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Inspired by the actual 9 mile New York Bath & Hammondsport railroad, known as "The Champagne Trail", connecting its two namesake towns and serving the famous Finger Lakes wine industry.
A day begins at Hammondsport on Keuka Lake where we work local customers and get ready for the trip to Bath. We slowly trundle down the line, working industries along the way at a few small towns. At Bath, we work the interchanges with the Erie's Rochester Branch and Lackawanna' main line, plus pull outbounds from a few local customers.
Getting ready to return to Hammondsport, we first place any cars for our local customers in Bath that were interchanged to us on this trip. Then we block our train for our various customers on our way back to Hammondsport. When ready, we whistle off and return to Hammondsport, working customers along the way.
This short line carries a lot of products. Bulk wine from California, sugar, cardboard, coal, lumber, grain, fertilizers, and other supplies are vital to support the vineyards' growing season, harvest, and the furnishing of unique Finger Lakes wine. Carloads of bulk grapes, bulk wine, and kegged and bottled table wine get set out at the Bath interchange to reach the distributor network.
This S scale around the room shelf layout gets inspiration from this particular short line and take creative liberties, but is inspired to give the feel of a small railroad with a "big barrel" of purpose. Construction of the layout began in 2021 and is slowly expanding through the basement, as any short line would. Scenery is minimal and industrial structures are coming on line when the track gang is on hiatus.
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