White River Divison Blog - Year Two

 
The White River Division
Modelers Season 11, 2012- 2013

 
It was Oct 31, 2011 that I began this blog. A year has passed, there are 167 posts available to view and  25,027 visits as of last night. I just want to thank all of you that have been following along through the past year and for your positive thoughts and comments. I guess I should start out this season with a few thoughts about my projects or at least what I plan to tackle this year. I recently purchased at the Fine Scale Expo a few interesting kits that will find a home on the layout...lets just start there.

I purchased two sets of abutments from New England Brownstone. One that will replace an underpass that does look good, but will look great with the new abutments. This scene is similar to that at Rockingham, Vt. with a narrow winding road leading under the Rutland Ry. This underpass has a large stone abutment. similar to the Brownstone model. I also purchased the stonework for the long CV trestle which will be used later on.



This underpass will get a new stone abutment. I originally just glued some cut stone chunks that were cut apart from leftover broken stone wall sections. Beneath the stones is a plywood block as the base.



A new offering from New England Brownstone Co., a pair of small single track bridge abutments.

I decided to turn the area at West Barre into an interchangeable module area using GatorFoam bases. I plan on having three diorama's that can be switched out as needed. Building a smaller layout and having it pretty much finished gives me the ability to tinker with it from time to time. I had though of changing scenes out when I first built the layout which I am finally going to try out.



The station is going to get a face lift this fall with a new NorthEastern Scale Lumber slate roof. The area around the station will be torn up and a interchangeable base area will give me the ability to change out scenes.

 On the first base I plan on redoing my station scene at West Barre with a cobblestone base for the platform on the GatorFoam. The cobblestone I purchased from RailroadKITS. The station I have had since I was a child. I did refurbish it about 30 years ago but I purchased enough gray slate shingles from NorthEastern Scale Lumber to replace the roof. Their product is very good and was not available for sometime.  I was really surprised to see they were producing it once again...they mentioned machine problems. This is the same roofing I used on the Crosby coal model if you go back through my posts.



A new offering by BEST.



The second module base will house a feed mill using the new offering by BEST. It is of a structure located in New Hampshire which is very typical of some I have actually seen in New England and similar to one just north of WRJ on the B&M.



Fisher Fuels by RailroadKITS.

 The third module base is a propane fuel dealer. I actually purchased RailroadKITS Fisher Fuels and found out the tank that was to be included are not currently available, as they are waiting for a re-order. So I am going with a propane tank I have on hand with the thought that in the future the fuel oil tank will be produced and it could be changed out.

Ongoing projects
Currently I am building the diner that stands next to the tracks at White River Jct. and also a large barn that will block the view of trains entering Bellows Falls, Vermont once it is built in the next room. I have a box of Scenic Express trees to play around with also this winter. Although none of these projects are urgent it will be nice to have some changes completed on the layout before next spring.


One structure that I really liked that is also offered by BEST is the NH country store. Both Don and I looked pretty close at this model but could not come up with a location that would work. Marty McGuirk did purchase this kit to be used in place of a larger general store currently being used on his layout...George Dutka

The BEST model of an old style general store found  in New Hampshire. This is a very nice two level structure. The rear slopes back which gives the building character and would really look good in red paint.