Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

new england mill buildings

3144 views
5 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    December 2009
  • 94 posts
new england mill buildings
Posted by kh25 on Tuesday, April 19, 2016 9:57 PM

Hello growing up in Rochester NH. During the 70s there were a couple of factories that were of wood construction one was Allen and Hall Box company that made wood boxes. What I remember it was a couple stories high with clapboard siding the track ended with the building on 3 sides. They shipped finnished boxes and sawdust

What would that area look like? Also are there any ho scale kits of this type of building?

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 6:22 AM

You might try Bollinger Edgerly Scale Trains.  They have a couple of buildings that fit your description.  I have not yet assembled one of their kits.

  • Member since
    November 2003
  • 266 posts
Posted by Ron High on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 8:46 AM

Railway Design Associates has a nice line of plastic kits. There are a number of kits that represent Wood clapboard siding ,brick and stone mill buildings typical of the northeast and New England. They are a good value easy to kitbash. They sell direct and on Ebay .Some of the kits were marketed years back by Ertl. As far as I can determine the original kits were desinged by RDA . They may have done some resin version before the plastic. At some point they worked with Ertl to do plastic version. That business relationship ended and the plastic kits are now made and sold by RDA.I have quite a few and enjoy working with them.

Ron High

http://shop.railwaydesign.com/collections/railway-design-associates?page=1

 

  • Member since
    December 2004
  • From: Bedford, MA, USA
  • 21,481 posts
Posted by MisterBeasley on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 8:12 PM

This is my take on an old mill area.  My buildings are brick, though, but I really built the whole thing around the concept of trapping and channelling the water into canals to get water power.

I live near Lowell, Massachusetts, once the heart of the Industrial Revolution in the US.  There's a national historic park there, focused on the whole mill scene.  I found all this stuff fascinating.  It's heyday was in the 1880s, so long before my time or my railroad's time, but the remains of that history are still there to be seen.

It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse. 

  • Member since
    May 2010
  • From: SE. WI.
  • 8,253 posts
Posted by mbinsewi on Wednesday, April 20, 2016 10:59 PM

I'd have to agree with the RDA kits.  Also, have you been back there?  Any thing left of the original buildings?  I love Google Maps, and just checked out Rochester, NH., to see if I could find anything as you describe, along the tracks, that run basically SE. to NW. through town.  I didn't see anything like you describe, so the buildings must be long gone.

On the north side, I did find some current modern day modeling subjects.  Ossipee Aggregates, that have quite a few hoppers in the siding, and, on the same spur, a major LPG distributor, lots of tanks, and 6 or 7 tank cars.

Mike.

EDIT:  You could also check out the craftsman kits.  At the top of my mind, I can't remember all the suppliers, Blairline sticks out, and I know there are many more.  Or, you could always do a scratch build, or kit bash.

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • From: Milwaukee WI (Fox Point)
  • 11,439 posts
Posted by dknelson on Thursday, April 21, 2016 4:41 PM

I always thought the old Menlo Park (Thomas Edison's) Laboratory kit from Con-Cor Heljan had the look of a New Enland mill.  It is a long clapboard sided building with regular window spacing.   Indeed two kitbashed could have that 4 story high look that you see in some old photos. 

Another possibility is the IHC kit which was a sort of very old stone building that had the look of a mill.

Dave Nelson

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!