First Post!

Welcome to our new journal, which will chronicle the construction and development of our G-Scale Garden Railroad, the North Hampton & Great Bay Railroad Company.  As we start this blog on October 15, 2016, the NH&GB is in the planning stage, consisting only of stakes and string in the back yard, and lots of scribbling on graph paper.  

We've established our line's (imaginary) route, which starts at the North Hampton, New Hampshire (USA) depot of the Boston and Maine's former Eastern Railroad line. The route is a geographically plausible one, created using USGS topographical maps and following manageable grades from the North Hampton depot westward across North Hampton and along the west side of the upper (southern) part of the Winnicut River to the railroad's shops and headquarters at Union Road in Stratham, approximately the location of the present day town recycling center. From there, it proceeds WNW through Stratham (along the present day power lines) and then downgrade along Mill Brook and the southwest slope of Jewett Hill. Crossing the west end of Winnicut Road, the line turns slightly northeast and passes east of Stratham village before turning northwest and crossing the State Highway (Route 33) just northeast of present-day Chisholm Farms Road. Finally, the tracks cross Squamscott Road, pass over the wetlands on the east bank of the Squamscott River, and curve east as they approach the Boston and Maine (former Portsmouth and Concord) tracks, arriving at the (shared) Stratham depot near the south shore of Great Bay.

We have grand plans involving a posh hotel on Great Bay, an interchange with the Portsmouth and Exeter electric trolly line for freight service to nearby Greenland, and a branch to Winnicut Mills. We intend to build the east end of the main line during the summer of 2017. We'll be posting track plans, buildings and equipment being built over the winter, and other happenings as we go along. Thanks for visiting our blog, and we hope you'll come back and check on our progress.

Jason and Glenn