Updated Richford Branch Trackplan

One of the frequent requests I get is for an updated "as built" version of the Richford Branch track plan. 

At long last, thanks to my good friend Bernie Kempinski's efforts, those requests have been answered. 

Posted above is the as-built trackplan of the Richford Branch. (Click on the image to make it larger). 

Couple of caveats: Although the benchwork format and track arrangements are accurate, the structures and scenery renditions are nominal. At some point Bernie will update those - likely when I get more of this stuff actually built! 

Thanks to all for their patience - this has been on the to-do list for a long time! 

Wordless Wednesday #243

Jim McFarlane Collection

 

Images from videos

Back 20 or more years ago an outfit called A&R Productions produced a series of VHS tapes titled "Central Vermont Railway in Steam." I bought the video tapes, and then, several years later the same footage was re-released on DVD. These were essentially 8mm and "Super 8" movies shot in the last couple of years of steam on the CV - primarily on the Southern Division. As such, they're not terribly clear - there's lots of handheld camera work and quick cuts, but they often show things that I've never been able to locate anywhere else. Which brings us to the topic for today. 
Video #3 is actually two parts - the majority of the first half of the video shows lots of switching in Palmer and Willimantic, and then shifts to a ride in the caboose up the Richford Branch. (The second half of volume #3 is a cab ride on the Willimantic sub in Connecticut). 
I was going through some boxes a couple of weeks ago and came across the DVD - which I haven't looked at in a number of years. I went ahead and popped it into the DVD player to see if there was anything useful to me. In short, there was. I did a few "screen captures" with my iphone - they actually turned out fairly decent - considering this was a DVD remastered from a VHS that was sourced from 8mm home movie shot with a handheld camera on a caboose that was bouncing around quite a bit. I've mentioned the Richford plywood plant (which burned in 1954) before - this is the only color image (and one of only a few views of any type!) of that plant I've seen, ever... 

Atlas Plywood in Richford, shortly before it burned to the ground in October 1954. 

Approach into the CV's Richford Yard

Another "only time I've seen a photo of ..." - the HP Hood Creamery in Richford.

In Enosburg Falls, that's a coal dealer shed in the right foreground. 

Enosburg Falls - note how tight this area was. Basically east of Main Street, West of Plesant Street. Feed mill, with a "Wirthmore Feeds" sign atop the roof barely visible to the left. 

Video features switching the Condensed Milk Plant at Enosburg (the gray building with all the windows). Pulling (above) and setting out new cars (below). Interesting this sequence shows CV milk cars - and B&M cars. 

"Agricultural Implement & Paint Dealer" - Part 4 - Test fit of Garage Doors and basic assembly

Before assembling the walls, I test fitted the garage doors. For the large windows above the two smaller garage doors I started with a Tichy storefront window casting and added some 1x3 strip to create a frame for the window. I also added a center post between the two upper windows. 
Once I was satisfied with the fit of the garage doors I assembled the four exterior walls.
 
I had some 90 degree corner braces (I think they're from City Classics, but I'm not positive) so I used one in each corner, positioning them so they wouldn't interfere with the windows or roof. 
Next step: the angled front door for the "Paint Store" section of the building. 

"Agricultural Implement & Paint Dealer" - Part 3 - Front wall and Garage Doors

With the attic refinishing project complete (that's a whole other story) I finally had a chance to turn my attention back to the Enosburg Falls implement dealer. 
The first thing I did was adjust the front facade of the building to match the prototype photo I have showing how the large overhead doors were arranged before they were boarded up at some point in the 1990s. (See this photo)
This required cutting one new opening in the front wall and enlarging the opening with the two smaller doors. As I was enlarging the door openings, I made sure to allow enough space for the two windows above each smaller door. 

Before I cut the openings, I tried to find commercial garage door castings that would work. Everything I found in my stash of gas station kits and plastic doors were either too short, too wide, not tall enough, or too tall. Scratchbuilding was the only option. 
I tried two approaches to the garage doors. For the taller single door, I started with a piece of Evergreen .015 clear styrene, cutting it slightly larger than the opening to provide a surface to attach it to the door opening from the inside. Then I added styrene strip for the vertical and horizontal portions of the door. A coat of white paint - being sure not to get any paint on the window "glass" completed that door.

For the two smaller doors I cut a rectangle of .015 styrene wide enough to accommodate both doors and the center post between them. 

Then I cemented the trim strips to the styrene base. The vertical trim was fairly straightforward, the horizontal trim pieces were installed overlength and then trimmed to fit with a fresh razor blade. 

One everything dried, I carefully cut out the door openings and filed them square. After painting, I'll add clear glazing to the windows. 
I can't say I like either of these approaches better than the other - if you needed a door painted a color other than white, I suspect the second approach might be a little easier. 
One thing I do know - it was far easier to scratchbuild these than the two or three evenings I wasted trying to find a ready-made solution. 

"Agricultural Implement & Paint Dealer" - Part 1 - Researching

I need to get started on this since I've committed to doing a clinic on how I research and model prototype specific structures for the Mid Atlantic Railroad Prototype Modelers (MARPM) meet at the end of next month. 
The series of blog posts for this project will not include all the photos/diagrams/etc... from the clinic - think of this as an overview of the project. For a more in-depth description consider attending the MARPM.

While I have some typical New England buildings left over from prior layouts that I will be using on the Richford Branch, I certainly plan to model some signature structures. The first of these is this "Agricultural Implement & Paint" dealer, which still stands in Enosburg Falls, Vermont. 
I've known about this building, with its unusual front corner door, for a number of years. In fact, I first noticed it in an early issue of the CVRHS Ambassador when it appeared in an article on the Richford Branch. 
Sanborn Maps label the structure as Agricultural Implement & Paint." What the name lacks in pizzazz it makes up for specificity. Reviewing the maps over the years show the building was originally L-shaped with peaked roofs. At some point between 1920 (the date of the latest Sanborn Map on the LOC website) and 1960 or so when the Ambassador photo was taken, the building received a flat roofed addition that converted the footprint to a rectangle from an "L."
Some places change radically from year to year or decade to decade, meaning the opportunity to a building from the 19th century standing relatively unchanged is pretty rare for some parts of the country. Luckily for me, rural Vermont is not one of those parts. 
A quick wander around the streets of Enosburg Falls on Google Maps streetview show the building still stands, and is remarkably unchanged. I did screen captures showing all the sides of the building. I've included those below:

This view shows the rear of the building. You can see the original "L" footprint.

 "Trackside" perspective (the building was located directly
alongside the Richford Branch mainline.) The angled front door is 

visible to the left. 

Compare this Google Streetview with the b&w 
photo above to see how little the building has changed. 

Full in the knowledge that I need to come up with a better name for this thing, I thought I had enough information to get started on the model. 
I have two more potential sources of photos/information to check for this structure. 
The first is the history of Enosburg Falls (if you've seen the video layout updates on my YouTube channel you've seen this book). 
I also need to check the Central Vermont Railway in Steam, Volume 3, DVD which features a trip in a van up the Richford Branch to see if this store shows up at any point. It's surprising what shows up in that video - for instance, the only overall photo I've ever found of the Richford plywood plant happens to be in that DVD. 
If anything turns up in either place I'll do a post highlighting what I've found. Otherwise, the next post in this thread will show the approach to site planning and mocking up the building. 

Wordless Wednesday #206

Ian Stronach photo

Traffic in (and out) of a plywood plant

Most of the industries along the Central Vermont, at least in Vermont, can be summed up in one word - lumber. 
Furniture makers, door and window manufacturers, and even ski and baseball bat manufacturers all had one thing in common - their raw material was primarily hardwoods harvested from the verdent Green Mountains. One could even say another famed Vermont product - maple syrup - was directly related to the lumber industry.  
So it was no surprise to me when I learned one of the larger industries (click on photo above to enlarge) along the CV yard in Richford was a plywood manufacturing facility. Specifically, this  particular plant specialized in making plywood shipping crates for shipping a variety of items, including "special talking machines." 

So the outbound shipments are fairly obvious. Plywood crates, shipped flat in "shooks" (kind of like the Ikea of its day, I guess!) that can go almost anywhere other products are made. 

But I'm wondering what, if anything, would be shipped in to the plant?
To make plywood you start with a log, strip the bark, and slice it into thin strips, called "plys."Glue is applied to the plys and they are stacked with the grain running alternate directions from one layer to the next and then they are subject to high temperature steam before the stacked plys are placed into a hydraulic press (below) that laminates the layers together forming, you guessed it, "plywood." 

The raw sheets are then heated and stacked to dry, and will eventually be cut to size and/or sanded before being shipped to the customer (the illustrations with this post came from a 1921 Atlas Co. brochure - you can find the entire brochure HERE). 
I'm fairly certain the plant in Richford generated enough wood scrap that the boilers - visible at the location of the stacks in the photo above - were likely wood fired, but who knows - it's possible they were coal fired or the coal provided supplemental power to the plant. 
"Adhesive" of some sort may also have been delivered to the plant - at least that seems fairly logical. I don't believe the plant received wood by rail, although it may have in earlier times or in the event a unique species of wood was needed. 
Turning up the brochure has given me enough knowledge to press forward with planning how to model the industry on the layout. 

Crafting a Strategy

Although we’re not completely “moved in” to the new house (read: the cars are still in the driveway as the garage is plenty full of boxes) we are almost moved in – which means I’m looking forward to getting started on the new layout – hopefully at some point this summer. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking through how to approach building the layout.
The first possible approach is to build all the benchwork, lay track (even using something like Atlas code 83 track and turnouts as a temporary track), wire up the DCC system and be railroading. At that point I can go back and add more detailed track, scenery, structures and the like one scene at a time. 
One of my favorite model railroad design books is John Armstrong’s “Creative Layout Design” that I got when it was first published in 1978. While the cover

Can a valid approach to layout
 construction, be found
in one of the more
obscure plans in this classic? 

and interior layout of the book screams “1970s”!!, and some of the plans show the too-tight aisles and stacked track of many of Armstrong’s plans, the text and reasoning behind the designs is still valid – and the layout designs in this book were among John’s most creative and innovative.
One of the most unusual designs is for a large scale indoor layout based on the Maine Central’s interchange with a two-foot railroad. What was interesting and relevant to the topic of this blog post is the way John suggested approaching the project. 
He included a table in the book that showed how someone could approach this particular project that required virtually everything be scratchbuilt. First build a section of layout, then build a narrow gauge locomotive, a combine, and several flat cars… once that was done build the connecting MEC standard gauge track, followed by an MEC Ten Wheeler… that sort of thing.
So how would that look on my Richford project? 

The trackplan highlights how I’d divide the layout construction into three phases – the first would be the Richford peninsula proper, with enough benchwork on either end of the base of the peninsula to firmly secure it in place and allow for a temporary staging track on both ends. Why start with Richford? 
The answer in my case is that, with the exception of the plywood plant and perhaps the Richford depot, I have structures that I can use here. 
Phase II would continue the benchwork around the walls (not shown is there may be a Phase IIa, Phase IIb approach – where I’d complete “Enosburg Falls” before completing Sheldon Junction, or some such. 
Phase III would see the Sheldon Springs peninsula added. 

Taking some inspiration from the approach outlined in Creative Layout Design, I’d plan on completing other other projects to the list. For example, I have two CV brass N-5-a 2-8-0s. Both of them need decoders and a paint job. With my prior layout the work on the layout took priority over all else, meaning I was using “stand in” locomotives awaiting a chance to “get to” the correct locomotives. Likewise, I had a lot of unweathered, out of the box freight cars to “fill out” the trains – with unbuilt resin kits in sitting in their boxes. 

Here's a tabular view of how this might look for Phase I: 

Task	PHASE I – RICHFORD PENINSULA
	Infrastructure	Rolling Stock	Structures/Scenery
1	Install track lighting fixtures
2	Benchwork complete for peninsula, with temporary staging on both ends.
3		At least 32 “completed” freight cars appropriate for layout*
4	Track laid, feeders installed, and switch frogs powered to include: 1 custom curved turnout 7 LH no 6 turnouts 4 RH no. 6 turnouts Turntable
5	Install DCC system and wiring to include turntable controller
6			Install existing structures – freight house, warehouse, mockups for others
7			Base scenery complete
8		Paint, weather, and install decoder in one N-5-a 2-8-0

* This particular task is already complete as I have far more than 32 “completed” cars! ("Completed" means mechanically tuned, detailed including complete underbody, and weathered). The quantity of 32 is based on the total track capacity of Richford, divided by 50% - with one staged 14 car train. Thirty two cars is too many cars on the Phase I layout at once, so some of the 32 would serve to add variety to trains even at an early stage. 

Once I reach “Task 8” in the table above I can either proceed to start Phase II or refine and “tweak” Phase I perhaps by adding more details to the scenery, scratchbuilding the structures to replace the mockups, build more freight cars and the like.
Of course one could combine both approaches shown – build all the benchwork, lay temporary track, and then go through a step-by-step approach for each scene as shown above.
My goal here is not to create Gandtt charts, schedules and the like but instead to develop something of a methodical approach – otherwise it can become far too easy to either get bogged down in the constant slog of a huge undertaking, or end up jumping from one project to another in such a manner that nothing gets done. 

Richford Branch track plan - first look

As I've mentioned previously, I've been working with layout designer (and my good friend) Lance Mindheim on designing the plan for the new layout. Shown below (click to enlarge) is the layout design in the "current final" state - Lance and I both decided to forego any further tweaks or adjustments to this plan "on paper" - adjustments and tweaks may well be made full size as the layout is built - but with the possibility of the finished layout being a little smaller than shown here the basic footprint and theme are a 90% solution. 
I'll post some more details on how the plan could be built and operated (which in turn will explain the layout design proper) in the future. 

Richford Branch Maps 4 - Enosburg Falls

Another Richford Branch town map, this time for Enosburg Falls. The CV List of Industries page for Enosburg Falls is shown in the second image. 

On second thought . . .

Sunday afternoon I had the chance to actually measure the new basement. I wasn't surprised that the actual dimensions with the walls framed out had changed somewhat from the estimates the builder had given us a few weeks ago. The revised floorplan can be found in the link just below the header. 
This task meant I spent about 45 minutes in the basement, and during that time I couldn't help but feeling that the "branchline" scheme I've discussed - a layout inspired by the CV's Richford Branch - would be a much better fit for the space than going through the process of attempting to fit, and refit, several of the mainline towns into the space. I think the resulting layout would always seem just a little too cramped. 
But just because its a branch doesn't mean the curves won't be fairly broad. 
And note I said "inspired by" - the goal here is not a tie for tie duplicate - a good thing since I simply have no idea what some of the buildings actually looked like. If I can determine what they looked like I'll model them accurately. Otherwise, I'm going to draw inspiration from other places along the CV to fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge. 
Things are starting to come into focus. 

Benchwork footprint - initial try 1

Bernie Kempinski and I had lunch today, and spent some time thinking through possible benchwork footprints for my new layout. 
So here, for the first time, is the very, very preliminary sketch of the Richford Branch in my new space. I'm not going to attempt a critique of this sketch - it's obviously just that - but it is a starting point and shows that a "spread out" Richford branch is certainly a workable theme in this space. 
I've included labels showing some key dimensions that got buried in our pencil work, as also show where Richford and some other key pieces might fit. 
I'm not sure we have the ideal arrangement. Perhaps Richford would be better on the other end of the line - staging could be located in my workshop accessed via the open space behind the powder room wall? And, though obviously not drawn to scale, the "squares" we worked with allow for 30" radius curves. But the peninsula lobe may be too close to the stairs. 
I'll likely try a few different benchwork footprints over the next few days and weeks. Obviously, detailed scale drawings should wait until there's an actual basement!
I will say we did discuss a Essex Jct - Richmond - Waterbury plan - I might pursue that a little more, just to see what it would look like, but immediately after broaching the subject the same old issues with minimum radius, the need for two staging yards, etc... all reared their ugly heads.  
So, for the moment I want to pursue the Richford branch plan to, as Mr. Spock would say, it's logical conclusion. 

I can put together a "brief book" with information on the Richford branch and some various must have's, nice to haves, etc.. for anyone who might be interested in taking a stab at a layout design for this space. Email me directly at mjmcguirk AT comcast DOT net....

Richford Branch Maps 3, Sheldon Springs

In between painting the basement walls and boxing up household goods I did manage to find enough time to draw up Sheldon Springs. Sheldon Springs is located west of Sheldon Junction (see the close up map here). Highlight of Sheldon Springs is the Missisquoi Pulp & Paper Co. plant, which is by far the largest single industrial customer on the Richford Branch. The first map is an overall view of the area and shows how the various elements fit together. (Click on the maps to enlarge).

The Missisquoi Pulp & Paper plant was located on a spur that swung northwest from the Richford Branch proper. The mill itself was located downhill from the CV tracks at the base of a fairly steep hill. The paper mill had a small switch engine (even had it's own engine house between the mill and CV main). But the CV did switch the mill, although CV engines couldn't operate past the points denoted with the red "B" on the diagram below.

Typically the Richford freight required two engines for power. George Corey provided this shot of N-5-a 2-8-0 no. 466 shoving on the rear end of the Richford-bound freight at Sheldon Springs on February 23, 1957. Within a month steam would be dead on the CV. (And yes, freight car nuts should check out the GTW rebuilt boxcar ahead of the van). 

Richford Branch Maps - 2, Sheldon Junction, Vt.

We continue our trip up the Richford Branch with the location many consider the scenic highlight of the line - the bridge crossing the Missisquoi River in Sheldon Junction. This is milepost 10.11 on the line, measured from St. Albans. 
The word "Junction" in the name gives a hint as to the other key element of this scene, the CV's crossing with the St. Johnsbury & Lake Champlain RR, Vermont's famed "Covered Bridge" railroad. 
Again, this map was drawn using photos, valuation maps, and the railroad's engineering department drawings. 
(Click on the map to enlarge it. 

Station Stop - Richford, Vermont

The newest station stop map I've developed shows the end point of the Central Vermont's Richford Branch. The overall map shows the route the CV line took into town, including it's connection with the Canadian Pacific Ry. 
The close up map shows the trackage in the station area proper. (Click on the map to enlarge it).