B&M Modeler - Model Railroader Magazine

Dave

I also model New England in the same era, but my main focus is MEC and Maine 2ft guage roads (in HOn30), but I do have some B&M equipment.

For reference I really recommend the Morning Sun books there are several B&M and MEC titles in both the Trackside... and ...in color series. At $40 they aren't cheap for a book, but you won't be disappointed. There are other books like Boston & Maine in the 20th century but they don't match up to the Morning Sun titles. I would also recommend DVDs Boston & Maine in the four seasons, and New England Mountain Glory (although this is essentially about the MEC Mountain Division it has some good footage of B&M main line to Portland and North Station, Boston).

Unlike you my interest in this area is because I like the prototypes, not because I have any association with the area, so all my opinions come from books and research. As far as I can work out B&M connected with NH via freight only tracks in the docks district. Outside of Boston there were connections with MEC at Portland and Intervale, NH. It shared tracks with the Central Vermont in the Connecticut valley (the CV was a CN subsidiary), and connected with the Rutland at Bellows Falls, VT.  and with NYC at Troy, NY. Technically on MEC trackage there were connections with Grand Trunk of New England (CP subsidiary) and Bangor & Aroostook. This is not counting short lines like the Claremont & Concord (short-line) or Lincoln & East Branch (logging & paper mill railroad).

In terms of HO models:

Locos
First generation diesels really aren't a problem. EMD FTs, BL2, F2/3/7, E7/8, GP7/9, GE 44 toner, Alco RS2/3, S1/2/3/4 and HH660s have all been done by Atlas, Athearn, Bachmann, BLI, or Proto in the last 10-15 years. They are all excellent, run well, not expensive and look awesome right out of the box. If you can't find what you want new you should be able to pick them up lightly used on eBay.

Bachmann do their Gas-Electric "doodlebug" motor in B&M maroon. Its a nice enough model but really doesn't look like one of the B&M's cars.

Steam is more of a problem. There is currently no prototypical B&M locos in production in "mass produced" section of the market. Proto 2000 did a USRA 0-8-0 switcher in B&M paint a few years ago, which you should be able to find used. As someone mentioned you can bash either the IHC Mogul to get a B class stand in, or the Bachmann Consolidation to get a K8 stand in. I'm not a huge fan of IHC products, so I haven't done the former - but a pic of my version of a K8c from a Bachmann Spectrum model is below.

I know someone mentioned the Mantua Pacific but IMHO I don't think it looks anything like a P4 - at least not without basically rebuilding it. The Athearn P4 from the late '60s really doesn't meet the kind of running standards we expect of today's models, even if you could find a nice example and detail it appropriately. You could use a USRA Pacific as a starting point for a stand in - either the IHC model or the Athearn Genesis one. This was a nice looking version from 10 years ago, but it had some serious mechanical flaws, the one I have split its plastic main drive gear and I understand this was typical of the problems. BLI announced a B&M decorated USRA 4-6-2 a few years ago, not technically prototypical, but the project appears to have stalled anyway. This leaves the Pacifics as a bit of a headache - at least if you don't have a serious budget.

Failing that you're into the brass sector. There are older models of the B15 Mogul, T1 2-8-4 and R1 4-8-2 which you can pick up at a brass dealer or on eBay for not much more than the price of a new mass produced steam engine from BLI or MTH. The PFM Moguls are OK, the Westside Berkshires are well built and nice runners but had some accuracy issues, but be careful with the older GEM/Olympia Mountains as some of them had serious build quality issues. There has been at least one version of the streamlined Flying Yankee gas-electric trainset.

Then there are the modern brass runs - I don't know what your budget is - but these are well outside my limits. There have been great P2, K7 and R1 runs in the last 15 years. There is a PSC R1 at dealers, and there are P3s and P4s promised from Overland and Division Point in the near future. The price is an eye-watering $1600-1800 a loco.

There have been several of brass runs of B&M wood and steel cabooses, and milk cars. A complete passenger trainset for the East Wind is promised from Division Point - no prices yet.

Freight Cars
There are plenty of freight cars around for the era - many cars of course will be interchange from other roads so you are not restricted to home road cars. But for B&M cars Branchlines have done several variations of boxcars, as have Accurail, and Roundhouse (pre- and post- Athearn ownership). There have also been hoppers, gons, drop bottom gons, covered hoppers from several manufacturers. Proto, Atlas and Roundhouse have done "north-eastern" cabooses. There are also resin craftsman kits for specific B&M freight and milk cars from Funaro & Camerlengo ()

Passenger cars
Rapido Trains () have recently produced a simply awesome Osgood-Bradley coach car, and Branchlines and Walthers have done heavy-weight cars. Probably the best source for B&M passenger equipment is Bethlehem Car Works () - who offer several specific B&M prototype cars as craftsman kits.

Decals & paint
Microscale, Accucals and regional specialist Highball Graphics () all have decal sets. Badger/Modelflex and Scalecoat do B&M maroon paint, if you go a little later then Floquil/Scalecoat also do McGinnis blue.

Hope this helps

James

James --------------------------------------------- Modelling 1950s era New England in HO and HOn30 ... and western Germany "today" in N, and a few other things as well when I get the chance ....