Chicago & Northwestern MOW Gondola

This is a model of an early C&NW convertible gondola.  Several of these cars survived into the late 1950's in MOW service.  My model is scratchbuilt from various pieces of basswood, plastruct parts, with Auel Andrews trucks.  The car was built to operate on my Proto Hi-Rail layout in a train of various MOW cars.  Decals are Champion and there is a load of treated wooden railroad ties. 

More Cars and Engines then Beech Grove

Once again I have completed a few more projects that I have been working on. So allow a few moments to tell you about them and about some upcoming projects.

The Reimer Packing Company refrigerator car is a scratchbuilt car based on the early URTX wooden refrigerator cars some of which were still in operation well into the 1960's.  The Reimer Packing Company was based in Green Bay, Wisconsin and had a couple of old reefers used at the packing plant.  Not  if they were yellow or badly faded orange, but this model is taken from those old  cars.  The Milwaukee Road served the packing plant South of Green Bay along the Fox River.   I used sections of scribed wood for the sides and Northeastern wood roof with Selley Custom Finishes parts for the ice hatches, brake details, doors, and sills.  Cal-Scale parts were used for the air hoses.  It rides on Auel Andrews trucks which have been reconditioned.  This car will be part of the Proto Hi-Rail layout I am building.

The #275 Milwaukee Road GP-9 is a Red Caboose kit I purchased several years ago.  I finally took the time to assemble it and detail it for the Milwaukee Road's first group of freight GP-9's.  Since I model the time period 1959 and 1960, I numbered it for the 1959 renumbering.  I also added detail to the engine that was missing from the original kit such as the number boards on the sides and the correct horn.  I added 1/16 inch plastruct strips to the bottom of the cab assembly to give it the correct height for a GP-9.  I also added Cal-Scale air hoses and replaced some of the weak plastic details with brass details to prevent their being damaged or broken.  In addition I added brass window shades to the side windows to better resemble the canvas shades used on the Milwaukee's GP-9's.

In upcoming editions of this blog I will show you some 2 Rail ore Cars that I have been working on, some for DM&IR and Soo Line, if only I can get my son to weather them for me. 

Engines (Second from the First)

I was in need of additional pulling power on the 2-rail portion of my layout and decided this old Kemtron Geep would do perfectly.  It required a bit of TLC work as well as being repainted in Milwaukee Road colors and adding those details specific to the Milwaukee Road's Geeps.  Details such as chains and walkways were added along with numberboards found on Milwaukee's Geeps after the 1959 renumberings.  I also rebuilt and rewired the motor as well as oiling around on the drive.  The engine had not been used for some time and it took a little effort to clean wheels, and repair the brushes before it would run.  Once done it ran beautifully.  My goal was to make it look like it had just returned to service after renumbering and getting a new coat of paint.  All of the MU hoses were added as well as new Cal-Scale air hoses. This Unit I picked up while I was at the Indianapolis, Indiana O Scale train Show in August.

Milwaukee Road GP9 (First of Two)

Finally the Engines have arrived. The First of Many articles to come.

Milwaukee Road GP9 #275 is a Red Caboose engine I picked up several years ago.  I finally had some time to build this kit and detail it for an early Milwaukee Road unit.  The Red Caboose kits are adequate for detailing, but ere very much underpowered and this unit will go in a lashup of Atlas F9's and AHM C-liners.  The details added were the correct air hoses, single chime horn, numberboards, and correct windshield wipers from Cal-scale.  This engine will run on my 2-rail layout once it is completed.

Scratch build Sunday

This model of the Milwaukee Road #2119 Railway Post Office started as a badly damaged Walthers 60-foot RPO that had been previously built many years earlier by another modeler.  We dismantled the car completely and stripped, straightened, repainted the sides.  The remainder of the car was rebuilt and detail was added to the underframe and new trucks were added to the car to more closely represent the #2119 which had been rebuilt in 1959 for expanded RPO service on many of the Milwaukee Road's secondary passenger trains such as the Copper Country Limited and the Chippewa trains to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The interior is based on photographs I found of a working Milwaukee Road RPO from the 1960's.  I chose to duplicate what the RPO might have looked like during the busy Christmas season with many packages as well as letters and Christmas cards to be sorted on the train.  This car will operate on the 2-rail portion of my future O scale layout in my Chippewa train.

Scratch-built Sunday's

The first boxcar, the Green Bay and Western outside braced car, was scratchbuilt using some wood and brass wire materials I had in my parts supply.  It has Selley Finishes parts, Keil-Line details, and Scalecraft Bettendorf trucks.  I used photographs of these cars in service on the Green Bay and Western as well as photographs of similar cars in use on the Milwaukee Road.  The GB&W cars were copies of a large Milwaukee Road order made in 1927.  GB&W lettered several of these for the KGB&W which was the portion of the Green Bay and Western east of Green Bay to Kewaunee and the car ferry docks.  They were used in paper shipments as well as early canned goods out of Green Bay and even were used to haul packing moss from western Wisconsin.  Most of these cars disappeared in the 1960's, replaced by new all steel cars.

The second boxcar is a model of a Monon boxcar similar to the ones I saw from our farm outside of Campbellsburg, Indiana.  It is an All-Nation boxcar that was in very bad shape and required considerable rebuilding and detailing to even look like a boxcar!!  I again used photographs I found online as well as in several books I have.  I used Selley Finishes, Keil Line detailing parts, and brass wire to complete the car as seen in the photograph.  The decals are Walthers decals.  This is a 3-rail boxcar for my Proto Hi-rail layout. 

The third boxcar is a model of an Union Pacific - Oregon Short Line boxcar that I made from an Athearn boxcar that I bought at a train show for $3.00.  Again it was another rescue of a badly worn out model that  required considerable rebuilding to even become a nice model.  Here I used Selley Finishes, Keil-Line details, brass wire, and Plastruct parts to complete this car.  I used several photographs and some information from Union Pacific videos I had for the model .  The decals are Champion decals.  This is also a Model for my Proto Hi-Rail 3-rail layout. 

One note of interest,  I often refer to George Elwood's very excellent Fallen Flags website for pictures of models to build for my layouts.  I would recommend it highly to those who want to model prototype trains.

Scratch built Sundays

Welcome to Another Edition of "Scratch-built Sundays"

L&N 50 foot double door boxcar #99196.

This is an early Athearn Pacific HO Menzies boxcar that was missing several detail items and needed quite a bit of repair.  I first stripped the car,  then the paint, and repainted and lettered it for the L&N.  It has been detailed with cut levers, brake details, air hoses, and it has a load of CELOTEX panels inside.  This care was rebuilt with Proto Hi-Rail trucks and couplers to run on my 3-rail layout.  I like to rescue older scale O cars that have been mistreated or are considered only for parts and then update them and rebuild into nice cars for my layout or even for friends.

40 foot double sheathed Union Pacific Wooden Boxcar

This is an early kit car that was in a box of derelict O scale trains I bought about 2 years ago.  I held onto it with the hope I could someday fix it up and use it or sell it.  I got the idea for this car while reading one of my books on the KATY railroad.  I found a picture of a Katy switcher at the Wichita Falls freight house with just such a car behind it.  Since I had some older Union Pacific Decals and time on my hands I decided this was the right detailing for this old car.  It has some more details added and has a "K" type brake under it.  It is an O scale car with Monarch type E operating couplers.  There are air hoses, brake details, and cut levers added on.  The trucks are early Bettendorf trucks which are sprung die-cast with steel wheels.  This car would have been found on the Union Pacific up through the early 1950's before being scrapped.  Many did receive AD type brake systems after WWII.  

Scratch-built Sundays 1st Edition

Scratch-built Sundays

C&NW Bay-Window Caboose.  
This was an old All-Nation kit that was in rough shape.  The cupola was missing and the trucks were incorrect for the 36 foot C&NW cabooses that came later in the C&NW history.  I used Keil-Line bay windows as well as Selley Custom Finishes, Cal-Scale, and some Walthers parts to update the caboose.  I mounted KTM caboose trucks under it to more closely resemble the correct trucks for this caboose.  It has a combination of Champion and Microscale decals and is finished in Flo-Quil caboose red paint.  It has full underframe detail using Plastruct and K&S brass parts for details.  

C&NW PS-1 Boxcar.  
This is a model of a very early Clinton. Iowa shops rebuild from 1957.  It has Pecos River Brass trucks, All-Nation sides and ends, Selley Custom Finishes, Cal-Scale, and Keil-Line detail parts as well as Selley Hi-Rail couplers.  I scratch-built several of the details such as cut levers, brake linkage and air lines, roof catwalks, underframe details Plastruct structural pieces, K&S brass parts, and Microscale O gauge decals.  SInce I am modeling 1958 through 1960 on both the C&NW as well as the Milwaukee Road, I felt this car would fit in nicely to my layout.

Green Bay and Western PS-1 boxcar 
This is a model of the 1953 order GB&W made to update their cars for the paper trade out of Green Bay and Wisconsin Rapids.  These cars were often spotted in C&NW freights around Wisconsin and Michigan moving paper products to other parts of the country.  These cars remained on the GB&W into the early 1970's.  This one is another All-Nation Boxcar which has been customized with additional detailing using Selley Custom Finishes, Keil-Line, and Cal-Scale parts.  In addition there is Plastruct and K&S Brass used to create the underfame details and other detailing.  Having grown up I saw a lot of the GB&W trains. 

Welcome to the Wisconsin and Michigan Lines O Scale Blog.

The idea for the Wisconsin and Michigan Lines O scale layout came to me as I decided to model the Milwaukee Road and the Chicago & Northwestern railroads that I remembered from my youth growing up in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This layout is a fantasy layout, although I do have several actual prototype models of equipment used by both roads. I will have both 3 rail and 2 rail trackage on the layout. I have always been a Lionel modeler and therefore kept the 3-rail trackage I enjoy. I have for many years built 2-rail O scale cars for friends and have helped to build 2-rail layouts for them.

My wife and I moved to Arizona in 2006 after my youngest child left home on her own. We have family here so it was a logical move for us. The climate agrees with us and we enjoy the scenery and the desert is a beautiful place although much different from Missouri. We have a little more than an acre of land which gives us room for a building a 1000 sq. ft. shop and layout building to house the layout and continue building models for the layouts and friends.

The layout design is very simple with a 2 rail loop and a 3-rail loop connecting  to another internal loop which will be on two levels allowing a staging yard to be created under the second level. As I get older I prefer to run fewer trains rather than four at once as I had on past layout. This one will allow me to run one 2-rail and one 3-rail train simultaneously, with a switcher in a yard.

Most of the rolling stock is scratch-built or ready to run, depending on the car and my interest in the road and the quality of the car itself. I especially enjoy building rolling stock and most of my 2-rail locomotives are kitbashed or customized for the railroads I model. Most of the 3-rail locomotives are off the shelf items from Lionel, MTH, Atlas, Weaver and K-line.

My primary time period for modeling is the late 1950's and early 1960's. I am generally modelling the area of Iron Mountain, Michigan to Channing, Michigan on the Milwaukee Road. On the Chicago and Northwestern, I am modeling the area from Iron Mountain to Stambaugh/Iron River. I have not modeled any specific prototypical structure or operations, rather just using my youthful memories and fantasizing how things might have been or in my mind at the time. As the layout progresses visitors will begin to notice my fantasies gathering steam (No pun intended.)

Well hope to continue this blog as the construction progresses and I hope you as a visitor find it both entertaining and will fantasize along with me. Most of all lets just have lots of fun with the trains!!

Bill Thayer
Wisconsin and Michigan Lines