Dick Elwell’s Hoosac Valley
building to swap river banks and sit on the opposite side. Dick blew a hole in the desired bank, then called on Bob to fill it, which he did. “We work well to- gether,” Bob says. “No egos.” Dick did the survey work for the new
site’s switching, saying, “It didn’t work off the main, so it became an industry for the branch line.” Meanwhile, Bob carved and finished the slope’s rockwork, following direc- tions he had written for the kit’s in- struction books. Dick, who wet-casts his own rocks with molds he’s made from local stone, calls them “probably the only carved rocks on the layout.” The site, on a severe drop in the riverbed, features a number of small falls cascading into pools below. Dick used EnviroTex®
casting resin to pour
the water and created the falls from waxed paper, clear tub caulk and white paint. He finished the scene with fo- liage on the walls of the gorge. Local freights arrive at Martin and
leave via a three-span bridge designed and scratchbuilt by Bert Sacco, anoth- er HVRR regular who joins Dick for op- erating sessions and who accomplished some of the complex engineering re- quired to tear down this layout in one home and re-create it in another. Our next stop, an HO compression of
North Adams, Mass., and its surround- ing city, made that move in a single piece. A former milltown, like so many Hoosac Valley communities,
North
Adams turned increasingly in the 20th century to manufacturing, which flour- ished in World War II and remained for decades after in the likes of Sprague
The largest industry out on the Branchville line is Callahan Post & Beam, a sprawling collection of red painted mill buildings built by Dick starting with one American Model Works kit. The RS-2 (above) is spotting log cars here as the finished product gets loaded onto a truck. A Berkshire-powered westbound eases down the passing siding while an- other local, powered by an RS-11, drifts west, executing the perfect rolling meet (below). Meanwhile, a Branchville local has just picked up two empties from Elwood Stone, named after yet another of Dick’s modeling friends, John Elwood. Nestled in a corner of Dick’s railroad empire, the town of North Adams is home to the massive Armstrong Machine Co., the large gray series of buildings that Dick and Scott Mason kitbashed from South River wall molds. Dick built the station, which features a spectacular blue mansard roof.
Electric. Armstrong Machine Co., kit- bashed by Dick and Scott Mason from South River components, stands in for such muscular real-world industry and also serves as a contrast to the city’s Victorian station with its mansard roof. The dispatcher has put us in the
pass, as the local is drifting down to the station to see what work is re- quired today. The branch line continues from Mar- tin Machine, switching five other loca- tions including Elwood Stone, Dick’s salute to fellow modeler John Elwood.
48
JANUARY 2012
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