South Upton Tower (North Shore Line)

Needing to build something for the April FoxValley Division monthly contest, I decided to finally build a 1/2" scale model of the North Shore Line's South Upton Tower. Eric Bronsky did a great article in the March 1985 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman, and I've always wanted to duplicate his efforts in either O scale or 1/2" scale.

As usual, stryene was the quick and dirty medium of choice, and equipped with Eric's article, which includes some nicely detailed drawings, the basic building was knocked together in about a week. I started on Tues March 16th and had progressed to the vision in white below by Sunday the 21st. Certainly doesn't hurt to have most of the raw materials at hand to start with.

This thing is pretty big in 1/2" scale, 10x17 inches, by 13 inches tall.

So, here we are, 4-1/2 weeks later, the final push over the last week to complete the tower just ended, and just in time for tomorrow's meet/contest. The finished tower below, complete with interior. A nice touch (my opinion anyway) the tower features copies of the actual track boards from the real South Upton Tower, which have been preserved by the Illinois Railway Museum. Eric Bronksy was kind enough to forward pictures of the boards which I promptly scaled to size and printed for the tower's interior.

One of the photos from Eric, showing the South Upton Junction

The tower interior, showing the track boards, and interlocking equipment

So, we'll see what the guys in the Division think !

Guess I should build something North Shore to pose next to the tower, hmm ?

Chicagoland O Scale Modular Club

First semi-official meeting of the newly formed Chicago area O Scale Traction modular club was Saturday, March 13th. We met up at the Clever Models booth/display at 1PM, and adjourned out to a side hallway for some quiet and privacy.

Had a half-dozen folks show up and the interest is very high.

We were also lucky to have Ed Skuchas from Berkshire Car Shops and an active EPTC guy sit in and give his impressions and advice.

Kevin spent part of last week building a prototype table, based on his ideas and modifications to the East Penn standard, which after some discussion we've adopted as our "standard" table.

Basic differences are we've elminated the lip on the ends of the modules which serve as leg pockets for the East Penn group, our tables will be 18 inches wide compared to EPTC' 16 inch width (adding two more inches to the rear) and we'll go with a 3-1/2" track center.

In the unlikely event that a Chicago group/EPTC get-together occur, a couple of transition modules could in theory be cobbled together.

This is the basic design, showing Kevin's concept for raised risers as opposed to a flat tabletop design. This is a really well thought-out design and nicely built. Cabinet grade materials, yet it's still very light weight and easy to handle

(Admittedly without track, overhead or scenery as yet !)

As seen below with the sub-roadbed, the design allows the front of the risers to be cut away to represent landscaping and ground contouring, or with a wider sub-roadbed, could also have the table-top style (if needed for a city/town scene, industries with a lot of switching, etc)

We decided to adopt Kevin's prototype as our new "standard" table design, with dimensions of 4 feet long x 18 inches deep. We decided on getting something up and running as quick as practical, so we'll work on getting a number of straight modules together, and then build a return loop at each end, as opposed to a circular layout.

We'll have a double track mainline, starting with Code 148 track, preferably the Micro-Engineering over the Atlas track (although either will work), as the ME has a better look to it.
The consensus was that a tall layout was more appropriate to our needs and our intent which is to have a highly sceniced layout, something that you'd want closer to eye level to enjoy and catch all the details of. Leg height was determined to be 48 inches and a number of design ideas were discussed, Kevin will test these ideas over the next week and come up with a prototype design.

We're also waiting for samples on roadbed, once we have roadbed samples and a leg design, we can come to a consensus and start building tables. I see no impediments to having several tables built and ready to operate (perhaps no overhead just yet), by tax day. Once we have a few tables to work off of, we can design and build the return loops, and we're ready to go public.

As noted interest is very high amongst the handful of guys who showed up, I'm guesstimating we're looking at a minimum of 5-6 tables to be built to start, up to 8-10, somewhere between 20-40 odd feet of running to begin with.

A pretty auspicious start, certainly more than I had dared to hope for.

Sometime in the near future, the scene below (Kevin's prototype with some of his IT fleet on display), will be set up and operating at a show near you !

Thanks to everyone who showed up and expressed any level of interest.

Special thanks to Kevin for all the hard-work and to Ed Skuchas for his

advice and encouragement.

2010 Chicago O Scale Meet

Attended the Chicago O Scale Meet on Saturday, March 13th.

Two-fold mission, looking for goodies to buy, and our first semi-formal meeting/get-together for our new Chicago area modular traction club (Separate post to follow)

Hadn't been to the meet in a couple of years, having focused most of my modeling of late on the large scale stuff. The meet is in a new location, nicely laid out, very well attended from what I saw, and it is truly kid-in-a-candy-store time. All the stuff that no one hobby shop could ever hope to have in stock, all the odd-ball, obscure stuff that you wonder about when you see a magazine ad or something on-line, all laid out to peruse, fondle, drool over, and hopefully for the dealers,, to be purchased ! And of course, so many rare, dare we say collectible, pieces as well.

Like Christmas in March really

I was able to curb my usual impulses, there wasn't anything that I couldn't truly live without, although a NWSL GE 45 ton center cab caught my eye. The dealer wasn't set to take plastic and it was just too nasty out to make the effort to go find an ATM and come back with cash. All's well that ends well,
Rich Yoder has a couple of his 45 tonners left

(and they're more accurate to AEFRE #5),
so I'll get one of his instead.

Some nice stuff in the contest room, this engine house has some

really nice stonework and detailing

Likewise, this scene was well built and detailed, photos don't do it the justice it deserves

I'm a crappy reporter, didn't take names or details, but I know this will all be well represented in an upcoming issue of O Scale News

Amongst the highlights of the day was getting to meet Dave Miecznikowksi of Clever Models.

Dave markets a line of model kits and supplies designed to be printed on cardstock. Again, pictures don't do this stuff justice, you have to get up close and see it to beleive it. And as Dave notes, the cost is so much less than if this were urethane models or something more "traditional"

A couple shots of the Clever Models display below.

The traction category was well represented in the model contest,
with about a half dozen entries

In the passenger car category was this Walthers combine, done in South Shore colors, really a nicely done car, takes a lot to get the old Walthers cars to look this nice.

All in all a good show, well spent day.

Got to meet a lot of people face to face who previously had either been just well-known "names", or online contacts. In particular Ed Skuchas, from Berskshire Car Shops, really one of the nicest guys you can ever meet, and very willing to share his extensive knowledge and experiences.

We also had our first semi-formal get together for the newly formed Chicagoland O Scale Modular Club. Dave was gracious enough to offer his display as a meeting point, and from there

we adjourned to the hallway for a bit more quiet and privacy.

Check the next blog post for details.

High Wheeler Wrap and Updates

High Wheeler 2010 is officially over. A really good show this year, don't know the final numbers but heard mention that it was the largest ever attendance. Had the road show crew from Radio Disney in on Sunday (photo below is just before they started their show). Don't know if that was much of a draw, but certainly the extra effort in advertising and getting the word out paid off.

Congratulations to all involved, and many thanks for all the hard volunteer work from everyone.

The guy with the wacky wagon for what I assume are his grandkids is always interesting, although it occurs to me,,, seems like a lot of work that these kids will outgrow pretty quick.

Also, honored the lovely wife, as she has now become the official desert provider for the Fox Valley Division board meetings. Was pressed into duty to build a structure for the division's demonstration layout (HO scale), so I made it "Debbie's Bakery and Coffee Shop"

Had a some-what scaled down display from the recent TrainFest effort, but that was in large part due to the fact I had to spend time with Division duties helping with the show. Made some significant changes and additions, from last year's HW show, keeping up the idea of never having the same display twice.

In related news, both Midwest Rails, and the Chicagoland Garden Railway Society, both G scale model railroad groups, were both excited for a chance to see the Eggtroliner. Hadn't quite completed it, but spent a few hours late Saturday night getting the trucks right and the drawbars installed, and it had it's inagurual runs Sunday morning on the Midwest Rails layout. I somehow managed not to take any pictures, but I'm sure someone will forward some to me. They must have liked it, they played with it all day long. Mentioned it to a couple of folks so I guess we can say it publicly now, the next one will be the Pioneer Zeggphyr, a Zephyr of Eggliners. Someday I hope to channel all this evil energy into something good and pure, but till then,,, well, you know.

Also related to the Midwest Rails and CAGRS folks, I was very happy to finally get a chance to see Paul Allodi and give him the boxcab electric locomotive I built for him. Enjoy Paul.

A real high point of the show was having a number of people stop by and express interest in the O Scale modular group. Probably have about 2 dozen people who've expressed an interest, based on past experience, about 1/2 wont' do anything, so that leaves about 10-12, which is far more than the minimum 3-4 I thought might be needed to get this up and running.

Kevin Marks has been working on ideas for the tables, and has made a sample table, actually a scale model of the table, along with a scale model of an East Penn table. Kevin's is the one with the tall risers, which allows for better scenic effect (amongst other things). Kevin's building a prototype table to bring to the O Scale Meet on Saturday, and we'll have our first "official" get together then, meeting at the Clever Models booth at 1PM. Plan is to meet and greet, and hash out some details, then hopefully Kevin and I (maybe someone else ??) can spend the next week or two and build 4-6 tables. Then, I think I'll host an open house/meeting at my place, show everyone the set-up and I think it will all take off from there. That's the plan anyways !

Pretty exciting times, and it don't hurt that it looks like winter is done

(Keep your fingers crossed anyways !)

Modeling the Fox River 300's in O scale - Update

After a flurry of decaling this morning, I am proud to line up 6 Fox River Line cars, mostly complete, complete enough for service/operation/public consumption. Still some final detailing to finish on some cars, some will receive window guards, couple of roof mount fuse boxes need

to be installed, but basically we're done.

The Fox River Line had 7 of these cars, technically I have all 7 as I have 6 in O Scale, and one in 1/2" scale. The O scale cars are numbered 301-306 (no #300).

The Fox River Line had two basic paint schemes, both featured an orange body with yellow/creme window, red oxide roofs and doors, and black underbody. The difference is towards the end, cars had a white "sunburst" design added to the end dashes to aid in visibility. After struggling with how to manage getting all these sunbursts the same size, I ended up using white decal film, I sized and printed the shape on the back of the decal paper, cut to size, and voila ! I have 3 with, and 3 without the sunburst,, time will tell when I get the last car which one is the tie-breaker.

The weekend wasn't just a Fox River decal fest,, after a long put-off trip to Chicagoland Hobbies for the necessary decals, I also finally lettered some of my painted, but unlettered CA&E cars.Finally complete are St Louis car #456,

and Kuhlman car #312.

I am also ecstatic to report that I was able to successfully salvage my Chicagoland Traction CA&E Pullman car. This car became very brittle over the years (it's primarily a resin cast kit, and the resin was an early, sort of expanded foam type that apparently didn't age well),last November the car disintegrated in my hands as I was packing it up to take to Trainfest.

One side completely collapsed through the window area, and the surprise of it all caused me to drop the whole damn thing to the floor.

Long story short, a fellow modeler supplied me a used side and I was able to match it all up pretty well (It's not a perfectly built model kit, but it's more than servicable, and a heck of abetter than it was 4 months ago). As a result of the rebuilding, it also got a new paint job, it was formerly in the final red/white scheme, this time painted to the blue/grey with red.

All's well that ends well I guess.

Modeling the Fox River 300's in O scale - Update

Fresh from the paint shop, 4 "new" Fox River 300 cars (In O scale)
Still need clean-up/touch up, old brass doesn't hold on to paint as well as

you'd like, or expect from a newer piece.

Final details, and lettering yet to come obviously.

Painting 4 cars at a time, production line style, has it's advantages and

disadvantages. Don't know that I'd want to do it again,

at least not 4 cars, maybe 2 max.

This gives me 6 of the 7 cars in O scale.

With my 1/2" scale car, I technically have all 7 of the

Fox River 300's in model form..

This many cars,, you'd think he'd start buidling a damn layout !

Chicagoland O Scale Modular Club

Trying to get a Chicago-area O scale Traction Modular group started.

Seems strange that with so many O scale traction modelers in and around the Chicago area that there isn't one, and really no permanent club that has an extensive traction presence. Certainly there is traction interest, and the HO scale guys seem to have a good thing going.

I'm reliably informed that this idea was floated a number of years ago by the late, great Rich Bosak. From what I understand the group started with some questionable quality on the modules themselves and everything sort of fell apart from there.

I'm thinking using the East Penn Traction Club's standards as a base point, and go from there. So many things to consider, 2 rail versus 3 rail, track power and/or live overhead, single track, dual track, module size and height, analog versus DCC, the list is seeminly endless.

My initial thoughts are 2 rail, a combination of track power and live overhead, a mix of both single and dual mainline running. Modules, 4 feet long at a minimum, 6 at a max. I've seen any number of modules in varying scales at different shows, people always seem to start with the idea of something for kids to see, yet parents seem to have figured out that you bring a little step stool for Junior to step up and see. I prefer a higher layout, chest high to your typical adult, easier to work on, less stress getting under, etc. All open for discussion of course.

Ideally I see this again as the East Penn guys do it, a way to show off traction modeling, on many skill levels, share the hobby with a bunch of people, draw some inspiration and/or friendly competition from each other, etc. I can see doing two shows a year, HighWheeler in the spring and Trainfest in the fall, maybe make our presence known at IRM during the July 4th Trolley Pageant (piggybacking onto the large scale trolley modelers mini-meet). Just depends on the number of people, level of interest and commitment.

If you're reading this and interested, drop me a line at FoxValley2001@yahoo.com

Hoping to get enough interested parties together that we could have an initial face-to-face sit-down and start to decide the who/how/why/what of it all, sometime within Feb 2010.