A Tale of Two (or more) Towers Along the Boston and Maine

Indeed, a new tower graces the duckunder location of my model railroad...an important area of "first impression" as one enters the room.

The top photo shows the standard Atlas tower that has filled the void adequately over the years. This tower was built when I first got into the hobby along with the schoolchildren in my classroom when we built a layout to commemorate Canada 125. (See MR issue July 94)

It also appeared on the layouts we set up at Railfair where the school kids gave clinics on the various aspects of model railroading they had learned as a result of our exciting classroom project.

In this image we see the new tower...an American Model Builders LaserKit that was a "gem" to put together. Seen here in the B&M maroon and depot buff colours, the tower certainly belongs trackside outside North Dover.

The kit for this tower offered many "peel and stick" parts which made for tremendous ease of construction. All doors, layered window parts, stairs and corner areas followed this method.

I used Erie Lackawanna maroon and Americana Sand for the two colours. The match is very close. While conducting research, I found many images of B&M structures,and depending on the season, the time of day or the age of the structure, the colour varied from a very yellow/maroon combination to a tan/maroon look. As you can tell, I was excited to have my new B&M tower in place at the duckunder for last evening's ops session. Of course, the question begs to be asked..."Why didn't you build the proper tower years ago, Mike?"

The image to the right shows another tower on my layout, the one that protects the interlocking where the Maine Central interchanges with the Boston and Maine. This tower, also situated at the duckunder, is located on the other side of the backdrop and viewable by those who have already entered the train room.

The structure was a magnificent plaster kit I built years ago. I painted all wall sections the concrete colour of the mortar first. Once dried, I used one of my daughter's red felt markers and brushed the tip carefully across each section. The red felt tip touched the bricks but did not flow into the mortar crevices...a unique way of "painting" the brick colour!That's MEC train #391, a unit tank train which has delivered fuel to the many pulpmills inland and is returning with empty tanker traffic to interchange for loads at North Dover.

The Maine Central train visible in the second image is about to enter the "portal" that separates the staging area (at the duckunder) from the layout. In the third image, we see the same train moments later entering the layout room. The tower and the highway overpass perform the duties of "masking" the portal opening.

As for last night's operation session, we had a baker's dozen in attendance and all were entertained with an excellent evening of train ops. Thanks to Bob and Fred who began the night on the 1170 switching local industries. They were relieved by Jim and Rick who continued with switching chores including assisting Mike and Stanley when they entered town in care of the "Conley Job" with an empty coal car to be exchanged for a loaded one. John and Peter performed admirably later in the day on the 1170 as they provided an assist for passenger train #9, "The East Wind" with Bill and Dave in the cab. After a passenger stop in N. Dover, milk cars were exchanged and #9 was on its way to Portland. ...and so the evening continued with many more trains run by other crews..ah, yes...lots of fun.

Cheers, Mike