NEB&W Layout Guide to Chester & Duttonsville Gulf

Last Update: 2008-11-16

Layout Guide Table of Contents

More on Chester in the Chester Photo Gallery.

More on Duttonsville Gulf/Gassetts in the Duttonsville Gulf Photo Gallery and the Gassetts Photo Gallery.

Chester

Chester, VT, is located along the line of the Green Mountain RR . It has changed little from its Rutland RR days. The station is a prime New England example of Norman style architecture, while the hardware store is an interesting mix of Italianate (the heavy brackets in the cornice) and Greek Revival (the columns at the corners supporting the half-returns at the eaves).

Chester did not have a creamery, but instead shipped milk in 40 quart cans from a little covered platform across the street from the station. This facility looks like a Spartan bandstand. Up until the Depression, a stock yard was common at almost every Rutland and D&H towns. The one at Chester survived up until 1950. The Rutland had enough livestock traffic that they ran a special stock train every Monday, picking up stock along the line and bringing them to Boston. Next to the stock pens was a coal dealer, which was covered with embossed metal to look like stone. (For more on coal dealers, see our industry photo gallery.)

Duttonsville Gulf

The farmhouse and scene we modeled are actually located just north of the Gassetts talc mill. Since it is modeled here, separated from the talc mill by Summit, and in a different watershed, we can't call it Gassetts too, or Gassetts II. At this point on the prototype, the Rutland RR veers away from the Williams River, makes a small cut to pass through the Duttonsville Gulf (hence the layout name) to reach the Black River and then follows that up to Summit.

The Farm

This is an example of "continuous architecture," i.e., the connection of all of the farm buildings, including in most cases but not here, the house. This allowed passage between buildings even when buried deep in snowdrifts. It was common in northern New England, including eastern VT. By the time settlers were reaching western VT and NY, the practice was dying out. Separating the buildings prevented barn fires from burning down everything. Barn fires often started when hay got wet, molded, and generated enough heat to start a fire.

Milk Cows

Most people think of black and white Holstein cows when they think of dairy herds. Holsteins, originally from northern Holland, produce large quantities of relatively low-fat milk. Back in the steam-era when farmers were paid solely on their milk's butter-fat content, the reddish-brown and white Ayrshire cows were as common, especially in Vermont. Ayrshires are a hardy breed developed in Ayrshire, Scotland. Each farmer would tend to only raise one breed to keep it pure, but every farm had one or two brown Guernsey's for the family's own use. Small time farmers, who didn't have a bull, could mix their stock. Since they bought cows on sale from overstocked breeding farms, they couldn't afford to be choosy.