New Creamery Opens In North Bennington...by Don Janes

The new creamery at N.Bennington has just opened and the first load of coal and empty milk car have been spotted.  The workers still haven't got the sign up.

Bennington County Co-Operative Creamery Open For Business

     After months of planning and construction the new creamery in N.Bennington Vt. has opened its doors. The plan all started about three years ago when friend and fellow modeller Don Spiro gave me a model he had built based on the Rutland Creamery in Grand Isle, Vermont. This was a great looking model but I felt it needed something more to give it a unique look and add size to the overall complex.  I thought about an ice house but there was already one beside the freight house so I decided to add what might have been the section of an older creamery with a two story office and warehouse building to which the newer block structure had been added.  Since most creameries had a coal fired boiler house I decided to add a coal unloading pit that fed an older brick boiler house at one end of the wood office structure.  The wooded structure was scratchbuilt to fit the space between the block building and the wall and the boiler house was part of a larger kit I had left over from the old layout. The water tank on the roof is a plastic tank covered with stripwood to create a wooden tank. I felt that the various sections of the creamery all made from different material would add character to the entire scene.

This view of the creamery shows the milk loading platform and dump for unloading coal hoppers.

      After some research I found that N.Bennington never had a creamery, at least in the period I model, just the ice house but that Manchester, VT., just up the line was the home of the Bennington County Co-operative Creamery.  George suggested I use that name for the new creamery.  He wasn't sure what the sign looked like but thought the name sounded appropriate for the building.  I decided to take use his suggestion for the name. This creamery he believed shipped Borden's products.  After further inquires to Rutland modeller and Manchester resident Bill Badger I found out (from photos he sent me from a couple of different eras) that there was no sign on the building so I am free to make it look however I think would look right.   

      I still have to add the sign, install power poles and wires feeding the plant and various other details but the creamery is basically done and ready to ship milk products.

    

This end view shows the coal conveyor and boiler house that feeds steam to the creamery

This view shows an overall view of the creamery.  The brick structure to the left is Bennington Potters, part of a South River Model Works kit.  The Rutland mainline is in the foreground.

Here are a couple more views of the conveyor and a hopper that has been spotted for unloading.