Connecticut Division Central Vermont Railroad
The Banana Route Southern
The CT Division CV has its main yard in New London and then runs up the Thames River to Montville and Norwich before moving on to Willimantic with the 2nd largest yard. The line then crosses over New London (about 4 feet one has to imagine does not exist) before heading north to Tolland and finally Palmer Mass. which is actually the northern staging yard. The line also heads south out of New London through the industrial area to New Haven or the southern staging yard. The main room is 11’ by 17’ with an additional 8’ of yard area for New London and the staging areas that are both through a wall to another room.
The layout is proof that model railroading can be done on a limited budget. When drawing up the plans, I realized that I would be severely limited by the amount of track I could buy. When talking with a friend about my plans, however, he said that he had a couple of boxes of old brass and fiber track that had been ripped up from old layouts that I could have as he was going to junk it anyway. Together with some second hand brass turnouts picked up at train shows, the whole layout track work was put together for about $30. A couple of used Peco turnouts and track to replace some problem areas has now doubled the cost of the track to $60. The control panels are an assortment of Radio Shack switches on scrap plywood along with used power packs. The Bachmann and AHM motive power is now giving way to newer locomotives. Rolling stock ranges from my first box car in 1959 to train show pick ups and completed Funaro Carmenlengo and other craftsman kits. Scenery is all scratch made from sawdust, weeds, ground foam and rocks. Buildings are a combination of scratch built, kit-bash, and straight kits.
List and Pictures of destinations
Willimantic -
1. Swift packing
2. American Thread Company
3. Windham Freight Co.
4. Windham Lumber
5. Eastern States Feed
6. Lounsbury Trucking
7. Willimantic passenger station
Norwich -
1. American Thermos Company
2. Shoe warehouse
3. Norwich passenger and freight station
Montville -
1. Montville passenger station
2. Montville freight house
3. Montville power station
Tolland (CV) / Pomfret (NH)
pallet and furniture company
Haven - passenger terminal
New London -
1. oil tanks storage
2. Central Vermont Pier
3. Fort Trumbull car ferry
4. Shaeffer’s Co.
5. Bekins Co.
6. Union Carbide
7. Zenith
8. New London Yard for transfer to New Haven
9. New London Yard for transfer to Central Vermont
10. New London station
Farmlands North of Willimantic
Locomotives - enter and leave NL yard via roundtable track (track#1 left side of yard)
Cabooses - enter and leave via caboose track (under bridge)
Through traffic - staging yards
1. New Haven and west (also Roberts Printing and CV passenger train service)
2. Palmer B&A and north
Operations
The basis of operation is completion of task, rather than timed operation. Therefore, the operation session is divided by possible tasks to complete. Some or all of the operations below can be completed depending on time and number of persons available. People can work alone on a task, or with one person as engineer and one as brakeman.
The order of operation is not mandatory, but operation is smoother if local pick ups are completed before a new train arrives from the north or south. Also if switching of the New London Yard is completed before a new train arrives. So, do not hurry to make up those new trains! However, one could also combine jobs, such as bringing in a train from the New Haven before completing the CV train heading north.
As the local area saw both New Haven and Central Vermont operating almost parallel as far as Willimantic, The session could be all New Haven, all Central Vermont or some Central Vermont and some New Haven. New Haven operated the east side of the Thames and Central Vermont the west side.
Operating the New London Yard requires significant cooperation. There are four dedicated controllers plus the two lines from the main room, however, two persons at a time in the yard seems to be the most practical without DCC. There are eight sections in the yard with yard signs showing the block locations to match the track numbers on the left side of the control board.
Some suggested operations are:
1. Set up a train including car cards with waybills in the northern staging yard (Palmer, White River Junction etd.) and deliver the cars to their destinations.
2. Set up a train including car cards with waybills in the southern staging yard (New Haven, New York, etc.) and deliver the cars to their destinations.
3. Pick up cars from the Montville, Norwich, Willimantic areas and deliver to locations on the waybills.
4. Switch the New London Yard for local freights and start northbound train to pick up cars headed to Palmer and north (or Putnam and north).
5. Switch the New London Yard for trains heading south on the New Haven.
6. Switch the New London Yard for trains coming in from the New Haven.
7. Operate New Haven and Central Vermont passenger trains at 10 to 15 minute intervals.
8. Work as a brakeman for someone else.
9. Operate the sound systems as desired.
10. Run M&P style on the outer loop or both loops if no one is switching inner loop.
Car Cards and Waybills
The car cards are filed according to the car type and match a specific car in the staging area. Cars may be selected by choice, but should match the waybill for delivery. The waybills are filed by location of delivery or New London if for transfer between New Haven and Central Vermont railroads. When the train is made up, a waybill is clipped to the car card for the destination desire.
The cards are filed in the staging set out box until the train leaves when they are carried and put in the set out boxes at specific delivery locations. When the new cars arrive, the waybill slip is turned over and the cards in the set out box are moved to the right one slot.
Controllers
The controllers #1-4 are for operation in the yard and are simply the power packs from left to right at the yard control panel. The MRC controllers work best with newer can type locomotive power. The Troller packs have a mild pulse that works well with some steam and older diesel that need a little help with slower operation. The selector knob numbered 1-6 is used to select the controller running on a given block. Controllers 5&6 are both in the main room and can control all tracks on the layout, but are most often used for the main room and northern staging yard. Controller #5 is a standard power pack and #6 is hand held. There is no controller for the narrow gauge line as the locomotive has not been built yet.
Blocks
The blocks on the two control panels are identified by the color of the switch toggle and can shut off the block shown on the panel. The block end points are shown in the New London Yard by numbered posts corresponding to the numbers on the left of the panel.
Web site
This layout and the other Mohegan and Pequot member layouts on the tour are described on the Mohegan and Pequot web site - mprr.org.
Track
The track for 90% of this layout is brass on fiber from the 50s and 60s. When I was considering building a larger layout I mentioned to a friend my ideas but that I could not afford the track. He noted he had a couple of boxes of old brass track ripped up from old layouts he was going to tag sale or throw out if I was interested it. The price was right and combined with train show pick ups, the total cost of track is about $50. The box also contained O gauge rail, True Scale wooden roadbed and some car kits. I could not let this go to waste thus the O scale switching layout started in the first room.