Dave Frary`s Nantucket Project

Dave Frary’s Nantucket Project
A railroad display built for the Nantucket Historical Association
2008 was a very nice year...
During the last part of 2007 and the first four months of 2008 I had the privilege and
pleasure to build an On30” model railroad for the Whaling Museum at the Nantucket
Historical Association, on the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts.
The 28’ long interactive display was based upon and
built from historic photos of Nantucket’s three-foot
railroad as it looked in 1900. The railroad was a true
commuter line and one of the first in New England.
year from 1881 to 1917. The first engine was an
American type 4-4-0 and was soon replaced with a
Mason Bogie type engine leased from the Boston,
Revere Beach and Lynn railroad.
The 11.5 mile long railroad moved passengers from
the steamboat wharf in Nantucket Town to the resort
hotels in Sconset with stops at Surfside and Tom
Nevers Head along the way. The railroad ran from
July 4th until the middle of September almost every
At the beginning of the first World War the line was
scrapped and all the metal sent to France to help the
war effort. One passenger car remains, and is part of
the Club Car restaurant on Main Street in Nantucket.
Backdrop
Backdrop
Bay
1
Steamboat
Wharf
Bay
9
21
23
Hotel
7
Tom Nevers
4
8
Goose
Pond
3
2
10
5
19
Sconset
20
18
22
26
14
11
6
13
15
16
24
Surfside
25
17
12
Ocean
© 2009 James D. Frary
During the first week of October 2007 a deal was finalized
to build a train display for the museum.
I chose On30 for the display because it’s large enough to really see the
trains, operates reliably and offered a Forney-type engine that resembles
the Mason Bogie that the Nantucket Railroad used. The Forney was from
Bachmann, ran on DC, and came equipped with sound. The rolling stock
was also from Bachmann. We repainted and lettered the passenger cars and
combine to look like the equipment the railroad used.
The display was built in four sections to facilitate moving it
to the island.
Luckily I have the room in my workshop to fit the assembled display. Here
Dave Maynard is preparing the frame to hold the PlexiGlas front. The
frame was one-inch by three-inch pine covered with two-inch thick
Styrofoam. The water areas were 1/8” Masonite glued and screwed to the
frame. I used Dallee Electronics relays and circuits to run the train back
and forth along the front of the display. Visitors can push a button on either
end of the display to see the train run.
All the track and turnouts were Peco On30.
The track was glued to the two-inch Styrofoam using liquid nails. After it
was down and wired for operation I painted the rails and ties. I wanted the
ties to disappear into the sand just like the prototype.
The railroad never used ballast to hold the track or ties in place. The ties
were placed on the sand, and the rails spiked in place. The ties eventually
sank into the sand. Every spring a track gang from Boston was sent to level
and realign the rails.
The Historical Association provided me access to over
1000 images of early Nantucket.
Deciding which structures to use was a challenge. At the wharf end of the
display there were just too many interesting buildings to place in a space
only 24” wide. Even though the trains and scenery were O-scale, all the
structures had to be built smaller than the prototype. I used Grandt Line Sgauge windows for structures more than a foot from the front of the
display. The only full-sized buildings were on the front edge closest to the
viewer.
© 2009 James D. Frary
I decided that 1900 was the best year to show the railroad.
In 1900 the Railroad had two engines, an American-type and a Mason
Bogie, a passenger car, a combine, either one or two open coaches for
summer use, and a baggage car built on a flat car frame. It also had several
flat cars with low sides to haul sand to repair the track.
Here’s the station that was on the wharf in 1900. In 1903 it was turned 90degrees, and in 1906 it was gone altogether and replaced with a smaller,
shed-like structure. The bridge and pond behind the station were present in
1900, but filled-in in 1905. Hal built the station.
The railroad was single-track, point to point, from the ferry
dock to Sconset.
Most of the structures had cedar shingled walls and roofs. Since no one
makes O-scale shingle siding I had to manufacture my own. I bought O-scale
shingle material, and laid-up several large sheets of shingle walls. From these
I made rubber molds, and cast the siding in resin. The shingles used on many
of the roofs were smaller than the sides, so Brian Bollinger of BEST Scale
Models laser-cut these smaller shingles for me.
The 33 structures on the display were all scratch built from
historic photos.
Four people helped me build the structures. I decided what views,
structures and scenes were important to tell the railroad’s story. I then
sketched these out on graph paper. Each builder received a foot print of the
structure, an elevation sketch, historic photos of the building, and the
materials needed. Everyone had a deadline and all came in on time and
close to budget.
Several foreground structures were built full-scale.
This little shed, built by Hal Reynolds, was originally on Straight Wharf,
and a leftover from Nantucket’s whaling heyday. It was moved inland and
ended-up along side the tracks near where the railroad crossed Main Street.
We had to guess as to the colors of the buildings. It seemed as though not a
lot of money was spent on paint. Most of the painted buildings were white.
Here Hal used artistic license and painted the structure a faded blue/gray.
© 2009 James D. Frary
Many of the background structures were built smaller than
O-scale.
Here’s a model of the Jared Coffin house built by Brian Bollinger. It’s the
oldest structure on Nantucket. There were a lot of photos of the building as
it looked from about 1850 to today. Brian built it smaller than scale so it
could be fitted into this scene. It was originally part of a farm so, Bob
Hayden built the barn as a background structure. We tried to keep the
doors close to full size so we could position people near them and they
wouldn’t look too large.
This is Sconset at the east end of the island. It’s where
most of the tourists went for their summer vacations.
The Sconset station had many shapes and sizes depending upon which year
the photo was taken. The station sat on the beach, and winter storms took
their toll. So every spring a construction crew would rebuild the track and
station.
The building behind the station is The Treasure Chest with it’s famous
sundial. It can still be visited today.
Sconset featured two large hotels.
There were two resort hotels, the Beach House on the left and the Ocean
View on the right. In between was an artist’s colony with it’s barracks-like
accommodations called the Underhill cottages. On the beach in front of the
hotels was Codfish Park. A collection of ram-shackled summer camps and
fisherman’s shanties. I didn’t model Codfish Park because of lack of space.
Here’s the Beach House sitting high above the beach at
Sconset.
This hotel was built undersize by Hal Reynolds. Fos Scale Limited lasercut the shingles on flat wood sheets to produce the sides and roof.
The windows are S-scale and the doors are O. To get the porch trim and
dormers correct Hal built several masters, made molds of them, and cast
them in resin.
© 2009 James D. Frary
This photo of the Beach House was taken in 1905.
You can see that Hal reproduced the hotel very nicely. He scaled his model
by estimating the size of a person located in another similar photo. I visited
Sconset, and found that parts of this hotel still remain as a private
dwelling.
I scratchbuilt the Ocean View hotel and used laser-cut
shingles on the sides and roof.
The windows were S-scale, and the shutters were cast from our masters.
The biggest challenge was getting the proportions of this building correct. I
mocked it up in cardboard, made several changes, and studied it for several
days before construction.
The porch railings contained intricate scroll work trim that was different on
each floor. Hal made drawings, and all the porch parts were laser-cut by
Fos Scale Limited.
East of town the train crossed a short bridge over Goose
Pond.
You can still walk the grade over Goose Pond, the only place on the island
where you can still experience the remains of the railroad.
When the first engine, an American-type 4-4-0, finally succumbed to the
effects of salt water and rust, a hole was dug in the sand at Goose Pond,
and the engine and tender pushed into it. It was buried under the sand, and
there’s still enough metal present today to excite a metal detector.
The wharf scene had to be severely compressed.
I would have liked to model more of the wharf structures. They were the
most interesting part of the display, but I lacked the room. As it was I did
model several of the structures on Main Street, Straight Wharf and
Commercial Wharf in addition to the ferry dock. I had to guess at the color
of the buildings.
Hal Reynolds scratchbuilt the boats.
© 2009 James D. Frary
The ticket office on the ferry wharf underwent many
revisions.
The photos showed that this and many other structures were turned,
moved, repaired, and added on to, during the era of the railroad. This ferry
ticket office was rebuilt several times due to storm damage. Each time the
building was rebuilt it got plainer. Building materials were at a premium,
expensive and always reused. Everything came to the island on the ferry
except for a few cattle, seafood, and home-grown vegetables.
Water was a big part of the display.
It was simply modeled using the techniques and materials I’ve written
about in my scenery books. Since the sand and the water were close to the
viewer, I took great pains to get the colors correct. I mixed the sandcolored paint to match samples I took from the beach near my house. I
modeled the tide line and the seaweed using bits of scenic foam and
SuperTrees mixed with gloss medium. The colors in the water were black,
medium green and Cerulean blue. The water itself is built from several
layers of Mod Podge.
In 1900 most of Nantucket was covered with grass.
By the Civil War almost all the trees on the island were cut for firewood.
Replacing the trees were miles of low sand dunes covered with tall grasses.
My job was to model these foreground grasses so they looked like
individual blades of grass.
I used an electrostatic device call a GrassMaster made in Germany by the
Noch Company. It produced exactly the grass effect I needed using a
Dacron-like material about eight millimeters long.
I tried to copy as many scenic elements as practical.
We noticed while studying the old photos that most homes, even those
“downtown” had a garden, so we added a garden to this house on main
street.
The house has cast resin walls and roof. The shutters are castings from our
masters. The windows are from Grandt Line, and the fence is a plastic
novelty item. There is also a small outhouse on the track side of this
building.
© 2009 James D. Frary
A Luan plywood frame was made to hold the background.
It was made in four sections that were removable to make transporting the
display easier. This frame was screwed to the rear of the display. It was
painted, and Velcro installed to hold the Mylar printed background that Hal
was making.
Hal Reynolds laid out the background on tracing paper.
It was critical that the scenic elements found in the historic photos were
reproduced on the background. Hal sketched where background landmarks
fell in relation to the foreground.
We made a grid with large measurements on it, and then photographed it
from several angles. Hal used these photos of the grid as placement guides
for the background features.
The background was 31’ long and 24” high.
It was created in Photoshop by Hal using photos I shot in Nantucket during
the summer of 2007. We also used 100 year-old photos from the Historical
Society collection, and photos Hal shot in Canada. These were combined
to produce a spectacular backdrop that blended the foreground into the
background. It’s very hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Hal
matched the colors perfectly!
Surfside was one of the stops on the way to Sconset.
About five miles south of town was Surfside. Surfside station was build by
land speculators who wanted to sell lots and develop the area for summer
tourists. They bought a hotel outside of Newport, RI, disassembled it and
floated it to Surfside on a barge. It was reassembled and for many years
served as a summer destination.
Surfside Station sat on the beach and had to be rebuilt just about every
spring due to winter storms. The station and the hotel finally succumbed to
storm damage, collapsed and were gone by 1910.
© 2009 James D. Frary
The other stop on the way to Sconset was Tom Nevers
Head.
The Tom Nevers Head station was one of those buildings that looked
different depending upon the year the photo was taken. It was small and
very simply built from planks. It sat on the sand, and had a small waiting
room, a baggage area, and a large, covered porch. It occupied relatively
high ground, and was sheltered from many severe storms. Today a ballfield
sits near where the station was located.
Tom Nevers Head station was surrounded by tall grass.
The “head” or high spot was in front of the station, and separated the
station from the sea. It acted as a natural wind break from southerly storms
off the ocean. I wanted my model of the station to look as the prototype did
in many of the photos, surrounded by tall grass. The different types of
grasses were made with the GrassMaster.
The Underhill Cottages in Sconset were an artists
colony.
The Underhill Cottages were built in the late 1890’s to house
artists, actors and musicians. The building were very small and
quite modern looking for their time. They sat near the Beach
House hotel high on the bluff overlooking the beach. Many can
still be found in Sconset, and most are summer homes today.
Dave Maynard built the models.
The trains are the most important element of
the display.
Here’s the railroad’s first engine a three-foot gauge,
American 4-4-0 named “Dionis.” This was purchased
secondhand in 1881. The open coaches were built for the
railroad by Jackson & Sharp.
We lucked out, as the display was being built. Bachmann
released an American-type On30 engine that was a close
approximation of the Dionis.
© 2009 James D. Frary
To represent the Nantucket forney we used a Bachmann
On30 engine.
The Forney was as close as we could get in On30 to the engine that ran
on the Nantucket Railroad. The best part is the engine’s built-in sound
effects. These work when the engine is powered with DC current.
Here’s the engine and a coach making a stop at the Surfside station.
The railroad had a coach and a combine.
We took the out-of-the box Bachmann On30 coach and
combine, disassembled them, and repainted the Pullman
Red like the prototype. Hal made the decal lettering on
an old Alps printer.
The Museum store wanted to sell these cars as souvenirs,
so we painted and lettered 36 coaches for the store.
The Railroad had a strange looking baggage car.
This baggage car was scratchbuilt by Bob Hayden using old
photos as reference. He determined that the baggage car was
built on a flat car, so he built his model on a Bachmann On30
flatcar frame. Hal made the decals.
One of the first cars that the railroad
ordered was an open-air coach.
Hal took up the challenge and built this open-air
coach using a Bachmann passenger car. He cut
slots in the sides of the coach, added the side
steps, and painted and lettered it.
We found out after the model was built that the
original cars were painted yellow.
© 2009 James D. Frary
As the end neared, the Railroad tried to keep it’s U.S. Mail
contract.
To fulfill the contract, the railroad built these two funny looking vehicles
on flat car frames. The front unit, called the Bug, is gasoline powered and
would hold four big or five small folks. The rear unit was called the
Birdcage. It had seating for four, plus room for their baggage.
I would have loved to have seen this “train” in action.
Here’s Bob’s model of the Bug and the Bird Cage.
Bob Hayden built this model of the Bug and the Bird Cage from scratch.
He purchased the wheels from Grandt Line, and the cowcatcher on the
front, came out of his scrap box. The rest of the models were made from
styrene strips and shapes.
Last but not least is the DC operating system.
I wanted the train to start on the push of a button and stop automatically at
either end of the line. I needed a circuit that would not be effected by
repeated button pushing. I called Dallee Electronics. They’ve made circuits
for me in the past that still work perfectly today. Dallee designed a DC
operating system where the train would start at the push of a button, run
down the track making two, five-second station stops, and then continue to
the end of the line and stop. The train would repeat the run if the button
was pushed again. Here’s the circuit board tucked up out of harm’s way.
On May 5th 2008 the display was delivered to
the Museum.
Here Hal is putting the final detail pieces on the display.
Thanks to my helpers: Hal, Doug Foscale Brian Bollinger,
Dave Maynard, Carol Vreeland, Bob Hayden, and Dallee
Electronics. Special thanks to Bachmann for the trains.
For more information you can contact the
Museum at: www.nha.org
© 2009 James D. Frary