The Crawford Notch area of the layout occupies the upper level of the entire left and back walls of the layout room. This area really will be what most puts the “Scenic” in the name “Northern New England Scenic Model Railroad”. The area covers from Arethusa Falls just east of Bartlett through Frankenstein Trestle, Willey Bridge, and the Crawford Notch station area. Because the upper level reverses course along the walls fo the room from the main level, on this level the observer in the aisle is on the north side of the tracks looking south across the tracks, so east is now to the left and west is now to the right.
Below is the scenic area from Arethusa Falls to Willey Bridge.
Arethusa Falls to Willey Bridge
Arethusa falls on the left will appear as part of a removable mountainside perched over the center of the helix, completing the hiding of the helix from view. As seen in the above diagram, the track will emerge from the helix in heavy woods (to mask the fact it is coming up out of nowhere) with the removable section inside of the track circumference. Arethusa falls will sit about 2/3 of the way back in the removable section well above the tracks. As the tracks curve around the front, one departure from the prototype to support one of my continuous running goals is a turnout that will be used to enable a removable duck under to be put in place and connect the Gilman, VT area of the layout back to the upper level track that proceeds through Crawford Notch. This will enable an upper level loop when desired. During normal operaitons, the duckunder would not be in place and the turnout will not have the diverging track connected.
As we proceed west (to the right), we will come upon a full-scale 1/160th model of Frankenstein trestle. No compression is anticipated for this signature element of the layout. We then continue through more trees masking a turn and will cross the corner area of the room with Willey Bridge. Note that the track plan diagram shows what appears to be a building near Willey Bridge. This is an error that will be corrected in a future rendition of the track plan. No building existed in that location along the mountainside during the 1960s. The edge of the benchwork also will be straightened more to allow a bit more scenery room in front of Willey Bridge. From there we will have another masked curve to head towards Crawford station along the back wall of the layout room. Willey bridge will require compression to about 45% of its actual length, but is notable enough that I have chosen to include even with the compression.
Below we see the Crawford Station portion of the upper level that stretches the full length of the back wall of the room.
Based on my research, I believe the track plan may be relatively accurate, although it is not clear if the sidings all still existed or were operational in the middle of the 1960s. Further research will determine to what extend the tracks should appear maintained versus buried or missing. Crawford station at that time consisted of the station building as well as canopied area depicted. To the far right can be seen Crawford House without need for compression. At center in the foreground across route 302 is the edge of Saco Lake.