Westford Quarry

[nuno81291]

Hello! After suffering from a few weeks of modelers burnout from being stuck at kitbashing/weathering buildings for the HO layout, I stumbled upon a local granite  quarry called Fletchers Quarry in Westford MA. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53_4NlgWcpc This video turned into a few hours searching for photos, aerial images/maps etc. It stuck into my head quickly that the major operational portions of this could be squeezed and compressed into a nearly HCD size. Eyeing some storage space I have left over to display such a creature I decided to forge into Anyrail and came up with this:


I have since made the "benchwork" and began laying out some risers for the grade down to the first "level" of the quarry. No pics of that progress, but I will get some up as it progresses. Luckily I scored a bunch of 2" foam for this layout from a friend as well as only having to buy 1 sheet. The grade is fairly steep but I think it ads to the charm and attraction of such a railway. Operations will be fairly simple from what I can tell...Scowering for any detail into the operations online so far to no avail... This will be a cool polar opposite to my HO layout that is "gritty urban", this will be a small slice of the woods with some dramatic granite faces with a tiny 44 tonner hustling flatcars back and forth. A google search of Fletcher Granite will take you to some of the great photos of the railroad that are copyrighted and I do not want to share here without permission.

[garethashenden]

I've often thought that that quarry would make a good layout. I look forward to seeing it progress.
Before the 44T, they had a couple of ex-B&M 0-6-0s; 410 (which is on display in Lowell, and I think 414 was the other. I'm not sure when they stopped using steam, but I'm under the impression that 410 was rescued in the '70s. Not sure what era you're going for, but a derelict steam engine could be a nice detail.

[Chris333]

Do it!     Would be sweet with fall trees... in the rain!

BTW the loco in the video is either 70 or 80 tons 

I searched Bing and Google maps looking at that place.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Westford,+MA/@42.6373209,-71.4181146,612a,20y,180h,41.53t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e3bdbb5478fbbf:0xc3965e515c48fa04!8m2!3d42.5792583!4d-71.4378411

[Chris333]

Might be cool to have the cutting house at an angle with the crane over the "main line":
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Westford,+MA/@42.6253351,-71.4149569,173a,20y,90h,41.7t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e3bdbb5478fbbf:0xc3965e515c48fa04!8m2!3d42.5792583!4d-71.4378411

[nuno81291]

I decided to buy a few kits to use to represent some of the various structures around. Finished basic foam placement, lots of carving to do. Hoping to finish wiring everything tonight, replace ties and forge on with scenery.

[nuno81291]

Here are the abutments and shoes I built for the small bridge scene I am including near the cutting mill. (There is one, albeit a bit smaller there on the 1:1) had this atlas c55 bridge already and decided to use as is.



Here is an overview of the layout/main scene. It is obviously compressed horizontally and vertically but it is big enough to do enough justice to the feeling I think. Along with the Claremont Concord I am attracted to quirky prototypes, steep grades and weird/less often modeled settings.



Here is the other side, cutting mill and unknown other building. Need to try to find out what it is used for. Anyone know of any 40' flat cars other than the red caboose offering? Need some of these, I don't think they are using 50s but also saw interchange service with gondolas.. I'm not modeling the mile or so of track/runaround to the branch this is off but perhaps there is an idea for that in the distant future. Btw the track not being centered on the roadbed in this shot is a non issue as the ties here will be mostly in dirt. I included the roadbed only to give some chance for relief to the surrounding landscape to avoid the "world is flat" syndrome.

[Chris333]

Atlas made some 40' flats, but it may be that they come with bulkhead ends. I don't remember.

Nice work so far!

[central.vermont]

Some photo's here you may find useful.
http://photos.nerail.org/show/?order=byrail&page=1&key=291

Jon

[StewRRFan]

Look at KeyRay Models.  They have some 40' flats for their steel mill models.  Might work for you.

[nsbob]

Just to help.  I think you meant KenRay Models (kenraymodels.com). 

[garethashenden]

Fine N Scale also make flatcar kits. They have a 40' fishbelly car and a 38' truss underframe car. Both sold in 2 packs.

[nuno81291]

A bit of progress on the bridge. Plaster drying on the stream area. Painted the rails brown will get around to the ties once I figure where is buried beyond the ties (the loading area for instance). Tons of rough work to do yet on the quarry side making rough landforms

[Caleb Austin]

Bridge and abutments look great! Nicely done.

[nuno81291]

I decided to throw a quick and dirty paint job to give some oil rust streaks a try. There are a ton of these and a lot of shades of rock, I envision many, many more test coats of paint/weathering to get a sense of how to make a convincing color/texture with the carvings. I think for quarry walls the foam/plaster is pretty good and I may buy some cripplebush products for the more natural or cut smaller faces that are present. The left wall is a more concentrated mix of gray acrylic in 90% iso, the right a much less concentrated wash. Will probably go with thinner washes of many tones. No idea what application method is the best...probably a soft brush or sponge? Lots more testing to do..



Here you can get a sense of how much basic carving, plastering and sculpting is left before basic ground cover.. I have been afraid to do rocks on my last few layouts so why not make one that is rock centric? 

[Chris333]

Sweet stuff! I'd probably print out photos of the real thing while trying to do the rock work.