Galesburg "City Job"

[TLOC]

Well Galesburg, Illinois is not downstate and it’s 150 miles south of the Wisconsin Illinios line so we’ll just call it west central Illinois. Wish it was closer and I would attend it. I’m just south of Madison, Wi and it’s 209 miles for me.
Anyway, have a great time at the show and I’ll stop to see you again at Trainfest 2018.

TomO

[w neal]

I didn't write the story. Crikey, don't shoot the messenger. I agree. To me, its "just south" of I-80 and very much western. I've often told others "its damn near Iowa". Obviously, the reporter is not a local.

[C855B]

I'm not shooting the messenger... just found it amusing that a headline in the local paper would characterize their northwestern location as "downstate". Editor? What editor?

Some of it is my own sensitivity to the issue. On trips elsewhere, if I say that we're from Illinois, too often the reaction is "Oh, I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago." That usually elicits "There's more to Illinois than Chicago. Where we live is six hours south."

[CBQ Fan]

I'm not shooting the messenger... just found it amusing that a headline in the local paper would characterize their northwestern location as "downstate". Editor? What editor?

Some of it is my own sensitivity to the issue. On trips elsewhere, if I say that we're from Illinois, too often the reaction is "Oh, I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago." That usually elicits "There's more to Illinois than Chicago. Where we live is six hours south."

Anything not in the greater Chicagoland area is considered downstate and very unimportant.

[Bulbous]

Some of it is my own sensitivity to the issue. On trips elsewhere, if I say that we're from Illinois, too often the reaction is "Oh, I was in Chicago a couple of weeks ago." That usually elicits "There's more to Illinois than Chicago. Where we live is six hours south."

I have a job coming up in a couple of months where my crew and I will head from Perth to Wyndham (in Western Australia) - that is 3,225km (2,003 miles) without leaving the state! We have allowed three days for the drive each way so we can still meet our fatigue management requirements.

I used to live in the Wisconsin Dells as while back (well, Lake Delton), and thought nothing of heading to Chicago for a day out. People used to look at us like we were crazy.

Cheers,

Matt

[w neal]

Had a good time at Galesburg Railroad Days 2018. We call this show our homecoming. It was indeed fun to be on display only 5 miles north of our prototype's location. We talked to many nice folks. A couple of them had even worked the city job in the 1960s - the era we are aiming for. One current BNSF engineer even recognized the layout as "G.I." (Galesburg Industrial). What a nice compliment for us.

The show was well attended and there was a very large amount of N Scale for sale. I was amazed that the majority of layouts on display were N! One was O scale and another was in Lego, but N was the majority. Here is a view of ours:





This trio of CB&Q high cubes represents those that were assigned to the nearby Admiral plant. The cars with the white door stripe were assigned to Galesburg. The other to Marion Ohio.





More later...

[w neal]

I used to live in the Wisconsin Dells as while back (well, Lake Delton), and thought nothing of heading to Chicago for a day out. People used to look at us like we were crazy.

Agreed. I recently drove 9 hrs one way for a show. It was very much worth it both for the show, and the railfanning.

P.S. Any chance you'll be in BHP territory?

[Bulbous]

Will head through Newman and Port Hedland on the way, so should see BHP, FMG and Roy Hill, with a little Rio Tinto possible near West Angelas and Hope Downs. Anything in particular you are chasing?

[w neal]

Looking for some basic measurements on the BHP ore wagons. The ones with the angled ends, or even the older ones. Any help would be appreciated. My pal is doing a 3-D print of them in N. We're a bit far away and i can't find any drawings online. I guess i'm thinking of the line out of Port Headland

[Blazeman]

Will head through Newman and Port Hedland on the way, so should see BHP, FMG and Roy Hill, with a little Rio Tinto possible near West Angelas and Hope Downs. Anything in particular you are chasing?

Serious thread drift here. Long way from Galesburg.

Back in the early years of my career, company I worked for shipped a pulverized high silicon pig iron from Keokuk to Pt. Hedland in multiples of containers. They would get to Perth and be trucked north.  Went in 500# drums.

Being Keokuk at the time was the largest scrap consuming point west of Chicago, there were plenty of gons coming in. I had the plant change to shipping in 1MT supersacks that could be craned into a gon, railed to Tacoma, and lifted out for stuffing in containers without pallets (and having to fumigate the container). Man did that save us some money and keep the disposal problem for BHP to a minimum. But I got down-sized anyway.

[Bulbous]

Looking for some basic measurements on the BHP ore wagons. The ones with the angled ends, or even the older ones. Any help would be appreciated. My pal is doing a 3-D print of them in N. We're a bit far away and i can't find any drawings online. I guess i'm thinking of the line out of Port Headland

There is this link to the Pilbara Railways pages for the BHP wagons (no plans, but good imagery):
https://www.pilbararailways.com.au/bhp/waggons.php

I have also messaged one of the guys up there on the rail system to see what plans they may have available to them. Otherwise I can stop through town and see how close I can get with a measuring pole!

[Bulbous]

Serious thread drift here. Long way from Galesburg.

Back in the early years of my career, company I worked for shipped a pulverized high silicon pig iron from Keokuk to Pt. Hedland in multiples of containers. They would get to Perth and be trucked north.  Went in 500# drums.

Being Keokuk at the time was the largest scrap consuming point west of Chicago, there were plenty of gons coming in. I had the plant change to shipping in 1MT supersacks that could be craned into a gon, railed to Tacoma, and lifted out for stuffing in containers without pallets (and having to fumigate the container). Man did that save us some money and keep the disposal problem for BHP to a minimum. But I got down-sized anyway.

Was that for the old HBI plant in Pt Hedland? That was always a fun experience driving into town from the south and having that huge abandoned structure towering over everything.

Sorry for the thread drift!

[w neal]

No worries. The fault is mine.

[w neal]

Lets bring things back from 'Stralia.

For Galesburg this year, I created my version of Illinois Power & Light. This building still stands today. Its one of the few that does.





Here is another shot from the roof. I added Woodland Scenics light poles to the storage yard. I figured they would want things well lit at night.

[w neal]

I realize in that last photo, that as you look out over the layout, you may think "Geeze. What a flat & boring layout." Indeed that part of the layout is. Trust me, our prototype location is much the same. I'm sure they picked it that way so there was lots of flat area to build industries. The prototype area is quite flat except for the northern end as it approaches the Santa Fe mainline. At that location, there is a slight downgrade towards a small stream valley. The ATSF main and my small yard lie in this small valley. I tried to simulate this by placing some hills near the "wye end" of the layout.