Does Anyone Model The Adirondack Scenic RR

[Anonymous]

does anyone model the adirondack rr if so do you have any pictures or suggestions for modeling it?????? any commentswould be greatly appreciated thanks and see you later.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by adirondackrr

does anyone model the adirondack rr if so do you have any pictures or suggestions for modeling it?????? any commentswould be greatly appreciated thanks and see you later.

I know you are referring to the NY Central's Adirondack Branch but the original Adirondack RR was the 60 mile D&H branch from Saratoga Springs to North Creek. Some of that line now operates as the Upper Hudson River Railroad, also a tourist/scenic railroad.

Are you interested in modeling the line as it exists today? It is an interesting idea to model an actual scenic railroad. Usually running through fabulous scenery, you have a variety of passenger and MOW equipment. With virtually nothing in freight traffic, many of the sidings are nothing more than rotting ties and scraps of rail. A big savings there so spend some money on top-quality turnouts for the few you will need.

As you can see from my signature, my new layout is being set in the Adirondacks.The book I have that covers the Central's Adirondack Branch in detail is "The Fairy Tale Railroad" by Henry A. Harter. Despite the unfortunate, silly title, it cover the history of the branch in details with lots of photos and stories. This would be a good reference for you.

Nothing beats travelling the ROW, taking photos as you go to get a feel for your subject. If that's not practical, there are a couple of websites, the first which you know:

http://www.adirondackrr.com/ - The Official website of the Adirondack Scenic RR
http://www.drydentidbits.com/adirondack/ - a "fan" website

There are a few model railroads that I know of that are regional. The incredible layout on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute skirts the Eastern Adirondacks: http://railroad.union.rpi.edu/

A modeler in the UK has done some research towards the building of his layout, set in the Utica-Thendara area, though no photos other than rather nice benchwork. http://www.btinternet.com/~malcolm.alberry/

My own layout is in the early stages, with only a small 3'x7' sawmill section currently built and scenery started so no photos yet. The scenery, as you can imagine will include many thousands of trees. I just started taking photos along the right of way in the northern sections to create a panoramic backdrop, figuring that 6 million acres of trees is a bit too much to make.

Some of the scenery includes the cliffs popular with rock & ice climbers and other geological features of the region. Often tracks never passed through these areas but I'm using "modeler's licence" to break up a couple of hundred feet of tree-lined roadbed. Other planned features include clear-cut timberland & burned areas. The era I'm interested in is the earliest years of the 1900's when huge fires burned over a million acres of timber. A typical fire was started by sparks from a coal-burning locomotive igniting the slash from track-side logging spreading to the drought stricken forest. As a result, if you run a steam loco on your scenic RR, make sure it burns oil. New York State regulations ban wood or coal burners to this date. Actually, after reading the histories, I wonder if I need to make any trees at all.

Wayne

[Anonymous]

hey thanks alot and when you get some photos could you send them to me?? that would be awsome. and to answer you question yes i wanted to model it in its present condition as a scenic railroad. but like you said im going to take the artists license and add one or two through freights....... and lots of MOW. well thanks again....