Agway Feed Mill - 3
4
area. Fortunately, numerous feed mills still exist, and one such
mill that still sees frequent service is the former Agway Mill in
Bernardston, MA, along the ex- Boston & Maine Conn River Line.
The Bernardston mill [1-4] was originally built in 1980 by
Agway, a name synonymous with agricultural products. Like
many of the once-common agricultural names in this region,
the mill has changed hands and now goes by the name Feed
Commodities, but one look at the mill’s faded white paint
and rusted feed bin, and the Agway ancestry is clearly evi-
dent. Today as it did back in 1980, the facility receives inbound
loads of feed and fertilizer by rail that are unloaded in the
car unloading shed and
stored in the silos before
being blended and dis-
tributed by trucks to
local farms in northern
Massachusetts and south-
ern Vermont.
Main structure
Modeling this mill was
more challenging than
I initially anticipated,
but ultimately the effort
resulted in a unique
model that certainly
captures the look of the
4. South Side of
Bernardston Mill Photo
circa 1991, courtesy of
Bill Feindel.
prototype. Capturing this look meant doing a convincing job
with the main structure, the feed storage bin, and truck load-
ing building. Also, the Agway logo and red/black striping set
against the white building was common to the Agway Mills.
Achieving this however, did require a significant amount of
scratchbuilding.
The basic components of the structure were built using
Pikestuff roofing material assembled with Testors Model
Master Cement. Model dimensions were scaled using mea-
surements I took of the prototype in August 2012. To simplify
construction, each wall of the structure was built individually
using the base dimensions I took in August. The overall build-
ing height was estimated by comparing door heights to the
structure height. While not 100% accurate, my ultimate goal
was more about capturing the look of the prototype than
building a completely accurate model. Doing so would have
5. Office addition located on east wall showing three
sides taped together.
5
MRH-Sep 2014
