Modular Nickel Plate Road in Bellevue

[seusscaboose]

new nkp model



https://nkphts-shop.myshopify.com/collections/models/products/n-scale-single-window-coach-for-nkp-90-or-60-series-heavyweight-coaches

[nickelplate759]

Huzzah!
I had intended to do this myself, with less good decals, but accidentally ordered paired window coaches instead
Now I can get the coach and the decals

[seusscaboose]

Buy all 4

Support the society

Get me while you can

The MTL coaches are NOT released publicly in undecorated scheme (yet)

[btrain]

Thank you @seusscaboose for bringing this thread back to the top, and reminding me that I have some new stuff to share. With all that's been going on, I've recently had a lot of free time to tinker and make a few things for the layout.



This is a CMR Models shell of an H-12-44 with an Atlas VO-1000 chassis.  The chevrons are done with Microscale 1/8" yellow stripes. It would be nice if CMR would do the H-10-44. I do have one from Shapeways, but I'm a bit concerned with how rugged the shell is compared to regular injection modeled plastic. The other thing recently done is the Farmalls on the flatcar. The car did have a problem derailing all the time, but not so much now with all that GHQ weight!



The one project that I've been really pleased about during this time was the construction of a War Emergency caboose. The cupola, door ends, steps, and smokestack were bashed from an AMB kit that was very sloppily painted when I was in college (God, do I love my airbrush). The sides and window frames are Evergreen car siding and strip styrene. The car ends and frame are from an Intermountain steel reefer. 



Here is the majority of my NKP freight diesel roster at the Bellevue roundhouse. I was able to install DCC decoders to almost the entire fleet. Installing a few of the decoders was a great exercise in patience, but after this project was over, I could really enjoy the wounders of DCC and not fiddle with an engine or two just on DC.



Here's NKP business car #2, this is a Micro-Trains model with Tru-color Pullman green sprayed on it.



Last of all is the Kimball general store. I was surprised how a short bristle brush dipped in wash can give a half-decent chipped paint look on styrene siding.

I'll try to drag a few of the modules out this summer and take some "professional" photos of various scenes (Would you believe that with these dank dungeon photos, I once was a professional photojournalist ) Once the world opens up more to public gatherings, I hope that I'll be able to exbibit the layout at one or two trains shows this year.

[btrain]

Darn it! Forgot to add these too. Here's the standard Tichy Trains work train set. The black NKP decals came from a certain auction website seller (whose name now escapes me) that made this for gray NKP airslide covered hoppers. It'll be nice to place these bunk cars on random sidings for track gangs to call a temporary home next to speeding freights on the mainline.

[seusscaboose]

do you have the B&O crossing at Kimball?

i believe there is a shot of it in the Rehor book.... (look in the index for Kimball).  find the pic of the depot... and there is a guy sitting there on it... it is in fact the author.

a great scene to model.

i also think there may have been a siding there... on the nkp line.... or at minimum it is where it went down from 2 to 1 tracks

i would have to drag out the trackplan to verify...
i also think that is where the signals started westbound coming into Bellevue... if memory serves correctly...

[btrain]

Yep! On the previous page here you’ll see Kimball in the planning stages and completed while on exhibit at Ohio N Scale Weekend. There is a single track interchange with the B&O on my layout. According to track charts from 1962, and what I can see in Herron Rail videos, there was another track to interchange there. The book I think you’re talking about is “Locomotives of my Life” by Don Wood. There are two great pages dedicated to Kimball, with other scenes from that sleepy hamlet peppering the book.

You are correct, Kimball is where the very busy single track main to Lorain began (actually just between Lorain and Vermilion the double track started again at KM, which currently now has the last NKP signals in existence guarding the NS mainline to Buffalo!)

Signals will have to be next winter’s project. I’m looking at Custom Signal Systems D-type to decorate the Kimball interlocking, along with the Wheeling Tower interlocking in Bellevue, which will have several dwarfs in the area as well.

[seusscaboose]

ok

yes
i see the pic of Kimball.. with the PA on the diamond... that small freight house is spot on.. and it definitely needs a person there like in the pic...

also...
on your module with the ice house (east end throat of the Bellevue yard) there was a stock pen to water and stretch livestock.

livestock were to be spotted on the front of the train, for east access to stock pens at regular intervals

not sure you can squeeze one in there... but it is there in the track-plan...  depending on your level of retentiveness

i am really stoked to continue to watch the progress on it... between you and john... it makes me sad i had to tear down my empire.... it was simply too much.  I have retained the Spenser Kellogg soybean tower on a shelf layout....  and i am keeping Rocky River... which is spot on prototypical and needs to be finished off

on the flip side...  i have identified three spots on the NKP that would be relevant to model in Free-Mo... Ryan, Ohio,,, Madison, Ohio.,,, and Painesville, Ohio.... If the Free-mo thing here ever takes off... i would do those... (my children are named Ryan and Madison and all of my relatives are from NW ohio (Shelby)... and Painesville is definitively named after some long lost relative of mine i am quite sure)

which reminds me.... i need to buy a Painesville tower from the NKPHTS Company Store while they still have them

thanks for the inspiration

 

[jdcolombo]

Really superb work, Brian.

I'd like for you to contact me directly at jdcolombo at gmail so I can put you in touch with Ray Breyer, who edits the NKPHTS Modelers' Notebook quarterly magazine.  Layout features are a big part of that magazine, and I think your work should be highlighted there. 

John C.

[nickelplate759]

Really superb work, Brian.

I'd like for you to contact me directly at jdcolombo at gmail so I can put you in touch with Ray Breyer, who edits the NKPHTS Modelers' Notebook quarterly magazine.  Layout features are a big part of that magazine, and I think your work should be highlighted there. 

John C.

Hear!  Hear!

[nickelplate759]

Thank you @seusscaboose for bringing this thread back to the top, and reminding me that I have some new stuff to share. With all that's been going on, I've recently had a lot of free time to tinker and make a few things for the layout.



This is a CMR Models shell of an H-12-44 with an Atlas VO-1000 chassis.  The chevrons are done with Microscale 1/8" yellow stripes. It would be nice if CMR would do the H-10-44. I do have one from Shapeways, but I'm a bit concerned with how rugged the shell is compared to regular injection modeled plastic. The other thing recently done is the Farmalls on the flatcar. The car did have a problem derailing all the time, but not so much now with all that GHQ weight!
...

Are the Chevrons done with with individual stripes, or did you find appropriate chevrons to apply as one piece?  They look terrific either way.     I have an H12-44 (the next, shorter generation one) to do as well.

[btrain]

Thank you guys for all the comments and support!

@seusscaboose I’ll keep that stockyard space still a soybean field. I need some open space between Kimball and the yard, to give the viewers a break.

That stinks to hear about your layout, I’m really looking forward to seeing what you have planned next!

The Free-Mo bug has bitten me pretty hard. I’ve been debating about doing a loop module of the dock at Huron, Ohio. I could  squeeze it in a 2 x 4 board, with a lake boat and Hullett ore unloader. I’ve also wanted to do another module of the post-1957 abbreviated version of the lift bridge over the Cuyahoga River, with a connecting module featuring the CTS (now the RTA Red Line) West 65th/Lorain rapid stop, with a beautiful Catholic Church in the background. I’ve found a few cars on Shapeways that resembles the old Pullman blue bird transit cars CTS once had. And don’t get me started on the free-mo fantasies I’ve had about a Conrail grain spin-off line from the early 1980s through western Ohio, ala Erie Western.

@jdcolombo Thank you, I’ll be emailing you shortly!

@nickelplate759 I found that the clear spacing between the yellow stripe strips to be acceptable on the decal sheet. From using paint diagrams that I got from the N&WHS, I cut a 30* angle on the stripes to get the proper form for half of the chevron stripping.

[seusscaboose]

i have the track plans for Huron... and was going to run it as a branch line of the V2 of the empire (before that idea was shelved ... although all the work has been done....  if you ever want to discuss all the research i accumulated, i would be happy to share with you).  that branch line lends itself well because it was situated off a Wye....

also.. there was an additional industry in Huron...  served off the NKP... but located near the NYC main line (near the Huron river bridge) called Eastern States Farmers Union (or something like that)...  they were an interesting find and there was only ever a single run of N scale cars made... it was green... with white lettering...  i grabbed one when i saw it...  they are like hen's teeth.

the ore boat can be easily done as well as the hulett... both are available via commission...  by a fellow TRW member.

speaking of industries... i picked up this info from a NKP Physical Data book for Bellevue

Population-1950 census-6,906.
NKP District has extensive yards and other facilities here and is headquarters
for General Superintendent and staff.
Passing track-capacity 70 cars (west of railroad crossings).
Passing track-capacity 80 cars (Reservoir- east of railroad crossings).
Various yard tracks-capacity 210 cars. Capacity will be increased to 550 cars when five additional yard tracks, now under construction and estimated to cost $384,000, are completed.
Connection with PRR, NYC and NKP District.
Water station-48,600 gallon wooden tank on steel tower. Water purchased
from city. Wayside softening.
Railroad Crossings: NKP District crosses W&LE District and NYC and PRR cross NKP District, W&LE District and NYC using NKP District westbound main tr ack for this purpose. NYC is senior road. NKP District is senior to W&LE District and PRR. PRR is junior road. Electric interlocking plant. PRR maintains and W&LE District operates.
Major Industries (11) include Bellevue Mfg. Co. (Auto fixtures), France Stone Co. (Crushed stone), General Electric (Lamps & fixtures), Klein Steel Co. (Structural steel), Spencer Kellogg & Sons, Inc. (Flaxseed, soybean, copra and castor beans).


the GE plant is hot....  it is at the diamond...  and a bitch to switch

[btrain]

Haha, oh boy now you got my gears going. I did get that NYC diamond put in. Thinking of either putting a N Scale Architect NYC/LS&MS brick depot there (the real one came down in the mid-1950s), Walthers Vulcan Works as a GE plant, or doing the NYC freight station with a coal dealer on the other side of the tracks. I’ll have to upload a photo of the area when it’s attached to other module that is scenic, to see what everyone here would think is best in the area, since I’m kind of stumped right now.

[seusscaboose]

do you have the depot?

i have one if you want it

i bought the HO and N Scale one

I have deep ties to the guys at the Mad River... 
the brick platform for the NYC depot is still there... and you can where it would've been

my friend has the Wheeling signals in his basement that protected the diamond

and of course... don't forget to model the PRR Columbus line parrallelling the NKP there...  including the prr freighthouse

it is a hot and sexy mess there at the diamond....