Almost a year ago, Jim Taylor and I approached the Apple Capial Museum about producing a scene that represented the railway area of Berwick, NS emphasizing the importance of the railway. We presented an option to the museum's board for a static scene that was about 10 feet long and would allow some close up viewing. Boy, I did not know what I was getting into. Before we knew it the museum was talking an operational layout with moving train, wanting as close to 100% accuracy that we could provide for the town scene set in September 1936 time frame. The actual layout is an oval around the posts and the section for the town is 16 feet long but because of space constraints, we needed to compress the scene by about 100 scale feet in overall length. Not very noticable. The other side of the oval is just a generic scene that you would have seen in the area that will show some of the major agricultrial industries as they would be seen from the tracks.
The track is Atlas code 83 track and Atlas #6 switches the minimum radius on the ends of the oval are 22" which were dictated by space constraints. We worked from railroad blueprints, insurance maps and from photographs that we were loaned to determine plans for the buildings that no longer exist, track layout for the track that has been pulled up for many years. Using these we transferred them to the tabletops used in the town scene. We used open grid, wire screen and plastercloth on the opposite side. So far we are getting one side completed while some modellers build the buidlings to be used for the town scene. When those are in place the scenery will begin in the town of Berwick.
Click here to go to the museum's website
Here are a couple of photos from the latest worksession to see where we are.
