Dick Elwell’s Hoosac Valley
in the Adirondack foothills, the real Es- sex, N.Y., sits on the western shore of Lake Champlain, a picturesque rural town noted for its antebellum architec- ture. On Dick’s re-creation, however, it was once simply a bare-plywood stag- ing area inhabiting a narrow shelf along 22 feet of one wall where it rep- resented both Essex and Pittsfield, Mass., the HVRR’s eastern end. Ever-active throughout the rail-
Two Alcos–an older RS-1 and a new RS-3–ease to a stop in Adams (above) to work the large Berkshire Hathaway textile mill (fashioned from a kitbashed Blackstone Paper Mill manufactured by South River Modelworks). Other structures were built by Dick using ma- terials, from South River, Fine Scale Miniatures and Woodland Scenic kits, blending tech- niques to create that distinctive, unmistakable look that says “New England.” One of the New Haven’s colorful trains (below) pulls alongside the Hoosac Valley at the Cheshire de- pot. Alco locomotives (always popular with Northeastern roads since they were manufac- ture locally, in Schenectady, N.Y.) are leading both trains here with an RS-11/FA combina- tion on the New Haven freight meeting another FA set on the Hoosac Valley.
road’s half-century of continuous de- velopment, Dick shifted Pittsfield oper- ations to the opposite wall, above the crew couch. One of the layout’s latest major changes, the Pittsfield staging yard today has shrugged off its Essex link to stand alone, a simple un- scenicked five-track, double-ended af- fair firmly rooted in Massachusetts. Back in Essex, Dick completed the scenery for that New York community, as seen in the photos. When this was finished at the end of September, 2011, he announced that he had “finished” the Hoosac Valley RR. The railroad was complete (at least for now).
A journey into the valley Scenicked or not (it is), Essex re- mains the principal launch point for trains into the active layout. Grab a throttle and let’s take an eastbound manifest on a trip around this magnifi- cent layout. It is a short journey ’round the corner to Whitehall, N.Y., once a crossroads of the maritime trade on Lake Champlain’s southern shore. It’s now known as Whitehall Junction, where the fictional Hoosac Valley Rail- road moves over trackage leased from the Delaware & Hudson, with which it swaps cars. Whitehall is also where the HVRR converges with a branch line, the equally-imaginary
Adirondack
“Some people like [cool white] fluo- rescent lighting,” Dick says, “while oth- ers prefer the warm yellow cast of in- candescent. I like the even lighting that fluorescent lights provide.” After mounting the fixtures securely in the ceiling, built per Dick’s specifica- tions six inches higher than standard
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in his new home, he masked their spill with a valance to focus the light where it belonged: on the layout. This is evi- dent the moment one descends the basement staircase and encounters Es- sex Junction on the right. Essex is the bridge line’s western terminus. A popular tourist destination
Northern Railroad which runs a daily log train to Callahan Post & Beam over Hoosac trackage. Buildings in Whitehall provide an early hint of some names that are in- evitably encountered on a trip around the HVRR. If friends are one’s mirror, as the old adage has it, consider the company Dick keeps. Collectively, Dick included, they make up a veritable who’s who of model railroading in the Northeast. Over the years they have visited, operated on, helped build or provided pieces of the HVRR, and their names are as much a part of the layout as its exquisite scenery and detailed structures. Start in Whitehall, where T.S Photo
Works pays tribute to Dick’s longtime friends Mike Tylick and Lou Sassi, while over at Keller Bay (for videographer Alan Keller), another friend, frequent dispatcher Frank Czubryt, is the man behind Czubryt’s Pier.
JANUARY 2012
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