Conrail's Amoskeag Northern Line | Some Handlaid Track

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Some Handlaid Track

Written by Ian MacMillan

Wednesday, 13 December 2006

With winter upon us, and snow on the ground here in Northern New Hampshire, it was time to pack the speeder away for the winter and get down to the layout room.

Work on the layout room is progressing well, with stud walls, wiring, lighting and drywall all starting to make the room come together. On Monday UPS dropped of one of my Christmas gifts early, a Fast Tracks hand laying track kit. Having a short weekend this week I decided to take a break from wiring and nailing walls to work on a small 8' section of benchwork on one of the peninsulas of the layout.

Swift River

The 8' section will be the first part of the layout that visitors will see once entering the room, and will be representative of the White Mountain region. A swift mountain river passes under the tracks, while NH Rt. 16 will pass over the tracks on a bridge, and then cross again at grade. This section will allow me to work on a section of layout when the room prep and benchwork starts to get mundane, and allow visitors to get a feel of how the rest of the layout will look.

Saco River

The Walthers through truss bridge, although a little tall, is pretty much a dead on match of truss bridges used by the Boston & Maine and Maine Central railroads. The kit was pretty easy to put together, however some of the parts, mainly the caps for the top and bottom did not fit, and required some shaving with a chisel blade. Airbrushed with Modelflex Steam Power Black, the bridge will be weathered to a well used rusty color, like that if the truss bridge over the Saco River in Conway, NH on the B&M's Conway Branch, pictured at right.

Handlaid Ties

Using the "Branch Line" spaced Tie Rack from Fast Tracks I was able to quickly begin laying my first handlaid ties. With in 20 minitues I was able to put down about 9' of perfectly spaced, professional looking ties. This section being of branch line trackage, I "messed" up some of the ties by altering their spacing and created a generally realistic look while the glue set. I plan on installing the code 70 rail in the next week, just after I put down the bridge ties, and stain all the ties that have been laid. Hopefully, then a bit of scenery can be started, and a great start to the Amoskeag Northern will be seen.

Next up will be a back drop, upper and lower fascia boards, and wiring, then it will be time to get back to drywall!

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