As for lighting, I'm going to try something on my layout as it progresses. I bought a 6 pack of can lights for openers and have put 26W compact flourescent bright white bulbs in them. Supposedly gives off the same light as a 100W incandescant. They are pretty bright and my thoughts are to buy another 6 pack down the line a bit and do the same. I can locate them up in the rafters over the layout and not have some unsightly fixtures hanging. Home Depot normally has the fixtures for $50 for 6. I bought line cords for them also.
Returned to KC after leaving 23 years ago and am looking to start a KC based layout. Spent today researching. Went down to KC public library and looked at some Sandborn maps. Still a little confused on the layout of Frisco except for main yard area in Rosedale. Found an interesting book that I remember seeing 20+ years ago titled "Railroad Town-Kansas City". It is a series of colorful paintings of rail operations around KC in the days of steam. One picture shows a Frisco 0-6-0 at the corner of Santa Fe Road and Union Avenue in the West Bottoms. The captions says it ran up the middle of the street then turned into the Armour plant. It is also pulling a tank car full of wine. Since I am looking for a switching layout, this looks like something worth investigation. I was down in that area today while visiting the local hobbyshop. I got on the Missouri Sandborn digital records. The latest one is 1917 and it showed no tracks running up Santa Fe. Can someone help me with the Frisco operations in this area. Was there a yard? Is this where the freight house was located? Does someone have track profile informaiton? Thanks in advance for any information. John
I have quite a lot of information on Kansas City that my good friend Rick McClellan gave me. I can try to post it all here or put it on a disk and send it to you if that is OK. I am not sure if that info has been posted here or not. I will look around to see. Bob Wintle
John, Rick (Lenexa, KS) and I (Independence, MO) are both local Kansas City area residents and Frisco modelers. We would be glad to give you a tour of the area and share information. I sent you a private message, with a copy to Rick, with my phone number. Give me a call and we will set something up. I am also in the phone book so check out this site's member info. We are looking forward to having another local Frisco modeler. We need a better balance of Frisco modelers to off set all those ATSF guys! Thanks! Mark
For cheap fluorescents go to http://cheaperlights.com/catalog2/u....html?osCsid=d54b797ba40ecf8a3ae34761b06beaab I recognize that this may seem like a plug for someone I may interest in, but actually I purchased enough under-cabinet lights for my entire planned layout (8 - 12", 15 - 18", 15 - 24" and 2 - 33") for approx. $8 each from this business just recently. Compare those prices to anywhere!
A fast executive summary of how things are progressing up/over Columbia Way... I replaced some of my storage shelving above section "F" (KCT Tower 4 area) and I installed Section "G". From there I did a LOT of head scratching. On paper the benchwork looked fine, but now the "G" box nearly makes the workbench inaccessible in its current location. Additionally, the "Planning and Zoning" inspector hadn't thought that it would come over into the other garage bay quite so far. I might trim the boxes down a bit; I think I can spare the space and ultimately don't want a 2-foot aisle between Olathe and 12th Street. I've managed to not injure myself thus far but Sunday I did apparently come away with one doozy of a spider bite. The RN at my workplace told me not to be too concerned unless I either develop super powers or flesh starts to rot.
Chris - Brown Recluse? I was bitten by one while in high school. Not fun. I haven't been the same since. It explains a lot of things. Ken
That was my initial guess, Ken. Today it's looking more like a subtle bruise so I'm not sure what to think. The iron horse shall build right through, even if it's a whole spider village.
I'd say go to an emergency room! They can give shots and other treatment that will save you trouble later! It will take a long time to heal otherwise if you do nothing. I've had a couple spider bites myself and quicker is better regarding treatment. Tom
KC Terminal Layout Update - 5.2.2009 Howdy Frisco Folks - I regret that I've been way under the radar for the last month. In fact, I'm realizing now that my timing in dropping off the map was rather poor as I see my last post dealt with an ugly spider bite. The hand is intact and everything was fine within 48 hours. However, a work trip to Denver, the start of spring baseball/soccer and picking up extra work at a few Mizzou softball games has not given me much time to indulge in Friscoland. The good news: hopefully by midnight I will have completed the main portion of the benchwork. I still need to drill 1/4" holes that will hold the main bus lines but that will be done as I go. We're not too far away from putting in benchwork. I'm mulling whether just to jigsaw out the curved plywood subroadbed or give splines a whirl on the curbs. The former seems a bit too labor intensive. Any thoughts? Will work on catching up with threads and private messages in the week to come, I hope. Best Regards,
KC Terminal: Benchwork is Finished! Folks - I completed the final portions of the benchwork prior to leaving for vacation at the beginning of June. I contemplated installing a golden carriage bolt as I squz the final sections together, but... My question for you all: what are folks using to secure flextrack to the subroadbed these days? The last layout upon which I directly worked was my father-in-laws, and he used a water-soluable contact cement. I don't recall much other than that it seemed quite unforgiving if a mistake was made in laying the track. Any suggestions? Best Regards,
Chris, I will refer you back to this thread: http://www.frisco.org/vb/showthread.php?t=3000&highlight=adhesive The key this is not enough adhesive to come up through the ties. Also talk to Rick. He uses the adhesive and camper tape.
i successfully used regular $1.00 tube of wal mart brand white latex caulking the ballast covered up the white color along with some weathering to the rails and ties i have had some test runs at full speed with no problems at all
Thanks, Craig, for the suggestion! I dug through my old MR article archives and found a good Bill Darnaby article from 1997 on flextrack. Seems he used Liquid Nails latex, so I reckon any brand will do! I'm probably going to try to order some flex track today or tomorrow so that my section gangs can get moving. Best Regards,
I have used Aleene's Tacky Glue. Seems to hold up well. The "layout" is an N Scale timesaver stored up in my unfinished attic room - no troubles after 3 years. Dries clear, too.
A brief halftime layout update: Not much happening other than the fall garage cleaning right now. With some progress, I hope to order track soon and start laying. Based on my son's recommendation, I may flip-flop the orientation of KCUS and the 12th Street Freight House area on the "bottom" peninsula (see the track plan). Instead of a two-track fiddle yard in the middle I might give a sector plate a whirl. Anyone tried one before? I also might try to include the ATSF freight house. Rick, any of your Santa Fe contacts in KC have a track chart? I think I've seen pics of this being just north of the stockyards? Best Regards,
Chris, The Santa Fe freight houses were east of the stockyards. The address was 1325 West 13th Street Terrace (east of Hickory Street). Closer freight houses to the Frisco's freight house at 1115 West 12th Street (lower) included the: Alton / GM&O / ICG at 1129 West 12th Street (immediately to the west of the Frisco facility), Chicago, Burlington & Quincy at 1229 West 12th Street (across the KCT tracks from the above facility) This building still stands. CB&Q "new freight house" at 1303 West 13th Street (1 block to the southwest). ATSF freight houses at 1319 and 1325 West 13th Street Terrace (1 block to the southwest of the Q's "new freight house". National Car Loading freight house at 1401 West 14th Street (1 block southwest of the ATSF freight houses and next to or east of the International Harvester building). Continuing west on 14th Street are the: CMStP&P freight house at 1428 South Liberty Street MKT freight house at 1521 West 14th Street (still standing) CRI&P freight house at 1242 South Wyoming Street (office still stands, just to the north of the MKT freight house). To the north are the Missouri Pacific freight houses at 926 South Liberty Street (outbound) and 950 South Liberty Street (inbound) and Union Pacific Freight houses (original) at 1502 West 12th Street (outbound) and 1506 West 12th Street (inbound). The UP's "new freight house" (still standing) was later relocated across the Kansas River at their Armstrong Yard in Kansas City, KS. Further northeast were the Kansas City Southern / Milwaukee Road Joint Agency freight house at 711 South Santa Fe Street CGW / CNW freight house (office still stands) at 620 South Mulburry Wabash freight house at 1010 West St. Louis Avenue. And that is just the railroad freight houses in a 5 by 9 block area. There are also a number of other industries on each railroad! Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Mark .. Where were the yards for the KCS located? It's been 30 years from when I last spent any real time in KC. I cannot remember.
Sherrel, Knoche Yard is the main KCS facility in Kansas City. It is located northeast of downtown Kansas City, MO in the East Bottoms. The yard is roughly within the borders formed by Front Street on the north, I-435 on the east, The Missouri Pacific's (Union Pacific) Neff Yard on the south and North Chestnut Trafficway on the west. On an overpass North Chouteau Trafficway roughly bisects the center of the yard. The current yard office is just to the west of the Chouteau overpass. The engine facilities have been relocated to the far west end of the yard just south of Front Street. The engine roundhouse facilities were formerly located east of Chouteau, just west of the former KCS elevator. Please see the attached link for a satellite view http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...529,-94.521196&spn=0.018277,0.048709&t=h&z=15 Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Mark - Thanks to your address info, I located an OLD Sanborn map for a joint ATSF-KCS freight house alongside Hickory and just south of W. 13th Street... http://digital.library.umsystem.edu...id=2f0bf2375edc4dea27cc0207f034c828;q1=kansas city;rgn1=umcscsanic_all;q2=13th St;op2=And;rgn2=umcscsanic_all;size=20;c=umcscsanic;lasttype=boolean;view=entry;lastview=thumbnail;subview=detail;cc=umcscsanic;entryid=x-sanborn1988.jpg;viewid=SANBORN1988.JPG;start=1;resnum=4 The platform for this house looks to be where you described National Car Loading? Oh, if I only had been present for your West Bottoms tour last March! I originally figured that I might include the CGW freight house against the backdrop (and may still do so) but since Ben is an ATSF guy and wants to model both that road AND the Frisco, we'll do some selective compressing. Best Regards,
