NEB&W Guide to Chester, VT

Last Update: 2009-07-24

Layout Photo Gallery Table of Contents

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• Overview
  
• Across The Field
  
• Section House
  
• Coal Dealer
  
• Stock Pens
  
• Diner
  
• Grocery Store
  
• Milk Platform
  
• Depot
  
• Freight House
  
• Old Box Car
  
• Eskine Feeds
  
• Pole Yard
  
• Hardware Store
  
• The House
  
• North Industries
  
• Chester, Not Modeled
  

Overview

• I understand that "Chester" comes from the Roman word for "camp" and the sites of Roman camps throughout England bear testimony to the early Roman occupation - Westchester, Rochester, Portchester, and of course just plain ol' Chester. (I suspect that other variations on this name gave us "shire" and "caster" - Worstershire, Lancaster, for instance.)
  "Chester" was a common name English settlers brought with them from the mother country and there is a Chester is almost every state in the Union. (My home town is Chester, NY.)

• The topographic map shows how Chester Depot was actually separate from Chester. (The area we are modeling is indicated in color.)
  • [Topo.]

• The Rutland's Valuation map (c. 1960) shows more details. (Map is upside down in relation to the way the scene is arranged on our layout.)
  • [Val. map.]

• Aerial view c. 1985 by Leo Landry. Green Mt. RR train at the depot.
  • [Prototype view.]

• High level view of the layout.
  • [Model view.]

• Looking to the right on the prototype c. 1970, with the grocery story and coal dealer across the track. The water tower was added in the late '60's for Steamtown trains. There were stockpens about where the cut of cars sit, and a milk platform between the two phone poles.
  • [Prototype view.]

Across The Field

• The railroad enters Chester from the south by coming across a flat field. We didn't have enough room to do this justice but did try to suggest it in the space we had.
  • [Aerial view c. '85 by Leo Landry.]
  • [Ground level view.]
  • [Our model. (Okay, I tried to improve the photo in Photoshop and only made it worse. We should be using a blow-up photo of the actual hillside for this model to work the best.)]

Section House

• A typical Rutland section house was located just down the tracks.
  • [Prototype view.]
  • [Prototype front view.]
  • [Prototype view. (I think this photo is courtesy of Bob Nimke.)]

Coal Dealer

• The Chester coal dealer had the coal bins covered with a pressed metal siding intended to look like stone.
  • [Prototype view.]
  • [Close-up.]
  • [Composite photo of the wood section, 1984.]
  • [Prototype view of the other side.]
  • [Another view of the street side.]
  • [Our model.]

Stock Pens

• The stock pens were just south of the road crossing, diagonally opposite the depot.
  • [Valuation notos c. 1917 courtesy Bob Nimke.]
  • [Rutland 2-8-2 no. 35 pounds past the stock pens at Chester (just visible), with the coal dealer in the background. Photo courtesy Bob Nimke.]

• Paul Stoving scratchbuilt the stockpens for this scene.
  • [Model view photo by James Lauser.]

Diner

• There was a small diner located on the "square" facing the hardward store. Haven't found any good period pictures of it - if we did, we would probably include a model of it in our scene. It seems strange, however, that it was located right next to the stock pens. (Good source of fresh meat, bad source of aroma.)

Grocery Store

• The grocery store was built in 1849, right after the tracks came through.
  • [Prototype view c. late '60's.]
  • [Prototype view c. early 1970's.]
  • [Similar angle, 1973.]
  • [Prototype view c. 1980's, broadside of the west side.]
  • [Prototype view c. 1980's, broadside of the front.]
  • [Prototype view c. 1980's, front and track side.]
  • [Prototype view c. 1980's, rear view. I think this whole series was taken just as daylight was fading, which is why the color is so strange.]
  • [Prototype view of the rear c. 1995, after the building had been repainted again. Note club members Brent Chartrand and Anthony Prattico and note the sideways window in the main gable.]

Milk Platform

• The milk platform was right at the grade crossing, looking like a simple bandstand.
  • [Prototype view c. 1900.]
  • [Similar prototype view c. 1900, with a better view of the milk platform (or at least a corner of it).]

• Looking north on the layout (which would be south on the prototoype), with the milk platform on right, and the stockpen and coal dealer across the track.
  • [Model view by James Lauser.]

• Looking across the tracks on the prototype. The milk platform was on the right (gone by the modern day photo), but other than that, the scene looks pretty much as it did in 1950.
  • [Prototype view c. 1900.]
  • [Prototype view c. 2000.]
  • [Prototype view of the mansard-roofed hotel, c. 1991.]
  • [Prototype view of the town hall, c. 1991. (I tried to clean up the dust spots in the sky and screwed up the overhead wires.)]
  • [Prototype view of the buildings down the street.]
  • [Model view of the hardware store and milk platform.]
  • [Model view, similar angle. Photo by Lou Sassi.]

Freight House

• The freight house was on the far side of the depot (but has since been torn down).
  • [View from the grade crossing, 1906 (with the old talc factory just beyond. Photo courtesy Bob Nimke.]
  • [Early 1900's of just the depot and freight house.]
  • [Prototype view of the street side.]
  • [End view.]
  • [Prototype trackside view.]
  • [Looking south, 1982, with the old box car visible.]
  • [Valuation notes courtesy Bob Nimke.]

Old Box Car

• An old Rutland 40 foot box car was added just north of the freight house in post-steam days - we probably will include it in our model anyway. (In the days before we knew much about freight cars, this specific car was our first introduction to the Rutland steam-era fleet. The inward Murphy ends, which due to the cars position on the ground we could study up close, really caught our attention.)
  • [Looking south, 1982, with the old box car visible.]
  • [Tom Amrine took this photo in 2000.]

Eskine Feeds

• Floor plan c. '47.
  • [Track plan courtesy Bob Nimke.]

• Stepping back, the same angle as a visitor would see on our layout, one can see Eskine Feeds with the depot to the right.
  • [Prototype view c. 1970's.]
  • [Slightly different view c. 1970's.]

• Close-up of the street side.
  • [Photo looking south c. 1970's. Grocery store in the distance.]
  • [Photo 1980's looking north.]
  • [Same angle, but showing the entire side, 1982 (two photos combined).]
  • [The corrugated iron section, 1983.]
  • [Further back, 1981.]
  • [The board-n-batten section up close, 1983.]

• The front and track side of Eskine's.
  • [Looking down the track, 1983. Corner of the freight house is on the right.]
  • [Prototype view c. 1980.]
  • [Same angle, in color, 1982.]
  • [Further back, 1984.]
  • [Broadside view of the front, in color, c. 1980's.]

• The rear.
  • [Photo c. 1974. The old box car, freight house, depot and grocery store are also shown.]

Pole Yard

• Bob Nimke mentioned that the local power company set up a "pole yard" in Chester late in the steam-era. I believe this was where creosoted poles were set out and stored until they could be used - not a source of poles being shipped out from the surrounding woods.
  • [Photo c. 1974 of the rear of Eskines.]

Hardware Store

The hardware store was a unique mix of Greek Revival and Italianate. The building was basically Greek Revival - most notably the overall proportions, the full returns in the gable, and the columns built into the the corner posts. But the brackets in the cornice were such a hallmark of Italianate that it was often called the bracketed style. Greek Revival was on the wane on the eve of the Civil War, so this use suggests the store was built c. 1850, right when the railroad came through.
• [Part of the hardware store visible on the left, c. 1920's.]
• [C. 1960's, when Steamtown was just starting up. Earliest color photo of the store. By this time, it had lost its shutters.]
• [C. 1980's, with a Green Mountain train obscuring the freight house, and the hardware store on the right.]
• [Broadside view of the front c. '81.]
• [Trackside c. 1980's.]
• [Other side c. 1980's.]
• Just behind (north) of the hardware store were two sheds.
  • [Photo c. 1970's.]
  • [Close-up of the smaller c. 1982.]
  • [Close-up of just the bigger of the two c. 1985.]
  • [Our models, both built by Andy Clermont.]
  • [Another model view.]

The House

• Further down the tracks is this Greek Revival house and barn. We started to model the house in this yellow and white color scheme of this c. 1972 photo, only to hear from a club alumni who actually grew up in this house. In the '50's, he said, it was all white. (We repainted the model.)
  • [Sanborn insurance map. The house is the one next to "21", the barn is actually labelled "A" for automobile, meaning garage.]
  • [Prototype view. (There are lines scribed in the print which were used to make a scale plan.)]
  • [Prototype three-quarter view.]
  • [Other end.]
  • [Close-up of the corner, showing the Doric column in the corner. Even the windows are trimmed as if they were framed with a Doric column on each side.]
  • [Sketch of the dimensions of the half-returns, for model building purposes. The sketch showed that the roof had to overhang by 15 scale inches for the trim to work out.]

North Industries

• Across from the house and just north of the freight house were several industries, a talc plant, a machine works, and a grain store.
  • [Sanborn insurance map.]
  • [View from the grade crossing looking north, 1906, with the talc plant beyond the freight house. (Must be before the other two industries were built.) Photo courtesy Bob Nimke.]
  • [The machine shop was still there in '74. By this time it was the home of "Snow Cats" but has since been torn down.]
  • [Same angle c. '82.]
  • [South side c. '81.]
  Maybe some day we will try to squeeze one or more of these industries into our scene, although it would crowd the farm scene from Gassetts next to it.

See our Layout Guide for Chester.

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