CVSNE Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Thought I would start a topic on my HO scale home layout. In honor of opening day, I'll present the basics on the layout in the form of "stats." Name: Central Vermont Railway, Winooski Subdivision Scale: HO (1:87) Locale: North/Central Vermont Era: 1954 Season: Mid- late Fall Layout dimensions: 17 x 48 feet Control: CVP Products Easy DCC This is a prototype based layout featuring several favorite scenes from the Central Vermont Railway in the late steam era. At this point, most of the track is in place, all the track that's in place is wired and operational, and some rough scenery is underway. More details on the layout can be found on my blog. One scene is fairly close to completion - here it is: More updates as it occurs to me to post. Any questions? Fire away! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gwinnett Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Marty - great pic. Good clear water - what did you use? I'll check out your blog, but do you have a plan showing how your route fits in, in the north east? And as life imitates art, I read recently that Providence & Worcester and NEC are combining to make a new north south bridge line in the area. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Sweet! What Jon says above! Welcome to the USA & Canada Division... Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted April 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 7, 2012 17 x 48 feet sounds like it might be just enough for HO! Is that a C-Liner? Not a model I've often seen. ISTR the CV had 10 pocket-sized 2-10-4s, with Vandy tenders. Any hope of one of those in your plans? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
signalmaintainer Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Marty, welcome to RMWeb from another former Kalmbacher! Love that opening photo. Glad to hear you're still modeling Vermont. Last I heard, you were in Sn3 -- probably just an unfounded rumor . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Barry Ten Posted April 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 7, 2012 Welcome to the forum, Marty - long enjoyed your writings in MR. The layout looks fantastic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVSNE Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 Marty - great pic. Good clear water - what did you use? I'll check out your blog, but do you have a plan showing how your route fits in, in the north east? And as life imitates art, I read recently that Providence & Worcester and NEC are combining to make a new north south bridge line in the area. Jon, The water is Envirotex resin poured over a base of riverbed material (screened stones and gravel). Once the Envirotex set I went over it with a number of coats of Minwax Polycrylic Varnish - basically clear acrylic varnish. The first few coats set level - but after 6 or 8 coats or so small ripples start to appear (the manufacturer actually warns against too many coats producing a "rippled water like surface.") I'm modeling the prototype Central Vermont line - the prototype was a bridge route between Chicago and New England (via the Grand Trunk Western, Canadian National, and Central Vermont) ending at Tidewater in New London. It was one of the few north-south lines in New England, a region dominated by east-west routes. On the layout I'm modeling certain towns with many other towns and long stretches of line through the countryside edited out. So the layout is focused on four key prototype scenes - White River Junction, Richmond, Essex Junction, and Waterbury. I'll see if I can dig up a prototype map - I have plenty of them, just don't have one scanned for some reason! This layout was started in 2008 - originally I fell into the "make it big, and make it bigger by double decking it" trap that's pretty common over here. The result was a layout with a loooonnnnnggg main line (like 6+ scale miles) but sitting on narrow shelves that were making it impossible to really capture the small towns and open New England countryside I love. So, about two years ago now I tore the upper deck off the railroad, raised the lower deck, and have been much happier with the much simpler layout that resulted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVSNE Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 17 x 48 feet sounds like it might be just enough for HO! Is that a C-Liner? Not a model I've often seen. ISTR the CV had 10 pocket-sized 2-10-4s, with Vandy tenders. Any hope of one of those in your plans? Yes, that's a Life-Like Proto 1000 C-Liner. The Central Vermont dieselized its manifest freights in late 1951 using an assortment of CN diesels - the most common of which were the four-axle C-Liners. Believe me, even my toes were smiling when Larry Grubb, then at Life-Like, told me about the models - and then asked me to suggest numbers. I don't know where the ran elsewhere on the system, but I assure you I have pictures of every L-L C-Cliner on the CV at some point since I used photos to id the numbers Larry ended up using! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVSNE Posted April 7, 2012 Author Share Posted April 7, 2012 ISTR the CV had 10 pocket-sized 2-10-4s, with Vandy tenders. Any hope of one of those in your plans? Like this one: One of the other reasons I tore the upper deck off the layout (and rearranged the benchwork) was to widen the curves enough to run the bigger Northern Division steamers like the 2-10-4s (I have one 2-10-4 and a pair of 4-8-2 models, all brass). the 2-10-4 an easily handle a 30" radius curve, though it looks better on something in the 34"+ range. The 4-8-2s are real curve hogs and are the reason for my 36" minimum mainline radius. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted April 7, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 7, 2012 Like this one: Yup, just like that - except the pic I have is of 703 under the same coaling dock in 1955! My pic is in New England Rails 1948-68, by David R Sweetland, one of the earliest Morning Sun books I bought, and one of the best. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
signalmaintainer Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Is that the kitbashed 2-8-0 that you featured in MR many years ago, Marty? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted April 8, 2012 Share Posted April 8, 2012 Marty, When you use other people's photo's in your posts can you please be clear that you have the copyright owners permission? Otherwise provide a "link" to the photo. Thanks. Cheers, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVSNE Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 Is that the kitbashed 2-8-0 that you featured in MR many years ago, Marty? Yes. That particular model was built by Iain Rice, although I painted it and did the decoder install. I've built two others since (using some different parts that weren't available when Iain did his - mostly a more accurate etched cab) Marty Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CVSNE Posted April 8, 2012 Author Share Posted April 8, 2012 Marty, When you use other people's photo's in your posts can you please be clear that you have the copyright owners permission? Otherwise provide a "link" to the photo. Thanks. Cheers, Pete. Will do. I first met Pete McLachlan when I was about 12 or 13 - he took me and my friend for a cab ride in his Penn Central RS-3 when he was switching our hometown . . . we were way late for afternoon classes that day but didn't care . . .). Pete told me once he felt we were safer in the cab where he knew where we were than wandering around observing from the ground. Pete has no problems with me using his pictures. But I'll be sure to make that clearer if I use any others in the future. To say he is a longtime friend is an understatement. Here's Pete standing in front of an NECR engine in St. Albans at the 2010 CV Historical Society Convention. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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