A Final Look At The RPI Club Layout

This is a model of the steel mill at the North end of Troy. This area today is just a weed covered field a few foundations scattered about. The red brick building in the right hand corner of the photo still stands and is a museum.

The End Of The Line For A Great Layout.....by Don Janes

       Last November when George and I attended the Model RR EXPO in Albany we took in some layouts on the Sunday after the show ended.  One of the highlights was a visit to the Rensselaer Model RR Club in Trot, NY.  Although we did not know it at the time, it would be our last visit to the club as they were asked to vacate their location shortly after we were there. Hopefully they will be able to find a new location and rebuild an even better layout. 

      Over the years the club has created many great looking scenes based on prototype locations from around New England that they have worked into their fictitious railroad, the New England, Berkshire and Western RR.   Most of the structures had to be scratch-built to match the prototype and the results are amazing.  When we were there it was apparent that many of the older scenes were being rebuilt and freshened up after many years of dust buildup and everyday wear and tear. 

     I am very thankful that I was able to visit this amazing layout several times over the years.  It has always inspired me and has influenced many of the scenes I have tried to create on my own layout.

The club has built a beautiful rendition of the Troy Union Station.  This structure was torn down in the late 1950’s.

These great looking scratchbuilt structures represent some the old apartment buildings found throughout the city of Troy, NY

This large rail yard facility in Troy was fashioned after the Rutland’s yard in Rutland, VT

Here we see a very detailed scene at the car shops located at the Troy rail yards

Here is another example of some of the older structures in Troy, all scratch-built

This is a model of the lift bridge that carried the tracks over to Green Island

Lake George is nicely represented on the layout.  A D&H branchline used to serve this location

Whitman’s feed was located across from the Rutland RR station in North Bennington, VT. This is an exact replica of the actual structure as it looked in the 1950’s

) State Line Tunnel is on the New York/Massachusetts border and was owned by the Boston and Albany RR, now the CSX.  This is a very accurate rendition of the real tunnel.

The RPI club has done an amazing job of recreating the Red Rocks scene.  This is where the D&H hugged the steep cliffs of Lake Champlain

The ore mines at Tahawus, NY were once a very busy place and generated a lot of railway traffic

The next four photos are taken in various locations around the city of Chateaugay, a fictitious city created on the layout

One final view of a NYC freight train snaking along the Red Rocks area along the shores of Lake Champlain

Throwback Thursday - Always a Fan of the ACR.

The former Algoma Central 188 shows off its new WC number at Gladstone, Michigan on July 05, 1998.  It looks as if the Wisconsin Central red shield had been applied below the nose, but had already worn off.

By Peter Mumby.

Late in 1952 the Algoma Central Railway became the first Canadian railway to be fully dieselized.  The roster at this time consisted of two SW8 yard units and twenty-one GP7 road switchers, all constructed during 1951 and 1952 by General Motors Diesel in London, Ontario.  The unit in today's photo also came from GMD, albeit with an October 1973 built date.  There were a few tweaks along the way, but basically ACR units of every vintage sported the same paint scheme.

The former ACR 188 acquired its new road number sometime after the railway was taken over by Wisconsin Central Ltd. on Feb. 01, 1995.  This new ownership was short-lived, as WC itself became a CN property on Oct. 09, 2001.  At this time, both WC 6006 and IC 6006 would have appeared in CN computers.

Wordless Wednesday No. 317

A Wordless Wednesday that is nothing but words...now how did that happen...George

GMD Recollections - Close, But No Cigar.

SP 9788 gets a workout on the GMD test track on Dec. 31, 1993.  The track in the foreground is the CP Galt Subdivision mainline.  The test track does double duty as CP's Crumlin Spur.  Photo by Gord Taylor

By Peter Mumby

When I first acquired the Gord Taylor collection of railway slides several years ago, I wrote myself a note that said "Look for SP  9794."  Gord was a well-known member of the local railfan community who had a special interest in goings on around the GMD plant.  His place of work was in the north east corner of the city, and he lived on a farm north of town, so his daily commute took him past the factory twice a day.  In addition it was apparent that he must have often taken lunch breaks along the test track, so there was a better than average chance that Gord had seen the 9794.

So, why the fuss over SP 9794?  Not only was this the final locomotive in the SP order, this GP 60 was the last General Purpose or GP unit produced by General Motors.  The first "Geep"  constructed was EMD demonstrator #100, a GP7 which later became CNW 1518.  This took place in 1949, so to think that the product line continued into early 1994 is impressive indeed.  I never did find that photo of 9794, but I took a picture of SP 9792 being delivered by CP along with 9789 on January 22, 1994, so the unit in question was probably delivered in late January or early February.

CV 40' Green Boxcars - Model

A CV local heads out over the White River trestle.

Modeling green CV boxcars is something I have yet to do. I do have a green CV boxcar built by Bob Hannah decades ago that I recently added a bit of weathering to update it for my current fleet standards. Kevin Smith sent me a photo of his model also built back in the 1980's. Here is what Kevin had to say about his model...George Dutka

After reading an article in the CVRHS Ambassador Volume 26, No. 2 I thought I would share a picture of my own CV 40' boxcar model. Although a bit crude by today's standards, the car sees regular service delivering bagged grain on my layout. It's actually the first car I painted and applied decals to back in the early 1980's when I lived in Vermont. For the model I used an old MDC kit for the boxcar and Herald King decals. I painted it "forest green" using a spray bomb. I'm big on rattle cans vs. an airbrush although I do have several...Kevin Smith.

It is interesting to see both Bob and Kevin chose the same car number. I have seen photos of this lettering scheme on cars  CV54510 and CV54511 but have not see a photo of CV54514 lettered this way...something to keep an eye out for...George Dutka

Here we see Bob's car along with some of my prototype photos. I do have a decal for modeling a second car for my fleet. I may use it to model CV54510 or CV54511. The Herald King decal is B-152.

This is a photo I took at East Alburgh, Vermont June 10 1994. This car when first painted was a very dark green. A good photo of how it looked when freshly painted is seen on the cover of the CVRHS Ambassador Vol. 26 No. 2 by Steve Horsley in 1978. These cars arrived on the CV during the late 1970's and early 1980's.

My friend Warren Dodgson was in St. Albans yard on April 2, 1989. Some nice weathering could be done to a model to emulate the car for the 1980's. It originally was a GTW car with a 7' door.

Kevin Smith's model see in his White River Jct. yard. A great looking model.

An overhead view of the roof with a bit of extra weathering. The original boxcar sides were weathered by Bob Hannah.