My Milwaukee Road Mathewsville Subdivision

[railohio]

Prototype

This is one of my two home layouts and the one that is furthest along. It has its roots in, of all things, 1980s Canadian Pacific grain branches visited by Chuck Bohi in the August 1992 issue of Railfan & Railroad magazine. What caught my eye were the wide open spaces and relatively small trains of 40' boxcars hauled by Alco switchers. Unfortunately, finding suitable engines in N scale proved to be a bridge too far so I modified my prototype to be Burlington Northern in eastern Washington as seen in Rob Leachman's Northwest Passage (Hundman, 1998). Construction progressed with track laying and the assembly of some Walthers grain elevator kits, but I still hadn't purchased any BN equipment yet. That idea got shelved when a friend sent me a new Atlas Trainman 40' boxcar painted for the Milwaukee Road. Overnight my layout changed yet again from a 1970s Burlington Northern operation to a 1960s Milwaukee Road line. Certainly the entire Milwaukee Road system was known for light-density branchline railroading, especially the Iowa, Minnesota & Dakota and Aberdeen Divisions in the upper Midwest, but there was still something alluring about the operations on the Coast Division. Fred Hyde's Milwaukee Road (Hyrail, 1990) presents the perfect inspiration for a light density grain line, eastern Washington's Marcellus Branch. From these inspirations the Mathewsville Subdivision presented here was born.

The layout is loosely set in east central Washington state in the grain-growing region east of the Columbia River. It measures roughly 16" by 34" in keeping with the small-scale nature of grain branch railroading. It's operated like two separate lines that join at Reid Junction. The Mathewsville Subdivison, a secondary mainline, runs from off the layout to Mathewsville. At Reid Junction the Wehbyrn Branch breaks off to its namesake town. With no runaround tracks there are a lot of shoving moves, much like on the real grain branches. Right now it operates with a borrowed Life-Like SW1200 painted for my freelanced railroad, but plans include acquisition of a pair of Kato NW2s (whenever they get around to released them in Milwaukee Road). Rolling stock is mostly from Atlas with 40' Trainman boxcars and new two-bay open hoppers for stone service. In the future I might invest in some Walthers log cars to test them on the curves. Maybe someday down the road I might have to squeeze a log loadout on there somewhere!

Model

I drug my layout outside a few days ago for an impromptu photo session. The Geeps pictures, great as they look, don't really operate around the curves. I really can't wait to get a hold of those Kato switchers! Both of the grain elevators are Walthers kits; the grey elevator in the process of being stripped for repainting. I plan to add some Rix grain bins to at least one of the elevators to further act as a view block. The base is just a 2" piece of foam that I've painted and built a layout on. Someday soon I'll get around to adding a fascia, probably Masonite since it's thin and stiff, and finishing the scenery. It's wired as one block with two sets of feeders; someday I'll hook my DCC system up to it but for now I just use an MRC Tech II.









Bibliography

Bohi, Charles. "Changes on CP Rail's Radville Sub." Railfan & Railroad. August 1992, 50-55.

Hyde, Frederick W. Milwaukee Road. Denver: Hyrail Publications, 1990.

Leachman, Rob. Northwest Passage. Mukilteko, Washington: Hundman Publishing, 1998.

[Sumpter250]

I see you found us!
This is so much more like we used to be, welcome home!

[ngauger]

That ;looks Great in the fresh air!!! Nice work!!! Great article too!!!!

[Brakie]

Very nice!
One question..What became of the Ironton Northern?

And

[railohio]

The Ironton Northern is still coming along. I'm working on structures and rolling stock for it, though I'm going to wait to see where I end up moving before I start with track and wiring.

[Ralph]

The last picture of the gray elevator looks great to me, as if it was well weathered. Was that the result of the stripping you mentioned or did you start the repaint with some very convincing wear to the elevator's siding?

Ralph

[Trucklover]

Glad to see you over here Railohio!!

BEAUTIFUL work on the layout!! I love the structures, you did a fine job on them and im looking forward to seeing them completed and seeing some more work on this layout

[Catt]

I just want to see him finish a layout. :mrgreen:

[Brakie]

I just want to see him finish a layout. :mrgreen:

Is That a possibility?

Will that be history?

The real question is------------------

Who will actually finish a layout Rail or Brakie?????

[railohio]

The gray elevator is in the process of being stripped. I painted it what I thought was too dark and then went over it with a lighter color. The lighter color turned out to be wrong and the photos show it partially stripped. I'm going to end up going with the darker gray color and weathering rust over that.

Oh, and I will complete this layout. It's oh-so-close now. I even have almost everything on-hand to do it, too! All that's left is to finish the structures, ballast the track, and add some ground cover. I'd like to get some Rix grain bins to add but I'm afraid those will have to wait until later.

[Brakie]

Rail,You're further along then I am..I am still building the needed industries.Hopefully I can start track laying after the first of the year..

[kettlestack]

It's looking real good railohio . After 30 yrs of trying all sorts of gauges and finishing none, I had accumulated a lot more N stuff and decided to try a mini layout almost the same size as yours. I managed to get it 99.8% finished in about three weeks!

Yours differs from mine as you have a turnout which can lead to another module. Why had I not thought of doing that?
Dont forget to post progress pictures (me loves pictures )
Should I make book on Brakie's and your finish date?

Errol

[Sumpter250]

Errol, it's good to see you back here, you've been missed. You know, of course, that I have to take a couple of "good natured" shots.......so,

Yours differs from mine as you have a turnout which can lead to another module. Why had I not thought of doing that?

Maybe you shouldn't have stayed away so long.

Dont forget to post progress pictures (me loves pictures)

As I recall you took some good pictures...please, post some here.

Should I make book on Brakie's and your finish date?

You?!, a betting man?!, it must be a long time since a tank car load o' the "good stuff" arrived at a local siding.
I hope you noticed that "the box" is here already.
N scale. Seriously, post some pictures, I'd like to see what you've been up to!


You have been gone too long. You are most welcome here.
Pete

[railohio]

If he's making books he's the one taking the money which is infinitely smarter than making any bet!

Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm going to be out of town for a couple months coming up here so it'll looking like that for a while yet. As Catt alluded, I'm in no hurry to do much of anything. Besides, when I finish up with what I've already purchased I'm going to have to go buy stuff like vehicles and figures to add to it. That's never any fun! :mrgreen:

[Jesso]

That's a neat little layout, really like how tight the curves are. I need to rethink that the bigger the curves the better, this layout proves that doesn't need to be the case.