Benchwork for East Creek and Center Rutland

I believe I saw a post recently asking where I had been and hadn't posted for a while.  Well I have been busy chopping lumber and laying track.  

East Creek Bridge.

This is the double span that the Rutland & D&H shared.  

Some time traveling going on here with the D&H C420 since the bridge was washed away in 1947.  

Scratch built using pieces from Central Valley bridge kits and girder pieces from Plastruct. 

 First Run over the East Creek bridge.  

The left hand track that the train is on is the D&H main while the Rutland ran on the Right.  I guess that depends on the direction we view the scene from 

first bit of land being formed around East Creek.  

Here it is the first look at the Center Rutland Scene under Construction.  

The pool noodle won't be part of the final scene.  Just in place to keep my 2 year old and 4 year old from smacking heads. 

The track to the far left near the backdrop is the Rutland main the D&H main goes over the Central Valley 200' single truss bridge while the Clarendon & Pittsford Railroad track crosses the river in the right side of the photo.  The C&P trackage dips down and goes under an extended span of the D&H bridge yet to be built.  

All of the new bench work adds about 25 new feet for trains departing Rutland Yard to eventually continue on into a couple more scenes. 

The goal is to get around the basement walls  with one section creating a temporary loop to finally get to run some trains.

First train to sit on the C&P trackage.  Still a bit of wiring to do. 

Greg Wiggins. 

Following along

Greg,

I'll be following along for sure. You are always an inspiration for me, plus I like the New England rail lines.

Hope you don't mind me posting a picture of a set of my favorite loco's in a New England setting.

Bernd

This just keeps getting better...

Looking forward to seeing more progress on your layout Greg.

Jerry

Looking Good!

Very interesting little rail center with three railroads adding to the action. I really like the "old" D&H, the one with the 4-8-4's and classic RS3's in black with striped ends. All the milk traffic moving through there is another appealing feature of that area. Very nice work all around. Makes me want to get going again on the old layout, something my health has been hindering for awhile.

Thanks very much for your inspiring updates.

Barry P.

Reply to: Bernd

Hi Bernd,

  I don't mind at all.  Thanks for posting the Green Mountain RS1's.  About 15 years ago I was modeling Vermont Railway and Green Mountain Railroad with Delaware & Hudson in the 1980's.  That was all sold off to venture into the era of steam.  I am sure if Atlas come out with GMRC painted RS1's I might have to pick one up to operate from time to time.  

Thanks.

Greg

Reply to JerryC

Hi Jerry,

  Thanks for taking a look at the latest and newest blog as my Rutland and D&H empire grows.  Not sure exactly when I will get to building the first structures or structures for the scene but they are coming.  For now I will be working on getting the track around the room to see trains arriving and departing Rutland.  

Greg

reply to Grenzer47

Hi Barry P,

  I have a buddy of mine working on swapping out the chassis on a Nickel Plate Products brass Northern with that of a BLI for smooth and reliable operation.  So I will have a D&H Northern running sometime next year.  I am hoping for Atlas to do a run of D&H black and yellow striped RS2's to add a few of those to the roster.  I am sure that if I go and paint some the Atlas advertisement for them will come out the following week.  It always seems to happen like that.  

As for Milk trains I do plan on running milk trains once everything is up and running.  I have a descent collection of milk cars to represent at least one milk train.  

Thanks for checking out the blog.  

Greg 

@ Greg

Hi Greg,

I’d like to be in touch with you by email.  Mine is amsnick2000@yahoo.com.  Your layout is really exemplary!  Thanks for sharing.

Nick

Love your work, Greg. Very

Love your work, Greg. Very keen to see some of your buildings and scenery on this section.

Mike

reply to amsnick

Hi Nick,

  Watch for an email with the heading for Rutland to know its from me.  

Thanks for Checking out the blog and thank you for the kind comments.  

Greg Wiggins.  

reply to: MikeC in QLD

Hi Mike,

  Thanks You! 

Starting out I will most likely show photos of progress on the bench work and track that goes down.  

I hope to also include photos of the actual area and structures to get a sense of what all was in the area being modeled.  

Stay tuned structures will eventually start popping up.  There will be at least three mill buildings the Center Rutland Passenger station and a few other structures that were scattered about the area.  

Have a great day.  

Greg 

Center Rutland Photos

Here are a few photo I took of the Center Rutland area.

Here is the enter Rutland Depot still intact.  

The D&H bridge still used by the Vermont Railway. 

The Clarendon & Pittsford RR bridge still intact but abandoned.  

A smaller side bridge attached to the C&P bride used for automobile traffic and I also heard it was possibly used for the Rutland Street Railway trolleys many years ago.   

This area was at the base of the Marble mill that is long gone.   

A post card I acquired showing the mills bridges and waterfall.  

Greg 

But, but, but...

I was that close to the station and didn't visit?????

Note the AEI counter, the orange fowling point marker and the station in the background.  All at the junction of the Northern Division of the VRS and the CLP line to Whitehall.

The same from a different perspective.

The oldest "new" and the new Genset.

Just noticed the hill in the background.   Where is that horizon?

But I digress...

Nick

reply to amsnick

Hi Nick,

  Thanks for the Vermont Railway photos.  I didn't venture on that side of the station when I was there.  

No AEI readers during the period I am modeling and no fancy signal like the one you caught in the photo.

Here is a picture from back in the day with one of the Clarendon & Pittsfords Whitcomb locomotives passing over the D&H mains with the station in the background.  I am looking forward to having my own working semaphore signals like the ones shown below.  The other interesting detail is the levers for operating that signal exposed to the elements at the base and to the left of the signal.  The baggage cart at the end of the station is another cool detail.  

You can see those mountains in the distance that are in your photo you shared Nick.  

GREG

Can you imagine...

working the semaphore signals on a crisp 15 degree below zero morning after the last snowfall?

Here's one that dad took in Bennington.  I've never had any idea of what it was other than a diesel.

Nick

This is a Whitcomb

Good evening,

The picture is of a Whitcomb 65 ton switcher. There are several interesting webpages describing the history and service of these engines; especially during the rebuilding of Europe during the Second World War.

Tim Moran Akron, OH

Track

The Rutland main in the background is now tied in with the C&P track via a switch leading to and crossing the double diamonds of the D&H. The two Rutland RS1's are sitting on the D&H main that lead out of town and eventually to Whitehall NY.   

When I get around to building the Center Rutland Station, it will be situated in that open space right behind the Central Vermont ALCO switcher. 

The backdrops being used on the layout are by Trackside Scenery  http://www.tracksidescenery.com/index.php

Greg

Bridge abutments created with a little help.

Thanks to some help from Jim Dufour, I started constructing granite block bridge abutments.  Jim allowed me to borrow some molds he created that he used extensively on his Boston & Maine Cheshire Branch layout.  

At the moment the bridge shoes still need to be added along with constructing of an abutment on the opposite side of the bridge.  Once the abutments are in place I will be able to work on some contouring of the river bed and a bit more of the hillside and eventually start adding some scenery.  

Greg

Bridge and Abutments look great

Do you know what he used to master the molds?

I cannot tell if they came from a commercial casting or something he mastered solely on his own.  I've made my own from a Chooch (I think) casting for my SR&RL, but still on the lookout for better.

Dave K.

http://www.Sn2modeler.com

reply to Sn2modeler Stone molds

Hi Dave,

  I believe the masters came from one of the Chooch products cut up.  Doing so allows you to stack the rows of stone and cut them to make any desired configuration you could think of.  

I am using a little bit of styrene strip to keep things even as the layers are stacked. I am also using squadron white putty spread in between the layers to help hold and hide seams that would otherwise look unrealistic.  I did purchase some milliput that was the recomended product to fill the seams back in once the rows are glued together.  The process is a bit time consuming, labor intensive with a lot of cutting and fitting but, should look really nice once painted and weathered to give it that granite look.  

I have started casting about 40 more rows of stone that will be used to construct the other side of the bridges abutment.  Now to find the time to start cutting and gluing them together.  

Bellow is a photo of the temporary replacement for the bridge after it had been washed away in the 1947 flood.  This had been an option for the bridge scene but, the truss bridge won for its unique looks and definitely not for its ease of construction.    

I have plans to model a few of the structures in the photo bellow.  The large coal shed F.P Robinson is definitely part of the plan.  I am still deciding if the large gas tanks will be part of the plan.  

The Section house behind the coal shed is on the list of structures to be built as well.  

Greg 

Abutments and Coal Shed

Thanks for the response on the abutments.  Even though it may be labor intensive...You seem to know how to do it.  Some of us look for ways to avoid labor and never get to building.  Keep having at it...

The Coal Shed is a very unique looking structure.  I also like the trestle in the background that also has a hopper on it.  So 1950's and before, to have multiple coal unloading locations near each other.

That's a nice looking 2-8-2 on the temporary trestle...

Nice looking layout Greg.

Nice looking layout Greg. Really enjoying your approach to the layout. I am also looking forward to seeing things running on your layout.

reply to : Sn2modeler Abutments and Coal Shed

It seems that back in the day when Coal was King, coal dealerships and sheds were everywhere.  I was attracted to modeling the scenes like Rutland Yard for it's interesting 3 coal sheds in one area on the North end of the yard.  I was then drawn to the East Creek scene with the large Robinson coal shed that you saw in the photos.  The coal car on the trestle or what remains is for the industry it served.  

When I first started thinking about what to model I thought about modeling Northeastern PA with the coal fields and coal breakers with lots of coal cars.  I knew I wanted to model the D&H however my favorite line being the Rutland wasn't going to be worked in with that plan.  With so many customers and industries needing coal I won't need to part ways with my coal car collection.  When I start building bench work on the South end of Rutland yard it will give me a chance to model a really large coal dealership with massive round coal bins.  I found a picture of said coal dealership a few months back after searching for a very long time trying to figure out what it had looked like.  

So if a prototype RR has multiple coal sheds, docks, bins and industries using coal, then anybody modeling be it, prototype, freelance etc.. they shouldn't look out of place at all.   

As for the abutments It just looks like I know what I am doing.  Using the castings allows for breaking a uniform looking repeating pattern that comes with commercial products.  The castings can be modified according to Jim Dufour by using a grinding wheel in a Dremel.  I have yet to reach that stage of modifying yet.  

Greg.  

reply to Virginian and L... Rob in Texas

Hi Rob,

  Thank you.

  Perhaps in the next week or two I can come up with a short video of things running on the layout for your to view. 

I have a little bit of wiring to do to get things running on the new bench work.  

The plan is to have some trains actually running by the time the Valley Forge RPM meet comes to town in March.

We shall see.

Greg