Tom, where have you been??!

Since 2013 is almost at it's end, I figured I better get back to working on my blog. The good news is, I've been able to get some good work done on the yard at Troy. All trackwork is in and working well. I can run a train in from staging and work the local companies. 

Here's how I've decided to lay the turnouts. The idea is to be able to install the slide switches I use for throwing the points and routing power to the frog.  As you can see, the thin plywood is a perfect match for the n-scale cork roadbed I'm using under the flex track. I like this method because it allows me to work on the turnout at the workbench, get everything working right and then install it on the layout. I found that the slide switches work themselves loose if mounted directly into the black sheathing I use.

I've repainted a station I had on my old WVa. logging line in the new Sheepscot colors of dark green and light gray and I think she looks pretty good in the Troy yard.  I have a kit of the Sandy River's station at Strong to replace her in the future.

The large structure in the background is another building I had on the old layout. With a coat of weathered white paint I think it will serve nicely as one of the large mills that produced wood "novelty" products like chair spindles and table legs etc. Strong Me. had several of these wood mills and kept the Sandy River busy with carloads of product headed to Farmington and the Maine Central RR.

Finally getting some track laid.....

 This is the "end of the line" at Troy, Me.  There will be a turntable here and a two stall stone engine house.  The Sheepscot railway will head both north to Kingsmill and south to the docks located at Sheepscot.

 You can see here that I'm playing around with different track locations to find a good mix of necessary trackwork for prototype operation as well as enough room for structures and some scenic elements that will help define Troy as a junction point on the railway, similar to the town of Strong on the SR&RL.

 Forney #5 sits on on the two stalls at the stone enginehouse.  You can see below that I'm  using hollow core doors as the base of the railroad support structure. There is a sheet of 1/2" black house sheathing on top of the door.  The Micro Engineering flextrack I'm using will be installed on N scale cork roadbed to raise it up just a bit above grade.

It's been a couple of months since my last post.  Now that the holidays are over and my remodeling has slowed down a bit I've found some time to work on my Sheepscot Railway.  I'm following a plan by noted English modeler Iain Rice. Iain has a great way of capturing the look and flavor of the railroads he researches and then models. In his Sheepscot plan he captures two very interesting and photogenic Maine 2' railroad yards. His plan does a nice job of replicating the yard and junction at Strong, Me. on the Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes RR. and also the lower yard on the Waterville, Wisscasset and Farmington Railway at Wiscasset. Combining these two very busy places on their respective roads allows me to model some of the best the Maine 2' railroads have to offer modelers like myself. Strong Me. was a very busy place where the line from Kingfield joined the SR&RL mainline. Trains moved up and down the Kingfield line several times a day, that and the regular Sandy River traffic offers a lot of prototype operation here.  The lower yard at Wiscassett on the WW&F was a very photographic place to view the little narrow gauge line that ended it's line on a series of docks stretching out and onto the Sheepscot river.  This is the spot where coastal schooners would tie up and load lumber cut at sawmills on the Wiscassett line. There was also a creamery located on the docks that would receive insulated boxcars carrying milk from the farms up along the line. Wiscassett offers me the ability to model a large dock area with different structures built up on the wharfs and a place to build a model of one of the coastal sailing ships that regularly tied up at Wiscasset.

I took some photos of the track I've laid this week in the yard at Strong.  On my line, I'm going to model the yard at Strong but vary it slightly and rename it as Troy, Me. another small Maine town my brother lives in.  I think the name Troy will serve nicely as a stand in for the Strong yard.  I'm doing this because I'm not really modeling the Sandy River RR or the WW&F per say, but rather modeling my own little Maine railway that "could have been".  Changing the names of towns like Strong to Troy keeps the "flavor" but gives me the modeling license I need to build my rr the way I want to.