Last updated - 1 April 2010
Cambridge Gazette 31 March 1960 - "The Maine Central Railroad ran its final train through the Ammonoosuc Valley today, after nearly 90 years of service. Mayor of Cambridge James Taylor said he was "bitterly disappointed" that the MEC had final applied to abandoned the line. But despite many meetings with the chamber of commerce there had been no new shippers on the line for some years. With the downturn in the economy and International Paper suspending production it was only really a matter of time before the line closed. A spokesman for the MEC said that the line was loosing money daily and they had now applied for abandonment as no buyer had been found to take the line as a going concern. They expect scrapping to commence in mid April, a 20 mile scenic portion of the line will sold to the State Forest Service for use as a hiking and cross-country ski trail.
The final railroad cleanup operation didn't go without a hitch though. Prophetically, Alco switch engine #953, for the last 5 years the Johnsboro switcher, working its final turn in the valley collecting empty cars suffered an electrical failure just a mile out of Johnsboro. Road engines #672 & #569 which had been used for the last through train to Johnsboro were called to haul the failed switcher and train to Whitefield, and on to Bartlett."
Oct 2008 - There has not been a huge amount of progress over the last 10 months, although there is a little more scenery and an interesting "rubber" rock face for the quarry. The layout has been run a fair amount and in August it hosted its third "open shed" - a success despite the dreadful weather.
However, this may prove to be the final entry in the history of the White Mountain Branch. My wife has decided that we need a larger house and the property is currently for sale. Given the current financial and property market conditions it may prove impossible to sell in a reasonable timescale, and redeveloping the existing house has to be a strong possibility. This will almost certainly mean that the real estate on which the current workshop/train room stands will be required for other purposes. No further work on the WMB is therefore sensible as it is likely that it will have to be dismantled soon.
I hope you have enjoyed sharing the growth of the layout to date, and a second New England themed HO / HOn30 will rise again in the future. Please look at the Schöntal mini-site for progress on that layout which is continuing as it is portable.
Dec 2007 - Winter arrived in early December and led to activity ceasing in the shed, this was a disappointment as an unusually mild & damp November had seen the benchwork modified for the revised roundhouse lead. The winter temperatures however have spawned a side project. I recently discovered the local B&Q (for any non-Brits reading this - B&Q is a home improvement store) have started selling "pink" extruded foam board ideal for benchwork, but previously hard to get hold of in the UK. With a renewed interest in 2ft gauge, two 1m x 450mm (3ft3in x 15in) "shelf" boards appeared virtually instantly (I've never know benchwork build so quickly) in the study as a portable module. This means I can work on things indoors when its too cold outside, and as its more traditionally English in design (light-weight, shelf design, switching layout, portable) it will mean that I can take it to shows as well.
The module is loosely based on Union Station, Farmington, Maine - for those who don't know Farmington was the interchange between the Sandy River and the Maine Central. While it wasa very compact layout - it wasn't quite as compact as I've had to make it - but I think it catches the flavour. I'll be adding a page for the new module soon.
In terms of other activity most model making has been on the HOn30 - freight cars, and a combine. Santa also added to the HOn30 roster - more details on the narrow gauge pages.
Nov 2007 - shortly after the last entry all work stopped on the layout for three months. My work meant I was dealing with, and helping eradicate, an out-break of the very serious livestock disease - Foot & Mouth. As a result I was working long hours and overtime at weekends. Many of the controls have now been lifted and my working hours are now thankfully returning to normal - however we are now in late fall in the UK and the temperature in the shed is not really conducive to long periods out there!
I have therefore been working on projects I can do indoors and particularly I can take to the living room to spend more time with my wife whilst watching TV or listening to music. I have been working on several HOn30 kits of Sandy River RR stock, and the Stewardson Farm buildings. I have considerably expanded the section on the Maine 2-foot gauge railroads in the Rolling stock section - click here to go to the new page.
July 2007 - The seismic shift has really brought some activity to the train room! There has been plenty of rain to test the roof (half of England appears to be under water) but to date no leaks!.
The rather unsatisfactory lift out scenery behind West Cambridge has been fixed in place (as I can now get to the staging from the rear), the backscene has been neatened up to suit, but yet to be painted. A sizeable chunk of scenery including large rock formations has been installed using corrugated plastic board formers, wire mesh and plaster gauze. The "greenery" has now moved onto the east bank of the Ammonoosuc River. I am extremely impressed by Woodland Scenics static grass flock - if you've not tried it have a go, it is an excellent representation of medium length grass.
Thoughts are progressing on how the main road will cross the quarry branch - at this time it looks as if it will have to be on an overpass rather than at grade. I am also contemplating installing wires in the pavement for Faller Car System® control - this has been included on Schöntal - but to date no US outline vehicles have been produced.I am contemplating installing a large photographic backdrop of fall hills on the back wall - this may end up being Canadian, as I have found suitable shots on a Canadian website - but the US market seems to be dominated by Backdrop Wharehouse, who produce nothing suitable.
I will shortly be into considering precisely which building goes where in Cambridge, and building loads of trees!
May 2007 - Not known to be a centre of seismic activity a major earthquake occurred today in Cambridge NH. The ground quaked for around half an hour and when it was over everything appeared to have moved about a foot further south .....
Well not quite, but the layout has been shifted forward in the train room so I now have a narrow isle along the rear of the layout - better from both a construction and operational point of view. An added bonus is that the view of the yard and engine terminal from the new isle is much better. (Photos to be added soon).
There is also generally less "stuff" in there so everything is easier to get at, and despite the rain in the last few weeks the roof is water-tight! I'm beginning to think that some more scenery is in order.
April 2007 - The shed roof has been given another layer of bitumen and felt over the Easter holiday weekend. The weather has been dry and warm, with so far no rain to test the new top sheet.
Otherwise modeling has been to work on some UFOs (un-finished objects) lurking on the work bench. In this case I repaired a damaged B&M caboose (it had taken a trip to the floor), and added details to MEC U25B # 234 and SW7 # 331. In the latter case I have started tackling the missing handrails which I am fabricating out of brass wire and solder, as I can't find suitable cast stanchions.
At present work in the layout room itself is a bit limited due to lots of "stuff" being stored in there; but fear not, a second smaller storage shed is on its way to be placed elsewhere on the property. At long last I will be able to get in there without having to move a pile of junk every five minutes!
In the last week I also left Alton club - too much politics and too little modeling.
March 2007 - After a winter of inactivity on the White Mountain Branch, I finally returned to the shed during March. It soon became obvious that the siding at Cambridge had some serious track issues, as only about 2 engines and a handful of 40ft cars would operate happily on it. I traced that to the Walthers wye switch giving access to the quarry branch. Whether this was caused by winter leaks causing warping in the road bed or bad laying in the first place (or a combination of the two) I don't know. The troublesome turnout and piece of track was ripped out and replaced with a Peco code 75 small radius wye, which even the passenger cars seem happier with.
After considering scrapping the entire project - I have decided for the time being at least to press ahead. I tried drawing up a couple of different plans (in XtrakCad) for the same space over winter but none of them had any significant advantage. Now I am happier with the running of the Cambridge area I hope to add ballast and scenery carcass here in the near future.
I now have enough 70's era cars to operate a decent length train - if not yet operate the entire layout in that era. I have recently added replacement lighting and a LokSound decoder to U25B #234. I must admit it is a very good decoder, very easy to program.
I will be addressing, yet again, the waterproofing of the shed roof over the Easter holiday weekend.
Previous reports
Progress 2006 * Progress 2005 * Progress 2004 * Progress 2002-3