Snapshot Sunday - #32

The first train into Lewistown, Montana on the old “Jawbone” Railroad in 1903. The Montana Railroad (Jawbone) was acquired by the Milwaukee Road in 1908 to help complete it’s transcontinental line.

Snapshot Sunday - #31

Great Northern RDC 2350 at the Great Falls, Montana depot

Snapshot Sunday - #30

Lewistown Flour Mill – 1930’s

Layout Update - #30

Heath USG Gypsum Plant
After spending a lot of time working on the Denton area, it is now beginning work on the building in the Lewistown area of the layout. It has been several years since I built the Heath Gypsum plant from a Life Like Supply House kit. There was still many things I could do to improve the overall look of this building.

An overall view from late September 2014

(Left Photo) Since this is a major industry in the area the building needed a signage that reflected its importance. This sign is approximately 4’x8’ scale size and faces the crossing leading into the parking area behind the building.

(Right Photo) One of the car setouts for the plant is a chemical tank car unloading area at the farthest end of the structure. The chemical holding tank is from a DPM Inks kit that I had decided to cannibalize for use on other parts of the layout. The fence is from the Walthers chain link fence kit. The small pump shed is from Branchline Trains shed laser-art kit. When this photo was taken the pump hose had not yet been attached to the shed. You can see the hose in one of the photos below.

At the front of the structure is the receiving area for the incoming gypsum in covered hoppers. To create the unloading grate under the rails, to get started, I removed several ties from the track. Then used other ties to build a box for the grate to sit on. The ties were then painted a concrete color and the inside of the box was painted flat black to give the illusion of depth. After the paint had dried, I cut down a side grille for an F unit upgrade from Detail Associates to the proper length and glued to the top of the box. To move the gypsum from the unloading bin into the plant, I went to my scrap box and constructed a box from the bin to building. The cover for the box is an extra hatch from a covered hopper for servicing access.

(Left Photo) The last piece that was needed for the gypsum unloading area is the access stairs from the building to the unloading bin area. This was a simple construction of Plastruct shapes and diamond pattern sheet. The hand railing is bent wire glued to uprights. The stairs are from the extremely valuable scrap parts bin that everyone should keep on hand.

(Right Photo) To help keep the water supply constant for the plant, I used the Plastruct tank kit. The kit is pretty much built as is except for the hatch at the bottom left of the tank. To give it a more industrial look, I bought some small head sewing pins and drilled holes in the access cover. The pins were cut short and inserted in the hatch at regularly spaced intervals.

(Left Photo) The rear trackside door needed a platform or at least a stair case. I had considered a rail car loading platform, but decided that it would interfere with the chemical unloading area. So I decided on a simple platform that would be additional outside storage of barrels. A lone red barrel  at the bottom of the platform will eventually be a mini-scene built around a hazmat crew. More to come on that later.

(Right Photo) The final enhancements to the gypsum plant was the addition of pallets and other junk to side of the main loading area. Every business has excess piles of unused items lying around waiting for a specific use or disposal.

Snapshot Sunday - #29

Night shot of the Milwaukee Road Depot in Great Falls, Montana

Snapshot Sunday - # 28

Lewistown yard 1940’s

Snapshot Sunday - #27

Lewistown Oil Refinery at the Brewery Flats area 1940

Snapshot Sunday - #26

Looking west bound on the Milwaukee Road mainline at Martinsdale, Montana in the mid 70’s.

Layout Update - #29

Stock Car Weathering

Photo from http://nickelwiki.pbworks.com/w/page/13276519/Modeling%20NKP%20Stock%20Cars

I have been working on building up the stock car fleet for the layout. There is not much offered in the way of prototypical versions of Milwaukee Road stock cars. The best versions available in kit form are the Westerfield Models 8200 series. These are perfect versions of the 36’ cars the Milwaukee used. In later years a newer 40’ version was constructed. I have one of these kits purchased from somewhere that is waiting for a time I can begin construction. That list never seems to get any shorter!

I have considered scratch building the cars from plans I found in the February 1983 Mainline Modeler article by Al Armitage. The time required to build a decent fleet of these cars would be exhausting. So the alternative is find what else maybe out there to help speed up the process. Walthers Mainline currently offers a nice version of a standard stock in Milwaukee lettering. One of these will be purchased to add to the collection. Even though it is not prototypical.

I was lucky enough to find someone who was selling a set of three Accurail Milwaukee Road stock cars including renumbering decals on the old Yahoo HO yard sale group. I also found a set of three undecorated kits at a train show. These cars are close to the Milwaukee version, but again are based on a standard design. The three Milwaukee decorated kits have been built and decaled with different numbers.

The next challenge is weathering these cars appropriately for the time I’m modeling (1969 -1970). My research shows that the Milwaukee had dropped stock car shipments dramatically between 1966 and 1971. No new cars had been constructed for quite a few years. The cars I do recall seeing in the Harlowton area were very aged and in need of repair. Most of the paint had faded and roof walks were broken and/or missing. With this in mind, I will be giving these cars a very aged, ready for retirement look. Below is an example of my first in the series. Looks like it is ready for the scrap yard, but still able to complete its assignment.

Snapshot Sunday - #25

A scan of a Polaroid from my second layout in 1974. The Montana Central & Southern.
This was my first 4’x8’ HO layout. That would be 40 years ago. Wow, how time disappears!