Any N-scale modelers in central Iowa?

gcav17 Oct 10, 2012

  1. Roger Holmes

    Roger Holmes TrainBoard Member

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    I live in central Illinois but my son is a Professor at the University of Northern Iowa and lives in Waterloo. Whenever we visit we stop at the hobby shop in downtown Cedar Falls. I believe it's Caboose Hobbies.

    Large N scale stock--much in portable drawer units so it looks like he must travel to shows. Nice people and decent prices.
     
  2. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    Do they have mostly newer retail things? Consignment? Any old stuff setting around in there thats for sale?
     
  3. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    So anyone have a layout doing any operations? I may need a monthly fix after moving away from Jeff Abbott's SP layout. I will return the favor once I can start working on my own layout.
     
  4. mcjaco

    mcjaco TrainBoard Member

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    I'm in Des Moines frequently for business. Yesterday, after reading this thread, I popped into Hobby Haven. Found a set of Sunrise Gong Bells for .50 cents! Score!
     
  5. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    Art I am sure you will find a few. Mine is in hiatus at the moment. Waiting on my DCC power and a couple decoders. My layout was totally reworked over the winter. The guys at hobby haven will know who to find. I am yet to meet the N-track group.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 20, 2013
  6. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    I figure I will. I plan to get started on my own layout when I hit the ground. I had my 12'x16' one running, so I'm interested to get started again.
     
  7. transitionalman

    transitionalman TrainBoard Member

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    FYI - The next Des MoiNTrak meeting will be at 7:15 PM on Thursday, March 14 at the Urbandale Public Library. The Library is located on 86th a block or two north of Hobby Haven. At this meeting they are doing a chalk weathering clinic so bring a car or two to weather.

    I won't be in attendance due to a late conference call at work from 8-9:30 PM CDT.
     
  8. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    Dang I missed it. Do they meet usually the same time each month? I'd like to check it out when I get out there.
     
  9. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    *bump* Hey guys, I saw at Hobby Haven the Ntrak club will be at the Altoona library on Sept 7-8 doing a show. Anyone going? I'm gonna drop in on the 8th, since I'll be at the model show at Bob Brown Chevy on the 7th with some fire trucks....
     
  10. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    Hey Art! Read that blog of yours and those are great pics. That industry in Adel was maybe a car repair shop. Not sure. Adel is known mostly for brick and grain. Redfield too. If you take that bike trail North of redfield, you will still find the round kilns.
    That Kate Shelley bridge? I got an interesting bit of history on that that is ironic..
     
  11. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    Lets see. Its almost 1 a.m. and I cant seem to get comfy in this danged hospital!! So I have decided to drag this topic out again to fish for more.

    I have found it pretty crazy that Iowa, one of the smaller states, at one time was the forth largest railroad state. With all the farming, and ag industries in this state now and in the past, it really should not surprise me. But what is really unique was that at one time coal was number two or three. Of course that was back before the discovery of cleaner coal out west. But still an interesting fact.
    What I had hoped here was to see folks sharing their ideas, layouts, etc etc. I eventually plan to evolve my layout someday to represent Iowa and how the Milwaukee and Louie impacted the region where I live.
    Many of the rails in Iowa are gone now. It used to be that every seven to ten miles of highway driving, you would cross a track. Not now, I have no idea what that number is now. But though those rails are gone, many of the small communities have hung on to the depots, towers, stations, etc. etc. Some have even found cabeese or old locos or cars to display.
    So lets see what treasures Iowa still holds. This may need to be moved Ken. I don't know. Lets see where it goes?





    Sent from my Commando
     
  12. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    Now, that bridge with all the fancy lights... Interesting bit of information.. That bridge was built by the U.P. in the nineties. That bridge, replaced the old Milwaukee steel trestle bridge which was dismantled and moved.
    Where was it moved? Get this. When U.P . Was submitting plans to rebuild the Kate Shelley Bridge, some historians and locals found out and quickly made the steel trestle bridge a national historical mark. Lol!! So! U.P. decided they would have to build a new bridge next to old one. But.....
    They had to make that old CNW bridge better. While they fought in court about some tactics the locals used. And that is when they dismantled the Woodward bridge, (Milwaukees) and repaired or rebuilt the Kate Shelley Bridge. (Facts about repair or rebuild are a bit sketchy so I am assuming it is a mix)
    So a Milwaukee high steel trestle lives on in Iowa as a historical marker on what used to be the CNW's line. And ya know. Its just gotta be a burr in someones arse!!! Lol
    Now if I have a few details wrong, forgive me. I am not mentally or physically where I want to be..:sly:




    Sent from my Commando
     
  13. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Some topical drift is not a problem. It happens. You can always start a new in UP or C&NW, and even a couple of these can be moved to it, if necessary.

    Hospitals. Ugh. No thanks.
     
  14. transitionalman

    transitionalman TrainBoard Member

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    Given what I know, let me correct a few items here:

    1) The old steel MILW trestle was actually removed in the early 1970's and replaced with the new bridge by the Army Corps of Engineers when Saylorville Reservoir was created which greatly increased the potential flood level of the river between Madrid and Woodward. It was not built by the MILW, CNW or UP...it was built by the government.

    2) The CNW acquired the bridge in the early 1980's when they purchased the old MILW from Slater to Woodward to serve the elevator there.

    3) The issue with the Kate Shelley bridge was not as much due to it being an historic landmark as much as it couldn't support 2 heavily loaded trains at one time (i.e. loaded coal and double stack). The old Kate Shelley bridge became a big bottleneck (much like the current Clinton, IA bridge) due to speed restrictions and the fact only one train could typically use it at a time....and the UP has looked at replacing the Clinton bridge as well.
     
  15. transitionalman

    transitionalman TrainBoard Member

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    A couple of additional items:

    1) When the city of Madrid, IA needed to replace an overpass in their town over the former MILW, the UP insisted that the bridge be able to accommodate double-stack train clearances, even though the line terminated at Woodward. They insisted on this as their new "standard" for overpass clearances.

    2) There used to be (years ago) a photo of the new bridge in the Saylorville Reservoir visitors center with a train of 4 MILW Locomotives crossing the new bridge. Last time I visited I could not find the photo.

    3) The former MILW line was one of 5 that was studied for the introduction of higher speed rail service from Chicago to Omaha in the past couple of years. The proposal to use this line was deemed as unfeasible given that rail would need to be relaid from Bayard, IA all the way to Green Island, IA. Reference https://www.fra.dot.gov/Page/P0596

    I used to be a great treat seeing MILW trains on this line when we would travel from Des Moines/Boone to see family. At one time even saw one of the elusive FP45's on a train.
     
  16. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Iowa vicinity was one of the last stands for these engines.
     
  17. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    Wow Pete! Didn't know how involved the Corps got with that project. The history I had.available didn't say anything about that.
    As for the UP wanting to scrap the old Kate Shelley is true. I knew about the structural issues. I just find it humorous how when you look down the track now, they veered around it..




    Sent from my Commando
     
  18. MVW

    MVW E-Mail Bounces

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    Hey gcav,

    Hope you're getting some rest and feeling better.

    I think I may have told you a little about what I'm doing with my layout, either upthread or elsewhere. I'm freelancing a route called the Missouri Valley Western set in southwest Iowa. The concept is that the old Sioux City & Pacific and the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley -- instead of being absorbed by the C&NW -- banded together and remained independent. A third line that ran from Council Bluffs down to Kansas City also went belly up in the 1870s, so I also folded that into the system. I figure my MVW also built eastward, perhaps to Boone, so my line operates primarily as a bridge route between the UP and C&NW.

    I'm modeling the divsion point city of Cedricsburg, located about where Denison, Iowa, is in real life. Traffic flows out of there in four general directions -- Chicago, Twin Cities, Omaha and Kansas City. Lots of operating possibilities, included a full assortment of crack City passenger trains.

    I didn't have room to doubletrack the main, as it was in real life, but that just adds to the operational interest. And operation is my primary interest.

    Good luck!

    Jim
     
  19. gcav17

    gcav17 TrainBoard Member

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    So Jim, did you decide to halt rails east at Denison? CGW had a really cool flyover in Carroll. I remember seeing some train movement on that. But just barely.
    It sounds like you have got quite the idea for a large layout that could encompass many different railroads. It would be fun to see how far you have come.
    My current layout is hypothetical. And still temporary. I am still learning about operations. Joe I want some skill in that before I go hog wild...And build the.next one.

    Thanks for the best wishes.. Wish some of this double vision would go away.:p

    Sent from my Commando
     
  20. ArtinCA

    ArtinCA TrainBoard Member

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    Gene, when are you getting sprung? When your feeling up to it, we'll have to go out and do some fanning.

    Couple of things over the last month.

    1. CTC Board has an article on the Dakota & Iowa Railroad. Pretty cool. Might have to run up there early summer and check it out.

    2. Minburn is planning on moving the brick Milw depot that's by the elevators out to a spot in town and make a visitors center/diner out of it. Next trip up the Ames I need to get some shots of it. It's right in between two elevators.

    I'm still limited by room in the current house for a layout of anything big. So I'm still deciding to model an N scale branch line or a HOn30 line. (I now know I have Ken's attention)

    BTW, met one of the T-Trak guys a couple of weeks ago at Hobby Haven. Sounds like a loose knit group. I'm gonna try to goto a meeting this month. I'll post up what all I find out.
     

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