The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[peteski]

"Just add water!"

. . .and it will grow to  1:1 scale.

[wm3798]

Rhodana grew up in the Monkton Mill not far from the NCR trail.  Built in the early 19th century, it had an overshot wheel in the back.  It ran till about 1950, and was her dad's antique shop when she lived there.  I have several built and inbuilt mill models awaiting her seal of approval...


We also look for mills in our travels.  Today we found this one...



So... I'm not lobbying or anything... but Phil's Bayou Another could use an on line supplier of combustible spirits...
Lee

[DKS]

So, this morning I was online doing a search for small stone spring houses in New Hampshire, and I stumbled upon a mind-blowing coincidence. As it happens, there is was a place in New Hampshire that's eerily similar to my layout concept: Cohas Springs in Londonderry.



Founded in the late 1800s, the Cohas Water Company bottled water at the spring in Cohas Park, Thousand Acres. Visitors arrived by rail, passing through scenic pine forests.

   

   



The little bridge in the image above is now abutments in the woods, below.



According to historic maps, the little rail line that ran into the park paralleled the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad for a couple of miles through what was once called Depot Village, in the middle of which was Smith Corner.



On the map above (circa 1930s), Cohas Park is off the top left corner, and the rail line running into the park is the dotted line. Cohas Park itself has been obliterated by the Manchester-Boston Airport and the Londonderry Industrial Park. Incidentally, there used to be several water wheel mills in the area, and now there's also a small brewery.

More info on Cohas Springs: http://cohas.parmenterfarm.org/index.html

[wm3798]

Ed's Law! 

[DKS]

I'm not lobbying or anything... but Phil's Bayou Another could use an on line supplier of combustible spirits...

Well, as it happens, the layout had Lee Weldon Antiques and Tannahill Mill. So I swapped them. Granted, the mill isn't a distillery, but at least you now get the name Weldon Mills. (I can even adapt the sign from the distillery you found.)

[davefoxx]

How appropriate that Weldon Mills’ initials are “WM”?

DFF

[wm3798]

Fookin'A, @davefoxx !  That's why he's my Fixer!

[wm3798]

Well, as it happens, the layout had Lee Weldon Antiques and Tannahill Mill. So I swapped them. Granted, the mill isn't a distillery, but at least you now get the name Weldon Mills. (I can even adapt the sign from the distillery you found.)

When you have that sign, we might need a scalable image....
Thanks, DKS!
Lee

[DKS]

When you have that sign, we might need a scalable image....
Thanks, DKS!
Lee

EDIT: See the new post below.

[Point353]

How appropriate that Weldon Mills’ initials are “WM”?

DFF

Did you notice that they're located on Rockfish Drive?

[DKS]

Of course, after all that work, only now did I think of checking online.

Their Facebook page has a crystal clear rendering of the logo/sign:



All I had to do was convert it from bitmap to vector.

And now here's the PDF with a scalable version of the official logo/sign from Weldon Mills: http://davidksmith.com/modeling/layouts/LastWhiteRiver/images/weldon-mills.pdf

[davefoxx]

Did you notice that they're located on Rockfish Drive?

AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  Too funny.

DFF

[wm3798]

That'll look good on some covered hoppers.  Have the reporting marks WMDX been taken?
Lee

[DKS]

Have the reporting marks WMDX been taken?

According to this reference, no. So, looks like you're home free.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reporting_marks:_W

[DKS]

Scenery is under way. I went to work on the rock face at the lower left corner of the layout. This involved installing a single strip of Cripplebush Valley rubber rock, with some bits of Chooch retaining wall added in the areas where the rock dips below the track grade above it.





The area around the water tower got some added detail in the form of wooden retaining walls.



Then I filled in the gaps and created the final land contours with pre-colored, pre-mixed sanded grout, which has a number of advantages over my "normal" favorite, Sculptamold: most notably, since it's pre-mixed, I can use as much or as little as I need, from a cup to a thimbleful, with zero waste, and it's always ready to use. In fact, it really has only one disadvantage: it dries very hard! That makes modifications after the fact rather difficult. But for mini-layouts such as this, that hasn't been much of a problem.