Galesburg "City Job"

[w neal]

Hello everyone,

I have been taking a break from the Wisconsin Central Heritage Division for a couple years now for reasons that I will post on that thread.

In the meantime, a friend and I are working on a switching layout to take to some local shows. We call it the Galesburg "City Job", as that's what the "Q" railroaders called it. It is our simulation of a somewhat forgotten shared industrial trackage that lies between the (now former) Santa Fe and Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy mainlines in Galesburg Illinois. I have been simulating the Santa Fe on my modules, Jim has the CB&Q tracks on his. We've been at it for about a year now. I will have to get some pictures posted. For now, here is a crude diagram of our setup. No tracks on it, just the module diagram:








It is a very simple mostly single tracked "mainline" with the appropriate industrial sidings that we can squeeze in our small module's surface area. Tracks are Atlas code 55. Control is via NCE DCC. Jim is using Tam Valley controls for his turnouts. I am using Blue Points for turnout control as that is what I had "in stock" at the time.

We took the first version to Galesburg RR Days last June, and hope to again this June. We took it to a show in Champaign/Urbana this past weekend. I will have to get some photos from that event posted here later.

[w neal]

Oh, and I should add that our target era is the 1960s. That way we can have rolling stock from that "romantic" time.

Jim, being the dominating person that he is, claimed the "Q modules" as the area he was going to model. I was therefore forced into simulating those of the ATSF.  I still chide him about that from time to time. Jim says the 2 roads might merge someday. I think he's full of it.
 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Nice! Looking forward to pics.

[Philip H]

Jim has been posting pics on Trainboard for a while. Nice to see you two are connected.

[w neal]

Here is the "whole enchilada" (currently that is). This is from the show at the Urbana mall last weekend. My "ATSF" modules are the ones in grey. Jim's CB&Q modules are in the far distance. We have a long way to go. We both had a very busy winter and did not get as much accomplished on the modules as we wanted.







Here is a shot of my "yard modules" from one end. I managed to get the tracks painted and ballasted before the show last year. This year I just barely got some static grass applied.






These yard modules were a surprise "add - on" at the Galesburg show last year, for Jim that is. The original plans called for both legs of the wye (visible in the background above) to end in "space" with no room to switch cars. This seemed a pity to me. "Where am I to take the cars that I switch?" I thought. To be fair, the original plans were meant to keep us to three modules each. That way, logistics would be that much easier. Since Jim had the largest industry on his end of the layout, I decided the ATSF yard was my large "industry". I decided to add 2 additional modules to complete the yard. The ATSF mainline, although stub - ended at both ends, was added largely for display purposes and because it lies immediately next to the yard. After actually doing some operations at the show last weekend, I am glad I decided to include this yard. It gives the cars a destination and serves as a staging area. Since Jim has a small yard at his end of the layout, we essentially have a destination for freight cars at both ends of the layout.

I should confess that the prototype mainline's path here is at quite an angle to the "mainline" of the City Job tracks. Having limited construction skills, I did not relish the idea of building two modules to match this angle. Sometimes practicality dictates reality.  Forgive me.

[w neal]

After doing my taxes and helping my son with his this weekend (UGH!), I set up one of my modules today.


I tried my hand at weathering some ties. Eh.  I also added some trackside bushes. I figured most of these were in the "spray zone" so I chose the deadest looking kind.















 I added a few cast off ties for variety.















Now, I just need to give the other modules this treatment. Also need to weather my ballast. All in good time.






I guess the overall effect will work.  Oh, I managed to pick up a couple ATSF cabbies that had been languishing at a "local" LHS for several years. No, the good Centralia Shops variety. They may not be EXACTLY right for the 60s but frankly Scarlett... The City Job layout might be a decent home for them, I figured. AND I got all my trip pins painted black. Sorry for the horrid appearance of them above.  More later.

[svedblen]

Looks great. I like it!

[mcjaco]

Looks good!  Sometimes a new project will get the juices flowing on the ones languishing too!

[w neal]

Got to thumbing through my Santa Fe books yesterday evening. In one of Joe McMillian's books, I noticed the classic 1960s geeps on duty in the Kansas prairie, one of which even had the same road number as my Atlas model. But then I noticed that the handrails were painted, while "mine" were not. Nowdays, Atlas already paints their handrails on their recent pre - 1972 ATSF locomotives. But when these models were released, they did not.

So after washing, drying, and applying some plastic prep spray to the handrails, my project for tonight was applying some cheap craft paint that very nearly matched the color yellow on my Atlas models. (50 cent craft paint for painting locomotive handrails, who'da thunk it). The trick was applying it between the tops of the stantions, much like the black on the tops of CP handrails.

I had not realized how "dead" my ATSF geeps looked before. Now the handrails really "pop". It confirms why I prefer the pre - yellow warbonnet paint scheme. Compare with the end view of one of the same geeps above.










EEWWWWWW...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I had not realized how "dead" my ATSF geeps looked before. Now the handrails really "pop". It confirms why I prefer the pre - yellow warbonnet paint scheme. Compare with the end view of one of the same geeps above.

Just wait till you give them a little weathering to bring out some of the details...

[kc9jts]

Be sure to get some Life-Like GP20s, Atlas U25Bs, and Atlas GP30s to use as leaders on any Santa Fe freight trains.  The Santa Fe had ATC in use as a signal system across Illinois from Pequot (Coal City) to East Ft Madison, IL and required an ATC-equipped engine as a leader on all trains.  The ATC system was removed and replaced by conventional wayside signals about 1970.

[w neal]

Just wait till you give them a little weathering to bring out some of the details...

Word yo.

[w neal]

Be sure to get some Life-Like GP20s, Atlas U25Bs, and Atlas GP30s to use as leaders on any Santa Fe freight trains.  The Santa Fe had ATC in use as a signal system across Illinois from Pequot (Coal City) to East Ft Madison, IL and required an ATC-equipped engine as a leader on all trains.  The ATC system was removed and replaced by conventional wayside signals about 1970.

Way ahead of ya dude. 

[mcjaco]

Throw some z scale couplers on there, and yeehaw! 

[w neal]

Righto. Been thinking' about that on all the rolling stock for this layout... I just have to do a bit more operations to decide if my trackwork is good enough. "Mind the gap", as they say.