Travel

My wife and were fortunate to be able to spend 10 day in Budapest Hungry, Vienna and Salzburg Austria. While trains were not a focus of the trip we did travel by train between each city and used local transit with in each city. The line we took from Budapest to Vienna, about a 2.5 hour ride, was a double track electrified line. The train had a very basic cafe car, but was clean and comfortable. I must have seen a minimum of 6 fright trains traveling in the opposite direction during the trip. The trip from Vienna to Salzburg was about the same length and very similar, except the passenger cars were bilevels. Lots of trailers in well cars and tank cars, covered hoppers and  lot of pulpwood loads. 

What I found intriguing was each small city or large town had a very, what I would call traditional small yard. Often with a diesel unit stationed there. Very much what most of model in the transition era of the late 1940s into the 1950s. If I were doing a European layout I t could b a neat mixture of modern equipment , but a more traditional track layout.

The following photos are all from Budapest, the last is a photo I found in a shop of the original station at the location. 

The next one is from Salzburg

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New England Rail Proto Meet Posted

I have posted my Clinic on MOVING SPUDS STEEL REEFERS USED IN THE 1950’S BY THE BANGOR AND AROOSTOOK TO MOVE POTATOES. Click on the page labeled as that to see the presentation.

Projects and the New England Prototype Meet

Sorry for the long gap since my last post. I have been doing some modeling, but I have not posted about it. I am finishing up some projects for a presentation I will be doing at eh New England Prototype Meet in Springfield, MA May 29 and 30. https://www.nerpm.org/  I will be showing how to model some steel reefers used in the movement of Maine potatoes in the 1950's and 1960's. 

The above is the partially complete 8000 series BAR reefer. I will also be doing the 7000 series BAR reefer and at least 3 classes of MDT reefers.

I have some other project that I plan on displaying as well:

These are Rapido 35 foot trailers, the one on the right has been modified as an open top with a tarp over it. I still need to make tiedowns for the tarp. I had custom decals made for the NH as it is shorter than the closed top trailers. I used the the name plates above and below from the Rapido trailers. They are sitting on a Walthers G-85 TOFC flat. It would be wonderful to have Clejan flat for these. Maybe someday.

These are Eastern State Farmers Exchange insulated box cars. They are basically bunkerless reefers without roof hatches, The prototypes were built in 1953 by Dispatch Shops and originally did not have the large logos. The large logo was added in the late 1950's, Eastern Farmers Exchange became part of Agway in the late 1960's, 

Brian Johnson and I have actually done 6 podcasts, and it has been a lot of fun. Always looking for people you would like to talk model railroading to be on the podcast. https://tfmrr.com/

Happy Halloween!

Here are a couple of RDCs in Lincoln, NH dressed as ghosts!

 

Episode #3 of the Frugal Model Railroaders

We just dropped our third episode of the Frugal Model Railroaders, check us out where ever you get your podcasts!

Refining Plainfield (or going down the rabbit hole!)

Trying to model an era that is nearly 70 years ago can be difficult at times. I posted several photos over the last week and have figured out they are not all helpful. In the photo below is a fire that wiped out the original grain and feed store located just east of the station. 

It was later rebuilt as a shorter building with fewer windows and sliding freight doors as seen below.

This is much different than the original structure seen below along with the original freight house.

Going back to the photo of the "new" grain dealer, here are some details I have picked out.

The first shows a window and an edge of a door frame that I am assuming is a normal door to enter the office. There is also a platform and I again am assuming has a set of trair to get to the door. I would think this is the office or retail store section of the structure. 

This next photo shows the freight doors the the very short platforms just under each door. It also shows the very small windows along the top of the wall.

Here is an aerial view that shows that shows the number of platforms along the left (west) side of the building. It appears to have 5 platforms plus 1 on the east side. The photo is from 1965.

The portion on the bottom of the image is a separate building and is Modi's appliance and furniture store. I posted the only photo I can find of it on Wednesday. 

I am going to make some assumptions that there are at least four or five freight doors on each side of the building and basically make a the long walls a mirror image of each other. I am also assuming that the fright doors on the east side do not have platforms and truck wood just back up the building. I will just build mock ups in the short term to determine what size I should make the building. Using the measuring device on the Historical Aerials web site the building measures roughly 243' by 67'.  I will need to compress it's size to have it fit the room I have.  If anyone has any photos of this structure or the area in general I would love to see them.  

Happy Modeling!

Wordless Wednesday