Inspiration

Working through some ideas for 2 old Fremo americaN modules that were not the best. They were the first I made myself and it shows. Offending parts will be removed as far as is possible as well as the modules will be made as much lighter as can be without sacrificing structural strength (which has held up surprisingly well). New thin sides will be added and they will be a little bit higher to protect the undulating plain that can be found in the area of the prototype.

Basically I'm trying, with the design expertise of a German friend, to realise G&M Junction on the old M&StL. This Junction was a couple of miles south of Grinnell Iowa and here the branchline to Montezuma via Ewart left the mainline of the 10 district. This district was between Marshalltown and Albia, via Oskaloosa, all in Iowa.

The branchline was build by the Grinnell and Montezuma Railroad and ultimately ended up in the lap of the M&StL in 1912. It last featured in employee timetable no 34 of the Eastern Division of the M&StL dated 23 june 1935. It was gone when the first systemwide timetable was published on 2 october 1938.

This is a fragment of M&StL employee timetable Eastern Division 34 of 1935. I got it from a CD-ROM made by the M&StL yahoo group. Note that in the era that M&StL still had 3 divisions, this branchline was part of the Second District of the Eastern Division. Later the mainline would become the Tenth District when divisions were abolished.

The idea is to cut the two modules in such a way that reassembled at Fremo americaN meetings there is a junction module and a module with a curve. The latter are always needed and I think planners will find a use for the junction too ;-).

It looks as if a third segment might be needed. Anyway, everything is to be transported together.

Here is a pic showing the slight curve just to the south of the junction. You can see the trees in the pic above (black dot near the railroad crossing) behind the last locomotives and the photographer was standing near the railroad crossing, which will feature on the module too. It seems to me that the distant trees just to the right of the nose of the leading locomotive probably stand on the right of way of the former line to Montezuma.

I do not own the picture, it can be found here: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=280086

I think the landscape is not quite a featureless plain but it comes close, don't you think? This type of landscape is ideal for modules that have to be transported to meetings by train. Not much in the way of objects sticking up above the railhead yet the curve, railroad crossing and trees offer some perspective and interest in a picture. The trees will be taken of the module during travel and probably stored inside the module. This gives a quite compact package as the modules themselves are 61x40x10 cm at the moment. 

New blog

I've created a new blog Midnight & Still Later to document the gathering, designing and hopefully building in N scale of the south end of the M&StL 10th district between Oskaloosa and Albia in 1950s Iowa.

Well, it's about time to bring this blog back to life after a long hiatus due to way too many physical health problems and the attendant mental health problems.

I got a bit farther with this module Featureless Plains but unfortunately the pictures I took of the next layer, gypsum with pigment and white glue, got lost when my laptop was stolen from my house while I was on a company outing. I still have the module but it is in storage at the moment awaiting decisions on what to do with it. Originally I wanted it to be a double track module but at a length of 1 meter it has become too large and above all too heavy. I lost a lot of strength as a result of a botched medical procedure. So I may cut it in two for easier transport or use it at home by redoing everything on top...

So I'm thinking of making this blog now a more general blog about my (model) railroad activities with links to specific blogs where I detail the building of N-scale modules according to the norms of the Fremo America-N group. For more information about those norms you can take a look here:
Fremo americaN

In the intervening years I've managed to get a lot of nice to have informationvia the M&StL Yahoo group (M&StL Yahoo group) with regard to my most favourite American railroad, the Minneapolis & St Louis Railroad. I'm particularly fascinated by the extreme south end in Iowa, the line from Oskaloosa to Albia. A very nice bonus is the fact that there was an interchange with the Wabash Railroad, my second favourite American railroad. I now have timetables, trackcharts etc. that give a good overview of this 23.5 mile long line. I'm in the process of setting up a blog detailing the designing, and hopefully building, proces of this south end of the tenth district of the M&StL in a small second bedroom in my appartment.

There are enough interesting features on this short piece of railroad, most of which is still there even though not in operation by the current owner Union Pacific, such as:
- (former) coal mines south of Albia at a place named Hocking,
- the interchange with the Wabash in Albia (and likely the former interurban ISU),
- a crossing and interchange with the Burlington (CB&Q),
- Hickory Hill,
- Lockman and it's trestles (and former coalmines),
- a long gone town named Coalfield,
- the then new powerplant at Bridgeport just before the crossing of the Des Moines river into Eddyville,
- Eddyville with sand and gravel loader and where a CRI&P line comes in from the southeast and parallels the line,
- crossing at Givin (another abandoned town with coal mines nearby)
- the sweeping curve at Beacon but no station, that was on the CRI&P,
- Tracy Junction, later Fosterdale Junction and finally
- the entrance to Oskaloosa's M&StL South Yard via a wye, underneath the track was a gauntlet track of the CB&Q and, again, the CRI&P.
- Ending at the modelgenic passenger station.
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So, stay tuned!