Layout Update - #24

Geraldine Depot Update #2
Here are some more photos of the progress I have made on the Geraldine depot. The walls have all been assembled with the roof and details in place. I have given the depot a coat of primer gray which closely simulates the color that the Milwaukee Road used on their depots out west. Yet to come are the shingles and chimney for the roof. If you click on the photo below to enlarge it, you can see how I adjusted the bay window after inserting it upside down. It now looks like a simple window with the same size trim around all four sides.

Snapshot Sunday - #16

Lewistown Yard looking to the east end and the branch to Heath.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

This photo and some upcoming photo are from the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library posted on Flickr. This collection contains thousands of photos from over 70 railroads from across the United States. It is an amazing collection! Visit the Barriger Collection @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/sets/

Sunday Snapshot - #15

Photo from an old 2’x4’ N scale layout.

Layout Update - #23

Geraldine Depot
The next building to complete is the depot at Geraldine, Montana. According to the Geraldine Historical Committee, “The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway completed its line across Montana in 1909 as settlers began to populate rural areas under the Homestead Act. In 1913, a branch line stretching from Harlowton to Great Falls was nearly finished. Midway between Lewistown and Great Falls, the brand-new town of Geraldine, named for the wife of Milwaukee Road financier William G. Rockefeller, anticipated a bright future. The Geraldine Review reported that Milwaukee officials planned to make the town "the show place of the new line." Workers put finishing touches on the only custom built depot on the central branch and a New Year's Eve dance ushered in 1914 christened the building. Its hardwood maple floors were pronounced "splendid." The special design, described as "a rustic bungalow of the California pattern, " featured two waiting rooms, a ticket room, freight room with scales embedded in the floor, nickel trimmed hot blast stoves and a ventilating system that changed the air every five minutes. Geraldine was a busy stopover serving two daily passenger trains and freight crew until passenger service ended in 1955. All the other depots were sold after the Milwaukee's demise in 1980, salvage companies removed the rails from Great Falls-Geraldine section. The non-profit Geraldine Historical Committee acquired the depot from Central Montana Rail in 1995. A model of expert workmanship and quality materials with most original details intact, the depot is still Geraldine's centerpiece and central to the town's history.”

Photo copyright by courthouselover July 2013

Depot Construction
My rendition of the Geraldine depot will not be an exact copy. Depots by John produces a resin kit called the “Country Depot”. This depot is based on Milwaukee Road depots in the mid-west. You can find out about more Milwaukee related building and details by clicking here to visit the Depots By John website. The photo below shows the start of construction with windows and doors already glued in place. These kits are nice to work on. You need to do a lot of sanding and test fitting to make sure everything goes together correctly.


Pay Attention to the Details!
After taking photos of the walls completed so far, I noticed the front wall with bay window had an incorrect window placement. Look at the first photo and see if you can see the problem. Then look at the second photo to see the problem. You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Several things appeared that I hadn’t really noticed until after the photos.
FIRST: The top of the front wall is not level. It takes a dip down to the bay and then back up again to the end. I took a roof section and placed it in the proper position to see if this would be a problem. After some head scratching, I decided that you would have to plant your face on the layout right next to the depot to see the gap.
SECOND: This is the real reason for the title of this section. PAY ATTENTION TO THE DETAILS! The bay window is on upside down! Not sure where my head was at when I did this, but what is done is done. I considered using a CA debonder to fix the problem. These windows are delicate and would have to order a new set if they become damaged. So I decided that A little cutting and sanding would be a better alternative. The window will not have a sill, but at least it will look correct unless someone notices that the windows are hung upside down. I will have photos of the change in a latter post.

Construction Photos
This is something that I highly recommend to anyone who builds any kind of structure for the layout. A magnetic base to hold all of your pieces in alignment while the glue dries. I purchased a this set at a local train show. The set includes magnets and several 90 degree angles. This tool allows me to quickly assemble two sets of sides and then using the same magnets and angles to make sure the structure is square in the final assembly.

Snapshot Sunday - #14

Stock cars at Martinsdale, Montana. Taken from the top of a line of stocks cars waiting to be loaded.

Snapshot Sunday - #13

The Milwaukee Road’s Great Falls, Montana Depot. Taken from the Central Ave. West bridge.

This photo and some upcoming photo are from the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library posted on Flickr. This collection contains thousands of photos from over 70 railroads from across the United States. It is an amazing collection! Visit the Barriger Collection @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/sets/

Snapshot Sunday - #12

A view of the Lewistown depot from the mainline west of the station.

This photo and some upcoming photo are from the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library posted on Flickr. This collection contains thousands of photos from over 70 railroads from across the United States. It is an amazing collection! Visit the Barriger Collection @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/sets/

Layout Update - #22

Operational Organization
I recently was privileged to attend an operating session at Gary Peterson’s Salt Lake Southern layout. It got me to thinking about further developing the operational aspect of the Northern Montana Line. The NML will never achieve the operating characteristics of the Salt Lake Southern. Each new layout that I operate on adds to what I need to do to the NML. The majority of the rolling stock for the NML resides off the layout. I found that what few “Operating Sessions” I had done on the NML were being hampered by the constant searching for the right cars to use on the staging trains. The solution for this problem was to sit down and spend some time organizing the rolling stock into a somewhat logical manner. I say “somewhat” logical because it is not finish, but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

The photo below show the storage cabinets that I use for the storing of off-layout rolling stock. Each cabinet has nine drawers and each drawer can hold approximately 12 40’ cars or 8 50’ & 60’ cars. That gives me plenty of storage for right now. Each drawer was lined with the rubberized grip shelf liner. This will keep the cars from rolling around when the drawer is opened. The only draw back to using this material is that it will latch onto the car if it laid on it’s side. If left that way for long enough it might damage the paint.

Each cabinet (unit) has been given a number along with each drawer. These read as U1D1, U1D2, U1D3 and so on all the way to U4D9 at the end. In each drawer only cars of certain types are grouped together such as 40’ box cars or 50’ & 60’ boxcars or covered hoppers and so on. Now came the really boring part. I went through all of the car cards and found the drawer that the car was located in. On the car card was written the appropriate unit and drawer numbers. You can see an example of what I’m doing in the photo below on the right. This will save a great deal of time when adding or removing rolling stock from the layout. The only thing left do is group similar drawers together for more efficiency. What a way to spend an afternoon of model railroading!

Snapshot Sunday (Tuesday) - #11

Milwaukee Road VO660 at the Harlowton depot with a passenger train bound for the Lewistown and Great Falls. #1635 was the only Baldwin VO660 owned by the Milwaukee Road.

This photo and some upcoming photo are from the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library posted on Flickr. This collection contains thousands of photos from over 70 railroads from across the United States. It is an amazing collection! Visit the Barriger Collection @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/sets/

Snapshot Sunday - #10

A view of the Lewistown Station taken when a passenger train still ran from Harlowton to Great Falls.

This photo and some upcoming photo are from the John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library posted on Flickr. This collection contains thousands of photos from over 70 railroads from across the United States. It is an amazing collection! Visit the Barriger Collection @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/barrigerlibrary/sets/