Mike's B&M Layout Hosts Last Session of the Season

Summer's here...and that means the Friday Night Boys close out regular train operations in favour of warm evening walks with the lady friend and other romantic escapades! In reality, we don't stop thinking of trains...as this is the time we hop into our vehicles and begin thinking about serious railfanning in and around the area.

With that being said, the season's trains operating sessions came to a close last night with a final running of Mike's Boston and Maine/Maine Central Railroad. Yes, the lads will still operate their layouts...only in a more informal manner over the summer. I'll continue to host any visitors who wish to see the layout...in fact, I typically spend more time doing this than hosting the sessions.

The first train call for the evening was for a crew to man the North Dover switcher. This is a rather busy assignment offering a variety of activities from spotting and lifting freight cars to and from industries in town to blocking traffic on the north and south sidings for mainline trains as well as offering an "assist" with the passenger trains that drop and pick up milk cars. Our first image above shows the crew aboard the 1170 spotting a Santa Fe refrigerator car to the sprawling Scodras Grocers facility.

Before long, old man Conley over at Conley Lumber and Coal had his boys working his property aboard B&M engine 1231. The assignment was to return an empty coal hopper to town and return with a loaded one. That old flat car Conley has on his property acts as a "reach" as the diesel locomotive is prohibited from travelling below the wooden overhang leading into the coal and lumber area due to fire regulations.

Meanwhile, back in town, the North Dover crew was kept exceptionally busy setting out lifts for two trains, train PM2, a B&M hotshot freight and Maine Central train #391, a unit train of tankers returning empty from the paper mills inland.

In this image, we capture the diminutive black switcher working the south siding in town. The north siding appears full as do the two spurs leading into the Phillips Furniture factory...after all, that's the biggest industry in town!

I love modelling the 50's where you can see all the different shades and tones of "boxcar red". That outside braced 40 footer certainly looks at home amidst all the other freightcars in the picture!

While the Maine Central holds the interlocking (just out of the picture) the Boston and Maine train passes by on its mainline and approaches the outskirts of North Dover.

Four units are required on this day for train N2 and, boy...is it a long one! Cuts of coal hoppers, covered hoppers and tankcars are intermingled with 40 and 50-foot boxcars as well as an assortment of other traffic that makes up for a railfan's delight!

Once the caboose clears the interlocking and the train arrives town, the Maine Central will be granted permission to head out onto B&M trackage and enter town limits.

Yes, that's Maine Central train 391, "The Oil Can" in care of an AB pairing of F2's in the beautiful green and gold EMD inspired paint scheme. The train has just crossed Boundary Road and is entering yard limits where it will drop some empty tankers and lift some loaded ones.

The red brick building in the distance to the right is named after my father, FB Hamer. The structure I was standing on to take this image is the Holy Spirits Distilleries building. Yes, that is a scratchbuilt fire escape on the Distillery...and, yes...only after I completed the fire escape over many days of labour did I find a company advertising in Model Railroader Magazine offering etched brass ones! I don't mind, as this one is customized to the building I designed it for!

After the meet of these two trains, another hotshot B&M freight would arrive town. It was an outbound train that was classified at Lowell Junction some distance south of town. On my layout, Lowell is in staging and a crew at the duckunder entrance to the room builds this train using the staging tracks as a classification yard.

The crew here utilizes a local B&M switch engine and when the train is blocked, they hostle the power onto the train for the next crew to take out. Last evening, Paul (first-time visitor) enjoyed the experience of many of the assignments the layout has to offer including this one! You did a great job on all your tasks last night Paul!

Railfans around North Dover were pleasantly surprised to spot a BAR potato car out of season in regular revenue service looking pretty neat and clean. These cars are often spotted in long cuts of 50+ cars in "unit train" fashion during the potato run. The red, white and blue colours certainly add a splash of colour to the green background!

This image was snapped by a railfan in his canoe as he paddled down the Salmon River. That's Stanley Bridge, a beautiful stone arched example situated along a curve in the railroad tracks.

It wasn't too much later that North Dover was brought to life again with the sound of an on-coming train, Maine Central's train 390, a general merchandise freight headed inland. It's opposite number, train 391, the "Oil Can" that appeared earlier in the day was destined for Kittery, Maine on the Atlantic coastline.

We managed to "lens" this image of the train on the curve passing in the shadows of the Phillips Furniture Company. Judging by all the traffic on both sidings, the local crew in North Dover has their work cut out for them on this day. As an avid railfan, it is a joy to capture two brethren of the MEC in both company colours!

Yes, passenger and milk service is alive and well on my version of the Boston and Maine! Here we see E7 number 3804 about to depart North Dover as it heads to the Boundary Road crossing.

This is train #15 "The Dirigo" with a contingent of head-end traffic with its numerous passenger cars. Apparently the railfan who snapped this image has a few screws loose as he is about to be run over if he doesn't hurry and capture the photograph. We all know the lengths railfans go to for the perfect shot!

The Holy Spirits Distillery and the furniture factory act as man-made mountains in the scene! They certainly help provide a strong vertical dimension to the model railroad.

North Dover is within commuter reach of Boston and the RDC's are frequent visitors to the countryside around town. An intrepid railfan was quick enough to capture this image just after the Rail Diesel Car crossed the Salmon River and entered the State of Maine from New Hampshire.

The Budd cars were in great number on the Boston and Maine and were easy targets for the camera bugs.

These images present a fractional representation of the trains we ran in the session last night. Let's head out into the crew lounge and check out some of the happenings!

Indeed, we close off our posting with some pics of the boys in the lounge...just to show what a "happening" place a Friday Night train operating session can be!

That's Bob, Chris, Jim and John sharing stories and laughter around the "round table". Man, it's hard trying to stay thin on train night with all the muffins and timbits going around!

There is a large flatscreen TV (just out of view) that always has railroad videos and DVD's on the go just to keep the lads entertained if they can't entertain themselves! Well, I can tell you without a doubt, these lads are a fun bunch!

Here are some more of the fellas. We see John (again), Stan, Rob, Fred, Paul and Dave. My apologies to the other lads (myself included) who didn't make it into the pics...oh well, next time!

Those photographs on the black background were my wife, Lisa's idea. During the last major convention here in Ottawa, I was told to expect many visitors to my home as my layout had just been published in the magazine press. Yes, I had tons of folks come over...and thankfully, the images kept many entertained while others were in the small 11'x13' train room watching the trains run. Great idea, Lisa!

I leave you with this great Ted Xaras print that Dave brought over for me. Thanks Dave, I'll certainly get it laminated or framed. I have the same image on a beautiful decorative plate. Hey Dave...that Mogul sure looks gorgeous piercing that covered bridge! Hmmm...a steam excursion train on the layout wouldn't look outta place at all! Hmmm...we'll have to wait and see what the next train ops season brings!

So, it's now our summer hiatus. As mentioned earlier, this doesn't mean the boys of the Friday Night Group won't be running trains. We will...only on a more informal basis. In the summer we like to head trackside now that the weather is a bit warmer to capture some fabulous railfan images...and, yes...we'll be sure to post them on the weblog as we capture them! Have a great summer everyone!
Cheers, Mike

PS: We have a postscript to this posting. David just e-mailed me a great shot he took of train #15 "The Dirigo" as it traversed the New England River Bridge at Haney Gorge. Dave has been having a lot of fun with his new camera and he has even set up a new weblog at www.northconwaymr.blogspot.com where you can see his North Conway station diorama. As Trevor and Marty mentioned later...hey Dave, we're anxiously awaiting to see track extend past the 4x8 tabletop and out into the room! Thanks, again Dave, for the great shot!

David Primeau's CPR Newport Subdivision and the B&M Connecticut River Sub

The boys of the Friday Night Group are very grateful to David Primeau for offering to host an operating session on the eve of his departure across the country to Victoria, British Columbia. Knowing we could visit any other time, David said to me..."I love when the Friday Night Boys come over and help put my layout through the paces of an ops session!" So, thanks again David. David sent us an e-mail in advance of the session offering a "low down" on the layout and its theme. So I'll let David's words do the talking here.

The time is October 1957, our newly-minted PM is John Diefenbaker, Eisenhower is still in his second term in the White House, the ’57 Chevrolet is due to become a classic, “Love Letters in the Sand” by Pat Boone and “Tammy” by Debbie Reynolds are big on the hit parade, and steam is on its last legs in Canada and virtually dead in the US, except on some holdouts such as the N&W and GTW.

There are four stations on the layout starting with the CPR/QC yard at Newport (NP) on Lake Memphremagog just below the Canadian border to St. Johnsbury (SJ), where the Maine Central RR and St. Johnsbury and Lake Champlain RR meet with the CPR, to Wells River (WR), where the CPR ends and the B&M takes over, to White River Jct (WRJ), where the green and gold of Central Vermont makes its appearance. Staging represents Montreal, Quebec City, the Lamoille Valley, Portland, Me, Woodsville, NH, the CV line north to Montpelier, the joint B&M/CV line south to Brattleboro and the B&M line to West Lebanon, NH.

The layout uses DC cab control with six cabs. We cannot assign train crews to specific trains as DCC guys manage to do so well. The aisles do not allow people to pass one another. Instead, operators are assigned to one of the four stations and are responsible for managing and operating the action at these points. One more operator acts as the Rest of the World, i.e., staging. Two stations can occupy two people. Thus, with a dispatcher, if pushed, we can occupy eight people at a go. However, the ideal number is five or six.

Thanks, David for the vivid description of times and events as they are depicted on the model railroad. David's layout occupies a fair sized room and it presents itself in the shape of an "upper case" letter "E". Major north (Canada) and south (Boston-New London) staging tracks occupy the endarms of the letter "E" with the centre arm being a lengthy peninsula with a tall viewblock to separate towns along the route. John handled all trains to and from staging on this evening.

We'll begin our journey in Newport up near the US/Canada border. There's a large classification yard and engine servicing facility with turntable and roundhouse. While many trains pass through Newport on the main, a number of freight trains and turns begin and terminate their runs here.

The operator at Newport enjoys a myriad of entertaining and enjoyable jobs throughout the session...setting out southbound and northbound traffic for a number of different trains as well as going through the rigours of servicing locomotives. Lots of fun. There is even some local switching at a creamery and a lumber mill south of town. This assignment is a true joy to operate!

The two pictures showcase but a sampling of events. Here I'm bringing out a CP steamer that has already been serviced and turned. It's about to take a train back into Canada. That CP diesel switcher is a busy feller throughout the session as there is always traffic to be made up for trains visiting Newport later in the session.

Trains departing Newport southbound reach St. Johnsbury, a veritable hub on the layout. St. J is located on the "far side" of the peninsula as David did not have sufficient room width to have the tracks turn broadly enough to keep the flow going linearly...so the line "crosses over itself" at the peninsula's junction.

As David pointed out, St. Johnsbury is a railfan's "Mecca" with diesels from a handful of railroads being spotted here on a daily basis. Depending on the time of day, you will see CPR, B&M, Maine Central and, of course, St. J&LC diesel colours in front of that magnificent St. Johnsbury station!
Chris handled the chores here on the night, and when he wasn't running trains, he was seen with camera in hand! Hope to see some of those pics soon Chris!

The two images shown here showcase the station, a landmark site from two perspectives. (In the very first picture at the beginning of the posting above shows the other landmark structure in St. Johnsbury, the more recognizable building simply known as E.T. & H.K. Ide.) As model railroaders, we are always debating compromises as we compress scenes into our layout plans...and David is no different than the rest of us. His mainline track departs town differently than the prototype, but not to worry David...you have truly "caught the essence" of this New England railfan hotspot!

Continuing south along the line, we reach the town of Wells River where the CPR ends and the B&M takes over. David informs us that this job is one of the lighter assignments on the railroad. That being said, there is a variety of work chores to be done here including readying traffic for both northbound and southbound trains, conducting drops and lifts at a variety of local industries and turning locomotives on the wye seeing as this location is the terminating point for the major railroads. The exciting event here is the meet between the B&M and CP where traffic continues on its way in the same direction it was flowing but locomotives and buggies swap trains and return from where they came...a challenging, yet highly rewarding movement and Jim B. carried this out so very well! The image above shows a short local travelling along one section of the wye at Wells River. You've gotta love how David has captured the station with its ball signal so beautifully!

Our final on-layout destination is White River Junction, yet another railfan hotspot with its beautiful station. Here is where the CV makes its appearance on the layout. Railfan Mike wasn't able to capture a picture of the Central Vermont on this day although he was told it did make an appearance! Jim M. did a wonderful job operating the busiest section of the entire line!

Oh well, maybe something just as interesting will ply these rails in short order. "Holy mackeral, sapphire...look at the train rounding the bend!" Yessiree, it was the Cheshire...that beautifully streamlined futuristic looking train! Wow...Hamer's got horseshoes "you know where" on this day!

Can you magine being a kid in 1957 and seeing that streamlined beauty arrive town? I'd be the first to skip class and head trackside with my new camera in hand! David informed us that the President of the B&M at the time lived in "Cheshire Country" and rode this gorgeous train to work each day!

Yes sir, we've travelled down the Conn River line and, you know...1957 wasn't a bad year at all! With the myriad colours adorning these newfangled diesel engines it certainly was a railfan's paradise back then!

Thanks David for recreating a bit of New England history for us to appreciate. It was a joy bringing to life a bit of railroading history even if it was for one evening!

Meet David Primeau. David has been into model railroading for more years than he can count. His CPR Newport Subdivision and B&M Connecticut River Sub has been in existence for over twenty years. David has custom built and painted more locomotives than he can care to count. While he says that many are of the older variety and make, he is still very proud of the work he has done and chooses to continue to run this older equipment in lieu of the latest offerings.

One thing is for certain. The layout looks beautiful and it runs like a charm. It was fun operating not the normal "cab control" that we are used to...rather "tower control" where we take over the trains as they approach our district. It's interesting to note that we all had the opportunity to run a greater variety of trains and equipment this way...and it was a great time. Indeed, model railroading is fun!



Here is a short clip of Dave's Great HO layout