Things are bigger and better in TEXAS !!! Clearwater and the Milwaukee Road Changes again...

Now it's late 1997 and we've been moved to Texas by order of the BNSF Railway.  I was able to latch onto a spare bedroom again at our new place.  About 11'x12' or so.  And so the layout design team went to work again.  Me, my trusty pen and pencil, protractor, compass and and paper.

Living in Chicago the previous three plus years, I had been able to explore the REAL Milwaukee Road leftovers along the Chi to Omaha main, and the line along the Mississippi River.  Oh, it was easy for me to change from modeling the Montana lands to the Midwest.  Fell hard for the great interaction between the railroad and the big river. 

This "version three" of Clearwater was somewhere along the Mississippi, probably between the Quad Cities and La Crosse WI. And it was the autumn color season.  I had to have a swing bridge and some interlocking. Lots of grain cars.  A brewery kinda like the Heileman plant in la Crosse.  And some rail to river transfer points like I had found in Marquette and McGregor Iowa, and Prairie DuChien WI.  And maybe another railroad or two. 

So I ended up this time with an interpretation of the Milwaukee's River Sub main, up the east side of the states of Iowa and Minnestota, crossing over a large tributary of the Mississippi and the need for a swing bridge. The CNW having a branch line that served the town, as well as interchanging with MILW Road.  And then I threw in a middle peninsula that had a large complex of grain elevators and such that would typically be found along the water, with a large area to be modeled of the river including a barge or two and a push boat. This trackage was supposed to be originally CNW, the end of a branch that crossed the MILW at grade at the south end of the swing bridge, but was washed out in a major flood somewhere past the crossing and never rebuilt.  The CNW then accessed the river terminal via trackage rights, but eventually gave those up and sold the track to Farmrail.

This little industrial area was served by "Farmrail," an upper Midwest division of the real Farmrail / Grainbelt operation in OK.  I had written an article for MODEL RAILROADER about it along with a track plan, and had gotten around to building an GP9 to represent a Farmrail unit - gave it a number and a name that was just beyond the top end of the actual Farmrail numbering.  And so I started buying grain cars.  And more grain cars. And more...

Both the MILW and CNW had staging tracks at each end of their visible runs (the MILW formed a continuous loop), and I also added a diamond at the MILW / CNW xing for fun.  Here are some pictures of this "Texas Version of Clearwater..."

Here's a Milwaukee Road Extra West coming out of the staging yard that would represent Savanna IL, as this train heads northwest along the west side of the Mississippi River enroute the Twin Cities.  That's an SD7 leading, with a freight F7B, passenger F7A and freight F7A (all Athearns). The lead unit is on the junction switch to the "river district," that was switched by Farmrail. Scribbled out on the plaster towel scenery is the location of the riverfront bar/restaurant, and a wharf that would jut into the backwater.  That mammoth truck is sitting up on the ledge that the highway was going to be placed on, which would slowly narrow and merge into the background.  The layout made a 90 degree corner behind the coved Masonite used for the backdrop.  Coving makes all the difference! That hole in the bluff behind the first B unit was going to be the former CNWs' tunnel portal, representing the earlier days when the CNW crossed the MILW at grade and then followed that tributary river off to the west.

 

The train is just about to cross the swing bridge that crossed a tributary of the Big River that theoretically was navigable aways into Iowa.  For those of you familiar with the upper Mississippi region, you know that having that scenario would be rather challenging with the bluffs! Oh well.  It's MY layout. The highway too would have crossed the bridge on a sleek concrete span.  The swing bridge was scratchbuilt, using some plans that I drew up using the MILW's bridge at Sabula IA as an inspiration. The bridge tenders' shanty was built a while later.  Obviously the backdrop behind the bridges would need more work on it to represent a waterway carving into those bluffs and wiggling out of sight around a bend. 3D trees would help the switch from layout to backdrop all along the ridge lines.

 

 

A view of the train crossing the span, taken from the river.

This is the "river switching district," under the control of the Farmrail.  The large rail-to-river transfer elevator complex took up this end of the area.  There was a dump shed on the far track, between the office building and the tall narrow machine shed.  Grain would arrive by rail here and be loaded in the eight silos for holding. The main track stub (this side of the switch stand) held an engine and one long car, and next to that were a couple of storage tracks for the grain reload.  Eventually, overhead concrete and steel conveyors in enclosed sheds would connect the silos, the under-track dumper and the riverside.  The flat area at right was going to have three barges and a push boat tied to the river piling wall, with one of the barges being loaded and tipped at an angle to the river surface. This whole transload was patterned after the one at MacGregor IA. The building in the distance at right was Sethness Products, a corn syrup processor that's really in Clinton IA.  Moorman's Soybean Processing Plant (from Quincy IL) is along the backdrop in the distance past the tall silos.  All three industries were scratchbuilt.  I went thru a pretty good amount of styrene plastic sheeting. 

 

A wider side view of the rail to river transloading facility. The clouds on the backdrop were done by my wife, after months of pleading to give it a try. Looked lots better than my efforts on the previous layout!

 

The Farmrail operation had a small house track and service facility / yard office at the far end of this stretch.  They used some leftover iron ore ballast that they scored real cheap from the DM&IR when they build the river tracks. 

 

 

There's Farmrail GP9 290, the "Kickapoo"  with a hand-me-down RI caboose, with a better view of the Moormans Soybean complex.

Here's Clearwater itself.  Like many towns along the river bluffs, the main  street and businesses / residences were a bit up the sides of the bluffs above the flat portion of land that the railroad used for their purposes.  That's pretty easy to spot here.  Yep, there would be a KFC.  The Milwaukee had a small yard of two long tracks next to the main and siding, and also a spur for MofW equipment and two tracks serving the smaller rail to river transfer facility at the distant left. Minimal fuel and sand facilities would be located here as well, you can see where. The aisle here would be the river, with just the narrowest sliver of river rock/water lining the fascia's top.  My workbench was "in the hole" below the layout.   By the way, that rectangular "hole" in the bluff slope a ways back was the lead into an underground "cold storage" cave that's a regular site in the Midwest.  I figured the bluffs here provided the perfect setting for such a site.

 

 

This rail to river transfer was based on one down at the edge of the Big Muddy in Prairie DuChien WI.  The outer track would handle grain box cars, and the adjacent track on the other side of the silos worked covered hoppers.  Scratchbuilt buildings, but those silos were still those contact lenses solution bottles from the 1980's! MILW 618 was a modified Athearn.

The showcase industry on the layout was the G. Heileman Brewery.  A few visits to the tasting room and taking the tours of the plant in La Crosse convinced me that I had to have the birthplace of Old Style beer in HO, greatly condensed.  However, as you can see, I followed the prototypes' lead and made it up of several different building materials and design, all thrown together along over three feet of the backdrop.  Since I didn't have room for the "World's Largest Sixpack" on ground level, I figured that I'd have the upper portion of the unloading structure be decorated in the Old Style regalia.  Room for about five covered hoppers to bring in product and ship out the leftovers, and room for many insulated boxcars to be packed with the brew along those loading doors.  Those pictures were of a real billboard and plaque at the plant that I was going to work into the model.  As far as the track goes, the stuff curving in from the lower left is the MILW RD's main (far) and sdg (near), and the CNW escape to one end of their staging - the track with the "Pink Lady" ballast.  There was a connection between the MILW and the CNW.  I built the diamond crossing myself using code 83 rail I think.  The rest of the layout was the usual Code 70 and 55. 

 

Looks like we have a standoff at the diamonds!  The MILW SW is out of the way at the beer brewery, while the MILW 280 is apparently taking the signal ahead of the CNW MP15 on a cab hop. The CNW line crossed the MILW, passed the south end of the interchange track, and then went into the bluff and single track staging. The line behind the CNW caboose swung around and led to the single track staging on the north end.  The MILW GP9 is heading RR west (north) and eventually to the twin staging tracks that were behind the river terminal district. I had kitbashed that MP15 and caboose to go along with a MR "Railroad You can Model" article about Janesville WI that I had put together from my days of living in suburban Chicago. 

Here's a view of the Celotex Plant (foreground) and their coal fired powerhouse against the backdrop.  Served by MILW, this was patterned after an industry in Quincy IL.  When I was on that CNW kick in the mid 90's, I did GP9 4556 from a good old Athearn Blue Box, painted it in the Zito Yellow.  GP7 4127 likewise was an Athearn, but in the traditional CNW yellow.  Both represented former Rock Island Geeps that the CNW bought when RI went under in 1980.  4556 was especially sentimental to me as I got a picture of it at Proviso Yard in Chicago, and then discovered I had a picture of the same unit from 1975, as a Rock Island, in Ft Worth Texas - prior to rebuilding! Likewise with the 4127...who would have thought two decades difference would still let me see those fine first generation units in a "before and after" scenario.

Here's where a removable duck-under took the CNW and MILW from the layout to their staging tracks.  Since the horizon was pretty much a bit under eye level, I'm guessing the track on this layout was basically about 55 inches above floor. At the extreme lower left, you can glimpse a homebuilt transistorized tethered throttle that I made from an article in a old MR.  I ended up doing three of them and really liked their control matched with the Ernst gearing in my Athearns.

This blog entry concludes the versions of Clearwater from the 1980's and 1990's. The year 2000 would bring another BNSF move and another MILW Road themed layout.  Unfortunately, I had lots of room in our new home of Kansas City, and I let myself get big dreams of a double deck layout.  I think my second version of Clearwater was the best, most complete layout that I have ever done.  This version in Texas of the "River Region" of MILW was a great concept, had LOTS of operational potential, but less than two full years of construction wasn't enough.  However, I did take three sections of this layout to KC and incorporated them into the "BIG" layout.  However, at this point, I think we'll swerve back towards TODAY'S model railroading taking place here in coastal North Carolina and leave the discussion and pictures of that KC behemoth for another time.  Next blog will be back "on track" with the saga of the WP/SN/maybe SP in the northern Sacramento Valley. 
 

More pictures....another recreation of "Clearwater"

The first Milwaukee Road "Clearwater MT" layout lasted about eight years, and then it was succeeded by version number two.  This covered three walls of a spare bedroom.  I had staging tracks at each end of the layout, so this was even more "proto-freelanced."  Let me explain.

It was sometime in the 1980's that TRAINS magazine ran an article about the Milwaukee Road's possible connection between the end of the Clearwater Branch and I believe Great Falls.  The two page spread went into some detail about the feasibility studies and included a map of the proposed "cut-off."  At least I think it was TRAINS...

Anyway, by now I had LOTS of Milwaukee rolling stock, and I wanted to have a layout that was an "intermediate placeholder" on a more or less "through" route.  Not the main line between CHI and TAC mind you, just a bit more "heavy duty" than the old branch that the first layout had represented.  And so just about everything was recycled, rebuilt, repainted or improved upon for this version.  I ran six axle second generation power on some trains, and I had a siding that was long enough to stage a "meet" and have two or three units and a twelve car train and caboose get in the clear. So, with staging at both ends, the train orders now included "meet" orders.  Oh, I still have those sets of "fulfilled" clearance cards and orders from both of these layouts stashed away today.   Enjoy the views!

 Once again, a highway coming into Clearwater served as a focal point and meandered its way from one end of the twelve- or thirteen-foot long wall.  Looks like that DC driver has cleared the tracks and is no doubt looking at "the hooker" that is standing out in front of "Hoopey's Bar." But it looks like she already has a potential client.  Couple of trucks are parked over at the Triangle Café (Suydam), eating that awful food.  Is that a "hippie kitbash" on that pick-up truck there?  Gas station at the extreme left center.  The road sign I showing the way to Great Falls (straight ahead), and to Missoula (hang a left!).  The scratchbuilt corner grocery store with apartments above has been reworked a bit from the previous layout.  Up against the backdrop is the Farmer's Co-Op, that old Suydam kit from the previous layout, updated and detailed (note the radio antennas) and three grain bins.  What are they made out of? Contact lens wetting and soaking solution plastic bottles with the flip top opening cut off, and seam lines scribed into them! Easy to see that now, right? 

Oops, this should have been the first picture in this group. In the foreground, the highway to Missoula from downtown Clearwater takes off and is used as a disguise for the escape to the left side staging track.  Purina Chows has been updated and changed a bit, and that radio station is still begging for listeners. You can see the "west siding switch" striped stand and target next to the "Smoky Bear" sign.

 

Here's a closer view of Purina.  It's a different day with a grain box car spotted.  Since the previous layout, it added a gas / diesel pump out front, and took the Chevron business with it.  Gas prices are higher, too. 1989-ish.  The track inspector has cleared onto the spur - maybe a train is due?



Here's an even closer view of Purina. The backdrop looked much better when you didn't see those awful clouds I tried. They found some better looking numbers for the pump prices. 

Someone must be returning from a day at one of the great fishing locations, and some local yokel has parked their car facing the wrong way while they grab some overpriced goods at the A-1 Market.  Looks like the Co-Op has a little business with a station wagon getting a few bags of something.  At the right is the church.  Never got a sign.

Told ya last time that the station got re-roofed.  Here 'tis.  Still loading that station wagon at the Co-Op.  As you probably surmised, I once again handlaid all the track and custom built each switch for the situation.  I think Code 70 on the main, and then 55 on the siding and on the auxiliary tracks here too.  

 

 

Extra 5601 East is pulling to a stop at the depot, betting it's the local.  And there's a few cars to move around. There's the old barite building from the previous pike, now is known as "Al's Aggregates." That chip hopper predated the Walthers' models, just added extensions to an MDC Roundhouse gondola.  It worked. Notice that the railroad has a nice sign for the re-roofed depot.  I wonder how many times speeding cars missed that jiggle in the road and ended up "on company property?"

 

 The larger space in the spare bedroom allowed me to really stretch the railroad out thru town. The road that ducks behind the depot comes out to that gravel parking lot at Union Ice.  Yep, another vintage Suydam kit that was new since the first Clearwater layout.  In the upper right is the local Chevron Bulk Plant.  The building itself was scratchbuilt, and the old orange juice cans from the earlier layout got worked over and two more added for storage tanks.  The old metal buildings that had been a "sawmill" on the older layout were repurposed into a larger business, "Devlin Builder's Supply."  They handled just about everything and was the Sunoco dealer too.  Unloading that coal hopper will be fun.   



Close up of the Ice House and Ollie Svengaard and Sons. 

 

Looks as if Ollie and one of his sons are straightening out the loading dock, probably killing time until that tank car is pumped dry and they're supplied again.  Ollie's building is somewhere else now, sold on EBay a couple of years ago. At the lower right you can see the start of a long curved wooden trestle that took the track towards staging on the "east" end of the layout, i.e., towards Bonner Jct.  I never got around to working much on the "canyon" that it spanned (it was an actual three foot long scratchbuilt bridge), and it proved to be as close to mainline MILW ROAD modeling as I got, with the track going directly into a tunnel after the bridge, my attempt at that famous "steel bridge to tunnel on flat rock outcropping" location in the electrified zone that I can't recall the name of right now.   

 

 The next layout was built when BNSF moved us to Fort Worth TX in 1997, and reflected a change in Milwaukee Road location for the setting.  Pictures and story to follow later on.