"OP"toberfest Day 1 - Bill Duffe's LKJ&W Railroad

Although odd-numbered years mean that I can't attend one of my main RR events of the year - NERPM - I've certainly been making up for that this year. Literally every other weekend, starting with the first weekend of September, I've been able to attend something major - from the Annual NHRHTA Reunion, to the MARPM, and now just this past weekend, "OP"toberfest.

My friend PeteL and I first attended this 3-day event last year and vowed to try and make it a new annual thing. Layout owners from all around the Albany, NY area - all the way up to Saratoga Springs - open up their homes and host operating sessions for visitors. Demand is high and it's by invitation only, but if you're lucky enough to get on the list and get into a few slots, you're guaranteed a fun-filled weekend of railroad simulation.

Our weekend this year started Friday night with an ops session hosted by Bill Duffe. His layout is 100% scenicked and is jam packed with craftsman structure kits and many details. Think Dick Elwell's Hoosac Valley, but on a smaller footprint. It runs from staging yards between Boston &Mechanicville and towns in between. And while the mainline does go back and forth past itself a few times, you still get the sense of traveling from one town to another, doing work along the way. The operation itself is fairly laid-back, controlled by a full signal system, phones, and switchlists. There's no fast clock, but the trains run in a set sequence. All in all, it made for a wonderful and engaging evening of working the railroad. Here are some pics from the session:

This handy-dandy trackplan was conveniently posted right outside the layout room. VERY helpful for orientation. Be sure to click on the image to zoom in.

One of the many craftsman structures on the railroad. And even though his backdrop is painted, it looks very effective and "autumny"

Scratchbuilt stone crusher.

Super detail on the crusher

The layout is a real feast for the eyes - everywhere you look, there are photogenic buildings and scenes.

His town of North Adams was especially impressive & loaded with tons of detail.

North Adams from trackside.

A drone shot view showing how some of the mainlines come back on themselves, but the scenery here is still very effective. And when you're operating you're not as aware that the towns are so close together.

Bill's representation of North Bennington, with Rutland staging off to the right.

East Deerfield yard, looking east.

Overall view looking from Greenfield with Troy in the left distance.

One of the industries in Eagle Bridge.

Pete having a good time as our local makes its way down the grade from Greenfield to Charlemont.

The massive station and surrounding area at Troy.

Our local heading back to East Deerfield via Greenfield.

With its many trains - and SO many things to look at while you were waiting at signals - Bill's session was the perfect way to kick off "OP"toberfest 2019. It helped that the layout was only an hour north of Hartford - one of the far east outliers for the weekend, but conveniently on our way. Unfortunately, we still had a 2 hr drive to our hotel after the session. We wanted to be sure to be well rested in time to be able to make it to John McBride's layout the following morning - a railroad we'd barely seen last year, but vowed on the spot to make a priority this year.

MARPM Day 4 (cont) - Visiting Bill Aldrich and Joe Smith

I've been a fan of Bill Adrich's work for a long time. He's right up there with John Pryke as an influence in my decision to model the New Haven Railroad. Of course, his choice of the New Haven's famed Shoreline Route has become even more influential to me as I've attempted to model just a small portion of it in Old Saybrook.

I knew Bill lived "somewhere in Pennsylvania" but when I learned at Paul Dolkos' that he was actually right on our way home, well, we just had to give him a call. And he enthusiastically invited us over to visit. Here's just a small sample of the photos I took of his outstanding work . . .

The main city on the layout is Providence, RI and Bill's included the Charles St. engine terminal on a peninsula coming off the main freight yard. It's the only peninsula on the layout, which otherwise goes around the entire basement on an 18-24" shelf.

Among all the many details you'll find here as on other great model railroads, Bill has also fully detailed many of his passenger cars, based on personal experience having ridden in them as a member of the NHRR Board of Directors (pre-McGinnis he'll be sure to point out).

I think the tablecloths are aluminium foil. Amazing. Check out those wall sconces!

We've all seen detailed harbor scenes, but how about detailing what's under water?! Here's a lobster boat with - as you can see - lobster pots below. I didn't have the nerve to ask if there were actual HO scale lobsters in the pots. I was afraid he'd say yes!

An R-3a 3500-series Mountain on the Shoreline. These were 3-cylindered engines, and yes there's a working 3rd valve gear hidden behind the air pumps. Oh, and this steamer - like all the others on this layout - is scratchbuilt. #speechless

View of downtown Providence behind the passenger station. Certainly compressed, but still very effective and - not to mention - seldom modeled.

Mystic station out on the Shoreline

One of the many scenic highlights of the layout is the area around Rocky Neck park. It's not evident in this photo (as you can tell, I was caught a bit off guard by the speed of the train!), but it's shot from the famous overpass which you'll see later.

Another beautiful harbor scene. The New Haven's Shoreline Route crosses dozens of these between New Haven and Providence and they're well-represented on Bill's layout.

"Shoreliner" type Hudson, 1400 series. Scratchbuilt. An amazing representation of a typical Shoreline Route passenger train.

Here's the overpass at Rocky Neck that I mentioned earlier. Prototype photo.

Here's the overpass at Rocky Neck that I mentioned earlier. Model photo. :^)

Drone view of the Charles St. engine facility

I'd almost say I could check Bill's layout off my bucket list, but there was no way I could see & appreciate everything in just one visit. So I hope to be able to go back again soon when we can stay longer!

********

We ended our jam-packed weekend with a quick detour to see our friend Joe Smith and the layout he's building depicting scenes on the Berkshire line.

Here's Danbury, CT and a view not only of the yard, but the well-known and much-photographed freight house, which lasted into the 1990s IIRC.

View the other way, showing the station and part of the City of Danbury.

What is it with the folks I know who scratchbuild their own locomotives?! Yes, Joe scratchbuilt this model of one of the New Haven's unique Ingersoll-Rand switchers. It runs and sounds as good as it looks. What a cool looking engine! Be sure to check out Joe's blog for the build thread.

Danbury was one of the locations for steam/diesel transition to electric on the New Haven. Here's part of the electric facility, with the much-photographed Danbury barn in the background.

Long view of the Danbury yard, looking from the engine facility back west toward the station.

The other towns Joe's modeling aren't as finished as Danbury, so I focused my camera there for the most part. But I'd be remiss if I didn't give you a sense of the room. He's stacked his levels/scenes and they're all joined with multiple helixes (helices??) and set off with black fascia and valences. Very theatrical and very effective. Really causes the scenes to pop. 

While his other helixes/helices are fully enclosed, this one has invaded his workshop and is there exposed in all its glory. There's a truckload of carpentry and engineering that went into this layout and to me this "under the hood" view is almost as impressive as his modeling.

Joe's effort is truly amazing and pretty innovative if you ask me. I know folks that have strung together favorite prototype scenes, but I've never seen them presented in such a theatrical way as Joe's done here - nor with the overwhelming amount of carpentry!

If you want to see more photos - and, even better, benefit from learning how he does things - you're lucky in that he's documenting his builds on his blog at Signal Station 199 (named after the interlocking where the Berkshire line branches off the main).  Be sure to check it out - I think you'll be as impressed as I am.

*******

Whew! I think it's taken me longer to document and share my MARPM weekend as the weekend itself. But hopefully these posts have given you a sense of what a well-run RPM is like and also given you some motivation to seek out other layouts that may not be on the formal tour. I also hope you'll be sure to check out the links in these posts and visit the different blogs and websites for more information and photos. I'm always so impressed with the quality of work and level of dedication these modelers have. It's truly inspirational and I hope, like me, you'll get some wind in your modeling sails too.

Happy Weekend!

MARPM Day 4 - Visiting Paul Dolkos & Todd Hermann

After leaving Bernie's layout, we ventured just a couple miles away to visit Paul Dolkos' latest effort. You may recall his beautiful B&M layout that was covered by the hobby press for many years. Well, Paul is now focusing on Baltimore and his latest effort is built to his usual high standard.

How is it that guys like Paul can do a much-better job in a much-shorter time period than I can even dream of?  Sigh. Well, if nothing else, do like me and enjoy the pics (and be sure to continue scrolling down for Todd Hermann's work...)

Paul has been experimenting with using photos laminated onto a core for the walls of his buildings. Considering his many talents, I shouldn't have been surprised that these structures look about as effective in person as in photos. Really well done.

This is what I imagined Stanley Chemical to look like, so I took a bunch of photos of this complex.

Being the Port of Baltimore, it's no surprise that Paul's layout includes a car float and harbor scene.

This scene reminds me a bit of the coal dump that I'll eventually have to build for the power house at Dickinson's Witch Hazel distillery in Essex.

More effectively-done photo-laminated structures. Could you tell if I hadn't told you?

Beautiful street scene - that you may remember being in some of the magazines.

Of course, I took a TON more photos of Paul's layout, but these give you a little taste of what it's like. If he's on the tour again next year, you'll want to be sure to visit!

One layout that, regrettably, was not on the tour was Todd Hermann's Catasauqua Branch of the Lehigh & New England RR. Fortunately, Todd responded well to our inviting ourselves over and I think was glad to be able to share his work. I know we were certainly glad to have the opportunity to see it!

These beautifully detailed and weathered RS-2s (a locomotive for which I have a particular fondness) head up the Catasauqua Branch. The mainline is in the foreground.

If you can see a hump in the bridge, don't worry - it's totally intentional and in keeping with the prototype.

Nice overview looking back toward Catasauqua across the Lehigh River and the old Lehigh Coal & Navigation canal. I believe that's a mockup of Pine St. overpass in the background.

Bridge over the Lehigh River and the famous curved crossing over the 4 track Lehigh Valley mainline.

Looking right down the LV main.

Another view of the bridge, which is located under the basement stairs but set off exquisitely by the picture frame. This is evolving into the signature scene of the layout....

Well, until you get to this scene!

He doesn't have the station built yet, but you can see that Todd's modeling has a HIGH degree of fidelity to the prototype.

Hopefully, the MARPM will put the Catasauqua Branch on the tour next year - and also hopefully Todd will do his presentation again. If so, you'll want to be sure to see the presentation before seeing the layout (his talk adds a lot of value, but if you can't see him in person, you can download his presentation from the MARPM Clinics page - be sure to compare the prototype photos to his layout. Truly impressive). Todd's done something really special here - capturing the prototype area creatively and with just a little bit of compression. Even though he has a ways to go with scenery and structures, the presentation oriented me perfectly - I knew exactly what I was seeing, and it was super easy to imagine what all would be coming later. Truly a great layout in the making.

So with our two "official" layout tours done, as well as one "unofficial" tour - and staring down a long drive home - we decided to see if, with a couple of very minor detours, we could add any more tours along the way. Fortunately, both Bill Aldrich and Joe Smith (both accomplished New Haven RR modelers) were willing to have us visit on short notice . . .

Wordless Wednesday #284

from Liberty Magazine, October 1946
Happy Autumn/Modeling Season!

Happy October!!

Ah October! The best - or at least one of the best - months of the year. At least it's one of my favorites.

And if you live in New England, it's certainly the most colorful of months - and right smack dab in the middle of my favorite season: Autumn! It's also the shortest season - since I only count when the leaves have erupted in full color, my favorite season lasts only a few weeks. Anything before that is "late summer" and anything after that is "early winter."

But for now, I look forward to enjoying the shushing of leaves, the smell of wood smoke in the air, the taste of a warm cup of apple cider by the fire. And it wouldn't be a bad thing if I spend some more time in the basement on the layout as well in the coming weeks - after all, it's always Autumn on the Valley Line!