Boston & Maine Ashuelot Branch - 1939

[Stolen Moment]

That is a very attractive prototype bridge!  It's delicacy will be tough to capture.

Dennis

[Chris333]

It is crazy the whole branch was built with those bridges. A 2-8-0 is already a small loco. Looks like it barely holds a bicycle.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ashuelot,+Winchester,+NH/@42.8164973,-72.3690322,3a,75y,32.74h,90.05t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP82wVY3zbeLOCsV0eS8xv5haB_L5GPSeuN3MgR!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP82wVY3zbeLOCsV0eS8xv5haB_L5GPSeuN3MgR%3Dw900-h600-k-no-pi-0.045682237032394823-ya183.05513611250268-ro0-fo100!7i5504!8i2752!4m6!3m5!1s0x89e114278dea3fcb:0x3690268585f049a2!8m2!3d42.7777057!4d-72.4236532!16s%2Fm%2F04b85jf?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDUwNy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

[garethashenden]

The B&M's K7 class was the heaviest engines allowed. They are 288,000 pounds. The heavier K8s are 352,000 lbs.
For comparison, an EMD F7 is 230,000 pounds, an SW1 is 196,000 pounds, and Union Pacific 844 is 907,890 pounds.

The branch is light, that's one of the things that appeals to me about it. A lot of the rural B&M branches were like this, several were limited to 2-6-0s. Post-steam the most common locomotives were end cab switchers. Although RS-3s showed up sometimes.
In my era its a K7 2-8-0 on the freight and a gas-electric for the passenger. If I decided to model a Monday, there is enough papermill traffic that a K8 would run as far as Ashuelot, letting the K7 run ahead to service the rest of the line.

[garethashenden]

I started laying out the non-track features on the town of Winchester NH. After consulting with some old USGS maps I found I could eliminate the highway, its present location dates to the '60s. This left me with only one road in that part of the layout, which fits much more easily.

The road from Ashuelot, Ashuelot St, comes down a hill, crosses the railroad, and curves into town. There are a number of houses on it and a fire station. Before the crossing there is a farmhouse and barn. The area between here and the river, about a foot on the model, will be farmland. Maybe pasture/hay, maybe some corn too, I'm not sure yet.


Ashuelot St ends at the intersection with Elm St. Elm street is the road the station is on, there is also a bridge over the river leading to Main Street. I hadn't originally planned on modeling the river at this location, I didn't think there was enough space, but I think that there is and that will add some interest towards the back of the scene. There are a number of buildings on Main St. that back up to the river, or overhang in one case.


Heading further north there is Hildreth St which leads to the New England Box Company. This is going to be a bit of a boxcar hog. They received lumber by rail and shipped out finished wooden boxes, also by rail. I think that in this era lumber was primarily shipped by boxcar, not flatcar, but I need to confirm that. There were a number of lumber storage yards behind the buildings.


A 1913 Sandborn map showing the box company


There are two other industries across the track, sharing a siding. There is a granary which I don't know much about yet and there is Wood Flour Inc. Wood Flour would take the sawdust from New England Box and process it into an even finer power that would then be used in the manufacture of dynamite.

[Chris333]

What about the grist mill in the map?

A proper messy layout with 3D parts strewn about 

[garethashenden]

What about the grist mill in the map?

That's what I had referred to as a granary. AD Porter & Company. Its shown as both grain storage and a mill, which was really common for this type of small local business. I hesitate to call it a grain elevator, because its not the massive ones in the midwest, but it kinda was.

[Chris333]

Ah OK anything water powered in there.

https://www.facebook.com/townofwinchester

[garethashenden]

Ah OK anything water powered in there.

https://www.facebook.com/townofwinchester

Not water-wheel powered the way you're modeling. The papermills downstream all used water, but I don't think they used much of it for power. There are still a couple of small hydroelectric dams though.

[garethashenden]

What about the grist mill in the map?

I've found a photo! It was in the digital sample of a book about the town. I've seen other books from this publisher and they're very photo heavy. I've ordered the book as well.


In case anyone else needs a copy: https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9780738592657/?queryID=bc497356fce012423e73df77f9b109f8&objectID=9780738592657&insightsIndex=arcadia-publishing_products

[Chris333]

Man I love everything about this branch 

[garethashenden]

While I'm looking forward to the photos in the book, I'm not counting on the captions being 100% correct. What we saw on the Sandborn map was AD Potter in 1913. In this picture its now WN Potter, presumably a descendant. Wirthmore Feeds is a brand, a feed company based in northern Vermont.
I had been considering the Walther's Sunrise Feed Mill kit for this building. Now that I have a picture I'm more tempted to add it to the scratchbuild list, but its getting to be a long list and a temporary kit may be worth doing.

[garethashenden]

Man I love everything about this branch 

Its a good bit of railroad. As long as you don't need mainline action it has a lot to offer.

[Chris333]

I've seen the Wirthmore Feeds sign a few times before.

[packers#1]

I had been considering the Walther's Sunrise Feed Mill kit for this building. Now that I have a picture I'm more tempted to add it to the scratchbuild list, but its getting to be a long list and a temporary kit may be worth doing.

It depends on how quickly you want this section to look “finished.” You don’t necessarily need a built structure to spot a car on a particular spot, but it’s going to look and feel a lot more like the prototype with one. To me, I’d just build the kit to have something there with what all you already have to work on, and put it down as a future build once some more of the heavy lifting is done. However, if you’re more about building structures and enjoying that aspect of the hobby versus operation in a “finished” scenic stage, I’d just mark out the area and put the structure on the list. But only you can decide how important having something there and how high up on your build list the building would be.

[garethashenden]

I have ordered the kit. It’s been a long time since I did a straight build of a plastic kit, it should be an enjoyable change. So many of the other buildings need to be scratchbuilt, and it’s not something I’m quick at, so having something representative will be good enough for now.