NEB&W Layout Guide - Proctor and Brockway Mills

Last Update: 2008-06-30

Layout Guide Table of Contents

More on Proctor in the Proctor Photo Gallery.

More on Brockway Mills in the Brockway Mills Photo Gallery.

Proctor

In this scene we are in the process of modeling Proctor, VT, on the Rutland RR. Proctor was the home of the Vermont Marble Co., which had over 40 quarries, some as far away as Colorado. Most of the local marble was white, while a quarry at Isle LaMotte, VT provided black marble, and a quarry in Rochester, VT supplied green marble. Vermont Marble also had plants in Tacoma, WA, Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Houston, TX, Remington, IN, Los Angeles, CA, San Francisco, CA, and elsewhere (See R. W. Nimke's The Rutland, Vol. V, No 1). The marble cutting plant in Proctor was possibly the world's largest. The company went out of business in 1993, but the complex still stands, now the world's largest marble exhibit.

Vermont Marble was the largest importer of marble in the country. About a quarter of the marble was imported, so there was significant traffic of marble being shipped to Proctor as well as marble being shipped out. They also owned three Canadian subsidiaries, and the White Pigment Corp., Vermarco Lime, Vermarco Paving (1954). White Pigment was founded in 1940 to produce pigments from marble used in rubber goods, plastics, paint, linoleum, chewing gum, records, asphalt tile and other items. Vermarco Lime was started in 1916 to find a use for waste marble, such as used in cement blocks, floor tile paints, and for agricultural use. There was also an interchange in Proctor with the Clarendon & Pittsford RR, a short line owned by the marble company and used to serve the many nearby quarries. [Will Gill models the C&P in HO scale]

The town of Proctor was originally called Sutherland Falls. Marble quarrying started in 1837, but competition from quarries closer to Rutland limited production until 1854. In that year, the works were rebuilt and reorganized as the Sutherland Falls Marble Company. In 1870, Redfield Proctor from Proctorsville, VT came to town to manage the company. Ten years later, the company merged with the Rutland Marble Co. to form the Vermont Marble Co. Redfield Proctor went on to become Governor of Vermont, Secretary of State in President Harrison's cabinet, and eventually U.S. Senator.

The town was incorporated in 1886, composed of portions of the towns of Rutland and Pittsford. Obviously, the name chosen reflected pride in its leading citizen, and explains why there is both a town of Proctorsville and Proctor in Vermont.

The site of the depot was originally part of a thirty or forty foot deep hollow, crossed by the railroad on a long high fill. In the 1870's, this was filled in with enormous amounts of waste material to make a level area for the depot and town park. Up until WWI, the highway crossed at grade just north of the depot, but an overpass was built on the other side of the depot to eliminate the grade crossing. During the great flood of 1927, the highway abutments formed a nozzle to direct the overflow of the Otter Creek down the tracks, washing out the track underneath the milk train sitting on the siding. After another flood in 1947, the Rutland added supports for flood gates in the rock cut just south of the overpass, and these can be seen on our model.

Brockway Mills

From here "south" (left) along the way around to East Clarendon across the aisle, we are modeling a number of scenes from the Rutland RR's line between Rutland, VT and Bellows Falls, VT. The scenes are not in order, but placed where they best fit the layout. We are also modeling this single track stretch as if it had only recently been double track. Brockway Mills, VT is a scenic highlight of the former Steamtown and now Green Mountain RR's excursion trains between Bellows Falls and Chester. The line crosses over a 100-foot gorge, but lacking the room to build a gorge, we chose instead to model a postcard view. The railroad bridge abutments are carved in plaster to match the postcard, stone for stone. The highway abutments of the Proctor scene are made of balsa, with mortar lines made with a pencil, because the stones are smooth rubble, not faceted.