Beer Line: North of North

[Dave Schneider]

Hello all,

I was at home today with a sick child and kept myself busy while she slept by doing some "research" on industries along the Beer Line between Humboldt (North Ave.) and Gibson Yards (excluding the Snake Track for now...sorry Tom). I have put together a PowerPoint compilation of views from USGS vertical air photos from 1955 and 1970, oblique aerials from Bing Maps, street views from Google Maps. Unfortunately, even with compression the ppt file is about 100 Mb in size, so I saved the individual slides as pngs and posted them on my Photobucket link. I also produced a PDF that looks a little nicer, and it is only 6.6 Mb in size, and I could email it to anyone if they are interested and if you can handle the attachment size. The pngs can be found at: http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll290/djs_ank_ak/North_of_North/

I used the numbering scheme from the MRHA Beer Line book to keep track of the industries. For the most part they are intact with the exception of the large Shadbolt Boyd warehouse.

I am seriously thinking about changing the focus of my modeling to this stretch as there are great street crossings, numerous oddly shaped buildings (as the RR cut across the streets and lots at a 45 degree angle), and I could have run through transfers with beer cars. One aspect I don't like about modeling the final couple of miles from Humboldt to the Juneau Ave yard is that it is hard to just "let the trains run". By doing this segment I could easily run a train each way since it is almost all double track. There is also quite a bit more variety to the car types.

Here are a couple of examples:







There is also a recently formed/forming Yahoo Group on the Beer Line at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Beerlinemodelers/
So far there are 35 members. Not a ton of content yet, but some good modelers and friendly people. If you have an interest in the Beer Line consider joining.

Best wishes, Dave

[Mark5]

Massively cool

[JDouglasFisher]

whats kinda cool is that the line punches through some rather suburban areas with simple homes all over the place. Most feeder lines are in more commercial/industrial areas. Gives a kinda laid back lazy feel to the scenery.

Joe.

[Dave Schneider]

Good point Joe. The mix of homes, small industry, and bars would make for some nice scenery. This mix was prevalent throughout the city of Milwaukee which used to have the highest percentage of it's economy based on manufacturing of any city in the US. It really was a place that built things. Much of that is gone but small industry still is an important part of the local economy.  The Beer Line was arguably the most profitable piece of track served by the Milwaukee Road and would see multiple 100 car trains each day. I really like the idea of building this as a series of 2 foot wide modules.

Best wishes
Dave 

[Ian MacMillan]

Very cool Dave. I did something similar when I was doing the B&M's Valley St Industrial track in HO, although not in depth as yours.

[MichaelWinicki]

Good point Joe. The mix of homes, small industry, and bars would make for some nice scenery. This mix was prevalent throughout the city of Milwaukee which used to have the highest percentage of it's economy based on manufacturing of any city in the US. It really was a place that built things. Much of that is gone but small industry still is an important part of the local economy.  The Beer Line was arguably the most profitable piece of track served by the Milwaukee Road and would see multiple 100 car trains each day. I really like the idea of building this as a series of 2 foot wide modules.

Best wishes
Dave 

Question for you Dave or if anyone else knows...

What were the construction specs of this line given the amount of traffic it saw?  Weight of rail?  Type of ballasting?  That sort of thing.

How many trains per day did it actually see?  I realize that's a vague question that will get a vague answer but just curious if anyone can peg a number of trains with an approximate date.

[Dave Schneider]

Question for you Dave or if anyone else knows...

What were the construction specs of this line given the amount of traffic it saw?  Weight of rail?  Type of ballasting?  That sort of thing.

How many trains per day did it actually see?  I realize that's a vague question that will get a vague answer but just curious if anyone can peg a number of trains with an approximate date.

Michael,

Good question about the number of trains per day. The best written reference is from the MRHA Beer Line book. It describes a typical day in the 1960s if I recall correctly. Do you have this book? As for the construction standards, another good question. My guess is that it was pretty good through the 50s-60s, and went downhill after that with minimal track and ballast work, but that is just a guess.

For those fans of this line, here is an interesting story of a tour of the line by a Milwaukee Journal writer and photographer. That Google News archive has some cool stuff.
Beer Line feature, 1963:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TFEaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IycEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4819%2C2706828

Best wishes, Dave

[Ian MacMillan]

For those fans of this line, here is an interesting story of a tour of the line by a Milwaukee Journal writer and photographer. That Google News archive has some cool stuff.
Beer Line feature, 1963:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=TFEaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=IycEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4819%2C2706828

Best wishes, Dave

Nice motorcar! Looks like a Killamazoo, which would have been a rare find on MILW as they mostly had Fairmont MT14's.

[tom mann]

Hey @Dave Schneider what is the latest on these buildings?

[Dave Schneider]

I thought that the statute of limitations had run out on this! 

This was from an earlier version of the Beer Line, back when I was going to do it in modules.

The first module was this one.


The oblique air photo.



The closest I got to finishing the buildings are this one (Milbrew), one the left side of the air photo.



And a much less complete White Pearl Macaroni (on the right side of the air photo.



I haven't done much modeling lately. Many things have taken up my time over the past 9 months (mother-law passed away, had to empty, fix and sell her house, back surgery for me, etc…). I hope to get back to things soon. I have thought about doing some small photo modules using some of these buildings and to test some scenery techniques.

Best wishes, Dave

[OldEastRR]

Street grids and buildings built in rectangular blocks and all lined up with each other ... love to see that on a model railroad because then it LOOKS like the real railroads. Lines and spurs curvy winding all over with buildings arranged facing any of the 8 points of the compass instead of one direction..... not real looking.

[tom mann]

Man, I would love to make a trade for those buildings </hint>