The Adirondack Line  

                            Geographical Area Modelled

The layout is set in upper New York State USA in the region of the south western Adirondack Mountains.  The Adirondacks are a large tract of land, now declared 'forever wild',covering 2.6 million acres, established in 1892 and was the first National Park within the USA. It  reaches in the west to Lake Ontario, to the east Lake Champlain / Hudson and stretching to nearly the Canadian boarder to the north.

This area is bounded to the south by the Mohawk River running west to east, emptying into the Hudson, running north to south from Albany. The two rivers gave their name to the famous New York Central Water Level Route from New York to Chicago, via Albany, Utica, Rochester and Buffalo. Due to the minimal grades, this route enabled the NYC to continually set record running times between New York and Chicago during the first half of 20th Century. (Do these words ring a bell - perhaps a Hudson Bell - just add 'Limited'!!!!

North of the Mohawk, the land slopes gently up to the start of the Adirondacks, where farming and dairy products were the main exports from the area.  Once in the Adirondacks, the primary commodity was timber - lots of it.  But what do you imagine was the secondary product at the turn of the 19th century? Have a thought as to what we take for granted today to keep our food fresh - yup, the refrigerator.  The ice formed during the hard winters on the lakes that abounded across the Adirondacks was harvested and transported to the major eastern cities with their cooling needs with special trains running to ice houses primarily in the Utica area and onward throughout the state. In addition, considerable through traffic moved between New York and Montreal in both directions. For example,a daily reefer train ran from New York to Montreal with a load of bananas, to return with Canadian newsprint to feed the news hounds of New York.

I select this area as my prototype, during my 7 years in Rochester NY, (courtesy of Xerox Corporation), as during this time my wife and I retreated for most of the non winter weekends to our camp in Old Forge. Adjacent to Old Forge was  Thendara depot (previously Fulton Chain) of the old Adirondack Line and after a careful look, it became obvious that here was my prototype jewel for the future. 

During the last three years in the USA, I embarked on historical research, using what bibliography was available, working with the various railroad historical societies, as well as those within the towns that boarded the line; and whoever would stop and talk to a 'Limey' who had this peculiar interest in their railroad.  I was fortunate to meet and have made many wonderful friends during this process and I would recommend this type of activity to anyone.   During this process, I amassed four full 4" binders of original maps, pictures, timetables and notes, which provided the prototype background I needed. 

My one of my major Adirondack reference books was 'Where Do The Tracks Go' by Michael Kudish, which is a life's work by the author and contains detailed maps (at individual track/industry/depot level) and factual data concerning all of the railroads and towns they served in the Adirondacks.   This is a must for the Adirondack enthusiast.

The portion of the line that I chose to model is shown in color (colour for the British readers) on the map alongside. The layout will represent the 4 track Water Level Route entering the visible area of the room, from the east (Albany, New York), passing through Herkimer towards Utica, and vanishing again towards Rochester, Buffalo and all points west.. 

Utica  was a very large Division yard from 1910 to 1950's, as it was a major NYC interchange, with lines coming in from the south from Middletown on the O&W, Scranton on the DL&W (shown in blue and green) and the Adirondack Line (shown in red) to the north for Malone and eventually Montreal. As a result, there were 2 large classification yards (east / west), locomotive facilities, etc within the Utica complex, as well as numerous local industries, both to the north and south of the main NYC line.

The layout will include both the O&W and DL&W interchanges at Utica, but the main interest, other than the Water Level Route is the Adirondack Line from Utica passing through 7 towns until it reaches Big Moose, where again it vanishes onward to Montreal.   In addition, the interchanges at Remsen are in place with the original HN&P from Remsen to Herkimer (shown in dark blue) and also the RW&O to Boonville & Watertown.

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