The Very Last White River and Northern Railroad

[Scottl]

Your micro-layouts are really inspiring work.  I love how quickly they come together. 

[DKS]

Your micro-layouts are really inspiring work.  I love how quickly they come together.

Thank you. With only 8 square feet of modeling space, they do indeed appear to come together "quickly." But watch out: the apparent speed of progress at present will soon give way to long stretches of next-to-zero progress as I try to find ways to cram a ton of modeling into a tiny space, and address unforeseen speed bumps...

[wm3798]

Thank you. With only 8 square feet of modeling space, they do indeed appear to come together "quickly." But watch out: the apparent speed of progress at present will soon give way to long stretches of next-to-zero progress as I try to find ways to cram a ton of modeling into a tiny space, and address unforeseen speed bumps...

Alas, this is the part that is your superpower.

Keep an eye on the cats... those foxes grow up quick, and they grow up hungry.  We have one that enjoys the cover our our yard's shabby maintenance...  He's a substantial fellow, lopes around like he owns the place, and he gives Rigby conniptions.

Lee

[DKS]

Keep an eye on the cats... those foxes grow up quick, and they grow up hungry.  We have one that enjoys the cover our our yard's shabby maintenance...  He's a substantial fellow, lopes around like he owns the place, and he gives Rigby conniptions.

My outside cats and the local foxes have been co-existing for several years. Occasionally there will be some midnight screaming matches, but that's the extent of any conflicts I've observed. Plus, the foxes get to feast on any edible leftovers I toss outside. They're especially fond of French fries.

[DKS]

Today I resized all 14 window openings, plus the door opening, of the brewery office to accept Grandt Line castings, then gave it a Monster Modelworks stone foundation.

[DKS]

In between bouts of fox pup watching, I knocked out three moldy old round tuits--I started building them back in 2017, after all.

With the addition of a platform and a ladder, the fuel oil facility was at last finished.



With the completion of the roof and addition of a ladder, the water tower was at last finished.



And, with the addition of a hose and a ladder, the sanding tower was at last finished.

[DKS]

Made a change in the plan today. (Nothing major, just swapped out a building.)

I was at the point of wrapping up the gas station when the whole project took a 90-degree turn, thanks to this reference image taken in Nashua, NH, around 1945-50:



That Esso station in the background was vaguely reminiscent of the Mobil station from the White River & Northern IV I'd started to rebuild. Courtesy of a slight rearrangement of streets and buildings, I made room for it (and Schmuck Heating Oil, #18, got moved next door to Haber Lumber & Coal). Before, left; after, right:

   

At last, I may have a chance to finish this!



More on the Mobil station project here: http://davidksmith.com/modeling/projects/project-4.htm

[CRL]

It’s good to remain flexible as you build the layout to take advantage of fortuitous opportunities presented when you see something that works better than what you drew on the plan.

Really nice progress.

[Chris333]

Think that is about 10 revises so far 

[DKS]

Think that is about 10 revises so far 

Oh, I'm just getting going...

[DKS]

Today I finished a modification to the enginehouse. I had to remove the machine shop from the side and cut it down, as it wouldn't fit on the layout otherwise. I also made new doors since the originals were absurdly thick—four layers of laser-cut material that wasn't even micro-ply to begin with. The new doors were scratchbuilt from individual boards.

Original kit (product photo left; as-built, right)--look at those thiiick doors!

   

Newly-trimmed shop and more slender scratchbuilt doors...





Interior lighting and Model Tech Studios interior details:

[CRL]

The color you selected so much better than the stock kit photo. Doors are great too... interior spectacular.

[DKS]

Also accomplished today was some headway on the trestle. I thought about using a brass pin-connected truss bridge left over from the Black River & Western, but it was entirely too large, overpowering both the layout and especially the Shay that would be using it. So I began researching real bridges in the vague vicinity of the fantasy resort in New Hampshire as inspiration for the model. This pile trestle was one possibility:



So was this one-of-a-kind bridge, referred to as an "upside-down covered bridge":



If the layout was larger, I might try this steel trestle near Gorham, NH:



Ultimately I found what I needed outside of Gilead, NH. Boring, yes—thus, perfect:



I started with the raw materials: plate girders from Micro Engineering, and some Vollmer truss bridge parts. Each of the plate girders was shortened by one panel to make it fit.



All combined, they created the main structure; then a quick spray painting yielded the finished assembly.



Next I need to make the stone piers...

[DKS]

Built the enginehouse inspection pit in situ.



Then I added a foundation (of sorts) with indexing strips to hold the building in place, and one of my "patented" electrical connectors for the lighting.



The counterpart electrical connector is visible right of center:



Incidentally, that piece of tubing attached to a block of wood is a smokestack. The kit provides styrene tubing and instructs the builder to simply glue the end of it to the roof. But it winds up snapping off over and over, so I replaced it with metal tubing that goes through a hole in the roof and is anchored at the bottom. Won't snap off anymore!

[CRL]

That connector looks like a strip of PCB that’s had one side cut at 1/2 point, and other side cut at 1/4 in from each end, then snapped & folded together at each point to form an inverted T.

Correct?