Beautiful!

I love it... and this is from a steam guy saying it!

Those Bells

Bernd, I had hi-jacked Greg's thread earlier when I inquired about the bells on the units.  In the bottom photo above there appears to be a bell between the two units.  Looking at the photo above it, it kind of looks like the 405 (the trailing unit) might have a bell on each end.

Can you shed light on this?

@ Jack

Yes the 405 has bells at both ends. The 401 has a beel at the long end only. I have better pictures of them when they were switching at Rutland. It's just a matter of finding those slides. Might take awhile. That's why I made this a blog so I can find the post again.

@ Warflight,

Yes they are beautiful engines. I think these two are the reason my favorite diesel is an Alco RS-1.

Bernd

Learning More on the Bells

Bernd, I just came back from an internet search mission and saw your reply.  I went to rrpicturearchives.net and did a search for Green Mountain RS1s and they had a slew of photos, especially of the 405.  Indeed it had bells on both ends in the early years.  Apparently in the 80s they did some work on the engine at which time they removed the bell from the short hood.  They also changed the headlights from the large single reflector style to twin sealed beam units.  Odd that they removed the bell because there are several photos of it pulling a passenger train with the short hood forward after these mods.  One would think that if they were using it in bidirectional service they would have left the bell on the short hood.

Looking forward to your photos when you find them.

More of Bellows Falls, Vt. & the Green Mountain RR

As I was looking for the pictures I took back in the late 70's of the Green Mountain I came across a set of pictures I had forgotten I had taken. Apperantly back in Aug./Spet. of 1984 I was at Bellows Falls for a train ride on the Green Mountain RR behind RS-1 #400 and three passenger cars. The fan trip stopped at Chester Depot where the engine ran around the train for a trip back.

The first picture is of a tunnel under buildings. I had first seen this in Model Railroader under the heading of there is a protoype for anything.

The signals for the Central Vermont RR crossing the Green Mountain show yellow over green over red.

And here comes CV.

Here comes the Green Mountain to the station.

#400 is running around the train at Chester Depot.

Back at Bellows Falls with some shots of cars and the facility.

And that's it until I find the pictures I took in 1979.

Bernd

OH, WOW!

Those passenger cars though!

@ Bernd

Good stuff Bernd'...interesting pics'...40 plus years back'..

Picture of that Neat little Tunnel

Here is a picture I took of the tunnel in Bellows Falls last Jan before heading down the Springfield Show.

I will have to dig up some of my photos of the Green Mountain ALCO's 

Greg W.

Green Mt. RR at Rutland, Vt.

Hi Greg,

Never got that close. I found my orginal slides that I did the first four pictures of. They will be included in this blog. I've got close to 80 pictures. I've broken it down to the towns I stopped to take pictures at. So here we go.

Summer of 1997.

I believe this was a two day railfan trip of the Green Mountain RR. I started in Rutland. The Vermont RR RS-3 was switching cars when I got there. First a Google Earth picture. The red star is where I took the pictures from.

In the distance you can see a locomotive headlight.

#305 is an Alco S4.

If my information is right, the caboose was built in 1910.

Next post will go back to Bellows Falls and start there.

Bernd

Great Photos

Thanks for sharing.

Gold!

Thats some gold you got right there!

Starting at Bellows Falls, Vt.

On my way back to Bellows Falls, Vt. I stopped at one location that had some interesint rolling stock. I don't exactly remember where this was. Some nice shots of some old equipment.

A quick stop at Chester, Vt. depot. The large red dot approximates where I stood for the picture.

Now we are back in Bellows Falls at the tunnel under the buildings. Again the red dot represents where I stood for the picture.

An over view of Bellows Falls Green Mountain trackage. The red dot on the right is the Green Mountains yard and engine facility. The one on the left is where I stood at the diamond. Click on the picture for a larger picture.

Standing near the diamond crossing. Left red dot.

A few shots of the train along the way.

The first stop for picture taking is at Chester, Vt.

On the way to Gassetts, Vt. There was an article in Model Railroad Craftsman on the talc plant here in Gassetts. That article is the reason I found and rail fanned the Green Mountain Line.

Arrivng at Gassetts to switch the talc plant. The talc plant is no longer there as shown on Google Earth.

Close ups of the jewelry worn on the RS-1's.

Better view of the talc plant.

All coupled back up to the train.

And so ends the rail fanning trip on the Green Mountain Line. I did come across a couple of other pcitures that I'll add later on.

Anybody the would like to use or copy any of these pictures you are more than welcomed, just give credit please.

Bernd

@ Chris B

You're very welcome Chris.

Bernd

@ Bessemer Bob

Thanks Bob. I have many more including a whole bunch on the D&H. I just haven't gotten them all sorted out. Takes a bit of time scanning the 35mm slides and then posting them. Have the time I don't remember where the pictures were taken.

Bernd

Great pictures

Bernd,

Thanks for posting these pictures! I see lots of neat details in each image. One detail noted was the mud spatter on each end of the caboose. This is something seen on freight cars ( proto and models) but a first ( for me) on a caboose.

Looking forward to more great pictures!

Tim Moran Akron, OH

@ Tim

Thanks Tim. Glad you found something you could use.

Bernd

when?

Date Pictures Were Taken

@ Scott,

The slide has an July 1979 date stamp on it. So somewere around the summer of 1979. I was back in 1984 to ride the train from Bellows Falls to Chester and back again.

Bernd

Gassetts Talc Plant.

Bernd... great pictures.

Do you recall if there was a run around track anywhere near the talc plant to switch it ? I plan on modeling this plant on my railroad and switched from one direction only. Love those Alco's.

Gordon Spalty

Great review with pictures

 Thanks for posting. The RS series is one of my favorites.

Carter

@ Gordon

Hi Gordon,

A runaround on either side, Proctorsville and Chester.

What period are you modeling?  I have a bunch of railcars that served that industry specifically.

Nick

@ Gordon

I see Nick answered your question. I wouldn't have remembered. Thanks Nick

@ Carter, Thanks for the kind words. I think I might have a few more buried in the hundreds of slides I did in my raialfanning days.

Bernd

Talc plant question and comments

Hi Bernd,

I live in Palo Alto, California but am in the early stages of building a free-lance HO layout sited in Vermont in the 1930’s.  I will most likely concentrate on the region between Rutland and Bellows Falls.  Last fall my wife and I rode Green Mountain Railroad’s Fall Foliage Chester to Ludlow excursion behind their RS-1 #405.  We then drove the route and pulled off at various points along the way to take pictures.

I have RMC issues going back to the 60’s, and when I read the September 1976 RMC article about the talc mill, I discovered that we had pulled off into the plant's driveway to take pictures of the rock faces across the highway.  As pointed out in a related blog post, the talc plant as well as the railroad spurs are no longer there.

Do you have any notion of when that plant might have been built?

To the extent that some of this discussion might not be of general interest, please feel free to contact me directly at dns@alumni.stanford.edu.

Best regards,
David Slone

Talc plant question

Dave,

Other than the article in RMC I have no idea. I've done some research on talc mines recently looking for that specific region but have found nothing. Sorry I can't help any further than that. I was surprised to see the plant gone when I did a Google search on the area. So also have no idea when it was removed. Unfortunately these are the only pictures I have of the area. One never thinks at the time you take a picture of a place that it might disappear one day. If I ever run across any info I'll post it to this thread.

Bernd