Locomotives & Scenery on the Boston and Maine New Hampshire Division

Allen Keller asks Paul Dolkos what kind of locomotives he uses on his Boston and Maine model railroad. He has a combination of steam and diesel, brass for the steam and a brass diesel or two. Allen asks if Paul does anything to the locomotives to help them run better. The brass engines require some tinkering to make sure there is no bind in the valve gear to get them to run, which so far has been successful.

The nice thing about the diesels is that they don’t require this tinkering, he just sets them on the track and they run. The less Paul has to do, the better. Allen wonders if Paul spends any extra time adding details to the diesels. While Paul has done some detailing and weathering, he doesn’t go overboard. He believes that on a layout, this level of detail is unnecessary as it tends to get lost.

As Allen says, Paul has got a lot of beautiful buildings, particularly in Woodsriver. In this scene, Paul pushed it back a little bit, separating it from the railroad by a line of trees, since he did not want the town to overshadow the railroad. At the same time, he was trying to create a view block for the open staging area. Paul’s basement room where the railroad sits is fully finished.

Paul thinks that when there is a nice environment to work in, you enjoy the layout that much more. While the color may not be as good, Paul uses fluorescents on the railroad since there is a lot of bang for the buck. Paul also does a lot of forced perspective on the layout, used most effectively in the town of Wells. To learn more about this, watch the full video. For more Allen Keller videos, check out our archives.