Milwaukee Road in KCMO 2.0

[milw12]

My main railroading interest is the late-years Milwaukee Road, after the embargo as it restructured and rebuilt itself in the Milwaukee 2 process. The year 1984 was chosen more as a line in the sand to keep myself honest with purchases, staying pre-SOO merger (no bandits here!), the classic 80's 'grimy rainbow' railroading was in full swing and the diesel roster was conveniently standardized by then, at least compared to the complete circus that was the Milwaukee Road in the 1970's. Needless to say I have a few pieces for a future ability to backdate to the 1970's, for example, who can say no to the Milwaukee's anything-but-standardized SW-1 fleet

It's been a good challenge with the Milwaukee 2, publications are not all that common compared to the happier golden years and well documented Pacific Northwest transcontinental, but the more research I do, the more drawn in I become. On top of that, the Milwaukee's Missouri branch south of Ottumwa, Iowa to Kansas City isn't exactly the most high profile line, but fortunately contemporary documents and some excellent articles in The Milwaukee Railroader through out the years have proven invaluable. 

As for the layout concept itself, I was inspired by Lance Mindheim's LAJ layout and have always been a fan of his operation style, so there is a heavy influence from his publications. My modeled area is the West Bottoms industrial area, a river flat near the Kansas River, well served by the railroads in town with plenty of interesting industry. A grander scheme for the future would include the KCS Joint Agency and MKT, but for now it's plenty to focus on the Milwaukee 

Should you be interested, The Milwaukee Railroader Third Quarter 2016 has an excellent article on the railroad's operations in KC during the 1980's.

Concerning and why this is KCMO 2.0, a few years ago I built the layout documented an old thread. I handlaid the code 40 turnouts, and made an honest effort at the layout as a whole. Mostly satisfied with the layout, it was a hard decision to decide to start again and address some of the nagging issues, but it was a good opportunity to take what I learned for improvement. The old layout was 63" long, and the switching lead was a hair short, and given my preferences a cassette extension was not an option. The track was laid directly on plywood, and most importantly the code 40 turnouts acted up just enough to be frustrating. Last January I took the plunge and started on the new layout, 12" x 72", built on a steel stud and 3/4" plywood base, with 1/4" cork tile to deaden sound. Micro Engineering code 55 is standard and has been nearly worry free, with reliable turnouts and a lack of the conductivity issues I had before.

The old thread is here if you are curious: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41999.0

A dated trackplan from the start of the new project, things have changed mostly concerning building placement, but the track remained the same:



Some in process shots posted before I believe:





The building layout here dominated the layout a bit much, considering my prototype, but it's all a part of the development process 



More in the next post-

[milw12]

After a few month hiatus, during the spring and summer, around Labor Day I began to scenic the layout. The goal has been the magic "80% completion" mark, or getting the layout close enough to finished to look presentable while I tackle detailing. Simply, I was tired of looking at painted cork, so first up was ballast and ground cover, which in my experience has the greatest visual impact.

Ground cover is Scenic express dirt, with Heki prairie static grass mixed with 2mm Silfor late summer grass. It really functions unashamedly as a rough first pass but that will be adjusted when I come back with more foam, grass and weeds. Ballast is a mix of Arizona Rock and Mineral CSX blend, Scenic Express dirt and powdered wood glue as the binder.

I mocked up a close-enough stand-in for the KCS-MILW freight house in all it's 1970's glory, and completed the building flat that represents the Alley-Johnson building, which acts as the rail-served warehouse on the layout. I've been following up with details such as "The Tree" (in the images I have trees were scarce in the flats area), crossbucks and all the other fun details in an ongoing process.

Alley Johnson and the Rew Materials lumber unloading area, the building is scratch built from styrene, and still requires some awnings, gutters and other details:





The switch lead end of tyhe layout, that I'm still considering my options with. Perhaps along the backside will be a model of one of the many truck served warehouses in the area:



The Walther's freight house is a stand-in for the real KCS-MILW Joint freight house, seen here in The Milwaukee Railroader First Quater 2000 in all it's 1971 glory:



I plan to scratch build a more accurate structure in the future, but the Walther's kit helps for now. Plus that paint scheme is killer

Some glamor shots:







Thanks for looking, I will continue to post updates here-

Lucas

[milw12]

I've been tinkering along with the layout lately, as I mentioned I wasn't completely happy with this end of the layout:



A little too much open space left it feeling too empty, rural, or underdeveloped especially considering the West Bottoms area, which was well developed even in 1965 as the TMR aerials show. A theme of the layout is being mindful of cramming too much in a small space, but this seems too empty for its own good.
 
So I bashed a couple kits to a point for mock-ups, two Micro Engineering Transworld Truck Terminals make up the truck transfer and two Walther's Water Street freight houses give the KCS-MILW frieght house some meat. Neither are painted or even complete but are helpful for testing the spatial and visual possibilities.



The idea is to drop a dummy track parallel to the main, the switch being off stage to the left. I could even stash an extra car or two on the track to set the scene. The area was heavily rail served, so this suits the look I'm going for well. And if there is anything the area had in abundance, it's freight houses (half dozen give or take between the railroads) and truck transfers 

The plan is a concrete lot in front of the transfer terminal, roughly like the loose grey styrene that the buildings are sitting on, an alley of sorts between the two structures and a cobblestone lot in front of the freight house, based on the one in the proto photo in my last post. The office end of the freight house is close enough to the street for a sidewalk and other details, which will also help in giving the area a more developed look.

The green space between the rails and the future backdrop is also on the docket, at most a non-rail building flat would be planted along the back, we'll see how it sits as is for the time being. Empty dirt lots are also pretty common 

Thanks for looking,
Lucas

[Ed Kapuscinski]

If you're doing the bottoms, I'd think you'd want some taller buildings. I remember it being all very "vertical".

[milw12]

Ed, I'm inclined to agree. I wanted to take some photographs when I passed through earlier this summer on the way to a Royals game, but Boulevard Brewing was hosting the Boulvardia beer fest right where I wanted to take some photographs. So my priorities quickly changed:



Cold beer and KC barbecue trucks are alright with me!

The vertical thing kind of depends on what part of the bottoms you're at, I've been using these 1966 aerials from The Milwaukee Railroader First Quarter 2000, it's the best I've found so far. North would approximately be to the left, these photographs are looking east.

The north end where the freeway dumps off is definitely vertical, and many of the brick buildings are still there:



But what my main focus is by the old stockyards, and is much more open and horizontal:



With my mock ups, given my layout allows for a swath of a scale 160 feet to be modeled, taller buildings just don't look right- almost too dominating really. Perhaps it's something to revisit? I tried a DPM kit but it was almost like it was HO, it seemed really out of scale with my bashes and other kits.

For reference I've circled in yellow some of what I've been using so far. The building in the lower circle is Alley-Johnson and what I based the white warehouse on (and just so happened part of the beer fest was staged out of!) I have an address for Western Mercantile but have no idea which building it was, being one of the two circled at that intersection. I've been leaning towards the long narrow building up and to the left of Alley Johnson. Which is now a dirt lot we happened to park on to enjoy the festival. Good times!



Western Mercantile is not modeled on this iteration of the layout. This and Alley Johnson were rail served by the Milwaukee according to my 1976 industry list, being the reason I've drifted into modeling this area. The lumberyard Rew Materials (the concrete pad on the layout) was nabbed from a completely different neighborhood, fwiw. This is definitely a proto-lanced project given my current space limitations.

And the north end, I've circled the KCS-MILW joint freight house which is also labeled, and some kind of industrial area with lots of trailers and low buildings:



As an aside, there's a missing image that would connect the two aerials together- between that and actual 1984 aerial images of the area it would be something of a holy grail. But the fun is in the search 

Thanks for looking,
Lucas

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Very interesting!

My limited experience with the Bottoms was the West Bottoms around Doc's Caboose:
https://goo.gl/maps/mqSrwprYD272

I did not realize it was so different there.

Also, I really need to get back to KC. There's so much there. Holy cow.