Modelling Maine Railroads

Last evening, I added some terrain to the area around Norridgewock yard on my layout. I added a small rise in front of the tracks, following topographic maps of the area. To add the rise, I first attached some scraps of one inch thick foam insulation board that I had on hand. The foam was then attached with screws. I then cut the foam to eliminate the sharp corner in the center of the image and to make the foam parallel the track. I then shaped the foam with a rasp, shaping the foam to get a realistic variety of contuors I saved the foam shavings generated by shaping the foam. I put the shavings in a mall plastic container and then used the shavings to fill in the gaps between the sheets of foam that I used to make the rise. A view of the finished rise by the Maine Central Tracks in Norridgewock. I got more work on the rise done at the same time, and I will post more about that work soon.

As I have been working on track for my new layout depicting Norridgewock, I have modified atlas code 83 flextrack to better represent siding track. The technique I used os hardly very new or original. To modify the track,  I cut every tie apart from the other ties with a small saw, keeping the ties attached to the rails. I then removed every fifth tie from the peice of flextrack. The resulting track looks much more realistic for lightly layed track. I think that this technoque is worth the effort, especially for a smaller layout. A picture of the track in the process of being modified. From left to right, there is a section of original track, track with every fifth tie removed, and track where the ties have been spread out. At the top of the image is the saw that I used to cut the ties. A length of the modified track is shown once installed on the layout. The modified track is in the center of the image.

Over the past few nights, My layout has changed quite a bit. It now depicts the Maine Central Railroad in Norridgewock, Maine. I will explain this in a later post, probably over the weekend. For now, I will just dhare some poctures of the first HW-2 (Bingham to Waterville local freight) through my version of Norridgewock. HW-2 approaches heads through the limited trackage at Norridgewock. Looking at HW-2 from the driveway of a house near the tracks.   HW-2 heads through Norridgewock. An overview of Norridgewock with HW-2 running through it. HW-2 in Norridgewock. A view of HW-2 from a house near the tracks. HW-2 departs Norridgewock and heads south to Waterville.