MEC U18B 409 leading RY-2 starts to dig in for the climb up the mountain. Glen-Jackson, NH. Photo by Bob Staples.
	A southbound Boston Gravel train Power Parked for night at Russo’s Crossing Milton, NH. Photo by Bill Fothergill.
	Maine Central U18B 409 leads westbound RY-2 approaching the “Gateway” at Crawford Notch, NH. Photo by Bill Fothergill.
	Maine Central U18B 402 leads four other Units at Bartlett, NH. The train has just completed a drawbar test and will soon head west to Crawford’s Notch. Notice the work equipment and three track cars on siding. Yellow and green flags were placed to warn train crews of on going track work and slow orders. Photo by Bill Fothergill.
	Maine Central GP38’s await their next assignment on the Mountain Division under the sand towers in Rigby Yard. Photo by Bill Fothergill.
	Boston & Maine GP9’s gather their train for the Conway Branch in the yard at Dover, NH. Photo by Bill Fothergill.
	Boston & Maine SW8 works a local in the yard at Dover, NH. Photo by Bill Fothergill.
	Trains were required to stop at certain stations and the conductor sign a register book to allow them to continue. RY-2 pauses at Bartlett, NH, where the real grade to the Crawford Notch summit began. Photo by Bob Staples.
	Eastbound Amoskeag Northern train PN-1 with newly acquired ex-MP MP15, approaches the Swift River bridge just north of Mountainview, NH. Photo by Ian MacMillan.
	Construction in progress on the author’s HO scale Amoskeag Northern. Photo by Ian MacMillan.
	AN track plan.

By Ian MacMillan/Photos as noted
Originally published February 18, 2007

[EDITORS NOTE: This month, we introduce HIGH GREEN, a new series on model railroad layout construction and design. Ian MacMillan will take us through the design and process on his HO scale Amoskeag Northern. Ian is looking forward to sharing his ideas with our readers. Please join us as the series unfolds from season to season. –ov]

Following our realtor from house to house, I had one main focus in our search: a big basement. But with each house it was more and more disappointment each time. Ductwork, water heaters, lolly columns, and every other home utility imaginable were everywhere, running good layout space. How could contractors possibly do this, even in the days of the finished basement? Almost losing hope, my wife Tabatha found one more house for us to look at. The house was very nice, having what we were looking for, and… a perfect basement. The 22’ x 42’ basement had stairs that came down into the middle of the room and utilities all in one corner by the outside door, leaving a generous 22’ x 35’ space for my new layout.

My free-lanced Amoskeag Northern, set in Northern New England, features branch and secondary lines, and regional Amtrak service, run using a central dispatcher. Over the next several articles I’ll be showing you how I will be going about building, adding scenery, and running the layout, and hopefully provide you with some ideas for yours, regardless of scale.

Never ending changes

In its original design, the layout was to be built in N, and would have been massive for that scale. As I hashed out several bench work designs and track work configurations I had acquired a HO scale CR X58 boxcar craftsman kit from Rail Yard Models for a weathering contest. I built the car to Proto:87 standards, and that’s when it dawned on me: I needed to get back into HO. The detail and realistic look of the car was stunning, and when placed on a small section of Proto:87 code 70 track with scale tie plates, spikes, and joint bars, I was hooked.

The next day the N scale design was in the trash, and my rolling stock up on eBay. I quickly drafted up a bench work design in CAD and then added some basic track elements to see if the design would work. When I was satisfied, I had decided on a what-if Conrail-themed layout based in New Hampshire, running branch lines from the former Boston & Maine and Maine Central. However, that was about to change!

As the layout design progressed further, I felt my mindset was too prototype-oriented, and that if things on the layout could cause someone to say “Conrail never did that.” If I was trying to convince myself that something I wanted to do was plausible, it wasn’t going to work. More and more the layout appeared to be more free-lanced than anything, and after creating a traditional “Givens and Druthers” matrix, it was only clearer. So out of that never ending cycle of change over a period of several months, the free-lanced Amoskeag Northern was chartered as a railroad in New Hampshire.

The 3R and the Boston & Maine, Less Guilford

My fictional free-lanced universe has base in true events. Under the 1973 3R Act, the process was set in motion to take the major northeastern bankrupt railroads and form Conrail. The Boston & Maine Railroad was under Chapter 77 bankruptcy protection at the time, and briefly considered joining Conrail. Since B&M was financially a little stronger than the other railroads to be included, they that the originally included in the 3R Act, management decided to pursue its own reorganization plan. Even with the new plan announced, the creditors wanted to liquidate as much of the B&M as possible. It is reported that many of the B&M’s creditors also had financial ties to the ill-fated Penn Central. It is suspected that perhaps they lessened their losses by selling the B&M, and thus also eliminating Penn Central competition in the Northeast.

Struggling in a dying market where Conrail was slightly beginning to turn around, the Boston & Maine inched closer and closer to complete bankruptcy. After successful lobbying, Congress passed the Staggers Act in 1980, which largely deregulated the rail industry. Seeking to build a strong New England system to compete with Conrail, B&M sought merger with its longtime partner Maine Central. In 1980, the Staggers Act was passed, and on November 1, 1980 the Boston & Maine, and Maine Central merged to form Amoskeag Northern.

With the ICC’s control significantly reduced, railroads were able to set their own rates, and eliminate track that was not profitable. Despite the lingering effects of a recession, Amoskeag Northern was able to grow and attract new business. With the balance sheets evening out, extensive overhauls of the railroad began, as needed capital improved lines and equipment that had long been subject to deferred maintenance. Through the 1990s, the AN was poised for even more growth and profitability, and thus set the stage for my model railroad empire.

The Layout Design

Taking the opposite route of the more “mainstream” modelers, I decided to leave the auto rack and intermodal trains behind, and model the secondary and branch lines of New England. Centering on the central and northern part of New Hampshire, the lines work their way past the street trackage of the Amoskeag Mills and north into the White Mountains. My track is all hand laid, code 70 on the main and code 55 on sidings, adhering to Proto:87 Fine Scale standards and super-detailed with scale tie plats, spikes, and joint bars. Digitrax DCC provides control via their wireless throttles and JMRI’s Decoder Pro over LocoNet. During regular operating sessions a solo dispatcher, known as “District 2,” controls the main line turnouts and grants track warrants via a CTC panel and radio in the dispatcher’s office.

Designed to focus on slow moving and backwoods switching, the industries on the layout are typical of New England. Paper mills, creameries, and large industrial mills dot the layout, while the PSNH coal power plant takes in unit trains of Powder River coal. Through trains originate off layout in one of two staging yards, while others arrive in Manchester yard and are broken down into locals that serve the branches. Several industries on the layout support their own switching operations, most notably is the Swift River Railway, which switches the Swift River Paper mills, and Ciment Quebec, served by their lone MP15DC switcher.

While passenger routes have all but withered away in real life, imagined state-funded programs make them possible on my layout. Amtrak’s Granite Stater regional service, based off of the successful Downeaster program, provides commuter service to Boston, MA, while the New England States Limited provides round trip service from New York City to Montreal, PQ.

Basic Operating

NORAC rules and B&M-inspired timetables explain just about everything that a train crew needs to know about operations. Session train crews, other than through trains with no work, consist of two people, an engineer and a conductor. The two person crews on other layouts I have operated on tend to slow down the work, and operate at a more realistic pace. All conductors are responsible for making car drops, aligning sidings, and taking down operating permissions issued by the dispatcher. Each conductor is equipped with a Sergent Engineering uncoupling tool to uncouple cars. All of the cars and locomotives have the Sergent Engineering true scale couplers installed and operate like the prototype coupler. Since the couplers do not have “glad hands” like Kadee couplers, they must be operated using the conductor’s tool.

Power assignments are typical of the older power that the B&M and MEC maintained. Most freights consist of GP7’s, GP9’s, GP38’s or GP40’s and even the few MEC U18B’s pop up every once and a while. The SW1200 switchers, which were plentiful in both roads, have been replaced by the MP15DC.

On to Benchwork!

Now that we’ve set the story, we’re ready to get building! Next time we’ll check in on building inexpensive benchwork using plywood, and start cutting some sub-roadbed. Until then, keep calling those high greens!

About the Author
A Network Administrator by education, and a Dispatcher/Police Officer by trade, Ian MacMillan has been involved in model railroading for over 15 years. After a brief stint in N scale he has returned to HO to build his free-lanced Amoskeag Northern Railroad. Ian lives in East Wakefield, New Hampshire with his wife Tabatha and his two children. When not working on his layout he enjoys working on his Woodings speeder, and his website.