Milwaukee Road in KCMO Industrial Layout (ex Midway Ind.)

[chuck geiger]

[SSW7771]

Thanks Jim! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Finished up the non-rail industry along the backdrop, after a few different layers of paint + India ink to get it to a point I can live with:



Details will come in time, I found some rooftop unit kits I'd like to add, among other details. It's not perfect for various reasons but for a simple backdrop and trying some new techniques it'll do for now, and it will be easy enough to try again down the road. So I'm satisfied 



And a more general aerial shot of the west end, much more simplified than the original plans and I'm happy with the overall coherence (if that makes any sense  ).

As always, thanks for looking!

-Lucas

I like it! What did you use for the background warehouse?

[milw12]

Jpec- thanks for the suggestion! I was shocked at the  3/4", scales out to ten feet which might be a little narrow. Maybe out in one of the old and cramped east coast cities, but we've always had plenty of room here in the Midwest Atomic cafe scales out at ~30'x40', which is what a local place approximates at, and with a reworked front it would be nice.

Chuck, apparently I'm not the only one! I guess it's to be expected when you nab a plan from a high-profile modeler like Lance, but to see another modeler making nearly the exact same modifications is too funny. Good catch and nice video, thanks for sharing. And sorry to hear that your little 2'x4' had to be sold, I always liked the layout. I was considering doing something similar not that long ago. Looking forward to the next one 

Marshall, thanks for the kind words. The warehouse is scratched together, balsa core skinned with plain 0.040 styrene, then large scale board-and-batten styrene from Evergreen for the reinforced concrete look. The roof edge with some sytrene c-channel, angle on the corner and some scrap stock for the downspouts. It's easier and quicker than kit building I'll be sure to take some better build/detail shots when I work on the next one.

Nothing photo-worthy, but work continues on the layout. The larger rail-served warehouse did not survive painting, I may have messed up when I used textured spray for the first time- it's a different beast. And it was a little too far gone to save. So into the bin and I started on the new one. This style of scratch building is quick and cheap, and it was good practice to say the least 

-Lucas

[milw12]

Last weekend (or before that? I just found these on the camera) I actually had an ops session:





I had a blast, and it was a nice proving session. Looking forward to more, and Lance's operations guide has been indispensable.



This bad boy arrived a couple weeks ago, and promptly bombed out half of my roster. The joys of a seven year era change, but enough variety is left that I will only had to add a few cars, which I'll be honest with myself, would have happened anyways.

-Lucas

[milw12]

I've been chipping away at ballasting for past week or so, trying out what works and doesn't work. Other than a mitigated disaster where some base layers actually peeled up, requiring a tear out and redo, it's going well. To quote Mr. Bob Ross, there have been only "happy accidents."



Everything is very wet and very in progress, I'll go into more details when I finish scenery rough-in. Dry times between layers are enough to drive someone nuts, I never know how it will turn out 

Thanks for looking!

Lucas

[Mike C]

Contrairy to Bob Ross I ha e found most accidents to be un=happy ......Consider the shart ...... hehehe

[Mike C]

But your ballasting looks nice !   Next layout I will use real rock ans alcohol instead of WS and wet water .

[milw12]

Heh, let's hope Bob was only thinking of artistic happy accidents. And thanks for the kind words! Real rock ballast makes a world of difference.

I use A&RM N scale grey Milwaukee ballast (but every bag is mislabeled as Pennsylvania RR  I'll have to let them know) In all seriousness, according to some sources, PRR grey functions quite well for typical Milwaukee ballast. I cut it and mix 2 parts ballast to 1 part powdered glue:



Ballast in left jar , glue on left. I couldn't find any powdered glue at the usual suspects (Home Depot) so I had to order this from Amazon a ways back. I'd give credit if I could remember where I learned this?

It basically turns the ballast into easy to work with grout. Pour and shape as normal, wet with alcohol (I use undiluted rubbing alcohol) and let dry a bit. The first layer really never holds it shape, but follow up with another ballast/glue mix, shape to taste and re-wet. Touch up and done! It's quick and easy so it gets the pass from me.

More pictures of the final product soon to judge for yourselves, the layout is still a bit wet at the moment. You can get a sneak peak in the next bit tho, concerning the question of asphalt for the parking lot:





Please don't mind the speckles, seems like some stray grout I forgot to sweep off

I'm reasonably happy, especially considering it's just smoothed unsanded grout.

Also apparent is the ground cover in progress, tan grout for gravel and transitions, and plain the dirt is WS Earth fine foam with a bit of Burnt Grass, coarse and fine. To be followed up with static grass, tufts and textures shortly, just been working on a reasonably colored 'soil' base for where it will show.

Thanks for looking!

Lucas

[MVW]

Lookin' good, Lucas!

But wait a minute ... are you saying that asphalt parking lot is grout?

(Also, what grout did you use for the gravel? I'm on my third try, and haven't found anything I really like yet.)

Jim

[milw12]

Thanks Jim! All grout is the Home Depot Polyblend brand, I use the sanded "Fawn" for gravel.

I don't treat the grout like a grout, I sprinkle it over a diluted glue mix painted to the surface, then shape with a small, soft round brush. Soak with undiluted alcohol. Sprinkle more dry and and wet with alcohol, and repeat as necessary.

The parking lot is Polyblend black (maybe charcoal, but the darkest color they have). I used a similar technique as above, but just two layers. The first layer I roughly smoothed with a roller, a round pencil in this case, but wasn't happy. After it set, I sprinkled more dry grout on, wet it, and used a 1" wide strip of scrap styrene about the width of the lot the trawl it smooth. It's really easy. Trust me, I'm surprised as you that it worked 

-Lucas

[milw12]

Went for the two-for-one of messy but necessary steps in layout construction- finished scenic rough in and painted the fascia.







Fascia is Behr Wild Rice green. When I bought it a year or so ago Behr had just rebranded all their paint names just a month before, but the head of the paint department was able to figure the mix out. I really should have asked about what the new name, I don't think I'll luck out like that again. It really is a nice shade of green.

Ballast is done expect for the turnouts, I still don't trust my handiwork. I mysteriously popped a point rail not too long ago, then after resoldering popped the other rail.  After some operating hours I'll drop the ballast in.

The large grey area is to get a feel of the future site of a building material supplier- the spur curve is freehand and I'm not looking forward to cutting the styrene lot out.

The healthy layer of static grass is pretty typical mix of Heki Prairie as a base, some Silfor 2mm Late Summer over that, some spots of Silfor 2mm Summer with a final light layer of Prairie for a dryer, late season look. Glued and then sealed with dilute matte medium. It came out a little more green than I was hoping but I'm rolling with it 

Now that this stage of construction is over, I can finally clean the couple dozen layers of various adhesives off of the track and run trains for the first time in over a month! Then scenic detailing can start with tufts, brush and trees, etc, at my own pace.

For funsies:



Thanks for looking!

-Lucas

[soo]

Coming along very nicely Lucas!!
The web site below has real ballast from the Milw, Soo and other railroads in the Wisco area.
http://scale-reproductions.webplus.net/index.html
He takes actual ballast and grinds it to size.

What you need is a MP15AC or a GP9R (GP20) working that trackage.
Laters,Wyatt

[milw12]

Thanks for the kind words Wyatt! That ballast does look great. The problem I ran into with my AR&M PRR ballast, which when dry looks like a close match to the photographs I've seen, dries in a much darker shade. I know this is a problem with rock ballasts as the grains tend to be translucent, but cannot for the life of me figure out how to secure the ballast without soaking it and changing the color 

I hate to imply that I'm easily influenced, but this happened: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=42810.0
After realizing I have the bulk of the parts I would need for a GP20 bash, I had to go ahead and start one. It will be my first real proto bash, so lots to learn!

Some progress in the past weeks:





Bushes, tree line tufts and more still very much in progress. Power poles are painted three-inch skewers, and the building up front has been modified, roof added and a base coat of paint. Needs some details yet but makes a nice stand-in. A blank black styrene back is planned along the fascia to hide the structural balsa that is slightly apparent int the second photograph.

Some Tichy crossbucks landed today, will plant those after a little doctoring with some paint.

Work and life have picked up lately, so not as much is getting done on the layout. It was nice to push for semi-completed look, as the layout looks a lot better in a near finished state. Lots to do yet! Big thing is figuring out depth of field/photo stacking for the photographs I like to take, and investing/designing some decent lightning for better quality pictures.

Thanks for looking!
Lucas

[milw12]

The Midway Industrial Moves South

or a layout finds it's focus, The Milwaukee 2 in KCMO

I'll admit I have been procrastinating about this for several weeks now, for fear or having to write an essay, but the locale of the layout has changed. It doesn't  affect the layout much, but it gives the layout a prototypical spin in comparison to my imaginary Twin Cities line.

Long story long to explain the thought process: I was reading the excellent Morning Sun MKT Volume 3 by Daryl McGee. I'm partial to the late Katy and how it reorganized itself into a successful operation after years of hard times, plus the green/yellow chevrons are hard to beat. I could keep going but simply the Katy had a lot of character.

Being more of a modeler than a historian, I learned that the MKT and Milwaukee were a friendly connection in Kansas City Missouri. I'll admit the initial draw was that it wasn't uncommon to see orange and black Milwaukee units with the classic green and yellow MKT for a visually pleasing combination. This lead to some more substantial research and the joint agency between the mass of railroads in KC, especially between the KCS and Milwaukee. In my time frame of 1984-1985, 15 railroads served Kansas City, and a diverse set of reciprocal  industries, many of which are still in operation today. The more  research the more I was drawn in, and a desire to model an actual prototype was born. Some industry lists, a 1984 timetable, and a growing reference library has lead to modeling the Milwaukee 2 and company in KCMO.

As this applies to the layout: not much has changed! There is only so much that can be done is my space, and in my experience it's not like Midwest industrial areas look all that different between towns. Place names may become key here, but the search continues for ways to make my little 12”x63” say KCMO through details as well. Unfortunately it's not as easy as popping some royal palms down and calling it Florida, especially given that I want it to be as generic and believable as possible. Might be a case of having my cake and eating it too, we will see. But at least I will know that the layout is in KCMO

I've been hunting for some more southern and western road rolling stock to round out my northern Midwestern fleet, because it seems that everyone who was someone (and then some) were in KC. 

A high-class up-to-date visual guide to the layout:



The building materials supplier will now be based on Rew Materials, an long term supplier to the KC area, with a conveniently easy-to-model spur that drops right into my layout.



Photo courtesy of Google Earth

A very blurry aerial image confirms trackage/buildings haven't changed much since 1991 , and not changing in seven years since 1984 is within the realm of feasibility, especially for a small switching layout. Rew is listed in the 1978 Milwaukee List of Industries as being rail served, so it was an easy choice that happened to be exactly what I was looking for.

As for the warehouse, I'm still searching for a good industry, and it might even end up being something completely different. My existing non-rail industries struck me as generic enough to keep, and the team track/off spot is always a good option.

That's enough of a dissertation for now, although I know I've been light on the prototype details, but at least explains what is going on in my head. It's hard to explain, but this is easily the most interested I've been in a prototype, and I've actually come to enjoy the research process, and has really emphasized the multiple facets of railroad modeling as a hobby.

Lucas

[SSW7771]

I like it! Your progress is looking good. I need to get back to work on my shelf layout.