North Coast Railroad

[Dave Buchholz]

Thanks for stopping by.

As a newly migrated member from the recently demised Railroad Lines Forum, I was happy to discover this forum. I was even happier to see so many  familiar names and profile pics already here.

 This  site is the  new home of the North Coast Railroad, a fictitious shortline narrow gauge line (HOn3) that runs along the shores of Lake Ontario, hence, "the North Coast"  The prototype was the Rome Watertown and Ogdensberg (RW&O) . The model version in the basement, runs between the lake  port city of Oswego, NY, heading  west to Sodus Bay and into the "fruit basket" orchards of Wayne County.

 Like so many modelers, I run hot and cold in my building interests so sometimes there is a flurry of lake effect model building, other times a drought, nothing at all. Its been damn near a year for any progress. Maybe a new forum is just the fuel the North Coast needs.

Likely I will be posting some of the highlights from the old forum as a bit of retrospect.

 On the old forum, there was a bunch of members named Dave. So as to not be confused with others, I'll continue the tradition of being known as:

Fifth Dave on the right



 

[Bernd]

I'll be watching and joining in with HOn3 subjects.



Bernd

[Dave Buchholz]

 THIS IS A TEST. Had it been an actual emergency, you would have been directed to go into the basement and work on model trains. Its either that or stick your head between your legs and pray. Here is a semi-final track plan that has been developed over the years.
REPEAT ... THIS IS ONLY A TEST

It turns out, the track plan is actually two plans in one. There is a feature for continuous running, with a reversing loop under the steps. When I was designing it, I did not even realize it had that ability until some one on RRL pointed it out to me. There was a lot of design input form members to help the plan along to it's preset form. I'm appreciative of all their contributions.

 A closer look reveals  point to point trackage from the deep water harbor in Oswego, in the lower right corner, counter clockwise past the yard to the ferry slip and inter-island passenger station on the dock.
   

[Dave Buchholz]

The back drop shown is about nine feet wide on the center wall. It took about two years to paint the entire backdrop. There are curved corners helping to make a seamless transition from wall to wall, to the right and left of it. I tried to be conscious of "where is the sun" and the aspect of where are the shadows and highlights accordingly.
           

[Dave Buchholz]

In the first post, I mentioned the  HOn3 North Coast Railroad is based on an actual standard gauge railroad, the Rome Watertown and Ogdensberg line that eventually was consolidated into the New York Central. Portions of it still exist  today and its  industries are serviced by the Ontario Midland  Railroad.
 
In the 1/87 version it is a narrow gauged version, that escaped  buyout by the NYC and underwent consolidation,  downsized  to the most profitable trackage from the harbor of Oswego, New York, west to Sodus Bay and finally west into the fruit belt and canning industry  regions of Wayne County, NY.

In reality, after many years of my life PLANNING a logging railroad, I realized I HATE MAKING TREES!. So structures became the focal point of the North Coast Railroad.

Inspirations for the design came from many places viewed over the course of my life, the harbor of Buffalo New York, where I grew up, Mystic Seaport Museum, from Oswego, NY , New England coastal harbors and SEVERAL bottles of Tequila. ( which probably explains why there aren't many straight lines in the track plan.)

[Dave Buchholz]

I got a little carried away after painting the walls of the railroad room, because I didn't stop at the walls. ( likely  the afore mentioned Tequila had something to do with that);. I thought of how my sky stopped, but in the real world,  kept on going.

With that thought  in mind, when storms come in over the real Lake Ontario there are no walls to stop them.  They boil overhead in torment ( like my wife upstairs). I figured those storms don't need to stop at my walls either, ( discounting  that the out of balance  laundry machines in the next room sound like thunder anyway)  So I continued the storm onto the ceiling. Why not take the illusion a bit further. After all. It's only make believe. 

From when this photo was taken, it has been improved upon.

Fifth Dave on the right

[Mr. Critter]

Oh, this is bloody marvellous.

[ACL1504]

Dave #5,

Love your track plan and the stormy skies. Well done. Thanks for sharing and I'm on the front row for this one.

Tom 

[GPdemayo]

Welcome and thanks for posting Dave, I'll be looking in on your adventure.....

[Larry C]

Dave thanks for bringing your layout adventure over here. The backdrop looks really good
and I have to say I've never seen someone extend it onto the ceiling before; neat idea.
I'll be checking in watching your progress.

[friscomike]

Howdy Dave,

The layout diagram looks terrific.  The dramatic backdrop and sky enhance the scene.  Excellent work.

Have fun,
mike

[Dave Buchholz]

A few years into the railroad progress brought us to slow development of the Oswego NY port area in general in the first picture. Structures have been shuffled around somewhat from that point in time.  The second photo shows one of the more unique structures of grain transfer harbors, the Marine Tower with its unloading leg extended into the hold of  "The Langell Brothers" a Sylvan Models freighter.  The third picture is a prototype tower still standing in the Buffalo NY harbor.

[Dave Buchholz]

Here's one more photo of the Marine tower as it progressed over time.

[GeorgeD]

I'm over here too, Dave.  That's a nice looking backdrop and the marine tower us an impassive structure.

George

[IWannaRetire]

Oh, this is bloody marvellous.

It is!  I especially like your track plan with water edging most of the interior layout edges.  Along with the painted ceiling, one can imagine one's self as a giant in the middle of a body of water.  Your structures are also praise-worthy.