Nice job on putting that farm scene together. In a couple of pictures it looks like you are observing a prototype farm. Very nice.

Bernd

Like those Geeps in the lighting stripes.

I've got some pictures of F7's here in Rochester with lighting stripes. I'll have to see if I can find them. I do have a set of Athean F7 A-B-A set.

Nice job on the bridge. Looks really great.

Bernd

Mark, Tom, Jeff and Curt thanks for the nice words. Ya, I hope I can build something that resembles the pictures. I've had this in my head for years. For some reason I just can't put it all down on paper as a drawing. I work best with an idea and then just doing it from thoughts so to speak. At times I need to restart several times.

You're right Jeff, I could fill up the whole basement. Trouble is 20 years of accumulating "stuff" has taken a toll on space. I was looking at all that "stuff" and figured it was time to purge this coming summer to make room for a layout. I'm even contemplating a double deck if I need more room.

Anybody interested in any stuff here?



You only have to pay for shipping.   

Bernd

Some interesting wood work there Jeff.

Like your swinging door you built.

Bernd

Jim, Gregory, Craig, Jerry, Tom & John thanks for commenting much appreciated. Glad I can bring back some memories for some of you. Ya, it's not a bad place to live considering the taxes. Best thing is we have a place in the 1000 Islands that we will be spending lots of time at. Wife retired this year so no hurrying home on the weekends. I'm going to have to get a second set of tools to work on projects while up there.

While I was using Google Earth I looked at what the Junction looks like today. There are trees growing where the station once stood.



This next section will describe the line from the LV Station to the Charlotte Coal Dock. This picture is an Earth Google view. The yellow line encircles what was the LV's Rochester yard. I'd estimate that the yard was close to 2 miles long.



This is how the line will continue following the river edge. The line will use the subway tracks and cross the river on the double deck Broadway Bridge.



The line will follow the river north. The "X" at the bottom is the station and the "X" at the top is the coal dock. I estimate the distance to be 3 to 5 miles through the city. My intentions are to follow the river up by the buildings near the edge.



Next pictures show the almost finished construction of the double deck bridge. Also note the library has not been built yet. The mill race has been blocked off.





In this picture that looks like an unfinished bridge is actually a loop for the trolley line.



A post card of the bridge.



This map shows the rail lines crossing the bridge and the two loops. The one that was shown a previous picture.



This is what the area looked like before renovation. The growth of trees and brush over the years is evident that nothing was done in quite a while. Never knew there was a windmill there either.







This leads us into the so called Tunnel, which basically is going under the library and under the roadway across the bridge.
A couple of pictures looking north. About where the black building with the round top is called the Upper Falls. A bit further down the river is the famous Genesee Beer Co.





One last parting shot of the station. You are looking south with the station in the upper left hand corner with the library to the left of the station. Note the arches under the library. This is where the mill raceway water exists back into the river.



Now for a quick ride down to the coal trestle. We'll start off across the river for a look at how large the coal dock was. The year was 1925. You can see two ships, one getting loaded with coal and the other is the ferry between Rochester and Cobourg (/'koːbə˞g/) , Ontario, Canada. IIRC they had steel mills up there somewhere in Cobourg.



A couple of pictures of the ferry slip. This gives me another area to exchange a lot of different cars, plus passengers.





Empty hoppers being pushed up grade and it is a steep grade. I have not yet found out how steep it actually was. It seems like no one can remember.



A ship being loaded. The two buildings The one closest to the camera is the Genesee Dock Station. The other one is Customs & Immigration and Passenger Landing. A stairway and walkway over the tracks for boat boarding so switching could continue while passengers boarded the boat or got off the boat. Some interesting modeling projects here.



View of the dock with the kick back track way in the distance and the sloped track to bring the cars back down. Note the track under the trestle. This lead to a small yard.



Better view of the return track, note the derail. Also note the track on the level ground is gone.



In this picture you can still see track going under the sloped trestle. Still trying to figure out how they slowed the cars down after the kick back track.



Another view of the top of the coal trestle.





View of the yard at river level. The picture is fuzzy because I had to blow it up from 300 pixels by 234 pixels, but it gives an idea of the yard that was at river level.



Ontario No.1 was one to two ferries that plied the waters between Rochester and Cobourg.



Two ships in port. Don't know if they are unloading or loading passengers. Maybe both since the boat behind is not tied up at the coal chutes.



The ferry slip apron is no longer there. This doesn't look like a coal carrying boat. I think they use this portion to turn the boats before they tied up at the mouth of the river docks.



This is a Google Earth picture. There always was a bulk cement plant here. They now use pipes to unload the boats. The ferry slip is almost nonexistent. Red arrow.



I was lucky to find a track diagram of the coal dock. I can faithfully reproduce the track plan at a condensed version.



This will close the concept of the fictional railroad that will be modeled. The line is longer and I'm only going to model the Rochester Branch portion of my fictional line. The Hemlock lake branch is still being contemplated with the concept of that part running to a lumber transfer facility at the lake. As I said in the beginning the line ran from the southern coal mining states to the New England states hauling coal north. That's the main theme. Forrest products, fish products, potatoes and other products head south. The main line heads east through Manchester, New York which was a division point. A large engine facility was located there. The line then headed east to Geneva, New York and then headed south to Sayre, PA. In Geneva is where the NYV & N Rwy. keeps heading east into the New England states. I figured the most northern end will be up in Portland Maine on the cost line.

This is the most I've ever thought about the concept of the layout. I've probably wandered off the track a bit here and there but I think I have it down to what I want. I have certain areas in mind for modeling but they will not be 100% replicated.

Next post I'll start on the limestone quarry. That already has two structures under construction and some track configured.

So until next time.

Bernd.

Many thanks for the kind words Dave, Curt, Mark, Karl, Janbouli, & Jeff.

It's quite an ambitious project. This will be my first layout and next month I turn 70. Makes me wonder how far I will get. I'm still working on projects to finish the house so my time will be divided up between modeling and house projects.

Yes those stations are rather unique. The Rochester Junction station was drawn up in Model Railroader by Harold Russell. I can't remember the date. I got to meet Harold when I joined the Kodak City Model Railroad Club back in the mid 70's. That first station that was at the junction was disassemble and moved to Lima, New York, just a few miles west of me. I have pictures of it in the 80's. The Rochester station will be the most difficult to build since nobody ever measured it or drew up plans. I'm going to attempt to build that. That is one of the reasons I joined this forum. With the many modelers here that build kits and scratch-build I figured I could learn the techniques that are used to build such a structure. I just hope that some of my techniques I use to do certain projects will help modelers here.

So I have one more post to finish up the portion of the line that will get modeled from the Rochester station to the coal dock which will be located on the Genesee River further north from the center of the city. I first need to get some picture together to finish that section. Problem with some of the pictures is that they are in books with copy right terms.

So until the next post in this thread.

Bernd

In my post about the Rochester station I mentioned that brick building was added to the left of the station proper, it wasn't added. It was there all along. It shows in all the photo's I posted of the station.

Bernd

I left off by saying I was going to get into the limestone quarry, well that's getting a little ahead of the quarry story. I'll begin with how much of the line I'm actually going to model.

So we are going to start to the west of Rochester Junction and work our way east to Rochester Junction and then down the Rochester branch to the Rochester Lehigh Valley station in downtown Rochester.

Since I'm using the BR&P line up from the southern states and LV line east to Rochester Junction my starting point of the layout will be the Pittsburg & Lehigh Junction area. This is where to BR&P (B&O) crossed the Lehigh Valley. At this point is where the NY,V&N Rwy. goes from the BR&P line to the LV line and follows the LV east to Rochester Jct.



As you can see there several railroads at this point. This crossing is between the towns of Leroy to the west and Caledonia to the east. You also have the NYC Peanut line that ran from Canandaigua to Niagara Falls New York. That line ran past my parent's house. The Erie also ran into Rochester. Also note the Genesee & Wyoming RR came from Retsof to the Junction. This gives me an excuse to run salt trains to the north to salt the roads.

Here are some pictures of the buildings at the P&L Jct. crossing.

First the station that was there. The station was moved to Genesee Valley Museum.



Opposite of the station was the tower that controlled the crossing.



East we go and wind up at Rochester Junction. This portion I plan to model pretty much the way the prototype looked back in the steam to diesel era. First a map of how the prototype fit into this area of the state.



The blue line is the east/west Lehigh Valley main line. The red line is the Hemlock branch that ran all the way, at one time, right up to the north shore of Hemlock Lake. The green line is the Rochester branch that ran into Rochester and ended almost in the center of the city on the east side of the Genesee River. The unmarked line running west to east through Honeoye Falls New York is the Peanut line. I believe that was abandoned in the 30's in this part of the country.

This is what the junction looked like in the late 1890's. The first station was single story.



This is how it looked later. I don't have a date for this picture, but figure it looks like it could be from the 1920's to 30's from the looks of the boxcars.



You are looking west. Note the two double slip turnouts. No idea of date this picture was taken.



Again looking west. The Rochester branch leads off to the right of the picture. The track diverging to the left at the bottom of the picture is the west leg of a wye with tracks heading south to Hemlock Lake. Judging from the car in the right of the picture it was taken  around the late 1920's or early 1930's. Also note the two double slip turnout have been replaced with simple turnouts. Makes track work much easier for the modeler.




This picture looks like it was taken from the control tower. Note that the station platform toward the east of the station has been removed. Also I've been trying to find out what the building to the extreme right was used for. It was still standing at the time I used to go down to the junction in hopes of catching a train.



In the next couple of views is the way I remember the Junction in the 1970's. This view is from the Rochester Branch side tracks looking south east.



This is what I would call the front of the station. The main line is in front. The partially shown building in the left of the picture was a sort of freight house I believe.



A south east view of the station.



A larger south east view showing the mystery building in the background and the full platform covers.



A south west view showing what could have been a freight house at some time. Also there are only three tracks as opposed to five tracks in early pictures.



And a view no railfan or modeler likes to see. The station burnt to the ground on Thanksgiving Day 1973. The main line has been abandoned. Conrail still ran freight to Lima, New York to the insulator plant. In the last few years the Rochester branch's rail had been removed and became a trail. The whole area has become a park dedicated to the Lehigh Valley. If your interested in a little more, and I mean little, here's a link to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester_Junction_station



Okay, let's take a fast passenger train to Rochester. You'll arrive at this Station in downtown Rochester.



There's lot's going on in this post card picture. Way to the right is the Erie line that ran into Rochester. That lasted into the 1970's I believe. The subway has been added. Those are the tracks to the left in the picture, they are running on the former Barge Canal. In the background where the canal building is where the Lehigh Valley Rochester yard was. It had a turn table and a two stall engine house. The LV station was built over the top of a mill race. Rochester is called the "flour city" because of the wheat that was grown here and milled with water power along the river.



This is an aerial view of the same area that the previous post card picture depicted. Note the canal to the left of the station.



Another view later in history.



An early 1960's aerial view of downtown Rochester. The Erie tracks are on the west side of the river. The Erie warehouse is split in half by the four lane highway bridge. As of this writing that area now has a housing tract on it. To the right is the Lehigh Valley. Directly behind the station, the large square building is the Rochester Library. The bridge behind the library is a double deck bridge. It carried the barge canal across the river. A top portion was added when the canal was drained to make way for the rapid transit line and a roadway was built over the top. This is where I will carry my fictitious railroad back over to the BR&P line that ran all the way to the north shore of Lake Ontario.



Now a bit of history on the station itself. This picture looks like it's from the late 1890's since I don't see any type of automobile in the picture.



Looking south we see the LV station in the center. The Erie warehouse is to the right. The river is to the left. Next over toward the left is the mill race and next to the left are the subway and rapid transit tracks. They are curving to cross the bridge over the river. From the automobiles I'd have to say it's in the 1920's.



The station in the 1940's perhaps. Not too good at judging the years of the cars.



This is the way the building looked for many years. Notice too that the platform coverings are gone out over the tracks.



A shot from the middle of the river. You are looking north with the library in the background.



A view from across the river. You are looking east.



Looking directly north on a bridge over the rapid transit tracks. The two tracks to the extreme right that went under the library and across the double-decker bridge have been removed. Interstate 490 now occupies the spot of where the tracks are.



So what happened to the station? It became the home of the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. It also looks like they added buildings to the left in matching brick work.



So that wraps up a major portion of the fictitious NY,V&N Rwy. Next will be the portion from the Lehigh Valley yard in Rochester to the north shore of Lake Ontario and the rail to boat loading coal facility. As I build my railroad I'll delve into more detail at each location. After I finish up with the last stretch of railroad I'll start on the quarry line.

Until the next post.

Bernd

Quote from: S&S RR on January 29, 2021, 11:32:33 AM

Bernd

You are welcome, that is what the forum is all about.  Sorry about all the code stuff embedded in the text. I fixed it in the original post.  I have to remember to look back at my posts after I hit the post button. None of that stuff shows up when you are in the editor.  It usually happens when the editor decides to change the font or size of my text and I go back and fix it.  It looks fine when you are in the editor but you can see what happens once you hit post.   

That's quite alright John. I've been on enough forums that each seem to have odd stuff happening. Doesn't bother me. What I like about the forums I've narrowed down on is the sharing of information and techniques. Something you don't find on may forums I'm also on or was on. Trimmed them down to the ones I most like and are the friendly.

Bernd

Quote from: S&S RR on January 27, 2021, 02:30:34 PM

Bernd

I bought mine off from Amazon.  The problem with getting it anywhere else is postage and delivery time right now during our plague. Amazon delivers using there own trucks in my area so I get most things the next day. [/size] You need to watch the prices closely.[/size] [/size] [/size]I tried to replace my trim paint for my challenge build[/size][size=78%][/size] and clicked on it to put it in the cart and realized I was going to pay $18 dollars for a $3.95 bottle of paint[size=78%][/size]. [/font]If my local hobby shop makes it through this thing, I will be switching back to doing my purchasing through them as soon as I get my shots. [/font]
[/size]
[/size]Micro Mart has not stocked a good selection of Vallejo products - they want to sell you big sets of paints but not the individual colors that are need to resupply.

Thank you John for the information. Much appreciated.

Bernd

John,

Following your painting techniques closely. I lack in this area immensely and your techniques are very educating to follow.

So where can one get this paint from? Micro Mark?

Thanks.

Bernd

This is my first time through this thread. All I can say is WOW what a layout.
All those buildings are great looking. Those bridges again WOW. That'll be one nice looking layout when completed.

Bernd

Boy that last picture of the harbor at water level looks so real. You'd have thought you were in a boat. If weren't for those brackets from the shelve above you'd have thought it was real.

BTW, like that little tug and barge. Some nice modeling there.

Bernd

Thanks guys. Much appreciated for the kind words.

@Tom, I've been following your build since I found this forum. Had trouble signing on and gave up for a while but still followed your layout build and John Sekirk's layout build. Now that I've committed to documenting the layout I'll have more incentive to work on it to show progress. It's always nice to know someone will give you a kick in the butt if progress stops. I just hope I don't disappoint along the way. And BTW having a very cooperative wife helps in building a house designed for a layout. Also remember many of us up here have basements. I just wish I would have finished the basement before all that "STUFF" followed me home. I did need a wood working area for the finish woodwork.

Looking forward to getting some pics together of my idea for the limestone quarry on the next thread post.

Bernd

Thank you Curt. Anybody can learn those skills.

I put together a little history of how and why I came up with the name NY,V & N Rwy. Hope you enjoy it. Hopefully next time I'll have some pictures to show of the prototype areas I want to portray.

Every railroad needs some form of history behind it. So how did I come up with the name of my freelanced railroad? When I got my first new car in early 1970 I did a lot of fan trips. To understand the name I'm sure you've figured out that the railroad is located in New York. And it is. To be exact it's located in the Rochester, New York area.

So back to my fan trips. There were five large railroads coming into the Rochester area, NYC, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, Erie and the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh. I'm talking back in the steam days. As of today what is left of the major lines is the Norfolk and Southern and the Rochester & Southern. I pretty much railfaned the New England states and down to the Mason Dixon line. I'm very much for Appalachian Mountain scenery. My other interest is in coal mining. So my eventual layout will have a large concept toward coal mining and shipping to customers. The idea of hauling coal from the southern coal states to the New England customers was going to be the theme of the line.

I started to put together some thoughts of what I wanted to model. It's now about 1984, I'm on my second marriage living in a mobile home with no place to build a layout, but one can dream of the day when a basement will be acquired to build that dream layout.
Once I got some ideas down on paper I realized that building a layout to accommodate the length of railroad I wanted. I would need two barns end to end to fit all in. I came to the conclusion that I would only model a portion of the line. I would use the railroads that served Rochester back in the late 30's to perhaps the 50's. That's one nice thing about freelancing, you can fit it into any time line and not have to follow what the prototype did.
The theme for the prototype system was to run from somewhere in the West Virginia coal fields to Portland Maine. Imagine trying to build a layout of that size? I guess I would have needed three barns and two life times. So I whittled it down to just the local area. Now I live approximately five miles from Lehigh Valley's Rochester Junction. The LV had a branch running south going down to Hemlock Lake and a branch running north into Rochester. To the west of me the BR&P, which became the B&O in 39 I believe, ran north to Lake Ontario. They had a yard on the west side of Rochester, near the airport, and ran coal trains to Irondequoit Bay. So I have my coal route to an unloading area. The three railroads that delivered coal to Lake Ontario were the Pennsy, Lehigh Valley and the B&O. The B&O was in Rochester, the Lehigh Valley was at Fair Haven NY and the Pennsy was at Sodus, NY.

Ok so I had my coal theme. Now I needed to connect the coal from the southern states to Lake Ontario. To the west of me is the town of Caledonia, NY. All the railroads, except for the Pennsy, ran through this town. The best part was/is that the B&O crossed the LV in this town and had interchange tracks. So I came up with the idea of using the B&O, which had a major yard in Salamanca NY and then headed south through Pennsylvania, to be the main route of hauling coal. The line would come up using the B&O and then follow the LV to Rochester Jct.  then north on the Rochester branch to Rochester. Only problem here was how was I going to get the coal to the lake. The LV dead ended in the middle of the city on the east side of the Genesee River plus I couldn't use the B&O since it was located on the west side of the city. I needed to get to the lake. Enter the Rochester Rapid Transit. It ran right beside the LV and crossed the river to get to the west side. So the RRT got incorporated into getting coal to the lake. The transit line gave me an excuse to cross the river. I could then come up with my own line going to the B&O at the coal dock.

Now enter the narrow gauge lines of my layout. I discovered the East Broad Top railroad in the early 70's and it became my favorite railroad. Why? You guessed it, coal. So my idea for the 3 foot coal hauler connection will be from a coal mine to a coal processing plant. From the processing plant it'll travel up the B&O version of my line but will in no way be visually connected. It will become a separate scene. During all this planning came an idea to add a quarry line. Again to the west of me close to the town of Leroy NY is a quarry that mines limestone. Interesting part is that the LV had sidings here for ballast loading. The quarry had a narrow gauge line running through the quarry. So I just have to have that also. So thus the New York, Vermont & Northern Rwy. was born, The Route of the Black Diamonds.

Why Vermont? I did extensive rail fanning in Vermont and loved the marble quarries and the mountains. Plus the northern New England states had the type railroads I like to model, D&H, Rutland, Vermont RR, Boston & Maine and Maine Central to name a few. Also having the chance to operate as a guest on the New England, Berkshire and Western layout had an influence. One of my first visits to the layout in the late 70's when they were holding open house had a great influence on my modeling.

So that wraps it up as to the theme of the layout. Being a free lancer gives much latitude to building a model railroad. My though is applying the logic of the real world railroad to build a model railroad that could have been when railroads were spreading throughout the country. One other thing I'm very interested in is animation on a layout. I'm looking at animating the quarry line with loading of cars, taking them to a processing point and loading standard gauge cars. Same goes for the coal mine when I get to that.

So until the next post when I hope to have some prototype pictures of the area's to be modeled.

Bernd