PETERSHAM —The Rabbit Run Railroad was the lifeblood of the Swift River Valley, says Ken Levine, artist and co-owner of Frames/Ink in Petersham. Now, Levine is creating a model diorama of the Swift River Valley, complete with the railroad chugging its way through it, for the Swift River Valley Historical Society in New Salem.
The diorama will depict North Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott, the four towns lost during the creation of the Quabbin Reservoir.
“I am recreating portions of each town — some of the factories, some of the farms, the harvesting of ice, which was sent south, as well as to Boston and New York. It will depict all four seasons in the lost Quabbin towns. By the time you get down to Enfield, it’s winter,” Levine said.
The so-called Rabbit Run Railroad was incorporated in 1871 as the Enfield Railroad. It was then bought by the Boston and Albany and became known as the Boston and Albany Athol Branch, Levine said. The train ran twice a day beginning in Athol, ending in Springfield and then returning.
“Schoolkids from the Swift River Valley took the train to attend high school in Athol, farmers used the train to ship produce out, ice went out on the train and fabric from the mills brought the cloth to the city,” Levine explained. “The train’s route was referred to as the Rabbit Run because it made so many stops, like a rabbit hopping from town to town. There were nine actual stops.”
The stops were in South Athol, Soapstone, North Dana, Morgan’s Crossing, Greenwich, Greenwich Village, Enfield, Smiths and West Ware.
Levine, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, said he has always enjoyed model trains and creating model landscapes.
“I like to create little sculptures, too,” he said.
He estimates that, so far, he has invested at least 50 hours on the diorama project, which is still ongoing. Levine works on his diorama in his Petersham studio, building small models for it, while other sections of the diorama are being stored at the Swift River Valley Historical Society carriage barn.
Levine’s desire to create a diorama began when he was a docent at the Harvard Forest Fisher Museum and saw the miniature dioramas there. Being fascinated with the history of the Quabbin Reservoir, he brought the idea of a diorama to the Swift River Valley Historical Society, which welcomed the idea.
“I began the project about two years ago and I have worked on it ever since,” Levine said.
“All the bench work is done that supports the diorama, which is 24 by 4 feet,” he said. “It is plywood and over that is rigid foam. There is a backdrop of painted scenery with mountains and skies. The mountains are built and ready to be installed. This week, I installed the soapstone quarry.”
Soapstone from the quarry was used for stoves, sinks and foot warmers, and by Native Americans for bowls and pipes.
“I used a lot of common materials, with some of the materials being recycled,” Levine said.
He bought green fiberglass filters and pulled them apart, placing them on barbecue skewers that were painted brown to look like bark, to create conifers.
“For telephone poles,” Levine said, “I once again used barbecue skewers with cross poles of balsa wood, then glued clear glass beads to look like insulators.”
Levine used sawdust, which he sifted, with the finer materials becoming grass and the thicker materials becoming the foliage for trees, made with sticks of different plants.
“They were made to look like an apple tree, an elm tree or an oak tree,” he said.
Levine said he researched his project by watching online videos, reading books, including those by J.R. Greene and history books on steam railroads for reference.
“I visited the Big E train show, which is run every year by the Amherst Railway (Society),” he said. “Interestingly, the group’s clubhouse in Palmer is in a former church that they bought, which was originally moved from the Swift River town of Enfield.”
He is hoping to have the diorama completed and running by June. Funding for the project has come from state and local cultural council grants from the towns of Petersham, Orange, New Salem, Royalston, Pelham, Hardwick and New Braintree.