Thursday, February 05, 2009

Industries as Friends

On my Boston and Maine layout, I have a number of industries which I have named after friends in our Friday Night Group. Bill Meek is a great friend of mine who lives a few streets over from me here in Ottawa. The industry in the background of this image is named after him. Seeing as Bill works in the business machine industry, Meek Ltd. produces business machines and on my layout its head offices are in North Dover. Note the vines growing on the industrial structures in the foreground.



Scodras Grocers is an industry served by rails in my town of North Dover. It is named after a dear friend, Howard Scodras who sadly passed away in 2008. Howard was an instrumental member of the FNG (Friday Night Group) and his modelling inspired us all. His layout appeared in Model Railroad and its trackplan was in the latest Kalmbach Issue entitled 102 Realistic Track plans. My track plan also appeared here. For crew members to switch out Scodras Grocers, they must use one of the two sidings of the Phillips Furniture Factory as a lead. This makes for interesting switching possibilities.

This scene shows the upper section of North Dover where the main street of town is located. The structure to the left is part of the Wingate Wholesalers complex named after my street here in Ottawa, Wingate Drive. I built the town on a hillside to help create a strong vertical dimension to the scene. The red brick building in the distance houses the local offices of the Boston and Maine in North Dover. My good buddy, Chris Lyon, brought this sign back for me from a train show he attended. You can just pick out the peak of Marshall Creamery to the lower right. This industry is served by rail.


Because I play a Martin guitar, I simply had to have the Martin Guitar Company on my layout even though its actual facility is located in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. It is a lot of fun naming industries and buildings on your layout!