Boston, Concord, & Montreal Railroad

I've made some progress on the model railroad, but before I get into that, I promised in my last post that I would explain my fictional railroad, so I thought I'd take the time to do that today.  I consider it a semi-fictional railroad.  Let me explain what I mean by that.  In the mid-19th century, when small railroads were starting to consolidate into larger ones, the Boston, Concord, & Montreal railroad was formed out of several of the small railroads in Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.  When it was formed, tracks existed between Boston and Concord (New Hampshire), and the plan was to continue building north.  The railroad built north through New Hampshire's lakes region and into the foothills of the White Mountains to a small town called Woodsville, on the Connecticut River and the border with Vermont.  They also built a branch out of Woodsville into the White Mountains which connected with the Portland and Ogdensburg, another big railroad of the day.  P&O was eventually consolidated into Maine Central, and BC&M was consolidated into Boston & Maine, and plans to continue the line to Montreal were abandoned.  Canadian Pacific built tracks south to Woodsville, so the line eventually reached Montreal, and they were used as B&M's main route to Montreal.

Boston & Maine later came under the control of the New Haven Railroad, which wanted to control the larger railroads in New England, consolidate them into one company, and electrify the important routes.  They experimented with third rail electrification near Hartford; however, it led to many accidents and the state of Connecticut banned the use of third rail electrification within its borders.  This forced the New Haven to look into overhead catenary, which at the time was only used on streetcar and interurban lines, and only with low voltage DC power.  New Haven did extensive research and developed a high voltage AC system and strung wires along part of their main line out of New York.  The tests were successful, and wires were extended to New Haven and along several branch lines.  New Haven was also responsible for stringing catenary through Boston & Maine's Hoosac Tunnel.  However, New Haven came under new management, and the plans to electrify all the busy routes in New England were dropped.

All of that being said, I am still modeling the present day.  I wanted to give some background information, which will tie in here.  My version of the BC&M is a "what-if" situation: What if the BC&M was never bought out, and survives today as a Class 2?  This led me to a few conclusions.  First is that the railroad completed their line to Montreal.  I don't know what route they were planning on building, and I don't know that the railroad itself had any plans either, so I will use the existing former CP route between Woodsville and Montreal as BC&M's main line.  The second conclusion is that for a while in the early 20th century the BC&M was under the control of New Haven.  Since I like the idea of electrification, I used this as an excuse to have catenary on my railroad.  Since the Boston to Concord corridor is fairly heavily populated, and at the time had a lot of rail traffic,then in my world the route between the two cities was electrified by New Haven, and that the wires survive today and the BC&M still uses them.  However, I don't plan on modeling today's amount of rail traffic on the line.  Today, the line barely exists between Concord and Plymouth, NH, and between Plymouth and Woodsville the tracks are gone.  There is no direct rail connection between Boston and Montreal anymore.  However, since in my world it is all run by one railroad, none of the abandonments happened, and the route is still the main line between the two cities, and therefore has much more traffic on it today.  Finally, since the area today is ripe for a commuter rail service, I will model a fictional commuter service to Montreal, which of course will also use the catenary.

However, most of that does not have to do with this model railroad, except that I am modeling a branch of the BC&M.  The branch will not be electrified, I will use diesels to run the trains.  When (if) I ever get the chance to build a basement empire, I will model a much larger BC&M and have electrification on the layout.

When we put together the maps section in our resources page, I will include a map of the BC&M for reference.  In the meantime, this scan of on old Boston and Maine timetable will give you an idea of the route I am talking about.  It is the one on the top of the page, the Canadian Pacific route to Montreal. Canadian Pacific tracks began at Woodsville.

Finally, here are a couple of paint schemes I designed for the railroad.  I used a GP38-2 and a SD40-2 to design the paint scheme, but I am not sure yet what I will use for motive power.

Railfanning in White River Junction, VT

I had been to White River Junction before as a kid, but not recently.  About two weeks ago, I was just passing through, but I had my camera on me, so I decided to stop at the station and see if anything was going on.  White River Junction was once one of New England's busiest interchange points, and today it is still a fairly busy place.  I would not call it a "hot spot," but if you go there to watch trains go by you will probably not be disappointed.  At one time, four railroad lines met there.  One line went south along the Connecticut River, through Palmer, MA.  One went southeast through Concord, NH to Boston.  One went north along the Connecticut River to Newport, VT, where it turned towards Montreal.  One went northwest across Vermont on a more direct route to Montreal.  Today, the line through NH only goes across the river to Lebanon, where it serves a few local industries, the rest of the line is a trail.  It is operated by the Concord & Claremont Railroad.  The other three lines are all still there.  The line to Newport is operated as a branch line serving local industries.  The Washington County Railroad, a subsidiary of the Vermont Rail System, operates that line.  The other two lines are operated by the New England Central Railroad, which was recently brought under the Genesee & Wyoming umbrella.  Amtrak's Vermonter operates on the NECR tracks to St. Albans, not far from the Canadian border.

I showed up at 11:00 and a crowd was gathered on the Amtrak platform.  Three SD40-2s were doing some yard switching, and kept showing up at the station and then backing into the yard again.  You can't see the yard from the station because it is around a curve and the trees block your view, but it is close enough that you can see the train as it switches the yard.  The lead engine was an SD40T-2, also known as a tunnel motor, and was painted in the Genesee & Wyoming colors.  The second engine was a patch job from Union Pacific, lettered for Connecticut Southern, and the third engine was also a patch job but for NECR, and it was an SD40-2 in an SD45 carbody.

NECR 3317, an SD40T-2 recently repainted in Genesee & Wyoming colors, leads two other SD40-2s switching the yard.  There is a crowd gathered for the southbound Amtrak train, scheduled to arrive shortly.

NECR 2680 is an SD40-2 rebuilt from an SD45.  Notice the flared radiator grills on the end of the long hood.

The yard switcher backed into the yard again, and a few minutes later, Amtrak's southbound Vermonter showed up, right on time, on its trip to Washington, DC.  The Vermonter has a cab car on the end.  It is led by the P42 from St. Albans, VT to Palmer, MA, where it switches to CSX's main line across Massachusetts to get to Springfield.  NECR and CSX cross at a diamond there, and the two main lines are connected to each other.  However, the setup there allows southbound trains from NECR to go east on CSX, but the Vermonter has to go west to get to Springfield.  So it switches over to the CSX line in Palmer and then is led by the cab car to Springfield, where it turns south to New Haven, CT.  At New Haven, the P42 is pulled off the train and an electric locomotive, either an HHP-8, an AEM-7, or a new ACS-64, pulls the train the rest of the way to Washington.

Amtrak's southbound Vermonter arrives just in time at White River Junction.

Passengers get on board the Vermonter.

The Vermonter continues on its journey to Washington.  The cab car will lead the train from Palmer, MA to New Haven, CT.

After the Vermonter left, the yard switchers pulled out of the yard and backed in one more time, and then pulled the train out and headed south behind the Vermonter.  I have no idea where the train's destination was, just that it was heading south.

3317's conductor steps off the train.

Genesee & Wyoming bought out New England Central recently.  This is NECR's new logo on the side of freshly painted 3317.

B&M 494, a 4-4-0 built by Manchester Locomotive Works in the late 19th century, watches as its modern counterpart heads south.

Once the southbound freight train left, so did I.  I got back in my car at 11:20, having only spent twenty minutes at White River Junction on an unplanned stop not expecting to see anything at all!

Product Review: MTH 40' PS-1 Box Car

I walked into my hobby shop to buy some styrene, and I saw a display of MTH box cars in B&M blue, which would fit well in the Lakes Region Model Railroad. I walked out with a slightly emptier pocket than I had planned on, as well as my first MTH car, which I will review today. My car is B&M 74007, a 40 foot PS-1 box car. I was impressed with the car before I even took it out of the box.

Appearance:

The paint is very smooth and the logos and lettering is very crisp. All the lettering is legible. The car features raised rivet details and weld lines on the sides. The doors open and close easily. The car has an interior, but the floor is covered by a bare metal weight. The ladders and other side details are plastic and molded into the side of the car. The car has a full underbody, including a full set of separately applied brake rigging.

Operation:

The car looks good, but runs better. The wheels are the most free-rolling wheels I have ever seen, I thought my desk was level until I set this car on it! The car comes with Kadee #58 couplers. It weighs in at 3.52 ounces, which is only slightly lower than the NMRA recommended 3.75 ounces for the car's length.

I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I had heard nothing but excellent things about MTH products up to this point. The free-rolling wheels and the brake rigging are both excellent, but I was expecting separately applied wire ladders and grab irons and see through etched metal walkways, both of which would better reflect the car's $19.95 price tag. I do think it is a good car despite these letdowns, I just think it is a little overpriced. I would buy another one if the price were lower.

Manufacturer: MTH

Price: $19.95 each

Available roadnames: Baltimore & Ohio, Bessemer & Lake Erie, Boston & Maine, Chesapeake & Ohio, Great Northern, Milwaukee Road, New Haven, New York Central, Norfolk & Western, Northern Pacific, Pennsylvania, Santa Fe, Southern, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Western Maryland.