Building the Beer Line in N Scale

[Dave Schneider]

It has been 160 years since the La Crosse and Milwaukee Railroad was incorporated and started laying track from downtown Milwaukee across the state of Wisconsin to the Mississippi River. The trackage would later become the Beer Line branch, and was later incorporated in the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul (later known as the Milwaukee Road). It has been 8 years since I started thinking about molding the Beer Line, and I have spent much of that time happily researching the line, digging out maps and photos and books. It was been a year since an opportunity finally arose to acquire a space to finally build my layout.

Well, I finally have laid some track. Here is the first couple of feet, starting with the Lincoln Warehouse, and the Milwaukee Journal newsprint dock. I am mostly happy with the results and like the flow of the track. I used Krylon camouflage brown to paint the rail and ties. I continue to have issues with soldiering track feeders, but that is improving. Third Avenue will be to the next to the track, and the Parkway East freeway bridges will extend across the track.





Best wishes, Dave

[Philip H]

Dave,
Thanks looks like a good start. Other then your already documented curtain wall building, what else do you plan to populate this scene with.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Looks like some very smooth-flowing track work there.
I can already see the trains working the scene!

Don't forget you can always use NeoLube to stain the point rails and ties (just glop it on with a big brush):
Fast, easy, & helps the throwbar action!

Looking forward to seeing the scene progress.

[Dave Schneider]

Philip,

Here is the overview of the area. I will include most of the buildings and am thinking about how to treat the freeway. It was under construction in 1970 and (I think) fully built by 1972. I am not overly tied to 1972 as a magic time, in spite of my signature.



Here are a couple of photos from 1969 (B&W) and 1976 showing the freeway. As an aside, the Commerce Street power plant in the photo is the prototype for the Walthers building (one advantage of modeling Milwaukee). I have been thinking about modeling the freeway bridge construction, with the piers in place and the roadway not extending over the rails. This allows for an easier treatment of where the freeway meets the backdrop, but letting me use barricades to conceal the edge. The freeway was torn out a couple of years ago, as it was never really needed (and people complain about the Alaska bridge to nowhere!).






The next order of business starting today is the Milwaukee Journal newsprint dock.







Then, the storefronts across the street from the dock.



This one is a must build!


The Sidney Hih/West Side Bank building.



Anyhow, enough of a photo bomb for now.

MC, thanks for the suggest of Neolube (although it looks a little dangerous). It is not available locally at our hobby stores. I think it ships hazmat, which is a bit of an issue for getting it in AK (UPS ground costs a fortune). Maybe I can smuggle some back on my next trip to the lower 48 (just kidding TSA).

Best wishes, Dave

[Ian MacMillan]

Man the HIH building has "cleaned up".


This layout is one of my most watched and favorite builds. Cant wait until more buildings pop up. I'm a switching whore.

[Dave Schneider]

Glad to have you along for the ride Ian. The Sydney Hih building did clean up....then it burnt down . Its gone now. I am a bit conflicted as to what to do with it. I also like this building as the stately West Side Bank. The hippy Sydney Hih building has a bunch of character, but its almost too much.

As for the next building, I built a couple of Journal loading docks this weekend. 
I somehow measured wrong on the first one, and put the whole thing together before I realized that there were clearance problems between the tracks. Luckily I had cut the pieces with my Silhouette cutter, so I just moved a couple of lines and redid it. It went together really quickly, but I had hoped to make more progress this weekend. Had a bunch of snow to deal with as well, and its f'ing snowing again this evening.

Here is the beginning of the Journal dock. It will hold three 50ft cars on each side. Luckily I model the days when Milwaukee had a morning and an evening newspaper (filled with news).

[mcjaco]

More. More!  This is yummy!

[Ian MacMillan]

More. More!  This is yummy!

+1

[SAH]

Fine work Dave.  The idea of leaving the freeway incomplete has some merit.  Looking forward to seeing the scene develop.

[mark.hinds]

It looks really good Dave. 

Do you plan to do any systematic thinking about matching the lightness/darkness of the different elements (buildings, ground, and rolling stock), or do you just plan to play it by ear?  I am curious because I have decided to use the former approach, and am currently agonizing over a succession of basic soil colors on my test module, comparing them to my estimate of how my rolling stock will look if/when faded, etc. 

MH

[Dave Schneider]

Thanks guys. Made some progress on the Journal loading dock. I forgot to scribe the expansion joints in the concrete with the Silhouette so I did it by hand after it was assembled. Cut a roof and scribed some panel lines into it with the cutter (which you can't see in this photo), and then add some channel ABS and styrene strips to strengthen it. Using .060 H beams to hold up the roof, and even though they are a bit wobbly as a long piece, they don't bend much as short pieces. I will add a base plates for the H beams to the "concrete" deck so that I can get them attached straight. The actual beams on the prototype have all kinds of twist and dents where the forklift and paper rolls smashed into them so that will be my standing excuse if needed.



Mark,

I have to say that I really haven't given this much thought.  I am following the prototype pretty closely and just assume that it will all turn out okay in the end.  The main things I have been pondering lately is the various colors of concrete and bricks.  The Journal dock is rather grey compared to the warehouse, and I want some variability in my roads as well.  But not too much so that it looks odd.  Same thing for the brick buildings.  Milwaukee had a large number of Cream City brick buildings, that weathered almost a black color. I haven't gotten around to thinking about this but its on the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cream_City_brick
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3055/2407554409_cb8186e5b6.jpg

Best wishes, Dave

[mcjaco]

Next time your in Milwaukee we can visit here, to do some cream city brick research.   

[Dave Schneider]

Sounds good Matt. It is conveniently located adjacent to the Roller Coaster track on the Beer Line right of way. 

Beat wishes, Dave

[MichaelWinicki]

Next time your in Milwaukee we can visit here, to do some cream city brick research.   

That's one of those brick colors one doesn't often find on a model railroad.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

I wonder if you could use oatmeal as a mortar wash