1 Grand Trunk Depot 2 Swift Meat Packing 3 Freight shed 4 Canal Street 5 Max Millar Scrap Company 6 Coal track (this track was elevated going into the enginehouse so crews would have an easier time hand loading the tender) 7 Locomotive Track 8 Armour Meat Packing (and a few other industries (actually 2-3 sidings) 9 Hall & Knight Hardware Company (and a few other industries) 10 US Bobbin Company (and a few other industries) 11 Littlefields Crossing of the Little Androscoggin River - 120' Trestle. 12 Not sure if Hotel Rd was present in the 1950s. If not there was certainly a stone arch bridge left over from the abandoned Portland Interurban that remains to this day carrying pipes. Background So I have a number of MILS modules that are dedicated to the Crawford Notch station and siding of the Maine Central (present day Conway Scenic) I haven't been highly motivated to complete them. My original interest was that the Mountain Division of the MEC has some highly iconic scenes easily recognizable to railfans and casual New England tourists. However, I don't model any MEC equipment and my motivation to do so quickly fades simply because I'm in love with the aesthetics of the Canadian National and it's US-based subsidiaries the Central Vermont, Grand Trunk (New Engalnd Lines,) and Grand Trunk Western. This coupled with the realization that I'm only going to be doing 1-2 shows a year due to other obligations means that if I'm going to commit any resources to a layout, it should be something I can readily operate at home with my own equipment. I'm a huge fan of Trevor Marshall's Port Rowan in 'S' and I've sought out an achievable branchline I could model on US soil. I was initially drawn to the Burlington and Lamoille branch of the Central Vermont Railroad, but it was abandoned in 1939 and getting information on 1930s CV equipment and operating practices, as well as simple things like decals, proved to be too much of a challenge. I did however find the Lewiston Branch of the Grand Trunk (New England) and it's 5 mile run from Danville Jct. with the MEC to the industrial heart of Maine's second largest city. Benchwork I have a standard 30x96" banquet table for the yard and a 30x48 card table with adjustable height for the Littlefields Crossing segment. I'll drop the card table height down low to get some vertical elevation changes. The track is standard Lego geometry. This may prevent me from running 713 which has 12 studs between flanged drive wheels. It's quite finicky on the standard switches. Here's hoping BrickTracks can come through with ABS 104s switches. There are some R88s on the North end. The yard doesn't have the standard ballast profile and the rails seem to run at ground level in some places. The MILS modules will probably be non-standard to save brick and have MILS compatible modules on either end to join to a larger layout. Motive Power Much like Port Rowan most of it's modern steam operation until early 1956 was a single daily mixed train served by a stalwart little Mogul, number 713. However, after 713 left to pull the CN museum train in 1954 (as well as when 713 was in the shops at Deering) the line was served by a variety of power including N-4-a Consolidations, big S-1-f and S-3-a Mikados, and even Central Vermont 470 when it was on lease to the GT. I could even take it past the end of steam and operate ex-CV Alco S3s or GP9s on the Freight Extra if I wanted to roll the clock forward and could probably even get away with running one of the GTs 0-6-0 switchers. Equipment The train ran a single wood sheathed, truss rod combine, and when handling freight, a caboose. Most of the boxcars were standard steel or wood-sheathed. Two meet packing plants used to run their own distinctive refrigerator cars and I imagine I could also sub in CN refers (good parts and decal availability.) Coal moved in 55-ton hoppers to the coal trestle on a northern siding as well as the enginehouse. Gondolas served the scrap yard on the southwestern end of the yard. Oil tankers served oil storage tanks on the west and northwest parts of the yard. On occasion, passenger traffic seemed to warrant a full coach and full baggage car. Operation At it's simplest, I can run this like a Timesaver with an adjacent Inglenook. I'm sure this will keep me content initially until I can model actual GT operations (waybills and switching practices) or close representations from the CN. The layout is distinct for no runaround. The prototype solved this by executing a flying switch. I'll likely use the 0-5-0 switcher (5x fingers for those not familiar) to represent the momentum of the cars. The headshunt/lead track to the yard will be a bit short accomodating only a Mikado and 2 cars at the extreme, but probably a 4 or 2 and the combine in front of the yard proper. Other considerations The yard is selectively compressed to about 50% on the X-Axis and 33% on the Y axis. Littlefields is about 1 mile west of Lewiston, but the bridge at 120' is way more achievable than the 400' bridge at the west end of the yard that crosses the Androscoggin. It simultaneously serves as a similar visual break and compresses the line. So we'll see. I may run a proper blog to post my updates.
