New Hampshire & Vermont - HO scale

[Ian MacMillan]

As some of you have figured out I am in the process of splitting my interests. The Amoskeag Northern in N is being built as a small switching style layout and the main layout space will be used to build an HO scale layout based on the CN/SRL and New Hampshire & Vermont in the north woods of New Hampshire.

A very crude track plan has been worked out...and after getting it down on paper last night I realized that the NHV interchange with CN ended up looking like Pelle Soeborg's Daneville & Donner River  Gonna need to make some changes to that. The NHV operated ~60 miles of former B&M and MEC track owned by the State of New Hampshire from the mid 1970's until 2001 when the operations were taken over by the New Hampshire Central. The layout locale is the area between Groveton, NH and North Stratford, NH, an area now operated by the New Hampshire Central and SLR.


The CN/SLR runs North/South on the right side of the room going from Staging to Staging. Each staging yard will be able to hold 3 aproximately 25 car trains. The NHV enters the layout from the bottom right, coming up from Groveton to the interchange with CN/SLR. New Hampshire Central will have trackage rigths from Colebrook(north) to the CN/SLR/NHV interchange to interchange with NHV.  The NHV then heads slightly north, where it will cross two tributaries of the Ammonoosuc river to serve 3-4 small industries, including a small paper mill.

CN/SLR power is M420's, GP38-2W's and GP40-2W's that were staples of the Berlin Subdivision. NHVT will have 2 GP9's, one a former MEC unit and the other MILW. New Hampshire Central at the time, has their lone ex-North Stratford RR 44tonner

The interchange area is ~32-36" deep, with the rest of the layout being ~24.

And now for some forms of inspiration.

NERAIL

[MichaelWinicki]

Wow!

OK, so is there a track plan for the small N-scale switching layout?

I like the concept for the HO pike.

So are both layouts going to occupy the same layout room Ian?

[DKS]

So, all of the time and materials that went into this just goes bye-bye? I'm sad; I was anxious to see the paper mill running, if nothing else.



Any chance that it might become your small switching layout...?

[coosvalley]

Whaaaaaaat?..Changing your mind, again?....switching scales?..... ..I'm getting the impression that you enjoy planning(dreaming?) more than building!

Although, I do like your choice of NHVT......But, I've gotta ask, why are you not going for the locos they actually owned?...Atlas just released some sweet LVRC RS-3s, and the 7801 was the lines only (running)power for almost a year...then you have  the 7805, a chopped RS-3, 2 RS-11s, the ex. MEC GP-38, and the GP-9.....ex Cartier chop nosed geeps may have also seen use on this line under NHVT...... And during their first month, they leased ST GP-9 #52........I have often considered what a successful NHVT would have looked like, with 3 paper mills(Berlin/Gorham, Groveton,and Gilman) and , and a mainline across Vermont......OH, and with the last ball signal and the last covered RR bridge on a freight line....OH, and I have LOTS of pics I can share, if you'd like...

Also, in the world of freelancing, the Coos Valley Railroad and the Moose River Railroad already own those tracks, maybe I'll grant you trackage rights!

[mu26aeh]

I'm sad; I was anxious to see the paper mill running, if nothing else.

I agree here, looked forward to another paper mill to follow.  There will be one on my layout when I can nail down a design

[Ian MacMillan]

The paper mill lives. The N layout is pretty much the DKS plan, just moved into a more linear form. Cars will come in from staging and then the BMR crew will work the mill. It will occupy the same room as the HO layout.

The HO layout uses 100% of the benchwork for what was started on the N layout. The only modification that appears to be needed so far is to expand the right side to ~36" instead of 24". Of the foam sheets I had bought for the N layout. I was able to separate the one I had used from the benchwork and it was transplanted onto the N one.

My bad on the GP9...it was ex-NW 699. I wanted to add another GP9 to the roster hence the ex MILW unit. I am not a fan of Alcos, so I do not plan on adding the RS units.  I would love to see what you have for photos!

[peteski]

Interesting.  One question: Why H0?
With N, you can model so much more area in the same square footage.  Are you getting too old for working with N scale? 

[Bsklarski]

Why not? I still have my HO layout

[Ian MacMillan]

Interesting.  One question: Why H0?
With N, you can model so much more area in the same square footage.

I've been in HO for a long time, and I have dabbled in Proto87 since 2006. I've done most of my work on a few Proto 2K models.

More area means nothing to me. I've always modeled small distances or areas with very little selective compression. Always have, always will.

[Smike]

N scale module,  N scale layout room, N scale way cool track plan, N scale lighting, N scale lets make an awesome paper mill,

hey look a...










SQUIRREL  

[coosvalley]

SO , as promised , here are a bunch of photos to clog up Ian's build thread, since we all know by next week he'll "change focus" and want to model Conrail again, I'm guessing Z scale this time?

Here in the first round of pics, we will explore Whitefield and Hazens. Hazens is the area where the Boston and Maine and the Maine Central split, running parallel from Whitefield, which is about a mile west of this location...There are lots of of pics online of Whitefield(and I don't have many), but very few of the line east(then north) of there, so we will explore that ...Anywho,these pics are more recent, but I will use older pics whenever possible...This is Whitefield, which had the last ball signal in use...this was NHVTs base of operations, on the other side of the river from this pic, behind the engine to the left...



In this next pic we are looking toward Whitefield, with the MEC on the left and the B&M on the right, the tracks have been altered post 2000.. , there never was a switch here, at least not during the diesel era....they took out a track to eliminate a road crossing, I heard...



In these next 2 pics, we are looking the other way, with the old MEC mountain Division on the right, and the B&M towards Berlin on the left..this switch is also new....





And here we are, a little further down the B&M Berlin line, just to the end of sight in the last pic....first looking west.....





And here were are just east of the wooden trestle, looking east, along the edge of what is now the White Mountain airport....Waumbek Junction lies ahead, about 2 miles from here I'd guess.... This is where the Groveton branch starts, taking a left ahead(north), with Berlin straight ahead(now gone), and the line to Quebec Junct.(on the MEC Mtn. Div.) off to the right, and that line is gone now too...

.

Since I don't have any pics of Waumbek Jct, we will pick up at the next road crossing, here we are looking towards Whitefield, on NH Rt. 116....and that's where we leave off until I get more photos online...

[Chris333]

Whats with all the HO scale lately?  You gonna have Tom make a separate HO forum? 

[Catt]

Man, ya just got to feel sorry for all these one scale model railroaders.They just don't know what they are missing.

[Ian MacMillan]

Nice shots!

[jpec]

I gotta admit, like H. I. McDonough driving by those convenience stores that weren't on the way home, I take some long strolls past those HO cases at Klein's...especially after seeing Lance Mindheim's work...

Jeff