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NNE Scenic V4 – Latest News and Overview

Version 4 of the Northern New England Scenic began construction on August 2, 2025. A unique design approach is being taken for V4 to allow the railroad to occupy just 2 walls of the finished basement family room while providing almost as much scenic and operational opportunities as had been intended for the basement-filling V3 design.

Note, until such time as progress has proceeded to the first finished scenes, the scroll of photos featured above will remain from the NNEScenic V3.

To date, the upper lighting valance has been completed as well as the basic construction of the benchwork for the upper level. The current target is to be able to begin upper level trackwork no later than the end of October.

Overview

NNEScenic V4 models from a staging area representing trains coming to and from Massachusetts (Boston or Haverhill) and runs through the following NH locaitons: Exeter, Newfields, Rockingham Junction, Durham, Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, Milton, North Conway, Intervale, and Bartlett.

There will be a reversing loop at Exeter and another at Bartlett wired to enable continuous running.

Three elements are key to this design:

  • Three main levels of benchwork as well as an under layout staging level that are connected by helix sections accessible from three sides
  • Each level of benchwork will host a front scene at the base height of that benchwork level and a rear scene that is between 4 inches and 6 inches higher than the front scene. The front scene will have a short backdrop up to the base of the rear scene that provides a sense of separation of the levels into two truly separate locations.
  • The front and rear scenes of each benchwork level will be connected in the fashion of a nolix with a single turnaround loop that includes a removable section to enable access to the interior of the loop for maintenance.

By combining these three elements, the layout effectively provides 6 levels of operations.

Two Scene sample

This image generated by CharGPT shows a conceptual idea of how the paired scenes on a single benchwork level could appear. The 4 inch height difference as labelled demonstrates the ability to depict separate scenes even with such a small height difference through the use of the intervening backdrop.

There is also a lighting valance above the upper level because LED strip lights will be used for the lighting of each level.