Amoskeag Northern - Conrail Portland (PRO&C) Line Engineering Thread

[Ian MacMillan]

Did some more digging in the B&M archives on coal movements in this area

"The most important industry on the White Mountain branch was located at Lincoln. The large pulp and paper mill at Lincoln received carloads of pulpwood, chemicals, and coal. (Much of the coal came from a mine deep in the wilds of West Virginia at the end of a Western Maryland branch..."

"Bituminous (or soft coal) was burned for power and steam at industrial plants and large commercial buildings in New England. Most of the origins were in PA, MD, and WVA and commonly moved in hoppers of the following roads: NYC, PRR, WM, and B&O.

Bituminous coal for consumption in New England that originated on the C&O, Virginian, and N&W commonly moved to the Norfolk area for trans shipment by water to ports in New England. From the ports the coal moved to destinations in hoppers that carried the folowing reporting marks: B&M, MEC, CN (for movements from Portland, ME via GT), and BAR.

A large consumer of Bituminous coal were steam locomotives. All-rail coal was often transferred from the originating road's cars at a central point, and then transhipped to outlying coaling facilities of the consuming railroad. In this case coal hoppers of B&M, MeC, Rut, CV and BAR ownership could commonly be seen hauling coal from and to destinations on the home road. "

[Ian MacMillan]

Little bit of inspiration for the paper mill that I plan on having on the layout.

I was able to finish up the freestanding walls today and will start working on the electrical, and start banging out some of the drywall so that this winter I can get the benchwork up and running.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That MA&PA Boxcar at 2:23 is actually available from Athearn. Well, at least it was.

And damn, this video reminds me of how much I love the SW1.

[Ian MacMillan]

Tell me about it right!

Finished up the long wall and put up the back wall today. Looking at finishing up the knee wall this week. Starting some drywall tomorrow as well.

[Ian MacMillan]

It has been a productive week. Banged out some drywall and the east end knee wall. Need to get a few more materials so that I can finish up the drywall on the walls and ceiling.  I'm hoping to finish up the electrical the week, and start doing the drops for the Philips LED "incandescents" for layout lighting.

[basementcalling]

Progress is clear. Is that the layout room or the hallway?

Any plans to do something on top of that concrete floor?

[Ian MacMillan]

Progress is clear. Is that the layout room or the hallway?

Any plans to do something on top of that concrete floor?

Thats the layout room. Its 12'x38'. Flooring is going to be the rubber backed carpet tiles....or at least that is the plan at this point.

[CVSNE]

Guess they didn't want that inferior PRR anthracite coal.   

PRR coal is well known as third, or even fourth tier coal. 

Ian, congrats on the new digs - can't wait to see the layout take shape!
Marty

[Ian MacMillan]

Thanks Marty. I'm eagerly awaiting more supplies to get this thing cracking.

One of the things I am still fighting over in my head is if I want double track or single track. One of the ideas I have been smacking around in my head, and I know Ed will go gaga over it is single track with long passing sidings with modeled removed track #2 like Scott Lupia did on his layout. The ties left behind but the rail removed like Scott did here:

[Philip H]

Ed's not the only one who will go gaga.

[Bsklarski]

You can do that too. You can also save yourself a few bucks and model just the ROW of the ripped out track with no ties or rail

[Bsklarski]

This is not my picture, but I pulled this off the net. It is the B&M Conn River about 2 miles North of Walpole NH. An area I run trains over often. Its how I plan to model my ripped out second track

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Keep in mind Scott's layout is from a far different era than yours. In his case, track rationalization was a new thing, with lots of remnants of the past.

In yours, it'll just mean a wider ROW, since the odds are that any old track disappeared while they were laying fiber along the new "access road".

[Ian MacMillan]

Keep in mind Scott's layout is from a far different era than yours. In his case, track rationalization was a new thing, with lots of remnants of the past.

In yours, it'll just mean a wider ROW, since the odds are that any old track disappeared while they were laying fiber along the new "access road".

I figured the rationalization would have occurred sometime around or shortly after the Boston line which was in 1986 and that it would mostly be access ROW for MOW. I figured that some of the back woods roads would maybe not have been repaired in the 10 years since rationalization. We had some trackage in Bow that still had areas around switches at sidings that still had ties and some road crossings with rail in them.

I've been going through my photos for inspiration.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

That photo is pornographic. Do that.