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Just beyond that is the town of Adams, itself named to salute Revolutionary War leader Samuel Adams. The first thing Dick ever built for this layout, Adams was a compact switching mod- ule more than 50 years ago before be- coming a starting point for Dick’s en- during empire. At its center, standing as the quintessential New England scene, is the imposing Berkshire Hath- away textile mill, a kitbash of the Blackstone Paper Mill from South Riv- er.


Coming out of Adams, we take the eastbound around a curve to the left, onto the second peninsula and past the town of Cheshire, where the Greylock Terminal Railroad joins the Hoosac Valley. Into a tunnel and out, we round the end of the peninsula, then slow down to enter busy Berkshire Junc- tion, where a local switcher helps sort arriving freight cars, distributing them among the fictional town’s multiple in- dustries.


Meanwhile, crews deposit


their trains at the HVRR’s main shops and yards. Our train will have serious work here and we slip into the yard as an NYC passenger train holds the sta- tion lead. Just outside Pittsfield, the New


Haven branch line interchanges with the Hoosac Valley, allowing NH trains to switch industries in and around Pittsfield and Cheshire.


A layout built for operations Operating sessions on the Hoosac


Valley generally find two yard crews and eight road crews keeping traffic moving. The crews use North Coast Engineering’s DCC cabs to guide a fleet of transition-era steam and diesel locomotives, all of them detailed and equipped for sound. The crews, NCE plug-in throttles in hand, follow their trains around the broad aisles, work- ing from intricate, computer-generated switchlists that Dick prepares in ad- vance of operating sessions. Accom- plishing the car assignments, says a sometime participant, Bob Van Gelder, can be challenging. “It’s probably easi- er,” he says, “to play against a chess champion.” Regardless of the level of difficulty in assignments, Dick has lit- tle trouble filling slots for his operating sessions, calling as he does on a famil- iar duty roster of mutually supportive friends from near and far. Their moves are tracked and orches- trated by a dispatcher, sitting out of sight at a Centralized Traffic Control panel, built by Dick and tucked under the stairs near Essex Junction. Often occupied by Frank Czubryt, a retired track foreman with the Penn Central and its successors, the panel is a key position during operating sessions.


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 49


A heavy Alco-powered through freight commands the mainline as it passes the Berkshire Junction yard (above). Berkshire Junction has the main shops and yards of the Hoosac Val- ley and things are always busy around the station. An eastbound first-class passenger train pulls into the depot track (below). An eager railfan hangs out the back vestibule, hoping to enjoy a view of Berkshire Junction’s busy engine facilities. He will not be disappointed.


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