A Rutland Railroad Scene...Proctorsville, Vermont

Trackside building flats...

A Rutland Ry van hop using RS-1 405 passes the newly added building flats at Proctorsville, Vermont on the White River Division.

 Over the years I have traveled Route 103 from Bellows Falls to Rutland,Vermont following the Rutland Railroad's right of way. There is an open area in Proctorsville on Route 103 just west of the junction of Route 103 and 131 (were the tracks cross the highway). Here one could get a great view of a train passing with an interesting backdrop of residential homes. The roof lines define the scene and are clearly something a modeler would find interesting. I took some photos of the homes from a fruit market parking lot which has a great angle. During October 1997, I caught a passenger train at this location that I had enlarged and is now hanging in my work room.

On a trip through Vermont I did catch a passenger train at Proctorsville, Vt. Oct 4, 1997. I could not find the negative to scan, so I just took a digital photo of my wall print through the glass...the train and structures is what I wanted to emulate.

The Proctorsville scene I thought would add a lot to my rural background scene. I thought I would only pick a small area of the background to build as building flats. For a number of years I had used a color copy of the the structures as the building flat. I enlarged the photocopy to HO scale, cut out the building and just set it among the trees near the backdrop. This past spring I decided to finally build the scene as my goal for 2011 was to finish my stalled planned updates. I should have had more close ups photos to figure out what the building features actually were. Since the scene was just a background I went with what I could see and what materials I had on hand. This project was a no cost build. I was only going to use what I could find in my parts boxes. I have a lot of part sheets of styrene, trim and windows. I also have a lot of various color slate shingles from other projects. Since the building only needed one wall and a very little amount of shingles I was in good shape.

The built up wall sections are seen with the photo I used to come up with the backdrop flat.

The paper backdrop was used on my layout till the building flats were finished.  I left out the garage and the newer building with the skylights during construction.

This view shows the width of the building flat. Just enough to make it look as if there is a row of homes behind the trees.

I don't waste any of my scrap wood and styrene. I use it all for bracing. The cardstock base is also seen attached. I use Walthers Goo to attach the bracing and base.

I built only the buildings that would have stood years ago. There is a newer small home in the foreground that I did not include. Also since this was to be a 3-4 inch width scene the garage was also left out. The tall building in the very rear was interesting with a large roof. This building took some imagination to complete since a lot of the building could not be seen. Actually the main feature that would be seen when a train rolled past was the roof line. Colors I used are Floquil paints. White for the structure on the left, boxcar red then a coat of caboose red while it is still wet on the center building. The right side home is painted antique white. Shingles are Northeastern Scale Models Gray Slate (HOSH G3) on the middle home. The other two buildings got brown and gray peel and stick slate. The roof was chalked when finished. I also used some light weathering on the building sides too. The white home had a brick base or footings. This I made out of printed paper stock...same as I used on the WRJ station. The footings does not really show much, but I added it anyhow. Once all the building were finished I made a cardstock base that they all were glued onto making the placement on the layout very simple. If I need to pull the flats out for additions or repairs it will be simple.

The building flat are finished and in place. You can be the judge if the roof lines add to my background scene.

A closer look at the building flats once in place. A few added details and trees help bring things to life.

An view from above of the finished scene.

To get the building flat into the scene a good number of trees were removed. The flat was put in place then extra trees and details are added to hide the terrains ups and downs. I did not want to rebuild the ground area.

Well my updates for 2011 are half complete. The CV coaling tower is done, now the Proctorsville flats are in place. I am half way through the Crosby Coal kit and I plan on building the Polka Dot diner at WRJ...my drawings are almost done...George Dutka