Vol. 46: Boston & Maine New Hampshire Division
This is Paul Dolkos’s beautiful Boston and Maine railroad. This HO layout is set in 1952 New Hampshire. Paul has been in the hobby since he was a child and has been taking pictures of trains almost that long. Today he is one of the hobby’s best known model photographers, so his layout scenes are carefully arranged for interesting photos. The railroad is highly detailed but not overly busy. Paul says he likes to keep viewers’ eyes focused on the trains and their operations, a showy picture can destroy the illusion of a real Boston and Maine railroad.
The Boston and Maine railroad is a freelanced layout that is based on a prototype railroad. In this video, Allen Keller discusses why Paul wanted to model New England. For Paul, it offers great diversity, interesting railroads, and wonderful scenery and operations. The Boston and Maine railroad takes up 20 by 20 feet in Paul’s fully finished basement. The minimum radius is 26 inches and the benchwork is L girder and open grid. Insulation foam is used as the base of the layout. The railroad runs from southern staging at South River to northern staging at North Gorham. We will begin our trip through New Hampshire at Woodsriver.
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2:02This is Paul Dolkos’s beautiful Boston and Maine railroad. This HO layout is set in 1952 New Hampshire. Paul has been in the hobby since he was a child and has been taking pictures of trains almost that long. Today he is one of the hobby’s best known model photographers, so his layout scenes are…
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9:38We begin the tour of Paul Dolkos’s HO scale Boston & Maine New Hampshire Division model railroad with a JD 1 from White River Junction arriving via Southriver. This train, powered by an AB set of F unites, works through the Woodsriver wind. The mixed cuts back by the Woodsriver station on its way to…
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10:25Operations on Paul Dolkos’s HO scale Boston & Maine New Hampshire Division model railroad begin with the local called White Field South powered by a JP-7 1571. It takes the west siding at Wells before crossing the Barre and Chelsey. The train has two cars waiting on the Wells pickup track. The Jeep has picked…
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2:28Paul Dolkos’s Boston and Maine railroad never reaches Boston or Maine. Instead Paul modeled the New Hampshire division of the railroad. Allen Keller asks Paul about the railroad’s route through New Hampshire. It is probably the farthest that the Boston and Maine railroad gets. He follows the line that comes up the river valley and…
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3:51To make model railroad scenery trees for winter scenes, or deciduous trees in particular, Paul Dolkos recommends finding some armature material that has a complex branching structure. The pieces he shows came off of real trees, so they do not have very many branches and are a bit too sparse for a model tree. Instead…
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12:05There is a lot of variety in Paul Dolkos’s Boston and Maine, New Hampshire Division model railroad layout. Three industries in particular are emphasized: paper making, milk processing, and granite mining. Allen Keller asks what Paul finds particularly appealing about those three. For Paul, paper mills allow modelers to build a large industry that takes…
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6:02One of the most coveted operating positions on Paul Dolkos’s Boston and Maine layout is the mill job, like that on the White Mountain Paper Company. This represents a sulfite mill in northern New Hampshire and is comprised of: a warehouse with two tracks leading in on the other side of the main line, a…
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3:39Learn more about the staging yards and model railroad yard design on Paul Dolkos’s Boston and Maine. North Gorham is open staging and consists of several stub tracks plus a return loop. The return loop makes it very easy to turn trains during an operating session, since you can come in and off the model…
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4:34Allen Keller asks Paul Dolkos what kind of locomotives he uses on his Boston and Maine model railroad. He has a combination of steam and diesel, brass for the steam and a brass diesel or two. Allen asks if Paul does anything to the locomotives to help them run better. The brass engines require some…
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