The Fast Freight

New Motive Power

Carleton Railway adds additional motive power:

F-M Trainmaster #2435, freshly painted after recently being acquired used from the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, makes its way from the Avondale shops to the mainline. The additional 2400 hp. locomotive will help Carleton Railway crews handle the heavy traffic over the line. Management is also preparing to add a brand new (sound-equipped) Alco C420 to the roster, expecting that a 2000 hp. unit will work well on the Northampton Subdivision. The next scheduled operating session on the Carleton Railway will be on Friday, January 18.

Northampton Mill progress

New sawmill complex on the Northampton subdivision.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Patterson's mill in Northampton is almost ready to commence operations--as soon as the Carleton Railway completes the Northampton Subdivision trackage from South Newbridge. The millyard is piled high with logs (the woods around Northampton have been picked clean) but the mill will rely on the railway to access logs from western N.B. and northern Maine, and to ship finished lumber products to market. The small Carleton County community of Northampton has never been served by rail before, and promises to provide a steady source of traffic for the business-savvy railway.

November 23 operating session

November 23 Operating Session on the Carleton Railway

(click photos to enlarge)

The Fast Freight East rumbles past on the main while the Extra 2416 (the Waterville Switcher) keeps busy switching the meat packing plant in Waterville. East Newbridge can be glimpsed below on the lower level.

Engineer Henry switches the siding in Rosedale on the layout's upper deck. The posh "European Resort" in Nortondale is visible below on the lower level. In the background, engineer Devine with arms folded takes a break while the Nor'Easter pauses to pick up passengers in Waterville.



With two levels, the aisles can get crowded with hard-working crew members. They were designed to be plenty wide and with no duck-unders.

South Newbridge Yardmaster Kane sorts freight cars during a busy operating session.

At Avondale yard, Engineer Sabean prepares to take the Fast Freight East onto the main.

WIth a capable crew of ten people, the Carleton Railway moved passengers and freight in its usual efficient and friendly manner this evening. The extra express cars on both the Nor'easter and the Fiddlehead made it obvious that the time of Christmas merchandise and parcels is drawing near. South Newbridge was an especially busy location, with longer than usual trains meeting at the shortest passing siding on the Avondale Subdivision, but the crews communicated and cooperated in exemplary fashion and all trains resumed their runs with little delay.

Thanks for a great operating session!

Steve McMullin

The photo not only shows a Carleton Railway crew hard at work, it also shows the two levels of the layout, the 6:1 fast clock, and some of the paperwork (car cards and waybills). The view shows South Newbridge (below) and the outskirts of Avondale (above).

Welcome to the Carleton Railway!

The Carleton Railway is an HO scale, double deck, 1960's-era layout that is designed for operations. Operating sessions are held about once a month; an ideal-sized crew is 10-12 crew people, although the layout has operated with as few as 7 and as many as 19! The setting is Carleton County, New Brunswick; for motive power, the railway uses F-M Trainmasters and a variety of Alco power (S4, C420, C-424, C425, RS3, RS18). The mainline is 260' long, not including staging tracks at both ends. The layout fills a 22' x 28' basement. Wayfreights deliver and pick up primarily agricultural goods from a variety of shippers in Carleton County and Northern York County.