Sunday 1 March 2015

Central Vermont's Waterbury Vt. Station

A new Central Vermont Waterbury, Vt. station has been added to the Green Mountain Division

The Green Mountain Division Gets A New Station....by Don Janes

      Although my layout is a freelanced depiction of various locations in Vermont I like to have fairly accurate models of the stations for the towns I model. So far I have models of North Bennington, New Haven, North Dorset and Wells River, all quite accurate models of their prototypes.  Most recently I have added Waterbury to my list of stations.  Back in the summer I contacted Rich Cobb and asked him if he would build a model of the Waterbury, Vt. station for me.  He had done a very nice job on my North Bennington station back in 2000.  He obliged and working from plans and photos he built a nice representation of the Waterbury station.  Once I got it home and compared it to some colour photos I had, I decided to repaint the station a more rusty brown colour and I changed the window colour from white to a light cream.  I also painted the doors black but am still not sure if that is 100% correct.  The large roof overhang at the waiting room end of the station has two large wooden posts  and braces but I removed them for now and will replace them once I get a platform in place and set the station in the layout permanently.

Trackside view of Waterbury in the 1940's or 1950's...Laz Scangas collection
As mentioned above, I removed the support posts under the right hand end overhang until the station is set on the platform
      Rich was able to obtain a set of fancy brick trim made by Bernie Kempinski of Alkem Scale Models.  Bernie had made a set of this brick trim for a proposed but never manufactured kit of the Waterbury station.  Marty McGuirk owns the only model Bernie made.  This brick trim looks great and is what really defines this station as being a Central Vermont station.
  
Street side view of Waterbury from the 1950's....Bob Decker collection

This is the street side of the station as it would have appeared in the 1950's.  There will be a cement foundation and cement steps leading to the two doors.  The tower and dome really give this station character. The four small windows still need painting and to be put back in the wall.
   Once I figure out the exact location for the station I plan to make a form and pour a hydrocal platform and attach the station to it.  There will be two sets of concrete steps at the doors on the street side of the station.
     Rich built two chimneys  but one fell off during shipping and I removed the other one for painting the roof.  I will replace the chimneys once the station is ready to be set in the layout.  There are still a few details I need to add such as the train order signal, finial on the tower dome station name signs at different spots on the station.  It also need some light weathering.  I'm very pleased with my Waterbury station and am looking forward to getting the scenery and details around it to bring it to life.  Thanks Rich for building this nice rendition of Waterbury.
Back in the steam days a large water tank stood at the end of the station platform similar to this photo
Waterbury Vt. as it looks today, still serving Amtrak's Vermonter daily.

4 comments:

  1. Don, The station looks good, now I know of three in existence. Do you plan on building the other structures in this scene. I am also a friend of Rich Cobb he occasionally attends some of the local shows. if you are ever in the Buffalo NY area you are always welcome to see my attempt at modeling Waterbury. Thanks for the posts. John

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    1. Thanks John: I plan to do a couple of more of the structures and would like to get your dimensions when I get to it....Don

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  2. Don,
    The finished station looks great.
    The color photo should be credited to Bob Decker - it shows the station in April, 1957 (just a few weeks after steam was retired). I suspect the wonderful trackside view from Laz is later than "1940s/50s) based on the fact that the arched brackets were there in 1957, but had been removed by the time the photo from Laz was taken. I can't imagine they were taken off and then put back!

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    1. Thanks Marty: I'm very happy with the station. I believe to end supports in Laz's photo are curved. I replaced the ones Rich did with larger brackets as I thought his were a little on the light side and just made the end ones straight for now. Once I figure how to make curved ones will replace the end ones. I believe the trackside brackets were always straight, at least in the 1950's. I will change the photo credit....Don

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