North Dorset, VT....by Don Janes

A Rutland caboose hop is passing through North Dorset.  This is the most recent scene I have finished on my layout.

Adding a Small Scene to the Green Mountain Division

     As I continue working around the layout I have completed part of what should be the last scene in this room.  North Dorset is part of a larger Mill Scene that occupies one corner of the room. I will cover the actual mill once I have made more progress on it. Many years ago I built a Rutland Car Shops resin kit of the Rutland's North Dorset, VT station.  It is a small but very unique little structure.  It sat on a shelf until last month when I finally got around to installing on the layout.  I wanted a simple but interesting scene to go along with the mill.  The North Dorset site includes the station, a water tank and the North Dorset section shanty.  Like the station, I built the water tank from an American Model Builders wood kit quite a few years ago but never had a spot for it. To complete the scene I scratchbuilt the section shanty using the dimensions provided by George in an earlier post on the same subject.  It was quite an easy build and I finished it to look like it hadn't had a coat of paint in quite a few years. The only thing left to add is a train order signal which I will have to scratchbuild from a plan that George gave me.

This photo was taken back in Oct. 2005.  The station had been moved up by the highway and was in terrible condition. The  Vermont RR tracks (former Rutland RR) can be seen in the background.

     As can be seen in the photo above, I took photos of the station back in Oct. 2005.  These photos helped a lot when building the kit.  I really glad we stopped to take these shots as the station no longer exists. Rutland Car Shops did a very good job of duplicating the station with their kit.

This shot shows the entire North Dorset scene.  Not much is happening here and the operator has a lonely job.  Once in a while a member of the section gang might wander over to the station and share a few stories with the operator

          Since there are no passenger trains by here anymore the station only serves as a train order office and the operator also handles the waybills for the mill.  The water tank also sits unused.  The section gang still store their motorcar and tools in the section shanty. When things are quiet he can slip down to the creek beside the station ad throw his line in and try to catch dinner.

      This is a simple little scene but it does serve a purpose on the layout and adds another point of interest for operation.

Here we see the water tank and section shanty.  Things look pretty quiet here today

The afternoon quiet is broken by the passing of a Rutland freight, running caboose hop today.

Another shot of the RS-3 passing the station

This is a view of the rear of the station. As can be seen there had been a fire in it.  Sadly, the structure no longer exists.