Modeling Newburg/Bundy/Dixon Hill areas

Confession time - how many of us are trying? Brad Sloan, Ken Wulfert, Don Wirth, "Old Dan", me? MMR Jan Jester (Deceased) also tried it with a layout that was written up in MR back in the early 80's. He cheated on Bundy with only a west bound switch and no wye.

Doug Hughes,
FMIG Founder, Ann Arbor, MI

 

Don & others, somewhere in the basement are two cassette tapes made during two interviews I had with Frisco old timers - one with retired CEO Richard Grayson and the other with retired Eastern Division locomotive engineer Harry L. "Polecat" Hefflin. Both are now deceased. Both grew up in the Newburg area.

I'll gladly make copies for any of you who want them. Send me your snail-mail address in an e-mail to w3ho@aol.comspam but remove the letters "spam".

I've noted looking at who is on line with this site that a majority are spyware crawlers gathering data.

Doug

 

The Fort Leonard Wood Branch

I recently went to the Google Earth Satellite photos web site and traced the branch line the entire 19.5 miles from Bundy to the warehouses at the fort. I doubt there's a single mile of straight track. It has more curves than any model railroad. There are at least two bridges (Little & Big Piney Rivers) and an impressive trestle (Bunk House).

If only there was/is a higher traffic density, it would make an ideal prototype for a point-to-point model railroad. That wye at Bundy is tough (more in a later posting) in any scale larger than N due to the curve on the west side. Even using 18" radius in HO, the modeler can't reach over it. It begs for a peninsula approach, but then how to follow a mainline train without "running around the peninsula?"

Brad Sloan was able to ride the branch along with the Motorcar folks back on the 13th. They evidently ride the branch line each year. Here's some related material from their web site. I'm sure there are also photos on the site somewhere.

Doug
>>>>>
North American Railcar Operators Association

http://www.narcoa.org/excursions/2007trips.htm

October 13, 2007 - MO posted 02/15
Ft. Leonard Wood Army Base
First Iowa Division - Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri Set on will be at 10:30am with a 12:00 noon departure. As you enter the fort from I-40, be in the left lane and pull into the inspection area by the security check point. You will have to go in the visitor center before proceeding through the vehicle check point. Have an early lunch or bring snacks along as there won't be a stop for lunch. We will make two trips on this 20-mile scenic line through the Ozarks to the connection with the BNSF at Bundy Junction. Due to security issues, everyone will need a picture ID, vehicle registration, proof of insurance, and be prepared for a vehicle inspection. Cost of this ride is $30. Motels are the Red Roof Inn (573-336-2510) and the Budget Inn (573-336-5212), all in the St. Robert - Waynesville area. This is a Narcoa-insured event and all Narcoa rules apply. Contact Carl Schneider at 515-967-5181 for information.

 

Here's a photo of a coal drag leaving Chesapeake City Yard on the Severna Park MRC's layout. Note the caboose.

Doug

 

Attached is a diagram of my land grant in the Michigan basement. With 27" radius, I have about 72 squares with which to work.

I've been puzzled by this layout design/track plan for over a year and have come up with few answers. If any of you have tips, I'd appreciate.

Must-have LDE's are:

Newburg
Dixon
Lebanon

Nice-to-have LDE's are:

Staging
Bundy Junction
Ft. Wood Branch
Jerome/Arlington
Dixon Hill along the bluff to the Hwy D cut and overpass
Dixon Wye
Crocker

The thinking of today is a "G" shaped island with 2' shelves on each side of a center backdrop/divider to allow LDEs on each side without a view of the other side.

Doug

 

The problem with Bundy Jct/Ft. Wood

Attached is a Google satellite view of Bundy Junction. In HO, the layout builder can't reach over the curve on the west side of the wye to work on the mainline or switch even using 18" radius.

Bundy & the Ft. Wood branch, if done well, cries out for a devoted peninsula for the branch given a layout with west-to-the-left. West to the east messes with the mind and puts the aisle up on the bluffs for most of this route.

Even the peninsula approach generates a run-around-the-peninsula problem to follow a mainline train.

My approach (never got built) in Maryland was to have one of the two mainline switches accessible from the opposite side of a peninsula. It had another problem for the Ft. Wood branch. I had it tunnelling under the Gasconade River!

That trackplan is also attached. I was working on Lebanon (upper deck) when I had to tear it all out to sell the house.

My Lebanon fascination is detailed elsewhere here on Frisco.org: See
http://www.frisco.org/shipit/index.php?threads/modeling-lebanon.533/page-4#post-74118

Doug

 

Bundy does present a problem, although I have yet to start putting ink to paper on a design as my square footage as yet to be defined. I am considering dealing with the problem by somehow utilizing a "mushroom" style layout that would allow one to negotiate under the legs without the need for a duck under. I have seen other layouts that have used this system, wether it will work for my application remains to be seen.

Brad

 

Ken, I spent a full weekend - both nights until after midnight - filling up a dumpster. It was sad.

The 1111 caboose was a kit bash - starting with the MDC caboose, which gave me the underframe and basic box. I wrote it up in one of he FMIG newletters, which you should have.

I think I even got a ribbon award for it in a long-ago NMRA contest.

All styrene. I even made the ladders from styrene and brass wire.

That was back in the days before I was playing trumpet every night.

Doug

 

WOW! That's neat.

Look in one of Charlie's issues - the one with all the caboose modeling articles.

 

Hi guys....
Thanx for the link Doug...I found it...
When I modeled the sub, I had the luxury of a 2 1/2 car garage to do it in (dont have that now)...I ran the layout around most of the room exceot for one overhead door and the entrance door....Bundy Jct was a wye..and ran off onto a peninsula to Ft.Wood...and dead ended like the prototype..
I had small stagers at each end....with 3 or 4 tracks to make up trains.....
I had 19 locomotives 6 of which were steam (1 4-8-2)..the rest were diesels...F's, E's..Gp's and a couple of SW's...all black and yellow except for the e units, of course....most of it I custom painted myself...a few of the freight cars were factory painted....My H/W cars were blue and white (Meteor) and the s/l cars were stainless and red.(I painted those and made the decals for them myself)...one of you guys may have bought them on ebay when I sold ALL OF IT...even all my paperwork, books etc...gone.....so, guys if you have a FRISCO layout goin...be happy with what you have and improve on it......but there are plans for a new house on the horizon....who knows...but for now i'm in a mobile home in Columbia MO....modeling the WABASH Columbia branch.....happy holidays guys!!!

Ted
Mid-MO Waycar

 

I grew up in Rolla--my friends and I rode the E8 passenger line there and back many times (around 25 cents at the time in the 60's as I recall)--at any rate, at that time there was a turntable in place in the Newburg yard--though I don't think it was in use by that time. I've thought also about modelling that yard (would be fairly space consuming as discussed above--at least as the yard appeared in the 60's)--any chance there's any aerial shots of the yard around that time?--unfortunately Google Earth doesn't time travel very well.

Jim

 

Ted, if you still have a copy of your track plan, please scan it and post it here for more ideas. We'd especially like to see how you did Newburg and Bundy/Ft. Wood.

I think mine might have worked if we'd have stayed in that Annapolis basement cover.

Good luck on the house acquisition.

Doug

 

Evenin'
I dont have a plan layin around...it probabaly went away with all the other stuff..the layout was basically a shelf layout..18" to 2 ' from the walls....except for the ends...it was a long distorted dogbone..Bundy was appx near the center...like the prototype (betewee Rolla and Lebanon) basically a big long "L" with loops at each end...it also had a over/under loop near the center (DIXON)..where I could add a little scenery..mabey when I get time...I could re-draw it from scratch and have the wife scan it...then I'll put it on....by the way...I've got a nice Frisco caboose on ebay...#1122...customized std Athearn...if anyones' interested..
Thanx

Ted
Mid-MO Waycar