SOO dollar caboose Elkhart Lake Wisconsin

Ethanol Train in Freeport, IL

Ethanol trains: as boring a train as a train spotter can spot.

BRC Alco C-424's at work

Potlatcher's video of BRC alcos at Clearying Yard.

I'd hear these pass by every day when I lived in La Grange Park by the IHB tracks. Always knew they were coming. They sounded unlike any other locomotive.

Green Bay and Western Depot and Corporate Headquarters

A very impressive model of the Green Bay and Western Depot in Green Bay offered by Engine House Services.

I have pictures taken there as a kid. I'll scan and post those.

Ken's idea for a Model Railroad

Thanks to Ken.

MRL's M-L in HO Scale

A nice video by someone who knows to model the whole train.

Bob Coolide's Trains

A guy who really gets around with his camera.

Naperville 2007

Lots and lots of pictures here.

Prairie Scale Model Railroaders

They had a nice brochure on the counter at Lombard Hobbies yesterday and a nice website.

Structures and Trains by Fred

A new hobby shop in Geneva, Illinois.

Not a lot of inventory but it looks like Fred will be doing workshops. That's a business model for a hobby shop not too common around here.

Our next workshop is scheduled for Thurs. November 29th at 7:30. We will begin construction on the Black River Junction layout that was featured in Model Railraoder starting with the January 2007 issue.

Like any layout we will start by constructing the benchwork. Be a part of this project and learn how really simple it is to build your own model railroad. Unlike the layout in the series we will be using cork roadbed and code 83 Atlas FlexTrack.

Structures and Trains by Fred
DATE: November 29th, 2007 Address: 12 North Second Street
TIME: 7:30 PM Geneva, IL. 60134

For Information: 630.208.9011 or 630.584.3429

Future Work Shops:

Black River Junction (We will actually build this layout )
Structures: Plastic & Craftsman Kits building, Painting and Weathering
Digital Command & Control
Scenery Construction

Wish him luck... I'll try and visit one of the workshops.

Lombard Hobbies

The new front to the store. Jeff reopened a few weeks ago and I got hooked on some great deals on Athearn Genesis F units. He ought to consider inhouse marriage counseling at the store because it's tough to explain a great deal on Athearn Genesis F units when a guy gets home.

FRN Blog

A nice Railroad blog by a blogger who stopped blogging. It takes work....believe me.

GP9s in TP&W and CRANDIC schemes

Walther's announcing paint schemes I thought we'd never see.

M.T.H. To Release HO Triplex In 2008

MTH takes some flak in comments over at Model Railroader,

This model is the least asked for model in any poll I have seen, but here it is!!!!!!!!!

WOW! I can't wait to run out and NOT buy one of those!!
I hope any future releases are a little more grounded in the reality of the hobby

It's not on my wish list, but it's a very neat looking model. I might become an Erie fan.

Davis Junction Illinois July 2007

EJ&E steel coil cars and a DM&E gondola at Davis Junction.

Al Warren's HO Scale CNW layout

Some nice pics of a CNW layout here.

Dennis Storzek: Station switching in days of yore

Dennis posted this great picture of Cal Zephyr being switched at Oakland Mole in 1954. via Passenger Car List

CA&E Pictures

Some pics I had sitting on the computer. No idea from where I downloaded them. I remember them tearing down the gas tank in Forest Park. That's the tank in the background of the bottom picture.

Chicago and West Towns

A site with lots of pictures. Also Central Electric Railfans new book by James Buckly.

John Flinn: World's loftiest train ride a breathtaking feat

From today's Chicago Trib on the new Lhasa Express,

The atmosphere here holds between 40 and 50 percent less oxygen than at sea level. Extra oxygen is pumped into the unpressurized rail cars as they roll across the Tibetan plateau, but it's not clear that it does much good. All around me in the dining car, passengers were suffering the hangover-like symptoms of altitude sickness: throbbing headaches and severe nausea.

I was feeling relatively chipper due to Diamox, a prescription drug that prevents altitude sickness. Even so, I was lightheaded and a little dizzy. Back in my compartment, I plugged the oxygen hose into the wall and inhaled deeply. Almost instantly my mind cleared. But the effect lasted only as long as I breathed oxygen from the hose.

The surrealness was heightened by what looked like hundreds of enormous golf tees lining the tracks. They're an attempt to solve the railroad's most vexing problem.

Four hundred miles of the route lie atop a particularly unstable form of permafrost that thaws during the day and freezes at night, causing the tundra above it to rise and fall by inches. To try to prevent tracks from buckling and cracking, Chinese engineers elevated more than 100 miles of it and installed the giant golf tees along other stretches. These are cooling pipes that use solar energy to turn liquid ammonia into gas, chilling the ground and preventing the permafrost from melting.

Grinnell Railway Express Club

An M&StL doodlebug downloaded from the Grinnell Railway Express model railroad club.

I graduated from Grinnll College in 1976. The old M&StL line ran right through the campus.

Check their webpage and you'll see a nicely done model of the Rock Island and M&StL depot. It now houses a restaurant. The old Railway Express building houses the club.

Naperville - Prototype Modelers Seminar

Photo's here. Great stuff! Inspirational....

Small Illinois towns don't forget rail roots

Trib's Don Davenport today on railroad museums in Galesburg, Mendota, Amboy, Union, Thomson, and Rochelle. The IC depot at Amboy is very classy structure,

Even casual passersby pause to admire this beautiful two-story brick and limestone depot built in 1876. Onetime headquarters for the Illinois Central's Northern Division, the 19-room structure featured passenger facilities on the first floor and housed division officials and staff on the upper level.

As times changed, division headquarters were moved elsewhere; passenger service ended in 1939, and the depot closed in 1967. Freight trains used the line into the 1980s. The tracks have since been removed.

As disuse led to disrepair, concerned citizens began efforts to save the historic station. It has been returned to life as the Amboy Depot Museum, filled with railroad memorabilia and local history items.

The telegrapher's office features a variety of telegraph keys, timetables and photos of train wrecks that occurred at Amboy. Original benches grace depot waiting rooms; there are original railroad documents, photos, railroad lanterns, switch keys and a great deal more.

A steam locomotive, a 1920s-era caboose and a century-old IC freight house on the grounds are open to tour.

Sitting at East Main and South East Avenue, the depot is open year-round, 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday and holidays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission is free.

Amboy is about 110 miles from downtown Chicago. For additional information, call 815-857-4700.

Baghdad Hobby Club

What do some servicemen stationed in Iraq do to pass the time? Hobbies! Specifically, model trains! Here, Lt. Patrick Anderson works with some of our HO scale hopper cars. Patrick and a few others in the outfit have also built an operating layout using KATO UNITRACK.

And Kato has pictures of it here. (On the lefthand menu of the Web site of the Japanese model railroad manufacturer Kato USA, click on the Customer Photo Gallery and go to the Baghdad Hobby Club at the bottom of Page 2.)


via Allen Johnson

cross posted Bill Baar's West Side

Playing with trains

When I belonged to the Oak Park Society of Model Engineers many years ago, you couldn't say play with trains; it was instead operating the layout.

I'm older now. Playing is just fine with me.

Sam Posey's written a book about it and the Mcwetlog reviews it here.

Broadway Limited CZ Pass Cars

Model Railroader reviews them. They're stunning models.

Model Slums

Somebody models 'em. They look great.

Milwaukee Rd rib-side cabooses

The Milwaukee Railroader's First Quarter 2006 issues carries a story on building Milwaukee Rd rib-side cabooses from Cabooses Northwest.

Pictures of them available here.

Coincidence to see them because a few weeks ago I was talking at the hobby shop about scratch building some but hesitated because I thought putting the work into that would gurantee someone bringing them out (and doing a better job of it).

Looks like just mentioning the thought was enough to do the trick.

Bloomingdale Airline

Tremendous site dedicated to documenting C&NW and Milw Road switching districts in Chicago. This is just fantastic. Especially the part on the Bloomingdale Airline; one of my favorite pieces of railroads in Chicago.

C&NW Caboose at Proviso yard 1943

There are more C&NW pictures here at the Library of Congress's Bound for Glory online exhibit. This is one of my favorites.

And more here...

Rochelle, Illinois March 12, 2006

Chicago Aurora & Elgin RR substation in Elgin, Illinois

B & G Train World, Elgin, Illiniois, Feb 4, 2006

I spend a lot of time here. It's the only full service hobby shop in the area. Friendly helpful bunch of folks. All of them Model Railroaders.

Elgin's Watch Factory Station

South Shore Caboose

Some great pictures of a South Shore Caboose taken by Chris Trott and posted at SnapShot Chicago.

Trost Hobby Shop closing

Trost Hobby Shop over on 63rd Street is closing tomorrow for good. The Berghoff, Fields, and now this....

via Gapers Block Yet another longtime Chicago landmark closing

Cross Posted on Illinoize

Lombard Hobbies, Sep 30, 2005

Lombard Hobbies on St Charles Road in Lombard Illinois is one of my favorite hobby shops. They have some of the best prices and always a deep discount on something special. Usually something special I've been looking around for.

Recently arrived Athern SD45T-2s in UP colors. Jeff's elbow is in the corner of the picture but he didn't want to be in it. He's discontinued their webpage too. Said it was too much trouble, so to buy anything you need to make a trip to Lombard, Illinois.

Nobody's layout is ever finished. But all you really need is to be able to run the trains. Here's theirs.

Stuff I bought then smuggled into the house to avoid budget confrontations.

CA&E Ardmore Station, Villa Park, Illinois

One of my favorite stations. Now used by the Chamber of Commerce in Villa Park for offices. The new Metra Station in Elburn Illinois seems inspired too me by this structure.

M&StL at Grinnll, Iowa

Lyndon "Cash" Groth has a nice webpage devoted to the Minneapolis & St. Louis, Iowa Central, and the Chicago & Northwestern railroads.

You'll find some nice pictures of the joint M&StL and Rock Island Depot in Grinnell, Iowa.

I whiled away the hours at this Depot while a student at Grinnell College in the early 70s.

The old M&StL tracks cut right through the middle of campus. When I was a student the C&NW had taken over the M&StL but there were still three or four trains a day.

Now it's the Union Pacific but the traffic seems to be steady based on this article on Students and Trains.

At Grinnell College, trains have been a part of campus life since the school's 1846 founding.

Cargo trains pass through campus, running north and south, two or three times each day, said Dann Hayes, director of media relations. There is another line that runs east to west through the town of Grinnell.

"Because of that, cross trains have to go extra slow, which is a bonus for us," Hayes said.

The trains blast their horns at least two intersections before arriving on campus, giving plenty of warning. To further ensure student safety, procedures to deal with train collisions have been outlined in handbooks that will be distributed in every classroom, office and at every telephone at the school, Hayes said.

"For the most part, I think it's just common sense."

Wayne's Dunham Depot

From the Daily Herald of September 25, 2005 about preservation efforts for an old train station.

Train depots have plenty of history in Wayne. Karen Armbrust said the first one, known as Dunham Depot, was built in 1850 when one of the village’s founding fathers, Solomon Dunham, wanted a rail line closer to the land he owned.

The newer, bigger depot that the village is now trying to restore into the museum was built in 1884 and eventually boarded up after the last stops in 1950. A few years later, Karen said, it was moved to the Dunham Castle property by family member Jane Dunham.

Anyone interested in getting involved or seeking more information about the museum project can contact the village at (630) 584-3090.

The picture is not on the link but it's a spitting image of the old Revell Small Town station.

GACX Express Reefer HO kits

Steve Sandifer compares Walthers and Broadway Limited cars in a link I found posted on yahoo's passenger car list.

Elburn's Metra Station a look alike for CA&E's Ardmore Station

Elburn's Mayor Willey's blogsite has a drawing of Elburn's new Metra Station. It looks like the Metra folks were inspired by the Chicago Aurora & Elgin's Ardmore station in Villa Park.

Of people, rails, and places

Here's a blog by a fellow who enjoys Russian trains: Of people, rails, and places. Problem is he writes in Russian. No matter, I look at the pictures.

Fox River Trolly Museum

Below are some pictures taken today at the Fox River Trolly Museum. Hard to believe it's forty years old now, and that I remember visting when I was just a kid. I have a picture taken then of CA&E Car 20 I'll dig out and post. Afterwords I'm sure we went to Morris's for Bar-B-Que.

Sad_South_Shore_Car 

CTA_Interior 

CTA_Car 

CTA_Articulated 

CAE_Car20_Front_View 

CAE_Sign 

Branchline's Railway Express Agency Reefer

Branchline has some pictures up of their soon to be released model of an REA Reefer. I didn't realize the green/silver scheme was the 'as delivered' scheme. It didn't hold up well and the cars soon repainted the standard REA solid green.

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.