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
