HARRIETTA
Main Yards and headquarters for
the North River Railway. Lee interchange
is in the background. Harrietta is
the furthest western point and largest single town on the North River.
The action only begins with the
single-ended classification yard at the left foreground. One of the leads
also services a few local industries and just off the lead is a team
track services the local farming community. The center contains the
engine facility where gons containing pipes (for locomotive flues)
supplement the box cars and flats of materials used to keep the engines
in top repair. These cars are spotted in one of the stalls, while yet
more supplies are delivered to the run-off lead.
Front-end cars are spotted on the
other side of the main next to the main station. Coal must be delivered
periodically to the coal pocket and a gon must be spotted at the ash pit
on the approach track to carry away the cinders. These two cars are
either the first or last operation for the day.
The Car shops just beyond a slip
switch and to the front right also require delivery of materials or any
type of car for repair.
The stock yard beyond the yard
and a bit to the right must be handled by the yard crew in addition to
the tracks at Lee Interchange to the left rear.
There is a total of (18)
locations for spotting cars.
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CYNTH
Cynth, conceptually, is several
miles east of Harrietta
although you can see the Harrietta car
shops in the foreground.
This town is built around a siding that is
normally occupied by cars at Bettinger's warehouse. This can be a real nuisance to the
switching crew as there is also a spur for the local coal yard branching
to the front of the table.
Just to the east of the run-around is
May Ice company that supplies most of the Ice for Bossert’s Beef and Bologna in
Harrietta. The track to the far
side of the main line service the coke mines and a local team track. The siding also serves as a drop-off
point for peddler freights to drop off cars for the local to shunt to the
A-Track area to the east.
There is a total of (8) locations
for spotting cars.
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A-TRACK
This (4) industry area may seem
like a rather simplistic to switch and it would be except there is no
run-around track. Cars, depending
on the direction, must dropped off at Cynth or Union
by the peddler freight and pushed into position by the local. Conversely when the car is loaded the
local must pull the car from the siding and push it to the next town for
pickup.
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CYNTH, A-TRACK and the town of UNION
A more general view of A-Track
showing the numbering towns of Cynth and Union. This view shows how the run-around
tracks at Cynth and Union must be used
to position a car for facing-point moves at A-Track industries.
These towns are theoretically several
miles apart.
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UNION / BOXTON
Union
including the Boxton factory complex is a bit more involved than would
seem at first glance and can be a very nasty switching problem for the
crew.
Like Cynth, the fun begins with a
run-around track which may or may not be holding cars for the local
industry. The lead off the main
towards the front goes to a double-ended spur containing both facing and
trailing point switching. The fun
continues if there are too many cars at Slipshod Oil to the right, the
lumber yard straddling the tracks or the tie plant just beyond to the
left. There are almost always too
many cars forcing the crew to shuffle through the cars to spot them
correctly. Take a close look and
the problems become apparent.
The rest of the work is easy. Boxton to the left has two spurs that
are simple by comparison, followed by Boyden Mills to the back
There are (10) industries in this area.
.
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BOBSTON /HARRIETTA
Bobston (top) as a double-ended
yard looks a lot worse than it is. Incoming peddler freights usually
consist of only a couple of cars so the crew can simply run around the
trains and switch out the cars.
There is a small cattle shed to the
extreme left, a couple of industries on the rear classification track and
a couple of nuisance moves for the coal, sand, ash pit and roundhouse.
The two trains from this town are the
eastbound freight toward Harrietta and a daily logging run to
Timberly. Note the track running
behind Bobston containing a small flag-stop nuisance factor for the
logging trains to Timberly.
Bobston services (9) industries.
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LEE
INTERCHANGE
Lee Interchange is much more than
a simple siding. It is the connection to the outside world. The North River
is operated as a true point-to-point railroad and the track that extends
to the left does not exist except on paper.
Cars interchanged from outside
roads arrive at this spur and shipments to the outside world are made by
this connection.
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TIMBERLY
Timberly is probably the simplest
of all areas to switch however there are still a
few “Gotchyas". The spur to
the logging camp is quit long and the logging buggies take careful
handling to prevent derailments.
There is also a LCL flag stop half way along (see track behind
Bobston) that can be that one-to-many car that makes switching out
Timberly impossible.
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This table is what I call an
inverted 'T'-beam construction. Two 2x4s on legs run the length of the room. the beams are (2) 1 x 2 boards glued
and screwed to form a “T”-shaped beam and are spaced every foot along the
top surface. Risers support the
sub-roadbed which is 2 x 1/8” Lath board cut in strips and triangles that
form sort of a seamless plywood base for the track. The same lath board is also used for
the roadbed with almost no waste except for sawdust.
This all provides a fast, inexpensive
construction that has withstood the test of 40 years of time.
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Another view of bench work. Notice the cable running along the
front edge and the platform of switch machines to the right. Most wiring
is accessible behind the front fascia (removed for these shots) so that
most work can be done standing up instead of crawling under the
table. Solder leads to the rails
first, then bring to front and make connection. Only roding to the turnouts has to be
done under the table.
Note that the legs are well back
from the front edge of the table giving a lot more space at floor level
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The North River
is in a 12' x 38' room with the corners rounded to a 22" radius.
Track work is essentially flat but there is a single 2-1/2 degree drop of
about 1 inch for scenic effects at Bobston. It is the scenery that goes
up and down, not the tracks.
Scenery is a modified Hard-shell using a paper
papier-mâché layer using Hydrocal and paper toweling. A second
"texture layer is added using Hydrocal and sawdust for horizontal
flat areas. Vermiculite is used for vertical cliff areas to allow
carving. The mica flecks add detail that can not be duplicated any other
way. Dry color paint is used both in the texture coat and painted on
afterwards to prevent any white from showing through. Woodland Scenic’s
Ground foam, shrub and gravel materials finish the ground.
A 1/2" drainage ditch along the side of
tracks, especially in cuts, adds to the realism of the track-work. Rail
is mostly hand-laid code 83 nickel silver rail with a minimum radius of
22".
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