Wordless Wednesday No. 44

Woodstock Model Railroad

A few weeks back Larry Brinker sent me a link to a new blog site he created to follow a local clubs layout construction. I have been checking it out regularly. Larry has done a good number of posts already (11 since Sept 4th) and the layout is moving along really quickly. They should be up and running trains in no time at all...you might want to check it out. The link is below and also in my sidebar...George Dutka

Woodstock Model Railroad

Petersburgh, NY - Rutland Ry. Station

This view is of the station looking North. In earlier years the station sign was hung under the eaves. Bob Nimke collection.

Petersburgh - Mile 22.3

Petersburgh station on the Rutland Ry. was located 6 miles south of the B&M crossing at Petersburgh Jct.  I am not sure when the first station was built or removed but for a time prior to the station seen above (built 1903) there was a passenger car in use as the station. The station had a slate roof, a 10' by 150' gravel platform and a loading platform 16' long by 3'6" high on the north end. The loading platform was retired in 1933 but remained on the station till the end. The station sign at one point was silver leaf lettering on a black board. The station was retired in 1952.

The station dimensions vary depending on which site plan you look at. It was noted as 16' by 54' on one, 26' by 55' on another. The actual evaluation drawing of the station give it the dimensions of 16'4" by 60' with a wall height of 13'8" and ridge height of 20'6". The overhang is noted as 5'. The operators bay is 9'6" wide. The station evaluation indicates it as constructed using the 16' by 40 station plans. That would be Rutland's W-102 plan for a 16' by 40' or 22' by 55' station. It would originally have a white exterior and varnished interior.

Petersburgh did have a 651' siding, which was retired in 1939. In the early days a furniture factory was located behind the station. Just south of the station was a shirt factory and beyond that was the C.W. Reynolds coal shed.

A collection of Petersburgh station photos can be found at the link below...George Dutka

 Poulin Collection - Petersburg.pdf
 

Note the station signs at one time was attached to the roof. This photo would have been taken around 1951. Bob Nimke collection.

Tankcar-Covered Hopper - Sept 2013 RMC

In the Sept. 2013 issue of RMC I found an interesting article that converts a tank car to a covered hopper. The article reports that in 1948 Barrett Division needed covered hoppers to haul granulated slate from quarries on the Washington Branch of the D&H in Vermont to various roofing manufacturers. So cars are converted. A car like that might fit nicely into my own fleet. The model is built from a Tichy tank car. It does take some work converting, but one can do as much or little if need be to come up with their own version.

The decals for this project can be ordered through the link below. Jerry Glow also has some other interesting decals available. A word of advice...I did note that on the Yahoo groups pages I follow a mention that Jerry can be extremely slow in mailing orders out. One might wish to check with him before ordering...George Dutka
Custom Decals

NEB&W Bartonsville Station

My station in progress is placed on top of the model photo built by Brent Chartrand.

I noted a link from the NEB&W Facebook page to my Petersburgh station blog post. I never knew who built the model for the club. It appears the NEB&W station was built by Brent Chartrand. He painted his model in NEB&W company's colours. Thanks for the inspiration Brent..George Dutka

Brent Chartrand's model on the NEB&W. The inspiration for my project. NEB&W Facebook page photo.

Rutland Ry., Bartonsville, Vt. station around 1947. Bob Nimke's collection. Brent used this prototype as inspiration for his model.

Wordless Wednesday No. 43

Petersburgh, NY Station Model

The finished model of my Petersburgh station. Although by my era the order board would have been gone and most of the station details would not have been there...it still was nice to include.

This past spring and summer I finally got started working on an Atlas station kit that I wanted to convert into a Rutland Ry. style station. This was a really easy project...not sure why I kept it in storage for decades. I first saw this conversion on the NEB&W as the Bartonsville station. John Nerich pointed this out to me many years ago. I chose another Rutland Ry. station that looked similar to the kit. Petersburgh, NY station was a smaller simple station that reflected what I wanted to do. It also was the first station south of Petersburgh Jct., a connection with the B&M on the corkscrew division. Petersburgh, NY would work well as a drop in style structure that could be located on the White River Division.

I will cover the prototype and construction of the station shortly...just thought I would pass along a few views from the finished model...George Dutka

Here is my station in progress placed on top of a photo of the same model on the NEB&W.

The station sign is a photocopy of the original sign. I added a lot of details around the concrete platform. The concrete platform included with the kit was really nice so I decided to use it. The original station platform was wooden and raised at one end at one point, then cinders near the end of its existence.

Wordless Wednesday No. 42

Plywood on the WRD

White River Junction is seen in the background with the foreground mainly removed. I have the station set aside for safe keeping till the foreground is set.

It has been a really long time since I have seen raw plywood on the White River Division. Seeing it gives me options for change. The best change so far is no duck under. With the tear down behind me I realise how my body is changing. A long afternoon back a few months ago began under the layout dismantling components that had to be removed before I could work up top. The next day I could hardly move. Who am I kidding I could hardly move while I was working under the layout...I think I should have built it higher up...more to come...George Dutka

This area was mainly hidden staging. The mountains and trees could be seen only as background or when one peeked over the foreground mountains. This will become the White River Junction yard. When I changed the layout shape the face board did not stretch all the way. I need to add a small filler piece at some point.

CNR Section House

The trackside and east end of the section house, June 2013.

With Central Vermont Ry. section houses a reflection of the parent CNR prototypes I thought I would share with you one that still exists near where I keep my boat. The CNR section house in Goderich, Ont. still remains but in poor shape. For the past few decades it has been part of the GEXR shortline owned by the same parent company as NECR or the old CV. These view might help one in the construction of such a structure...George Dutka

The roadside and west view back in 2010.

Wordless Wednesday No. 41

Westboro Sand House

I had to attend a wedding last weekend and found some time during both Saturday and Sunday to work on my sand house kit. I actually got a lot done. Here is a view of it as it looks at the moment. It is almost done, although I still need to build the drop in base. Have a great long weekend...George Dutka

Wordless Wednesday No. 40

Search this blog...feature added

With over 340 posts on this blog Marty mentioned I should have a search window for easy referrals. I did not know there was such a feature. Marty talked me through adding this feature. One can now find the search feature on the sidebar. All one needs to do is type what you are looking for and a list appears at the beginning of the blog...many thanks Marty...George Dutka

B&M RS-3's

My two RS-3's are seen working at Bellows Crossing on the White River Division. The engines are new deliveries and have yet to see much of the railroads right-of-way grime.

Stock Bachmann B&M RS-3's...getting some additional details

I started adding a few details to my two B&M RS-3's back in the late spring. With the early July hot weather keeping me in a cool place I finished the details and light weathering of my two units. There are more details that one could add if one wished to, I just wanted to add enough to make the engines my own creation. The RS-3's are great right out of the box, but a few easy add-on's sure makes a big difference. You can check out my Jan. 25th, 2013 post regarding their arrival at WRJ.

B&M 1536
The easiest jobs are to add wipers to the windows which are painted Floquil old silver and marker lights to the lead end. Markers are Precision Scale part #31334 which are painted black. This part of the project is very easy, just requiring drilling a few holes and painting the castings. Just these two changes really makes a big difference. The horn on my engine is wrong for a B&M engine and also in the wrong location. I broke mine off and touched up the markings with engine black. I mounted mine on the cab roof as seen in the photos. The bracket and horn are from my parts box. I also added lift rings by Detail Associates #1107 to the hood removing the cast on originals. All are touched up with Floquil engine black.

Both engines got Kadee True Scale No. 58 couplers. This is was not an easy job. The Kadee brass holder does not fit properly. I reamed out the hole in the brass to make it fit. One could also drill these out. Getting it all back together and operational took me over an hour per engine. For some reason the second engine took me longer than the first. I am glad I changed out the couplers as they do make a big difference in appearance.

B&M #1538 began as stock engine 1536 but had the 6 changed to an 8.

Once I finished with all my add-on's, I gave the whole engine a coat of Floquil Flat finish. Following this I used chalks and Bragdon weathering powders to give them a lightly used appearance. I may add more weathering to the trucks at a later point but I wanted them to be more as if they where recently delivered. The marker jewels are then applied.

B&M 1538
The detailing and weathering on engine 1538 was identical to 1536. Both of my engines came numbered the same, B&M 1536. I needed a part number change on this engine. I began by touching up the number 6 on the body with Scalecoat S2123, B&M maroon. I did the same on the number boards and ends using Floquil engine black. I now needed to find a similar looking number 8. For the numbers I used Microscale B&M E & F units sheet #87909. The numbers although not an exact match are very close. This engine got a horn I still had packaged, it is Details West #AH-253, all other parts are the same as on 1536...George Dutka

B&M #1536 is about to depart Bellows Crossing on the White River Division. This engine got a bit more weathering that B&M #1538. Both engines look as if they arrived a few short months ago. Many of my engines have been weathered as if they have been around forever.

Wordless Wednesday No. 39

New Brushes

I use two set of paint brushes in my modeling. My best and finest pointed brushes are used for model painting. The other group are a cheap set of brushes used for weathering my buildings and rolling stock. 

Back in July I picked up a new set of brushes for weathering. These I will use strictly for my chalks and powders while weathering my structures and rolling stock. The cheap dollar store brushes I had been using seem to wear out very quickly as I seem to do a lot of rubbing and scrubbing to get the powders into the grooves and corners. My next few project will tell me if there is any difference...George Dutka

Wordless Wednesday No. 38

Wordless Wednesday No. 37

Saving the Pumpkin Patch Scene

The White River Division pumpkin patch and barn insert has been saved for later use.

When I began the tear down process of the White River Division (not the whole layout but areas that needs reworking for point to point operation) a few of the scenes did get saved for future use. The pumpkin patch and barn scene has been removed intact and mounted on a piece of Gatorfoam. Once I have time the edges of the scene and the patch will get some refreshing...ground foam and so on. At some point a new location will be found and it will be re-installed on the layout...George Dutka

The barn is set in place on the saved scene.