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Getting Real Column - 5
it goes. Through this process I’ve learned a lot about the resale
value of model railroad items. It’s an expensive lesson, one I’m
continuing to learn as I rent tables at train shows and upload
no longer appropriate items to sites like eBay.
Traffic flow and other considerations
One option I seriously considered was replacing the freelanced
SNE with a prototype CV layout without changing the layout
itself. The SNE was close enough to the CV’s southern division
that I could have simply changed the town names and gradu-
ally replaced the kit structures and the like with scratchbuilt
prototype models.
About this time I stumbled across the Rapido Osgood Bradley
“American Flyer” style coaches in the hobby shop. I knew that,
aside from excursion service in the late steam era on the CV’s
southern division in Massachusetts and Connecticut, these cars
were limited to the CV’s northern division. But these models
were, in a word, stunning. I couldn’t help myself so I purchased a
pair of B&M and New Haven cars. I figured if nothing else I could
run them in a model of the CV’s Ambassador on my layout (I
have the requisite brass 4-8-2). The Ambassador never ran on CV
rails south of Massachusetts, mind you, but I figured I could run
it on the layout, you know, when no one was looking.
The fact that the CV’s 4-8-2s couldn’t negotiate my 26” mini-
mum mainline radius curves –fine for the CV southern division
inspired SNE – didn’t stop me daydreaming about watching the
Ambassador, in its full HO scale glory, rounding the bend.
Then there was the CV 700-series 2-10-4s. Although the small-
est of the wheel arrangement built, there was no denying
they were cool looking beasts – with their Elesco feedwater
heaters and impressive trailing truck frames. A number of years
ago Division Point imported a beautiful brass model of these
engines. And my lovely wife presented me with one as a sur-
prise gift (it covered Christmas, Anniversary, Father’s Day and
Birthday in one package . . .) But like the 4-8-2s it couldn’t han-
dle the curves on the layout, so other than running it back and
forth on the straight track, it sat in the display case.
The Rapido Osgood Bradley cars and the 2-10-4 pushed me
over the edge. But both of these really didn’t belong on the
southern end of the railroad. That was the first big revelation
– acknowledge that what I really wanted to do was (finally)
return to my roots and model the Central Vermont Railway’s
northern division in Vermont. The compelling question
became: How many changes would it require to the layout, and
would the resulting plan be compelling enough to stomach the
thought of taking what may be a major step backwards?
MRH-Mar 2013
