job of field research early on is SOOOOO critical. If I'd only known "then" (during the design phase) what I know now (and continue to discover), I may have done things differently. But - thankfully - I really don't know exactly what I'd do differently. I suppose I could have spread things out more, to provide more space for scenes. But then something else would have had to go. Planning a model railroad is all too often like pushing a balloon through a keyhole - "druthers" in one area become the "givens" of another.
But I suppose that's where the "art" of model railroading comes in. At the end of the day, even the best & most skilled of us are impressionists by necessity and the most effective model railroads are those that convey the prototype best, even - or perhaps especially - through the artifice of sense and illusion.
Even if I removed the subroadbed all the way back to the risers, I'll only have about 15 inches to convey the Little River bridge scene. But if I do a good job of selective compression, and my "artistic" skills are up to the task, that 15 inches may be just enough.
Here's hoping you'll stay tuned to see how I make out.
 |
| Kent Cochrane photo from the collection of Max Miller. |
Based on this photo, I decided that the (admittedly small) space between Middletown & Cromwell on my layout would include this scene. Here's how that spot looks right now:
 |
| Middletown is off-photo to the left; Cromwell is off-photo to the right. The line at the back along the wall is the north end of Middletown yard (left) and the line to E. Berlin (right). My first (so far) Frog Juicer is on the back L-girder. |
And that was the plan. Until today.
I cross the Little River twice every weekday on my commute. Unfortunately, you can't see the railroad bridge from the highway, so I wanted to take a field trip up there on a day off to get some additional photos. I finally got the chance today, and here's what I saw:
As you can see, it's a LOT longer than I expected! In addition to the two abutments, there are actually three intermediate piers, of two different types of construction. And, as if that weren't enough, there are two short deck girder spans on each end between the abutments and the main bridge itself.
Heh - those 30' M-E bridge kits I have will come in handy after all: as mere approaches to the larger plate girder spans. Go ahead - scroll up and look again at the amount of space I have for this scene.
Ugh.
Once I got over the initial shock & awe of meeting the Little River bridge in person, I decided at least to get a contemporary shot of that Cochrane photo from '48:
I should have gotten a little closer, but I was composing it from memory. It's amazing how little has changed - except if you panned just slightly to the right, you'd see the Route 9 highway:
So I'm not quite sure now what my plan is for my model of the Little River Bridge area. As if the shortage of space didn't complicate things enough, this whole area is on a curve where (as you can see) the prototype is straight.
This is yet another example of how doing a thorough job of field research early on is SOOOOO critical. If I'd only known "then" (during the design phase) what I know now (and continue to discover), I may have done things differently. But - thankfully - I really don't know exactly what I'd do differently. I suppose I could have spread things out more, to provide more space for scenes. But then something else would have had to go. Planning a model railroad is all too often like pushing a balloon through a keyhole - "druthers" in one area become the "givens" of another.
But I suppose that's where the "art" of model railroading comes in. At the end of the day, even the best & most skilled of us are impressionists by necessity and the most effective model railroads are those that convey the prototype best, even - or perhaps especially - through the artifice of sense and illusion.
Even if I removed the subroadbed all the way back to the risers, I'll only have about 15 inches to convey the Little River bridge scene. But if I do a good job of selective compression, and my "artistic" skills are up to the task, that 15 inches may be just enough.
Here's hoping you'll stay tuned to see how I make out.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
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