When planning V3 of the NNE Scenic, I considered including the old station at Seabrook, with the eastward facing view of the layout capturing the town water tower in the background as seen in current times here.
But as I proceeded with my research and contemplated my layout design, I initially chose to forego the Seabrook depot in favor of Hampton Falls. Mostly this was driven by my desire to avoid wherever practical locarting switching areas in close proximity for adjacent levels of the layout. The area involved would sit below a key switching area for Exeter NH, so the most I wanted to locate in this area would be a spur or two. In addition, I discovered that the water tank above was built in the 1976, almost two decades after the time period of my layout.
Both Hampton Falls and Seabrook depots were in operation in the 1950s, so a minor shift if scheduled train stops would support my choice, resucing my Seabrook modelling to the spur or two and scenic work.
Here is where the station was on a current map of the area:
The area today is completely overgrown with no tracks remaining. The only obvious sign is the route 286 bridge over the old track location.
A bit further north was the bridge over Walton Rd in Seabrook. That I could readily model on the layout. Today only the abutments remain from that bridge.
The two aspects from this street view that I could incorporate on the layout:
1) The stone abutments. I have chosen to represent from some commercially available abutments that, while not identical, provide an appropriate feel for the bridge style.
2) The fact that the utility poles were located with the lines above the tracks.
While there is no clear sign from satellite views of any past siding at Dows Lane, the location of the road and arrangement of clear space in procimity to the tracks served as sufficient reason to me to decide on the spur and indutry I am modelling at that location.
To my eye, there appears to be a rectanglar outline between the end of the road and the tracks that is suggestive of the footprint of a former building. Use of the measurement features on the Google satellite view suggest a structure approximately 50’x25′.
The salt marsh modelled on the layout in Seabrook where it crosses Brown’s River would no longer have the view afforded on the layout, instead being at least partially obscured by the Seabrook Nuclear plant built in the 1970s.