The Chicago Great Western in Waterloo

[wcfn100]

Well what a difference a day and a North Western Lines magazine can make.  I had gone into this thinking I could focus on getting a loop of track going before all else, but the recent NWL came in the mail with a teaser to the convention in Waterloo and now I need to try and go.  There are going to be pictures and information I may never have a chance at again.

Since Waterloo is my focus, I'd like to try and bring some sort of model from that area and I think I've decided on doing the Freight House.  I'm still planning on cutting the lumber for the sections and laying whatever track I can, but any quality work time will be devoted to trying to build the Freight House.  If there's any time left I could add in the Oil House and Engine track into some sort of diorama.

I've started the drawings and will post them here when they are done (or worth looking at).

Jason

[Dave Schneider]

Jason,

I look forward to seeing your work on this project. As you know, I have a similar take on proto modeling and completely understand the issue of not really being too much into operating trains. We all come at this hobby from different perspectives, and are free to explore it however we wish. I like the maps on the first page. What is the source?

I may have missed this at some point, but what it your connection to Waterloo? I went to college about an hour south of there (Cornell College in Mount Vernon), but didn't make it up to Cedar Falls/Waterloo that often.

Best wishes, Dave

[wcfn100]

I like the maps on the first page. What is the source?

I was lucky enough to make a good contact at the City Engineering office.  He's been a tremendous asset who I'm still trying to find a good way to thank.  Waterloo is is like the perfect storm of just big enough to keep good track of records but not so big they have to clean them out after so many years for space.  When he opened the cabinet and I saw folders marked "CGW Track" (among others) I nearly dropped on the spot.  I even got to help reorganize some of the map files that had found their way into the wrong folder.

I may have missed this at some point, but what it your connection to Waterloo? I went to college about an hour south of there (Cornell College in Mount Vernon), but didn't make it up to Cedar Falls/Waterloo that often.

I think I've touched on it before, but it may be good to add to background.  Here's a copy and paste of a write up I did a few years ago for a blog I had started.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Why Waterloo, IA?
On occasion I get asked why I have such a focus on Waterloo, IA. Well here it is......

When I was around 8 years old, my father had an HO locomotive display where he had custom painted one locomotive from every railroad that ran in Minnesota. Needless to say, there were a lot of different and colorful paint schemes. For some reason, my favorites were the C&NW and MILW. By chance, I had grown up near the CNW/MILW parallel mains that ran west from Minneapolis through St. Louis Park and Hopkins but I don't know if that factored in anyway to liking these two roads.

As I got a older, I got into N scale and my partiality to both railroads continued initially but the green and yellow of the C&NW won out. When I got into my early teens, we joined the Chicago & North Western Historical Society. That's where I started learning about the Chicago Great Western. Just the idea of an A-B-B-B-B-A lashup and 100+ car trains had me sold. Plus the CGW had only three main locomotives for road power. All of which were available in N scale.

So what about Waterloo?

In a sentence, "Chicago Great Western - Iowa in the merger Decade" by Phillip R. Hastings. Through that book, I learned what Waterloo, Iowa had to offer railroad-wise. It hosted four different roads including, at one time, the electrified Waterloo Ceder Falls and Northern (Waterloo RR in my era). It saw passenger trains over the years from the CGW, the IC and a joint RI/CBQ Zephyr Rocket. There was also a joint IC/MSTL train that ran from the M&St.L Ceder Lake yard in Minneapolis to Waterloo and then onto Chicago. For the CGW, there was a passenger depot, a freight house, a tower to protect the IC downtown passenger track, and large river crossing and parallel mid-street running with the Rock Island.

What more could one want?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jason

 

[Sokramiketes]

In regards to your need for cement block wall, and since you have a vector drawing already, try Monster Model Works for custom laser cutting.  Their cement block wall is fairly beliveable, and the building will fall together.

[wcfn100]

In regards to your need for cement block wall, and since you have a vector drawing already, try Monster Model Works for custom laser cutting.  Their cement block wall is fairly beliveable, and the building will fall together.

I suppose I should see what's new or more accessible in the last 5+ years since I really built anything.  The initial plan is to send it through the Silhouette cutter, deepen the mortar lines with a scriber, and rough up the surface with some really coarse sand paper.  One thing that should be noted is that the wide band that runs across the building and over the doors is actually a smooth surface and would need to be a separate piece effectively requiring the rest of the wall to be two separate pieces.  I don't know if that would effect the price of any custom work.

I will see if I can get a sample of the Monster Concrete Block to compare the texture.

Thanks,

Jason

[Dave Schneider]

I have been wanting to try Monster's services for a while, but just haven't pulled the trigger yet. It will be interesting to see if this work for your building. Your drawings look great and I look forward to seeing your progress on this project.

Best wishes, Dave

[wcfn100]

Hey, has it been 3 years already? 

So for whatever reason, I can't seem to get the motivation to get moving on the design as-is.  I do however want to get started on something and also want to get back to doing train shows as that was always my favorite part of the hobby.  I've modified my plan to fit onto a door cut down to 67" which will fit into the bed of my truck along with a yard leaf of the same length.  It will also fit my current work space much better. Even though this isn't my final goal still, it will be easy for one man to transport, setup and tear down.

Here's the original and hopefully still future plan again.



And here's version .5 so far.



It's not the prettiest thing, but it keep for the most part, all of the important elements that I want to have, namely all the buildings and a place to hold my freight cars.

I need to figure out the legs situation as right now it's just sitting on a couple 30" shelving units.  But I have started to layout the track and I'm even running some.  Haven't decided on c55 with hand laid turnouts or to just go c43.  I'm obviously still working out the yard elements.  For this plan the trailer ramp is mostly cosmetic so I may move it and the scale track to the other end of the yard.

Hopefully I'll get more traction on this version, we'll see.

Jason.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I like it. But prepare to be berated that it doesn't have a helix, punch through the bed of your truck for a longer staging yard, and make waffles...

[Chris333]

There is room for a turntable.

[mcjaco]

I like it. But prepare to be berated that it doesn't have a helix, punch through the bed of your truck for a longer staging yard, and make waffles...

LOL.

[wcfn100]

I like it. But prepare to be berated that it doesn't have a helix, punch through the bed of your truck for a longer staging yard, and make waffles...

That's funny because the first plan had the track parallel to the edge on both sides and I had flashbacks to threads here (from a long time ago) about what a no-no that is.    The reality though is that I need to get the overpass as far from the edge as possible to make room for the pump house.  I'm not going to get the distance I'd like but the more the better.

There is room for a turntable.

Jason

[OldEastRR]

The pictures from the entries 3 years ago no longer show up.

[Sokramiketes]

Are you really going to be happy?  The original idea was so cool... and expandable.  This just seems like a spot to park some buildings you are working on but otherwise isn't getting you moving in the right direction!

Where's the hang up on the modules?  Did you cut wood?  Do you want to swing down and knock out some Modutrak style frames sometime?  I want to see glorious Waterloo! 

[wcfn100]

Are you really going to be happy?  The original idea was so cool... and expandable.  This just seems like a spot to park some buildings you are working on but otherwise isn't getting you moving in the right direction!

Where's the hang up on the modules?  Did you cut wood?  Do you want to swing down and knock out some Modutrak style frames sometime?  I want to see glorious Waterloo!

It's not so much about what's going to make me happy as what's going to get me closer to my goal.  I'm not going to get any building done when I'm working out a 300 car freight  roster or trying to think about the 12 F Units, 3 SD40s and 4 GP30s I would want for a larger layout. Hell, with this layout I don't even need to make  a caboose!

One thing that really pushed this direction is that my oldest boy is 7 now, and even though I don't care that much about running trains, he sure does.    I feel like I owe it to him to have something that runs (he does have his own loop, but of course that's not the same to him).  I also just want something where I don't have to have all my cars in boxes all the time.  And as I said before, I'd like to do shows again.  I've been watching every January to see if WGH is coming back to Denver.  I would love to participate in that and since it's not on this years schedule, I have at least a year to work on something to some point of completion.

There's a chance this layout stays a loop of Unitrack while I layout out the engine and freight house tracks and focus on the buildings.  I'll also get a chance to work a bunch of other details I can't do in my head or on paper.  I do have a neighbor with a full workshop in his garage that's said he'd help me, so maybe this summer I can start looking at that for the 'big' layout.  There's also a chance I'll get a proper train room to myself where all of this could be put into a more permanent setting (at which point I'd start looking at a WCF&N/WLO portable layout).

I like that I'm doing something towards my goal and I'm just going to let it take me wherever it wants to.  First up is the Oil house!


Jason

[basementcalling]

I like it. But prepare to be berated that it doesn't have a helix, punch through the bed of your truck for a longer staging yard, and make waffles...

Waffles? How about French Toast?