Milwaukee Road - Portage to LaCrosse - early 1950's - N Scale

[altohorn25]

Nate,

I'm not sure why but that is the neatest (as in tidy) looking use of controls for the Blue point switch machines I've ever seen.  Great job.

Scott

Thanks Scott.  This is the first time I've installed them.  Once I put the first one together, I got in a flow and the rest should go together rather quickly.

Having a nice hole saw makes the installation look very tidy from the front. 

[altohorn25]

I continue to make progress on installing the turnout linkages on the layout.  I got 16 of them installed over the past two days.  Installation in New Lisbon is almost complete.


I did discover that I have to re-install a turnout; it's too close to the front of the module and the turnout machine won't fit below it.  Easy enough to replace and flip which side of the turnout the throw bar is on.


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[altohorn25]

Part of the operating scenario for my layout is that sometime during the session, the Eastbound mainline will need to be taken out of service for repair between Mauston and New Lisbon.  One of the jobs will be a work extra which will depart and return to New Lisbon to fix the track.  While the work train fouls the Eastbound main, all Eastbound traffic will be required to cross over and run on the Westbound main for a short distance.  I figured this would add operational interest to the double tracked railroad; the dispatcher will need to coordinate movement through the repair so there are no head on collisions.  🙂


Here we see the work train out on the main with an Eastbound time freight detouring on the Westbound track.


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[altohorn25]

I pulled my Baldwin VO-1000 out of storage and have been using it to switch New Lisbon.  It handles the cuts of cars with no problems.


This may be its permanent assignment......


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[Jim Starbuck]

I pulled my Baldwin VO-1000 out of storage and have been using it to switch New Lisbon.  It handles the cuts of cars with no problems.


This may be its permanent assignment......


(Attachment Link)

My favorite Milwaukee paint scheme.

[altohorn25]

So.......I thought about it a bit and decided there had to be a better way than ripping out a perfectly good turnout.......


I took some styrene and rebuilt the throw bar on the other side of the turnout and drilled a new hole through the benchwork. Problem solved.



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[altohorn25]

I got some more Bluepoint turnout controls and control rods installed in New Lisbon today.

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[altohorn25]

[MILWcoastdiv]

You must have quite a collection of passenger trains.  You might have covered this in an earlier post but I noticed you had a switch list printed on MILW letterhead that was laying on your benchwork (very nice) is that JMRI?

Thanks,
Mario

[altohorn25]

You must have quite a collection of passenger trains.  You might have covered this in an earlier post but I noticed you had a switch list printed on MILW letterhead that was laying on your benchwork (very nice) is that JMRI?

Thanks,
Mario

Hi Mario,

Not a switch list, just a timetable of trains that will run during an operation session.  I did the letterhead up in one of the Microsoft programs quite a few years ago for my previous layout and I just changed the division name on it for the new layout.  I just wanted to get the trains down on paper that I would be running, so they are currently not in any particular order on the timetable.  This will change once I get an operating scheme developed.

I'm still working on switchlists for the 4 freight trains and the locals that will pickup and drop cars during a session.

I've attached pdf's below so you can see the actual documents.

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[altohorn25]

It's the summer of 1969, and the Milwaukee Road's Eastbound Morning Hiawatha is having a bit of trouble.  The prime mover in E8 unit #32A has shut down and the crew can't get it going again.  Management has sent relief power in the form of FP45's #1 and #5 to meet the train at its station stop in New Lisbon, WI.  We were able to catch the action as the motive power was swapped out and the train continued on its journey to Milwaukee and Chicago.

Passenger cars are Brass Car Sides mounted American Limited core kits.  Storage mail car #2050 is a Railsmith model.  The super dome and skytop parlor are resin shells by Jim Stillman.  The E8's are detailed Kato units and the FP45's are by Athearn.

[MILWcoastdiv]

Nate, after I asked about the switch list I thought to myself that it may have been weird for me to ask as if I was snooping around your benchwork LOL.  I'm a lines west modeler but really enjoy your work.   I noticed that yards along the western extension seem to follow roughly in design of the the yards you outline; seemingly all having a turn around 'Y' at one end with the lead / siding and small classification yard.

I have to get up to speed with my passenger equipment, my era is late 70's but with so much available out there I have no excuse

Mario

[High Hood]

It's the summer of 1969, and the Milwaukee Road's Eastbound Morning Hiawatha is having a bit of trouble.  The prime mover in E8 unit #32A has shut down and the crew can't get it going again.  Management has sent relief power in the form of FP45's #1 and #5 to meet the train at its station stop in New Lisbon, WI.  We were able to catch the action as the motive power was swapped out and the train continued on its journey to Milwaukee and Chicago.

Passenger cars are Brass Car Sides mounted American Limited core kits.  Storage mail car #2050 is a Railsmith model.  The super dome and skytop parlor are resin shells by Jim Stillman.  The E8's are detailed Kato units and the FP45's are by Athearn.

/>

Love it! I'm a big fan of Milwaukee's yellow scheme. I think they wore it better than UP! How do you like the Athearn FP45? I've been thinking about getting some in both yellow and freight schemes.

[altohorn25]

Love it! I'm a big fan of Milwaukee's yellow scheme. I think they wore it better than UP! How do you like the Athearn FP45? I've been thinking about getting some in both yellow and freight schemes.

Mine are the original run and they operate quite well.  I have these two in the passenger yellow and numbers 2, 3, and 4 in the orange/black freight paint job.  They pull a TON.  The wheel flanges are right on the edge as to being able to be used on Atlas code 55 track.  They bump just a touch on some of the turnout frogs, but nothing that impeeds their performance

Since I always run them together, I swapped out the couplers between units with Micro Trains True Scale couplers to bring them a little closer together (the yellow units have these on the video).

I also installed Digitrax non-sound decoders in all five locos.  I used decoder DN-163K1C.

[altohorn25]

It's been a while since an update, but I promise I've been working on the layout......

A few friends from the Twin Cities will be driving up to my house this Thursday for a trial run of an Ops session on my layout.

I've completed the following items over the past few weeks in order to prepare:

-Timetable
-Car cards / waybills for each car
-Operator instructions for each train
-Dispatcher sheet
-Dispatcher panel
-Car card boxes mounted
-Throttles charged

I still need to run the telephone system, but the session can work without it as long as I act as the dispatcher.  Once the telephones are installed and the wires are run, the dispatcher will be setup in the adjoining room running things during the session.

Only about half the bluepoint turnout controls are installed.  Most of them that are installed also have the controls run to the facia.  For those turnouts that don't have the controls installed yet, operators will need to reach under the layout in order the flip the throwbar.....not ideal, but it will work.

We will be using a 4:1 fast clock. While I don't have departure times figured out for each train yet, the fast clock will be used to time station stops for the passenger trains and coal/water stops for the steam locomotives.  Actual departure times from staging will be added to the timetable eventually.

It should be fun figuring out what does and doesn't work as far as car routings go......

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