NEB&W Layout Guide Chateaugay - Salmon RiverLast Update: 2008-11-16
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Full-size photos of Burlington, VT,
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To CanadaThe mainline tracks in Chateaugay do not connect with the branch line at the end of the North Creek scene, but instead run under North Creek to a large hidden loop representing the continuation to Canada. The mainline of our fictitious NEB&W RR is behind the Farmers' Co-op, and supposedly runs to Alburgh. The equally fictitious Oldensburg & Lake Richelieu RR is the track in the foreground, which snakes through the back of the town. The O&LR was the second railroad to reach here, and so it had to accept a less desirable right-of-way. It is like the real Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain RR if it had not been taken over by the Rutland RR in 1900, but continued under Central Vermont RR control.ChateaugayChateaugay is located in our world approximately where Plattsburgh, NY is. Like Plattsburgh on the D&H, Chateaugay is not a division point for our NEB&W RR. The small yard in both Plattsburgh and Chateaugay served the local industries and the traffic from the branch line into the Adirondacks. The original railroad ran south of here by heading inland along the Ausable River, and was to have threaded through the high peaks to the headwaters of the Hudson River and then down to Saratoga, NY. This route was never completed, but instead became a branch line to Ausable Falls (North Creek in our world) when a more expensive but more direct line was built along the shore.Our HO scale city of Chateaugay bears NO resemblance to the real village of Chateaugay in upstate NY. The name was used on our first layout in 1947 and ever since. In theory, this is a city of about 22,000, located where the actual Plattsburgh, NY is, along the shore of the lake. The model is a composite of Burlington, VT (the industries), Chatham, NY with its clock tower near the station, and Plattsburgh toward the south. The yard and engine terminal are free-lanced. American DietIn the north end of Chateaugay are located some of the major industries, including a Swift meat-packing plant, a fruit and produce warehouse and a wholesale grocery warehouse. This grouping of industries, taken from Burlington, VT, illustrates the changes to the American diet brought about by spread of the railroads. Prior to the railroads, American ate mainly salted pork, corn, beans, and occasional produce in season. The speed of rail transportation made it possible to bring fruits and vegetables from the South and from California all year round. Herds raised on the Great Plains were shipped by rail to the large packing plants in Chicago, and fresh meat came from there via refrigerator cars to smaller plants for local distribution. Fresh milk came in daily from upstate, rushed to the big cities in special hot-shot milk trains. This increased the health of everyone, especially children, while dropping the bottom out of the market for spices used to flavor rancid butter and other spoiled foods.
Salmon RiverThe branch line circles around behind the back drop and heads to Tahawus. The truss bridge in the foreground was copied from one in Niskayuna, NY, on the New York Central RR's Troy & Schenectady branch. The scene is supposed to suggest one pictured in Jim Shaughnessy's The Rutland Road, a crossing of the Chazy River west of Mooers Forks, NY, on the Ogdensburg branch running across the top of New York State. The streambed is made from Kitty Litter.
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