Russian Model Railroading

You'll need a cyrillac character font on your browser for these to download correctly. I can't read Russian but like to fiddle around in the link looking at the models. The Russian Railway ring has an option to switch to English.

http://railroad.mnc.ru/
Russian Railway Ring

And then check this site in Polish. I can't read a thing but gaze at the pics.

Layout ideas: Elgin, Illinois industrial circle

Paul Behrens's book Steam Trains to Geneva Lake: C&NW's Elgin - Williams Bay Branch contains wonderful maps of this branch line including one on page 89 of the complete circle in downtown Elgin that served a number of factories and businesses.

It's really an oval with dimensions of two by three city blocks and traversed a small branch of the fox river with two bridges. It's a perfect concept for the traditional model railroad oval on 4 x 8 sheet. The line from West Chicago to Lake Geneva would be one side of the oval and the brick Elgin station sat just east of the oval.

It looks like Elgin's Hemmens Auditorium and new Library occupy most of this site but I'll try and get down there with a digital camera. I'll also check the Elgin Historical society for any photos or plans they might share.

Last train ran on this line in the late 1980s so this layout could cover a number of eras.

Elgin Joliet & Eastern

Found this site devoted to the EJ&E.

Wheaton Train Show - April 10, 2005

Wheaton continues to diminish in number of vendors with today having the smallest showing I've seen.

-The European Train Enthusiast had their module layout operating in the main building.

-Edward Golding of Goldinhands cradle , (847) 727-0857, displayed cradles for holding models while you work on them. They're adjustable and one version has two metal leads to hook to a powerpack so you can run the model for testing. These cradles are nicely finished in oak (I think) and look awfully nice.

-Saw some copies of Dale Jenkins's The Illinois Terminal Railroad. Excellent maps throughout the book. Copies were going for $55.

-Lombard hobbies had a big table with excellent deals on popular locomotives. I'd link their website but it's down. I don't think Lombard's keen on sales over the internet, so maybe they've let the site slide.

-I bought two pairs of car sides from NKP Car Company. An ex Pere Marquette Budd coach for the Chicago and Eastern Illinois (C&EI), and C&EI Pullman Standard coach. Also bought a set of Train Station Products core kits. Model Railroader recently ran a series on constructing these types of models. I need to get a hold of someone at the C&EI society to get the colors straight for these.

-Rib Side Cars told me they have plans to produce a 50' vesrion of the Milwaukee's rib sided box car once sales of the 40' version justify production. The mold they're using is expandable so it's just a question of selling enough box cars.

Noticed a guy using a walkie-talkie to discuss prices with someone else wandering the show. He would give him buy orders almost like the board-of-trade.

Overheard one vendor talk about the ongoing decline in patrons but saying the annual and semi-annual shows in Rockford, Appleton, or Madison continue to get big turn-outs. At seven bucks entrance for the show now, I think twice about going.

My other blog and number one daugter's drawing of a steam loco

I have another blog where I rant and yak on politics and current events, but I posted a pic there of number one daughter's xmas present to me: a nice drawing of a steam loco.

A letter from Margaret J. Ters, Editorial Secretary, Model Railroader magazine

MRLetter


A letter from Margaret J. Ters at Model Railroader dated April 4, 1967 in response to a question I wrote MR regarding career opportunities in the Model Railroading field. My parents so impressed by her response they sealed the letter in plastic with card stock backing. It hangs in my office today. Here's what Ms. Ters wrote back:

April 4, 1967

Mr. Bill Baar
1047 S. Clinton
Oak Park, Ill 60304

Yours is an interesting question, Bill...
for a fellow
your age.

As far as I know, the fellows working here were never exactly groomed for careers in the model railroading field. The Art Department became skilled in their line of work, and those with a special desire to work with railroad art found just what they wanted here.

The editors, of course, were skilled in the handling of words, and they could have succeeded anywhere. It happens, however, that some of them are more interested in railroading, and thoroughly enjoy their jobs. The man who succeeds in doing the work he would rather do than anything else is lucky indeed. So many people work at jobs which either bring good salaries, jobs which may be convenient to their homes, or jobs which they may hold for any number of reasons other than that they really enjoy them.

If you think you may have an aptitude toward writing, you might wish to do an article some day on your own railroad pike. If you are lucky enough to have it published, you might be on the way to becoming a "career model railroader", creating a job for yourself in that field --or if you have money-- you might want to start a hobby shop some day.

This all sounds like dreams stuff, Bill, but hope it does some good.

Sincerley,
Margaret J. Ters
Editorial Secretary

So when a a 13 year old kid asks you a big question, consider your response as it will hang in their office for the next 40 years. Ms. Ters gave a thoughtful, wise, and kind response to me. God bless her.

Diesellokomotive BR 120 „Taigatrommel“ der DR

The guy over at Reynauld's in Elburn showed me one of these "Taigatrommel" locomotives by Roco. You can feel it pounding through the Taiga before it gets out of the box. Roco makes a sound version but I haven't heard it.

Living Memories of the CA&E

Chuck Owen posted these recollections on the Chicago Aurora & Elgin yahoo group. My memories from a decade later growing up in the same neigborhood are similar. I just had to look down into the ditch created by the Congress Expressway to see the trains.

My youthful years in the early fifties in south Oak Park along the
CA&E provide many wonderful memories of the "Roaring Elgin." From our home near Cuyler and Jackson, it was a short walk or bike ride to the wonderful transportation corridor that later became the Congress Expressway. There was a constant parade of trains ofChicago Rapid Transit, CA&E, Soo Line, Chicago Great Western, and B&OCT. Those tracks produced many colorful attraction - the multi- unit lashups of the CGW; the Soo's FA's on freights and F units on their passenger trains and even steam on infrequent occasions; the diminutive SW-1s and even a rare 0-6-0 of the B&OCT; the ancient wooden cars of the CRT, and most important, the magnificent cars of the CA&E.

And the trains of the CA&E - it would be difficult to forget many special memories of those happy and carefree years:

- the lightning-like arcs of the CA&E's as they moved along the third rail in the darkness on a snowy night.

- the mysterious third track with its interlocking at the Gunderson station that was never seen in operation. That mystery was later explained by the CERA's Bulletin on the CA&E.

- the station stop by CA&E westbound trains on the west side of Oak Park Avenue as they did not use the CRT platform on the east side.

- the slow passage of the CA&E mu'ed juice jacks as they headed east on their way to the Central Avenue interchange with a few cars and a caboose. The head brakeman on the lead unit would lift the hinged "L" platform edges to allow the wide freight cars to pass and the conductor on the caboose would drop them back into place for the next "L" train.

- the deep rumbling sound that marked the passage of each CA&E train as it swiftly passed through Oak Park. The proximity of CA&E trains to the "L" trains as the CA&E trains waited for the slower CRT trains to make station stops.

- the occasional trips in later years to Forest Park to watch the CA&E trains as they prepared to head west from their "temporary" station. The huge piles of Herald American newspapers on the front platform of the lead car with the motorman who would drop them at the station in the western suburbs.

- the sad failure to realize that the CA&E was surviving on borrowed time and would never return to downtown and instead, would quietly pass after many promised the revivial of the line after the completion of the Congress Expressway.

As a result, my only "near" CA&E ride has been on the #431 at Union, Illinois - a sad commentary for one who witnessed this mighty carrier in its final years.

Chuck Owen
Bogota, Colombia

Milwaukee Road Ribside Cars

Rib Side Cars of Bensenville, Illinois produced a nice HO model of the Milwaukee Roads 40' Frieght cars:

During 1939 and 1940 the Milwaukee Road produced in its own shops 3188 of these cars, with two slogans. "Route of the Hiawathas" and "Route of the Electrified Olympian" Some lasted until the 40 year rule prevailed in 1979 and 1980. Cars repainted after 1958 recieved large billboard lettering plus a large logo. After 1968 repaints recived only the large logo.

I have two of the early versions I've yet to put together (story of my life, and they're easy kits too). They're nicely done models.

The Sprint 2005 issue of The Milwaukee Railroader features a history of these cars.

Belt Railway of Chicago

BRC605


A new blog devoted to my thinking about trains, both model and prototype. Here is a pic of a BRC Alco Century C-424. Pairs of these passed my apartment in La Grange Park along the IHM\BRC tracks on their way to Proviso in the mid-80s. They made a very distinctive sound always giving good notice to make it to the window in time to view them.

Atlas released a model decorated for BRC in December 2003. I have a pair of their earlier releases custom decorated for BRC too.

The BRC has an excellant webpage with a nice photo section.