Some photos of the recent North Troy, VT bridge construction.

Yawn....

Fantastic,  as usual.

I've watched your YouTube vids and I'm just blown away by how well you capture the look of those towns along that line.  Driven along the line a couple times and been completely skunked train-wise both times, but driving through Vermont is like being in a time machine.  I really wish I'd gotten up there to see the StJ&LC/LVRC before it was taken up.

I have another connection to the area.  I grew up in northern Colorado, in sight of Burlington and UP branchlines, but a family vacation to New England with my grandparents saw me taking my first pictures of a moving train, a B&M work extra at Woodsville, NH.  I plan to model that short train someday just for grins.  Now that I think of it, it might have had one of those short B&M cabooses that another poster recently asked about.  I need to dig out the pics when I get home in a couple weeks.

Your layout is the next best thing to being there 40 years ago.  Thanks for sharing.

Scott Chatfield 

Such a great realistic scene

Such a great realistic scene with such depth and character. 

Tired of this !!!

People taking photos of the real thing and posting it as their layout. Just stop it Neil. Your not fooling any one !

Ted

@ Ted

LOL - thanks Ted!  See you at AA one of these days.

@blindog10

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the kind words.  I fell in love with the region and the Connecticut River Lines as a kid and happy to be trying to recreate it some 40 years later in the basement.  I've got a few of the B&M cabooses, they were unique compact cabooses for sure, but I'll take any caboose on the tail end of a freight these days.  

Regarding growing up in CO, I've only been there twice for vacations and I can see the attraction of scenery out there, especially along the old Rio Grande.  Missed seeing the final freight on Tennessee Pass by three days on a trip back in 1997.....

-Neil Schofield

Spectacular Work

Neil.  Another spectacular scene.  The only improvement would be CPR tuscan and grey instead of action red, but your CP first and second generations are way better than endless filthy GE's.  Onward and upward to Richford and Blue Seal.

Nice scene

What is the small concrete structure along the river? ....DaveB

DaveB, My guess in a hydro

DaveB,

My guess in a hydro facility.

Hydro?

Hi Dee,  Could be but a hydro plant needs a head of water and I don't see any sign of a dam? .......DaveB

@DaveB

Hi Dave,

Honestly I don't know the exact use of the structure, but the responses are likely correct.  The bridge goes over the Missisquoi River and there was a dam located just in front of the scene that I'm modeling.  Here's a prototype shot showing the building in relation to the bridge.  Couldn't quite get the distance that I wanted between the mill and the bridge, but such are the compromises of modeling the prototype.

Still a lot of work to do and trees to plant, but I'm trying to open things up a bit more than the prototype. 

-Neil  

"The bridge goes over the

"The bridge goes over the Missisquoi River and there was a dam located just in front of the scene that I'm modeling."

Hi Neil,  I looked on google maps and found the concrete building is still there. It now has a small shed like structure on the roof instead of the tall smokestack.  I could see the dam and an outlet pipe running back into the river downstream of the concrete structure. They probably had an inlet at the dam. Can't tell what they used it for in the old days but it looks like it's not in use these days. the site looks pretty over grown ....DaveB

Blair Veneer Co.

The building appears to be one of the few remnants of the once large Blair Veneer Co. that occupied most of the east side of the river.  The company ran a private utility supplying power to the plant and some 425 customers in North Troy.  They had 728KW of hydro and 300KW of steam generation (1944 data).  This is from the 1919 Sanborn map. 

Blair Veneer Co.

Great research. Now we have a name and history for the scene. Thanks Ian.....DaveB

A little late, but...

eI didn't think that building would be a power structure for the dam... why would a hydro power building have a smokestack? Didn't make sense.

f\Finding out it's part of an old veneer operation makes sense - they might have been using the smokestack and associated furnace to burn scrap, or perhaps they were coal-fired for internal steam for bending wood?

Looks amazing

Beautiful job Neil, you nailed it! Love the depth of the scene.

A little more info

The building in the proto photo that Neil has modeled appears to be the blue one in the middle of the Blair plant.  On Sanborn maps blue is stone construction and yellow is wood frame.  It is the only stone building on the site. Here is the same site in 1887.  Water wheels were in all the factories.  blue is stone

@Ian

Ian,

Thanks for sharing the Sanborn map, it gives a little insight into the history of the building.  It's interesting as I never gave much thought to the history of the building during construction of the scene other than it was a photo prop that showed up in many photos through the 1980's.  I was always inspired by the cover shot of the New England States Limited back in 1982.  Here's my best rendition of the photo that includes a portion of the mill, which was long abandoned by 1980.  There's still quite a bit of work to do and a river to pour, but I was able finish "treeing" out the scene for the most part today.

-Neil

Grade Crossing Scene leading up to the bridge

Here's an in-progress scene of the grade crossing just south of the high bridge.  I broke down and paid top dollar for one of the Woodland Scenics mobile homes and weathered it down a bit, but nice to buy a structure instead of build one for a change.  I still have a house to build to the left of the photo, but it's worthy of a photo for now.  Gotta do something about the grade crossing signs, a bit short

-Neil 

Neil this is beautiful work

Neil this is beautiful work you have here! I have watched your videos on Youtube and the realism is amazing!

Jeff

March of '88

That shot looks hauntingly familiar.....Oh, that's right, I took it!

That's the one-unit-at-a-time move over the speed-restricted bridge back in March '88.

You nailed it. Looks great buddy.

MC

@Jeff

Thanks Jeff,

Hopefully a new video soon with the North Troy Bridge.

-Neil

@MC

Thanks buddy,

At least one of us got a decent shot there.  

-Neil

Very Nice Neil

Hi Neil,

  Very nice work.  You definitely know how to sprinkle all that scenery on perfectly.  

I like the old concrete effect on the building.  Will have to learn what colors or technique you used for that.  I have a concrete coal tower that needs to end up looking like that.  

Greg W.