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

[altohorn25]

I've finally started building my new layout since I moved last July and I thought I should document it here.  This will be the Milwaukee Road between Portage, WI and LaCrosse, WI set in the early 1950's.  Code 55 track will be used throughout.  All equipment and motive power has been properly weathered.  Digitrax DCC command control will be used.  It will be a point to point layout set up for operations with a drop in section to allow continuous running. 

The room that I have to work in is roughly 11' x 17 1/2'.  It has a single access door and 4 outlets.  It is carpeted and has a drop celing with tube lighting and two supplemental wall sconces.

The preliminary plan looked like this:

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Once I decided on my initial plan, it was time to go to Menards and get my first load of building materials:

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My first day of building was on June 27th, 2022.  I'm building the layout in modules in case I need to move again (my last layout ended up in the dumpster because it wasn't able to be taken out of the basement without destroying it.....that's not going to happen again):

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I build the modules outside in my garage and then move them into the basement.  Layout height to the top of the rails will be approximately 52".  The legs are 50" long, 1/4" baltic birch plywood on the top of the benchwork, 1/2" of pink foam on top of that, cork roadbed, and then the track.

[altohorn25]

I picked up this really useful book a while ago:

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It has track plans for everywhere that I need.  This is an example from the book:  Camp Douglas, WI:

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It was a great resource to help me pick the specific towns that I would locate on this section of the railroad to be represented on the layout.  I selected the following towns:

-Portage and LaCrosse will be a combined staging yard with no scenery and not a prototypical track plan.
-Mauston, WI
-New Lisbon, WI
-Camp Douglas, WI
-Camp McCoy (Army Base)

Each town has unique aspects that will be interesting to model.  I took each town from the book and sketched out a simple line drawing of the track layout:

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I forgot to take a photo of Mauston as it wasn't in the original plan.

[altohorn25]

Now that I had a basic plan, it was time to start making sawdust.

Progress on 6/28/2022:

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[altohorn25]

A couple more modules on 6/29/2022.  I ran out of leg material and had to go back to the lumberyard.

I placed a typical length passenger train on the benchwork just to give an idea of the scale of things.

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[altohorn25]

I picked up  some more supplies from the local home improvement store on 6/30/2022.  In addition to lumber, I bought some sheets of pink foam.

I started cutting foam on 7/1/2022:

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[altohorn25]

I finished a couple more modules on 7/2/2022:

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[altohorn25]

I completed the first module of the peninsula on 7/3/2022, then ran out of materials......trip back to Menards was in order..... 


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[altohorn25]

I took a couple of days off from building.  Got back at it 7/6/2022.  I finished all the modules of the peninsula as well as one module on the south wall of the room.

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[altohorn25]

On 7/7/2022, I completed all the modules including the removable section across the door.  The removable section will not have skyboard on it.  It sits on 1"x2" shims that stick out from the two modules on either side of it.  It slides in and out easily and is held in place by 4 bolts/t-nuts that are run through the benchwork of the modules on either side.  It is very secure once in place.

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[altohorn25]

On 7/8/2022, I started sketching the track plan on the plywood benchwork.  I like doing the preliminary layout on the benchwork as opposed to right on the foam as it is easier to change if alterations are needed.  I realize this is probably an extra step as I will need to draw it on the foam as well, but it's how I like to do it.

It's a little hard to see the pencil marks in the photos, but you get the idea......

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[altohorn25]

On 7/9/2022, I started placing buildings around the layout to see what buildings that I currently have from my last layout would fit on the new plan.  I'll have to order a few things, but I'm in pretty good shape.  The signature depot in New Lisbon will need to be scratch built.  Almost everything else I can use commercially available kits.

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[Cajonpassfan]

That's some nice, quick progress Nate!
I love protobased modeling.
Following with interest.
Otto

[altohorn25]

I thought I should "populate" some of the tracks that I've sketched in to see what everything would look like with actual rolling stock sitting on it.

The staging yard can hold two 15 car trains (one going each direction) on each track.  Both of the mains can be used as well during ops sessions since they aren't needed to run around the layout.  Yes, the Royal American Shows carnival train can be run prototypically on this railroad and this route; i made the journey each summer on the Milwaukee Road between Milwaukee and St. Paul for the Wisconsin and Minnesota State fairs.

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[altohorn25]

Mauston

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[Bendtracker1]

Looks like a great start Nate!