Starting

The pages have been revised to reflect the pages under the new forum

1. Start of the layout and early modeling, including the Rouchleau and Hull-Rust crushing plants
2. Painting backdrops and the MRHS Convention layout visit
3. Layout update shots, diesel, steam, and miscellaneous roster shots
4. Tsunami setting used for diesels and Coons Pacific
5. New MTH Yellowstones, Ore loads and LED lighting installation
6. Ore shovels, Wolf Depot and the 2018 MRHS Convention
7. USS Signal, Ops sessions, wide vision caboose, Ore Trapping
8. Decaling ore cars, MinnRail visit, Ely, Draglines, Cabooses
9. Modeling a Missabe 0-10-0
10. Kit bashed 2-10-2, Burnett Bridge start, Federal Bentonite
11. Burnett backdrop painting, 3D Churn drill
12. 3D U4 ore car, Hanna Mining and Electric locomotive
13. Photo fun, Burnette Bridge is done, mine building details
14. Oliver diesels and X7 Crane, Diesel maintenance and JMRI Operations Pro
15. B&LE Leased Fs, Fan trip in cabooses and caboose classes
16. Erickson Coal and neighborhood in Hibbing, Ore Barons visit the layout, covid interruption and resumption, 3D U9 ore car sample
17. Ops sessions, Proto ore sampling/sorting, Mitchell sector plate
18. House on the Helix, flat-toppers, steaming frozen ore, stray power, 50-ton samples arrive
19. More on 50-ton models, OIM TR6

The layout started shortly after we moved into the house in 2003, but a series of deaths and grave illnesses across our family starting shortly thereafter prevented any serious progress for about 6 years.

This might be the layout of my dreams, or it might be a serious case of “bit off more than ‘ya could chew, didja?”

The layout room is 60x26, with a 4-foot bump-out along one 60-foot wall.  There are studded “energy” walls around the perimeter of three walls, so the real interior dimensions are maybe 2-feet less.  The stairs descend into the interior of the room, and there is one set of bridges on the outside wall for a 3-foot doorway leading to Lynn’s “Flamingo room”.  I say this in case any of it’s bright pink/red walls show up in photos later.

Bottom:

Top:

Ore Docks and Hill to Proctor Yard

The Missabe has 2 large steel ore docks in the Duluth, MN harbor.  In real life, Dock 5 is inactive due to failing substructures, but it is modeled here in active duty.

The dock is a combination of Walthers kits along the front, and my own styrene structure along the back, since it is mostly hidden.

I started the dock model on two sheets of 2” foam, and have recently connected them, and the approach tracks, so the ore dock is now “in place”.  The chutes are yet to be added, and the rails on top are still being glued in.  A moveable partition hides 2 storage tracks behind it.  I lowered it partially for the shot.  The red arrow points to the top of the partition.

The Missabe’s toughest grade is also one of its operational economies.  The hill up from the dock to Proctor, the main ore sorting yard, is 2.2 percent ruling grade, and is 7 miles long.  The Missabe brings loads down the hill, and empties up, and as a result, consistently posted the best fuel efficiency of any railroad.  My hill is 20+ feet long, but actually does rise 2.2 percent to Proctor.  Isn't the foam lovely!!!

Nice

Looks good so far, waiting to see more.

Proctor Yard

In real life, Proctor Yard is HUGE – over 2 miles in length.  It’s 1:87 counterpart is also large, running about 55 feet, and containing 50 turnouts, a Walthers 130’ turntable, the coal tower from last week’s Weekend Photos and some cardboard stand-ins for the roundhouse, new diesel shop, and old steam loco backshop.

It fails the simplicity test, and consumes way more ore cars than I can afford just to look plausible for the 1950s.

Here are shots of the South end, middle of the yard, engine service area and North end.

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Incredible!

Absolutely incredible! As a fellow modeler of the Missabe (albeit on a smaller scale) I can't wait to see more!

I'll keep going

My thought is to photograph along the line from end to end, but to do so will require me to take some new photos and write up text, so please be patient as I put those together in the upcoming week.

In the mean time, if there are questions, I will try to address as they come up.

Thanks for watching, and for your enthusiastic response.  It is impetus to complete more scenery. The track is essentially complete, but may be altered as we go, since I am just beginning ops sessions.  Nothing like an ops session to find all the glitches!

Wow!

That ore dock is HUGE!!!!

Welcome to the Inover your Head Club

Great looking layout

Great

Looking forward to more pics as it develops, was impressed enough to hop on google maps and see the real thing it would have been a great sight in its working heyday, the yard shows why people model,

the google shows a lovely shot of the  46 limestone trucks around a bend, the coal yard and the recycling centre would also make great models. A very enjoyable hour was spent. Thanks Kenn

Yard size

When you claim the yard will consume more cars than you can afford have you considered going to train shows to pick up the additional rolling stock? I have just attended my third train show and was looking for some specific items that are not being made any longer. For example Athearn made some 85 foot piggy back and general service flat cars that were used in 1957 by trailer train. While checking the consignment shelves at my local hobby shop Discount Model Trains I was unable to find any of these cars although I have found many other things there in over a year of looking. After 3 train shows I now have 28 of these cars, 15 or 16 of which are unbuilt in the original packaging. The price for these was very reasonable many were less than 6.00 a car.

In my travels through the train shows I have found lots of different cars, many ore cars, available for a very reasonable price. Many times the seller will discount the cars further if a larger number of them are being purchased at one time. Since I will be replacing wheels and couplers and likely renumbering this is a great way to expand my freight car fleet. Also do not rule out some of the older AHM and TYCO or other cars as some of these have very good bodies and with a bit of work can be turned into a nice model, particularly when one can pick them up for 2 to 3 dollars apiece.

Good luck on filling your yard with the ore cars and your Roundhouse with the needed steamers, if your in that era, I will keep watching for more updates.

I apologize if I have said anything offensive my back is giving me trouble and I am on pain killers and muscle relaxants and I would not try to drive a car in this condition, so you can understand I am somewhat hammered right now.

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Don't worry about the yard consuming cars...cars are EASY to get, you'll see it the further along you get!

Impressive

Very nice work, in so many aspects.

What strikes me when I look at these images is something I always see in shots of the Missabe, and that's the visual impact of geometric repetition.  Unit trains of ore cars, trestle structures, and of course, the dock all have a kind of repetition that shows up in most of the shots of the prototype.  

Regardless of that, this is really impressive.  I can't wait to see more.

Response to various comments

To Benny and Virginian: 

Yes, those darn extra freight cars that seem to follow me home from flea markets and eBay!  So, the issue is ore cars.  Beside a few Westerfield cars, the fleet is essentially Roundhouse and Walthers ore cars, and anyone who follows such things knows the price increases and scarcity of ore cars.  The old AHM cars are noticeably too big, especially relating to symmetry.  You sight down a string of ore cars, and the odd ones stick out.  In the 1950s, there were still smaller 50-ton cars, so the Westerfield cars look good, but the AHM cars stand out the wrong way.

To Hunter:

Symmetry, sameness and repetition are a hallmark of ore operations.  That you think my work captured that look is good.  That it might become tedious is not.  All is not Ore, however, as there are passenger trains and mixed freight (non-ore) operations to serve the various towns. 

My solution to sameness in ore operations is to create 3 "grades" of ore, represented by three different color loads, red, yellow and blue - sounds garish, but these were made from real ore samples that tend to those colors,  In reality, there were hundreds of ore grades, and the steel mills ordered various mixes of the grades to suit their production needs.  My "mills" order certain mixes of my simplified 3 grades, and it is up to the Proctor yard engine to make up strings for the dock that match the mill order.  Any more detail on this should probably be a separate thread.

Thanks to all for the kind comments.  Art, where do I send my dues for the Inover Your Head club?

OK, the hook is set

On with your tales of mixing ore shipments on the docks and other tales of this almost "industrial" railway operations in upper Midwest.  This sounds spectacular, now if you include tales of whalebacks you will have really set it.

I can definitely sympathize

I can definitely sympathize with acquiring ore cars, I've been having the same problem. The ore dock kits are even worse these days, I've basically given up on finding any of those that I can afford!

Very Nice!

Good looking layout. Can't wait to see more.

I think I have a few of those Ore cars from Round hose. Let Me check the stash, and I will PM You, if I have any, about donating them to You.

Is that?

Is that a kitbashed Walthers concrete coaling tower or something you created on your own?  Very Nice and very impressed with the ore dock!  

Greg

Sorry to be so late to notice your question skiwiggy

More pix at this thread comment:

https://forum.mrhmag.com/post/weekend-photo-fun-14-to-16-12192098 - 5th (last) page.

It is two Walthers Coal Towers - 2/3rds of each, plus a new roof, elevator tower and sand hopper on the end.  I moved one coal chute higher, as did the Missabe when the bigger engines started to arrive.  The ladders and walkways from the kit were used, but moved. 

It ain't perfect, but its close.

Mining Operations on the

Mining Operations on the Missabe

I wanted to post an update on recent work on the various mines across the layout.  Not are completely done, and in fact, you will see one that is a sheet of paper.  But if for no other reason, I can chronicle the work.

As a kid, I remember visiting Minnesota’s Iron Range and seeing all the mines and ore processing plants, all humming away.  I vividly recall part of a trip one evening at dusk, and seeing so many lights and so much activity.  I REALLY wanted to replicate that sense on my layout. 

As the original small mine properties expanded, some overlapped and became one larger property, with names that reflected the original property names; for instance, Burt-Day-Sellers.

Then, as lesser grades of ore were encountered, ore processing plants were built to “beneficiate” the ore.

In the 1950s, my target era, there were still many small single pit or shaft mines, larger pits resulting from expansion, and processing plants, each targeted at improving ore grades by crushing, screening, washing and eventually sintering and pelletizing in the 1960s.

Rouchleau Ore Crusher

Rouchleau Ore Crusher

The largest pre-taconite plant, and last to disappear was the Rouchleau crusher at Rainy Junction yard in Virginia, MN.  It started out in the 1920s as a crusher/screening operation, but by the 1950s, rescreening buildings were added, and a new load-out building built to load coarse and fines on two separate tracks. 

This is also where Extaca was built, the experimental taconite plant, that along with Pilotac, were used to improve methods for processing taconite.  The entire plant regularly produced 800 loads of ore or sinter every day.

I am modeling the original plant and rescreener and coarse/fines load-out pockets, and will eventually model the beginning construction of Extacta.  The trestle is significantly shortened, however, the buildings are to scale.  You can see there is a lot yet to do.

This is a shot of what was left of the Rouchleau in 1980.  It was torn down a few years later, and now the entire plant area has been dug out for the underlying ore.

Hust-Rust Crusher

Hust-Rust Crusher

The Hull-Rust Crusher in Hibbing, MN was built adjacent to the Hull-Rust direct load yard where high-grade ore was loaded directly into Missabe ore cars without further processing.  The crushing plant was at the apex of a 7-plus mile run out of the Hibbing pits, and the trestle stands 87 feet high (hmm, I wonder how tall it would be in HO scale, then).

When originally built in the early 1920s, it was planned to have a single track on top, with two primary crushers.  Half way through the construction, a third crusher was added, and a second track added on top.  By then the trestle bents were already built in the traditional A-frame style, so they were retrofitted to accommodate the second track by adding another vertical leg alongside one leg of the bent.

Sherman Ore Washing Plant

Sherman Ore Washing Plant

The Sherman ore properties built a washing plant at Fraser, MN to improve the local ores.  It was a more recent addition to the plant line-up, but was fairly small as originally built.  The plant was expanded in the late 1950s by doubling the size of the load-out pocket and adding several large buildings behind the dump track.  I did not model the expanded plant.

Fraser, MN yard was a GN yard with shared rights for the Missabe.

Smaller Mines

Smaller Mines

I have a lot of maps and drawings of the Minnesota ore operations from the 1950s, but seldom do I have photos of the mine facilities for the smaller ones.  I do have quite a few photos of mines, but often without a location.  Some old photos were labeled only “An Iron Mine in Northern Minnesota”, so I have arbitrarily assigned some photos to mine locations on the layout… close ‘nuf.

Coons-Pacific Mine

At Sparta, MN, the Coons-Pacific mine was typical of many of the medium-sized open pit mines, with a double track siding with the loading pocket and an elevated empties yard.  The Missabe would shove empties into that yard, and the mine operator would release the brakes on a few cars, rolling them out of the yard and downgrade to the pocket.  When loaded, the cars would be rolled onto the siding, all done with hand brakes and gravity.

This is one of the earliest portions of my layout, but it is also on the lower level, which has become somewhat dormant as scenery progresses on the top level.  At the time I started building this portion, I was still planning on modeling the 1980s.  I loved the picture from Frank King’s “The Missabe Road” shown here.  I liked the half buried old mine tracks, the pipe carrying water pumped out of the pit, and the sweeping curves of the Missabe mainline.