The Layout

I am currently constructing a layout in our home which fortunately features a very nice basement for a model railroad, but it was unfinished when we moved into the house in 2002. My first step was negotiating a space for the layout and I was able to procure an area equal to about half of the overall basement. The only condition was that we would finish off the rest of the area for other uses for the family (which I finally did in 2008).

My first task was to prepare the layout area with walls, ceiling, electrical and lighting. I also created a doorway from the rest of the basement so I can lock up the layout room when not in use. After a few months of work, that was finally complete and I was ready to start building the layout in early 2003.

Layout Inspiration

The "Northeast Kingdom" is the name associated with the upper Connecticut River Valley, the northern parts of Vermont. My layout tries to capture the look of this region and the railroading action as it was in and around October of 1980. The central focus of the layout is St. Johnsbury, Vermont, with its yard and interchange among 3 railroads, the Canadian Pacific, Maine Central and  Lamoille Valley. I also included the Boston & Maine, Central Vermont and North Stratford railroads as they all ran trains in the NEK area (including neighboring New Hampshire).

In addition to my many visits to this area on family vacations, I have also found the February 1982 Trains article by Ben Bachman to be quite inspirational. Ben's pictures and text in this and other articles really cemented my interest in New England railroading. Various family camping trips to the White Mountains since I was 6 years old also played a big part in my love of this area and its railroads. Vivid memories still remain of Harvest Gold MEC trains passing through Crawford Notch, of B&M Blue Geeps in the early morning fog along the Connecticut River and of CP Rail Action Red RS18s doing work in St. Johnsbury. These are all things that are no longer there, but they do exist in photos, my memory and now on my model railroad!

Layout Design

My layout area occupies about one half of our basement, using an overall area of about 19' x 40'. The layout is built along the walls with a double-sided peninsula in the center. The peninsula contains St. Johnsbury on one side, with trains entering at one end from hidden double-ended staging. Along the wall that St. J faces is the Lamoille Valley, which travels along the wall before descending into hidden track, emerging briefly to interchange with the CV before ending in stub-ended staging below St. J yard.

The opposite side of the peninsula is the Maine Central Mountain Division and parts of the CP/B&M Conn River line. The MEC continues to travel along the peninsula to the corner representing Gilman VT with the large paper mill. From there the track is hidden before emerging at Whitefield NH and Crawford Notch, before entering double-ended staging. Meanwhile the CP passes Lyndonville before entering into stub-ended staging representing Newport, VT in northern Vermont (with connection to Montreal).

I included the B&M with staging for White River Jct., then a live interchange with the MEC in Whitefield before heading to work the paper mill in Groveton NH. The North Stratford is on an upper level accessed off the MEC near the center of the long wall, interchanging with the MEC and Grand Trunk (static interchange). The NSRC primarily serves the Ethan Allen furniture plant at the end of the line in Beechers Falls, VT. The Central Vermont is represented with the interchange point with the Lamoille Valley in Sheldon Jct. VT. Staging for St. Albans and Richford allows CV locals to operate through the interchange point.

Layout Plan

The track plan below represents the current state of the layout. I did not start with this plan fully designed, but only knew the basic footprint I was going to fill and the scenes and operations I wanted to include. I do not necessarily recommend that approach, but I do think even with a complete plan, changes will happen as you move through construction.

Layout Construction

I started building the layout in 2003 by first building the St. J. peninsula and then the along-the-wall section for the LVRC. I focused on getting these sections operational with a taste of scenery before I started the rest of the layout. This helped keep my interest level high as I could work on different facets of model railroading early on. The major downside is that I am sure it took me longer to get to an overall completed look in the layout area and I did have to revisit things like benchwork years later. But overall I am happy with how things progressed.

By April of 2003, benchwork on the St J peninsula and the LVRC line along the wall was getting started

St. Johnsbury yard is scaled down and not double ended like the prototype. It was difficult to come up with something that could support tracks that leave the yard in all four directions (MEC East, CP North, LVRC West, CP/BM South). I knew the yard was key to supporting the operations I wanted so that is why I focused on that first. The south end of the yard is hidden past an overpass and the tracks are stub ended while the mainline heads into staging for East Deerfield, MA.


May of 2004 and track in St. Johnsbury is progressing

The Lamoille Valley exits St. J much like the prototype and travels along the wall section, past the town of Hardwick, through the Fisher covered bridge and on to Morrisville. Here a yard, some industries and the LVRC shops are situated. Although my track arrangement here in Morrisville does not follow the prototype, operationally all of this did exist and the railroad operated out of this central location along the line. Leaving Morrisville and traveling west, the line passes a talc mill at Johnson before heading through a closet wall. Hidden trackage below the LVRC scenes just traversed, the line remerges in the opposite direction at Sheldon Junction. Here is a crossing with the Central Vermont. The LVRC main connects to the CP Main creating a loop that goes back up to St. Johnsbury, good for open houses and free running. Operationally though, the LVRC will head onto CV trackage into staging representing St. Albans VT (This is what the LVRC did in my time period instead of continuing on LVRC trackage to Swanton).


Also in May of 2004 the LVRC just had the covered bridge installed and river scenery added

The CV is represented by staging representing the yard at St. Albans, emerging to cross the LVRC at Sheldon Jct. Some minor interchange and switching takes place here before heading into staging again to represent the CV line north to Richford.


To the right is the St J peninsula. The high track above is the LVRC track out of St. Johnsbury, while below tracks are the other end of the line interchanging with the CV at Sheldon Jct. in this view from June of 2004.

Back on the peninsula, the St. J. yard features the CP main line and the Maine Central's western terminus. The MEC leaves the north end of the yard and curves around the end of the peninsula to travel back along the other side of the St. J peninsula. A team track, pulpwood loading siding and the Maple Grove factory (they make syrup and other food products) are included along this track close to the backdrop. Off the peninsula and back along the walls, the paper mill at Gilman is passed before the MEC heads into hidden trackage heading to the wall sections on the other side of the layout room.


By March of 2006 progress was starting to be made on the other side of the peninsula. A temporary return loop was removed and the MEC track above and CP track below were being routed. The MEC locomotive is seen on the short connector that links the west end of LVRC back to the CP to create a loop useful for open house running.

The Canadian Pacific enters the St. J. peninsula from the north (Newport), which comes from staging and travels uphill next to the MEC. An industrial park in Lyndonville is located here as the track emerges from hidden staging. To get into St. J, the CP will parallel the MEC track. This means curving the CP track north of St. J. (instead of the prototype's straight north track), a compromise to avoid an earlier design that called for duckunder "bridge" to the other wall under the LVRC. The CP line travels through the yard and out the south end as previously mentioned, going to staging representing East Deerfield MA.

For a short time I used a section from my old layout to connect the Maine Central and CP track to create a loop for the track running through St. Johnsbury yard. This helped with the early open houses as well as the NMRA National in Philadelphia in 2006 as it allowed me to have 2 trains operate continuously on separate trackage.


With the temporary loop removed, I started benchwork on the Gilman paper milll scene and the lower Lyndonville section, seen here in 2008.

In 2009 after getting energized by attending the NMRA National Convention in Harford CT, I started construction on the wall that was to house my large staging yard as well as the Maine Central and Boston and Maine scenes. After kicking around a few ideas, I settled on a double ended staging yard up against the wall and the visible scenes in front with a styrene backdrop between them. I really wanted to have full access along the staging yard (i.e. not attached to the wall), but it would have made the aisle area too narrow.


In September of 2009, the peninsula and relatively more completed area of the layout is to the right. On the left benchwork is in full swing to build out the staging yard, Crawford Notch and Whitefield scenes.

The Maine Central emerges from hidden trackage at Whitefield, NH with the diamond crossing of the Boston & Maine. Like the prototype, an interchange occurs here. The Maine Central then continues on to Crawford Notch. This area is what is first seen when visitors enter the layout room, so I planned this area to have the hillside with lots of trees like the prototype to have a nice initial visual impact, and then the track passing through a rock cut as it curves away, heading into staging.

The Boston & Maine through Whitfield is an active interchange. The BM comes from staging to the south and passes through Whitfield before heading downgrade, curving back under Whitfield before coming out as a paper mill in Groveton, NH. This provides more operational work for the layout and came about as I worked out the plan for this are alf the layout, i.e. I did not originally plan for this to be part of the layout. I am pretty happy to include this though.


By March of 2010 the staging yard is in place and the MEC and B&M track is getting laid.

One other thing that was not planned but added later as I studied the benchwork is an upper shelf above Groveton to represent the North Stratford Railway. I included the prototype Quebec Junction off of the Maine Central between Whitefield and Crawford Notch, with this branch heading upgrade along the hidden staging and emerging on the upper shelf at North Stratford NH. A major difference is that the switch for Quebec Junction is aligned the opposite way, so locals heading to North Stratford will need to use the small yard at Crawford Notch to put the locomotive and caboose on opposite ends before back tracking to the junction and heading upgrade.


In May of 2010 benchwork is going in for the North Stratford section on an upper shelf above the hidden MEC and CP trackage and the Groveton mill area in the foreground..


In November of 2012, the track laying at Morrisville Vermont proceeded, building out the small yard and sidings off of what was just the LVRC mainline through this scene for many years.


And track planning was occurring in Groveton to figure how to build the paper mill scene and support B&M operations.


In August of 2013 scenery work is in progress for Crawford Notch.


July 2014 and the track work and scenery is taking shape at Johnson VT off of the LVRC mainline before it heads into hidden track on its way to Sheldon Jct.


In June of 2015 planning for the small town scene for Whitefield has started.


By mid 2015 the layout construction had progressed to the point where I was able to host a few operating sessions


July of 2019 and the buildings and scenery are in for Groveton while the track is in place for North Stratford on the upper deck.


2020 and 2021 saw a lot of scenery and structure progress. Here in November of 2021 is the relatively complete paper mill and Gilman VT.


In October of 2024 most of the scenery and structures is now in place for East St. Johnsbury VT along the MEC mainline.


By May of 2025 there is not too much layout construction left to do. Here in Lyndonville I have the track laid and scenery has started,

A few sections of layout remain to be addressed at this point, including finishing Johnson, a part of Whitefield, and Sheldon Jct. But all track work is in place, and it is primarily scenery, a few structures and details to focus on now, as well as locomotive and freight car work that is always fun to do. I also want to revisit certain areas where scenery was put in place a while back, like St. J yard, and do some upgrades there.