The Boston & Maine In New Hampshire 6' X 3' Layout

Thanks everyone for the kind words, it certainly encourages me to progress, and progress I did.

Onward! I had all the information I needed for the area that is north of Cilleyville road so I figured the next step was to finish up track work here. First, I filled in some area with ties. The areas where the connections were had a gap of two to three ties. I cut off some extra ties from a piece of Atlas flex code 55, and carefully filed the tie plate section so the tie would sit flush under the rail joiner. Next I was ready for paint. Normally I would simply airbrush the track, then go back and detail paint it. I will do that on most of the layout, however, the critical eye will be focused on our small town station. So here is the process I used for track detailing.

1. Roof Brown was applied to both sides of the rail with a #0 brush
2. Rust was applied with the same brush over the top of the rail heads
3. New Railroad Tie was painted on 95% of the ties
4. Earth and Mud were painted on the 5% of the ties
5. Gray was dry brushed on the ties, with heavy dry brushing on the Earth and Mud painted ties
6. Grimy Black and Oily Black were applied to the center sections of the ties randomly.
7. Tie plates and spikes were painted and dry brushed with Tarnished Black
8. Bright Boy was sent in to clean the rail heads

And the look before the Bright Boy:



I experimented with brushing a coat of Rust on the railhead because we have all seen new oxidation on railheads. The rust gets worn off depending on the size, weight, and speed of the equipment that rolls over it. Not sure if the effect is real evident in the end, but hey it doesn't hurt. Besides, the above picture would look great for a piece of an industrial spur.


Once the ballast is down, which is a dark gray, this will really pop. You can just make out the oil streak from some equipment and see some ties that are about ready for replacement.


Here is an example of what I'm going for. Once the ballast is down, the ballast will also get weathered and give us the look of a hard at work main line.

​More to Come...

 

Up next for the agenda was the Potter Place Station Platform. Lets take a look at our Prototype....


Once again we are standing on the edge of Cilleyville Road looking north on the main. To our right we see the station platform that runs the length of Cilleyville road, past that caboose, roughly 225 feet. Typical of New Hampshire, the edge of the platform is granite. The granite headers range from 7 to 9 feet wide and are a foot in depth. The asphalt section is 7 feet wide. So with these measurements in hand we are ready to transfer this data to our N scale version.


Back at the layout I started transferring my data. As you can see, Cilleyville Road is to our right (south) and the beginnings of Route 4 is above. A paper template of the Passenger station gives is set in the correct location based on measurements. Making the asphalt section of the platform would be easy. Like the roads around it, I would employ the foam food trays once again, then cover with styrene and paint. What, however would I use to simulate the granite? This question plagued me for a good part of the day. At one point I experimented with making a master out of balsa wood, molding aluminum foil around it and casting it from Hydrocal. While this was a success, the thought of make 35 this way seemed too much, even with my OCD. After a while rummaging through my garage, I was able to find some strip styrene that was exactly the width of one scale foot. I now set up my Chopper II (a great investment) and set out cutting 35 pieces of plastic. I then trimmed them length wise so the foam and styrene were about the same size. I next cut the foam to a width of 7 scale feet and using the same method of the road, glued it down.


So in this picture you can see the results of said madness. I have since, trimmed the "granite" to the same level as the "asphalt" again with my Chopper II. Interesting to note, the platform runs right into the road on almost the same level, however, I used a slightly higher piece of foam as research to the area shows the platform being higher than the road.

So what's next? Well, each individual piece of styrene will now be softly filed, rounded and given a random amount of filing to give it a rough cut like real granite. Then a series of colors will be painted, dry brushed and washed over the surface before it is placed in front of the platform. Next, the platform styrene will be cut, slightly distressed and painted various shades of Grimy Black and Reefer Gray and glued down on the foam. A close look at the prototype photo at the start of this post, shows the parking area to be roughly at the same level as the Route 4. This area will receive, you guessed it, more food tray foam, plus a new technique I can't wait to use for better replicating a dirt or gravel road and parking area. Some weeds and other growth will be added, then attention to our other end of the station will progress. The station will have to be scratch built, but I'm getting ahead of my self.

​More to Come...

 

Sorry there have not been any updates lately. Work has progressed but mainly in the purchasing department. Before I left for the Springfield MA show this past weekend, I made a shopping list of items I needed. I got mostly everything I needed and will hopefully have updates with pictures by this coming weekend. I picked up some Super Trees from Scenic Express and I'm looking forward in having an Arbor Day on the layout. I did get some plaster cloth on the north side of town down, I'm now using a picture from 1976 to aid in placing grass, weeds, dirt and scraggle as I call it.

Two really cool things I picked up at the show, one a B&M Bulletin that features the Northern line, score! And an actual wallet sized B&M calendar for the year I'm modeling, 1976.

Crossing signals and detection hardware, trees, ground foam, leaves, Z scale couplers and most important, another year with the B&M Historical Society. I also talked with a few laser cut vendors and spoke of my desire to get kits cut up for the passenger station, freight station and general store.

More to Come...

 

The last time I talked about getting some more scenery done. Something about scenery helps me progress to the next step and takes us one step closer to running a true model rather than just a table with track.

My slice of New Hampshire is set in late Summer, early Fall, around September. My selection of colors will range to burnt umber, olive green and dark greens to a hint of ambers and reds. The first thing I did was tape over the stretch of track between Cilleyville Road and the northern most part of the layout. Next I used Woodland Scenics Plaster Cloth to cover the pink foam and give some strength.



With Plaster Cloth down, I had my hard shell but wanted to smooth things a bit. Remember, this was a dual main through here at one time and this small area is somewhat flat. I mixed up some Hydrocal in a small cup and added some burnt umber acrylic paint and made a mud mix. I spread the mud onto the plaster cloth like frosting on a cake and let it start to dry. As it was setting, I used my finger to smooth it out. I simply moistened my finger in some water and carefully made a small ditch between the track roadbed and the area as well as smooth up the road bed of Cilleyville Road. I then let the mud mixture dry for an hour while I had dinner. About an hour later, the mud mixture was partially dry. I now used my dry finger to work over the surface and "sand" the area. Go light here, because your finger will actually remove a fair amount of the mud at this stage.



Now if you are wanting to model an N scale dirt road or parking area and think most commercial grade gravel is to coarse, this method would do you well as the texture at this point is a very fine gravel look. I would use various shades of dark gray however for roads and parking areas. In this case, the area around the road is filled in, sculpted and ready for a coat of Grimy Black. Once the road surface is painted, one will see "asphalt" in a semi uniform fashion all the way down to ground level. Once I have that painted I can add some weeds, and areas of tall grass.



With the ground covered with earth, it is time to let some weeds, grass and scraggle grow.

​More to Come...

 

With the area reasonably dry, I now added Scenic Express Matte Medium full strength with a foam brush. I found this package at Springfield last weekend and knew I just had to use it as my base.



I have never heard of the company, but the forest floor with dead wood was something I was looking for. I purchased both bags the vendor had and hopefully I will have enough for my deep forested areas. The package contents were compressed so I spent some time loosing up the product, then applied to the wet surface. I had to work in small six inch sections as the scenery base would start to soak up the Matte Medium. Once the forest floor was down, I added Woodland Scenics fine ground "weeds" and "burnt grass. The overall area was covered with weeds then the area closest to the mainline and road was filled in with burnt grass.



Up next was the darker and larger vegetation. Also while in Springfield, I came across this vendor, MBS. This Canadian out fit makes a lot of scenery details for mainly architecture models and doll houses. I spoke with the factory rep for a while and learned that their products are 100% made in Canada. Out of a fit of loyalty to our friends up north, or the fact she was so kind in explaining to me the various products they carried, or maybe because the trees she had made looked so spot on, I purchased some of their ground cover and tree kits. Turns out this really worked well. Next I used another product I had found at Springfield, Diorama Dirt. Yes, this cheap Yankee bought some dirt. I know some of you may say, "Geeze Jim, go up to Potter Place with a jar and scope up some dirt for crying out loud!" Yeah I could do that, but, I would have to scoop, sift, sift again, bake to kill any critters, sift again before applying. It's not hard, but for me, time is money. The time I saved is well worth the $10.00 I spent. I'll talk more about this product when we progress to the parking area. I used a plastic spoon to lay the remains of what was the other main, then a maintenance road.



And here is the results. We have a heavy area of weeds, small bush like scraggles as I like to call them, and some of the MBS fall litter since some of the vegetation is changing color and in some cases falling.

​More to Come...

 

Thank you Hank. I learned this from a gentleman who works in Z scale, so I cannot take all the credit for it. Consistency in the Hydrocal is key. Should be like a milk shake and you can add what ever color you like. You also have a lot of control with a finger that has been dipped in water to help smooth the surface. Once you have dry sanded the area with your finger, let it set overnight. I'll be doing this again soon (hopefully) when we do the parking areas at both buildings.

So with some scenery down, it is time to compare our notes thus far. Problem is, it has been 36 years since 1976 and I know our vegetation has changed somewhat since then. The area is more like a park with bike trail. Lets compare with what we know.

Here is Potter Place last Spring just before the historical society painted it:


Now here is the same place in almost the same spot around the time I'm modeling ​(picture courtesy of the Andover Historical Society):


Not only do we notice the foreign power or that cool IH High Rail truck, but there is no bike trail in this last picture, and a lot more scraggle! So now I have something to compare. If you look carefully, you can just make out the Route 11 overpass going over the main line. You can also see the line of trees that will come in handy to hide that false main we talked of in earlier posts.



And finally, the overall view thus far. So what is next? Well I think the road is the next bit of business that needs to be addressed. I'll at least finish the north part of Depot/Route 4 then use my Hydrocal mud process to smooth out the roadbed of said road, paint the roads then we can add tall weeds and grass, larger vines then trees. Oh and I need to finish the granite headers for the platform and ballast this stretch of track. We're just releasing the brakes on this train, we got a long ways to go.

More to Come...

 

Because I choose to not selectively compress my area, that part of Route 11 will not be modeled, yet. I plan to add a 1X4 section later when I get back home to Illinois. I will have another overpass that is over the southern part of the layout. I studied the overpasses in NH and found the bridge kits by RIX to be spot on with very little difference. You will however have to scratch build the support piers as the RIX products version differs slightly. I plan to go to NH again in the next few weeks and get some information on the support piers. Once I start construction on them, your welcome to copy my endeavors.

 

I should be living back home in Illinois by this summer, however, I plan to spend a week in NH the first week of July. If your going up there around the same time, perhaps we can meet up. I have biked a small portion of the mainline from Potter Place to Danbury. The trails is nice and easy to navigate with many details along the way.

 

Progress has been slow of late with so much going on at work, but progress was made nonetheless. The next biggest hurtle was the ridge. The ridge, simply put, is my device to incorporate a few scenic items both relevant to the modeling aspect as well as the full scale aspect. Like the town itself, the hill blocks Potter Place from Andover and subsequently Route 11. In modeling terms my real feature of a small hill would also be my view block. The view block would not only serve as a way to model Route 11, but depending on which side you stand on, would be a road that serves two towns. Don't worry, I'm not going to start talking experimental physics and string theory. Simply put, if we look at one side of Route 11, we have Potter Place. Looking to the other side, we have a town that has not been determined yet. Truth be told, it would have been a lot easier to model the full scale scene which is the hill, a shelf cut into the hill for Route 11, then more hill. However for our purposes of model railroading, this is just not practical. So in essence, I have two different places that are relevant to the Northern line and connected, I just closed the gap of miles with a curve.

So with all the reasons why out of the way, it was time now to commit to modeling. After viewing Google Maps and pictures I took of the area, I started tracing out a road on the pink foam base. I used a piece of Woodland Scenics foam riser to get the nice curves into my road. I was going for a nice S curve look to get away from the straight line look.



With the black ink out line on the foam base, it was time to transfer this to the pink foam that would be the ridge. I used simple white paper and traced the lines on the foam to the paper. Next I cut the paper outline out and assembled the road on to the base, tapping each piece. It should be noted that the road looks unusually wide at this point. You are correct, this is simply the base for the road. I will still need to add a sub layer (foam board), road bed (foam) road way (styrene) and Hydrocal.



With the paper road template done, I placed the template on my spare foam and used a hot wire foam cutter to get the contour of a hill. This is just the rough cut. Later, a rasp will be used to get a more natural look. The ridge was glued over the black line I had drawn previously with foam tack glue and tacked down flat with long T-pins. The one end shows a simple over pass where Route 11 goes over the main and siding of the Northern. This small scene will not depict any real place, but it adds a neat look to the scene.



Finally a close up of the Route 11 overpass. The stone cut abutments are typical New England and typical B&M. The abutments will be glued into the ridge and hydrocal rock and boulders will be modeled beside them since in real life, the Northern RR had to blast through this section of NH granite. By 1925, the NH DOT removed the old wooden overpass and built these stone abutments and a modern overpass more suitable for the Diamond T trucks and Ford Model T's running on Route 11 at this time. Our scene however for 1976 will show a VW Beetle or a Ford LTD. I may sink the abutments a bit as it is a bit too high for my liking. I'm also in need for bridge shoes. I have looked but have not been able to find any. Perhaps someone out there could point me in the right direction.



There is no overpass on the other side. The road will go over the tracks and the entire area will be populated with more hill and trees. Remember the curve or fake main line will not be visible from the station to the other side of the layout. In fact, even while operating my layout, I run it point to point as if the curve did not exist. Thick NH over growth and trees will (hopefully) hide the curve, and an access door on that side of the layout will allow the rescue of any equipment that may derail.

Still a lot more to do, but hopefully I'm getting closer to getting ride of the pink look and more granite, trees and grass.

​More to Come...

 

Thanks Hank. I just wish I had more time to work on it. The times I'm really motivated to work on it, I have to go to work. I'm semi planning to head up to Potter Place this weekend to get some more measurements and pictures. Time is ticking and the move back home is drawing closer.....

 

As I had hoped, I was able to have a long weekend in my native state of NH and spend some more time at Potter Place. When we last left off, I was in need of measurements for the freight and passenger stations as well as some pictures to help fill the void between Depot Street and Route 11. My trusty Jeep Jess and I left the Garden State at midnight on Friday and arrived in Boscawen just before 6:00am. With a quick shut eye, some copious amounts of coffee and Dunkin Donuts, my dad and I set out for Potter Place.

In order for me to get the look right, I had to once again get measurements. Remember, the town itself has almost no compression on this side of the layout. First the freight depot was measured just to make an N scale foot print. The south corner of the depot is roughly 15 feet from the edge of the road and just after the corner of the depot, the hill starts to form.



Here is our view standing beside the south end of the depot. The road makes a gradual incline and starts to turn to the left. In reality, this road will flatten out then rise again, passing a few houses then terminating at NH Route 11. This part of the layout will be selectively compressed and when viewed from another angle, will look like any random area found along the Northern line. With pictures and measurements in hand, I set out for Jersey and last night started the south end of Depot Street.



I first used my measurements to cut out a foam base of the freight depot and its loading dock. Using a #5 Atlas turnout, and previous measurements, I placed the foot print on the layout base. Next I measured a scale 15 feet on the south corner and a scale 14 feet on the north corner. I then traced a line to connect to the junction of Cilleyville and Depot that I had built before and started the grade. The sub roadbed you see here is simple foam board. I carefully drew a road on my layout base using a Woodland Scenics foam riser as a guide to get a reasonable curve, transfered it to paper, transfered that to foam and sanded a bevel on the end that meets the layout base and glued it as you see above. A small piece of foam board was glued under it to help support the base. As you can see, it took a fair amount of T-pins to hold this down as this is a compound curve.



next, pink foam scrape from the ridge was used to fill in the south west side of the road. No science here, just cut, slice and dice until a hill was formed. Two important features to point out here. New Hampshire is called the granite state for good reason. The flat spot on the part of the hill closest to the track will represent blasted granite the railroad had to go through. While there are no tunnels on the Northern line, there are many cuts. The hill should have a well defined look of man, cutting through the natural terrain



Here the foam is shaped per the photo that was taken at the start of this post. The other side of the road will also be filled in and will be shaped to continue the incline, blocking our view of NH Route 11 just as the prototype. The large house seen in the picture above is a stand in for the "Potter Inn", a restaurant that was in business during the 1970's. The building is still there, along with a mid sized parking lot but is now a place of residence. A small yard is behind the house and the hill rises from that. You can just make out the foam foot print for the freight depot as well.

So there you have it, Wednesday night was actually productive. I will next fill in the gap of the other side of the roadbed and prepare the surface for plaster cloth. I also need to finish the other end of Route 11 as seen to our right. A quest for bridge shoes resulted in many photographs and hints from fellow modelers. Because the layout has to move, the bridge will not be glues to the abutments. Once plaster cloth has been laid down, I'll add the foam roadbed for Depot Street, then add the styrene road itself. Hydrocal rocks will be cast, planted and painted, trees added and ground cover too. I have a new goal to get this side of the layout down as it will (hopefully) be photographed for a special project before I move back home. What is it you ask? Well the layout is in 1976, and we all know I love Geeps!

​More to come...

 

Well it's been a while but I finally got to work on the layout this past weekend. I've had trade shows the last few weeks and with the move looming ever closer, time becomes more and more rare.



When we last left off, I had built one part of the hill on the right side of Depot St. Next I added the left side of the hill. A few things that were my goal here. I first wanted to replicate the terrain as best I could with the real terrain. Second, use it as a natural scenery block. I started by using my hot glue gun to glue down chunks of foam then used a serrated knife to put the contours into it. I also had to be mindful that the slope of the hill ended about where the Potter Place Inn was. There is a small yard space between the building and the start of the hill. The portion of the hill that faced the current Route 11 was cut rather flat. This will have cut granite on its face to simulate what the road crews did when laying out modern Route 11.



Look carefully and you will see the next detail I had to model. I have been busy working on bringing this hill up from the layout, but to simply just have it rise out of the flat surface didn't seem natural. Last fall, I rode my bike on a large stretches of the Northern line and found many rock cuts where the line cut through granite. I found two examples that looked very much like what I'm modeling here, a rock cut with a highway over pass. The profile was roadbed, ditch, rock cut. I needed a drainage ditch that would be between the rock cut and the roadbed of the line. On the prototype, some of the ditches were real deep and still were holding water and some amounts of weeds. How to simulate this on the layout? Turns out it wasn't that hard. I first used my pencil soldering iron, turned up the heat, and lightly followed the edge of the foam roadbed. I tried to be careful here, we only need a shallow ditch. With the soldering iron done, I cleaned up the ditch with a Dremel tool and a curved stone in the tool. The coarse stone did a great job giving the ditch a profile as well as blending the hill in with the flat area. I think this little detail really helps force the brain into thinking that the hill was here first, then the main line.



With the hill ready for plaster, I was ready for the last bit of track work on this side of the layout, Potter Place Spur. I cut a section out of the siding and carefully added the Atlas #5 left hand turn out, soldered this switch in and called it good. A quick check against derailments showed all was well on the main. One mistake I have made in the past is to use roadbed on all my industry sidings and spurs. In the real world, such practice is left for the main or heavily used sidings. Potter Place, like so many others is placed right in the dirt. For the most part, the ground is prepared, usually flat, but most have more grass and weeds between the ties than ballast. I wanted to simulate this so the first thing I did was build a transition block from black styrene as seen above. It was glued at the small section at the start of the turn out.



Next, a strip of black styrene was sand beveled on both ends to A: match the top of the foam roadbed and to B: help with the transition to the base.

That is all I have time for today, The siding is done and I'll show that soon. I also worked on getting the area covered with plaster last night so those updates will be up shortly. My goal for tonight is to cast some hydrocal rocks and while those are drying, add ties where needed and paint this large section of track. If I'm lucky, I'll be adding the rocks I cast tonight, onto the rock walls on Wednesday. I maybe heading to Illinois for a few days and then NH again after that so progress may slow down again.

​More to Come...

 

Very nice job, Jim. Looking forward to some trees!