Kansas City West Bottoms Layout

Hello again:

I've been off line for sometime with computer issues. But all seems working now. Was anyone getting some goofy maleware issues when trying to log on?

Anyway, the West Bottoms has made good progress and I am about to send some pictures. My layout is 26 feet down one wall, 12 down another. The long side is 1 1/2 foot, the short leg 2 feet in width. It starts moving right to left with a small fiddle yard disguised as the adjacent GM&O freighthouse, goes past the Frisco freighthouse, under 12th street bridge and down Santa Fe switching several warehouses, Rudy Patrick, Sunshine and down the short alley track. Turns left into Henning Street Yard and Armour.

From John Szwajkart's booklet "Train Watcher's Guide to Kansas City" (1991) here is what I am modelding

"Just north of 19th Street Yard at 12th Street, a short SLSF branch leaves the KCT and goes north. Running in Santa Fe Street, the line crosses the UP at Old Union Depot Crossing and then crosses the MP a block north. A short distance north the line turns and heads west into Henning Street Yard. The line also extends north a short distance to a connection with the CGW at Ohio Avenue Yard. This line was used by the CGW to reach connnections in Kansas City"

and

"There were a number of small yards in the ara, one of which was Henning Street Yard in the West Bottoms. It handled interchange and stockyard traffic, but no power was kept at the yard".

It s a fairly simple linear plan and somewhat mirrors the SLSF SLIC diagram that can be found on this website. I have drawn out a trackplan in Excel, but can't figure out how to upload it to this website. Also, how may jpg files can I send at one time?

Pictures to come.

John

 

West Bottoms Pictures

Moving from right to left on layout (south to north)

1) Off stage-fiddle yard lead and storage



2) GM&O Freighthouse-fiddle yard



3) Holsum Foods folds down to reach throat of fiddle yard



4) Frisco freighthouse, picture of real freighthouse on this website.




5) Under (a much compressed) 12th Street Bridge.

 

Re: West Bottoms Pictures

Tom

I had some old Peco100 I used in the fiddle yard. The rest is Atlas 83 with a little 70 in front of Frisco freight house. Ballast is Arizona Rock NP. On sidings I mixed the ballast with dirt until it looked about right to me.

John

 

Chris.

The grass is Heiki 1575 and 1576

 

That is looking really good John. Wouldn't mind coming over and seeing it sometime.

 

West Bottoms Update

I've been silent for awhile on my West Bottoms. Here is a rambling narrative that might be instructive to others not yet building a layout. From earlier post I model the Frisco going up Santa Fe Street in the West Bottoms. "L" shaped 28 feet turning left into Henning Street yard 12 feet switching Armour reefers.
Early last year I sort of lost interest. Some things were just not working out and I was having a hard time getting interested in working on the Plywood Pacific Railroad. So my eye started wandering, Lance Mindheim's modern era, Tom Johnson's INRAIL (check out website, amazing work) and Trevor Martin's Port Rowan in S Scale. Starting drawing alternative track plans. That's why I took the name "Boomer", railroad slang for a person switching railroads. Never saw a railroad a didn't like, except maybe over modeled Colorado narrow gauge. Should I start over? I took a hard look at what I was doing, here were my issues.

1) In an earlier post I showed how I had connected Caboose ground throws from the facia to the switch by under the table wires, clever right? First one worked great, of course. But about four of the twelve are constant problems causing derailments and fiddling.
2) This was my first layout (after 25 years of drawing track plans). When I started some of the scenery looked OK to me. But I have raised my standards, it just did not look good.
3) A center piece of the layout is the 12th Street bridge. This is a big structure, mine just did not do it justice and did not look good.
4) This layout would have a lot of street track, how to model that?
5) I needed background pictures of the bluffs. None of the available prints looked right, and man are they expensive.
6) Some of locomotives stalled in some switches, some did not. A FM was fine, SW7 and MP15 came to a dead stop at the frog. This drove me crazy.

But with all the problems, some things were pretty good.

1) A must have for me is to model a proto type location with identifiable features. 12th Street bridge, Broker's Building, Rudy Patrick Elevator all there.
2) I've run some operating sessions myself, I like it. Various jobs; industry, freight house job, switching Armour. It is a good track plan if you like slow speed operation.
3) I have all the equipment purchased. Might buy a couple of Baldwins with Loksound if Bowser comes out in Frisco.
4) A lot of help available for Frisco friends through this website and local connections.

So what to do? After months of no activity I decided to fix my problems and see if it changed my attitude.

1) Caboose ground throws coming out. I have another operations oriented solution, I assure you have never seen. Stay tuned. The brakeman has to do something.
2) Scenery around the freight house was ripped out and redone. Used various materials to do away with the sea of green. To my eye, looks really good.
3)Pulled out the 12th Street bridge. I built a new one that was more of a wood working project. Only models a portion of the arched piece. Not as good as the one posted on this website made out of foam core (I think), but I like it. Big improvement.
4) Poured the street between KCT crossing and freight house under the bridge using Woodland Scenics product. After a lot of sanding and dust and painted grey, looks good.
5) One day I was down at Doc's in West Bottoms and there was some kind of event where lower section of 12th Street bridge was closed off to traffic.
I walked up to the crest, hung off the bridge and took pictures of the bluffs with my I phone. Now have those picture behind freight house, including "Cow in the Sky". KC'er will know what I am talking about. Looks good to me.
6) After a lot of cussing discovered stalling was caused by the wheelbase of the locomotive being too short. Powered the closing rails, problem solved.
Who would guess the wheelbase of an FM is longer than an MP15, it is.

So, my West Bottoms lives. Making great progress, ready to move on. Soon as a finish a couple of things, including the freight house I will post pictures. My goals for 2015 is to finish between KCT and MP crossings, weather my freight cars and have my first operating session.

So here is what I learned that maybe some will find useful. My opinion, which may or may not be for you.

1) As I've said before, just build something. I wasted 25 years being swayed by model railroad magazines I needed some big layout to be worthy. My opinion, go for quality over size of layout. Check out Trevor Martin's Port Rowan website, something like six switches. It does not take much layout to enjoy it if you do it right. It is easier to make a less complicated layout bullet proof. Having to use the 0-5-0 switchers will ruin your layout.
2) If something is not right, don't be afraid to rip it out. Keep improving.
3) If you have your own Plywood Pacific Railroad lurking in your basement or garage, figure out if you can salvage it. If not, tear it out to clear your head.

Thanks for letting me take up a lot of band width. Stay tuned. I have to go switch the Broker's building and Rudy Patrick.

John

 

Re: West Bottoms Update

Good read, John! Lots of good tips therein.

As I recall, you are having better success at capturing prototype scenes than my layout space was going to allow me to do, so it's good that you've distilled what was bugging you and have got into action again.

Looking forward to some pics!

 

Re: West Bottoms Update

Good to hear of progress. You are right about working toward quality. It can be discouraging to look around the corner and see how much grass/backdrop/trees, etc. there is to get to the "basic" level.
I hope to see your work during one of our trips to KC area, hope you are having some of the locals by occasionally for input. I cleaned the room up and had an open house for neighbors and friends in November. Folks were very complimentary and it gave me impetus to keep on making mistakes and trying new techniques.

 

Here are two pictures of West Bottoms.

1) Sw7 rumbles past the SLSF freight house just south of 12th St viaduct with bluffs and "cow in the sky" on the horizon.
2) Same shot looking north. Brokers building and Tower 2 in the background.

I need to improve my lighting.

John

 

Re: Most recent photos posted:

I had a somewhat similar setup on my previous Kansas City-based layout with a bridge that more or less terminated on one end at a wall and on the other at an aisle, and I continually got comments fro visitors regarding my "bridge to nowhere" (thanks, I guess, to that airhead from up in Alaska). Question, and this is just for fun, do you ever get comments like that?

GS