more Latta Sub

My intention is to model most of the subdivision from Terre Haute to Bedford, but for right now I just have the area around Jasonville modeled with temporary return loops on both ends.  Below is the old Milwaukee engine house, which I scratch built.  The Indiana Rail Road demolished this one and put up a new one, but at least I was able to get a number of photographs of the original.  Thanks Tom Johnson for the idea of how to blend in a photo backdrop of trees to a painted sky by just painting the interface between the photo and the sky.  

Now for a view of downtown Jasonville.  I scratch built or modified the structures around the crossing of main street as they looked in the early 1990s.  Take a trip on Google street view to see how they look now.  Thanks to Lance Mindheim's instructions on how to paint roads and sidewalks.  Using his technique, I finally got something I liked after 3 or so false starts.  I still need to add crossbucks with flashers.  Any recommendations for Tomar, New Jersey International or someone else?  

Now for an overview of the layout, minus one return loop to the right.  The part on the right is the 90% finished Jasonville and Latta Yard.  The middle part of the unfinished benchwork is Lewis Dock coal load-out and the part on the left is the burg of Black Hawk.  The far left is one of the temporary return loops.  

  While close-ups of the finished product are great, I like seeing a layout's trackplan or overview.  Yes, there is some Santa Fe hiding out on the layout.  No particular reason other than I like the warbonnet.  

The whole layout is sectional, which has served me well.  I highly recommend it, especially in this culture where we move often.  This layout has followed me through 3 apartments and now 2 houses.  Although it has never been rebuilt exactly the same, parts of it have always made the transition to a new abode.  Sometimes most of it would be in storage while I worked on one section in an apartment.  One time it came down in a couple of hours due to a basement flooding issue.   

Latta Sub continued

This is the water tower in Jasonville.  I knew I wanted to model it because it is right next to the tracks and it tells you exactly what town you are in.  But nobody makes one, or at least one like this.  One of my good modeling friends works for a company that makes water towers, so through him I got some dimensions for a similar water tower.  Then another friend made the tank on a rapid prototype machine in his office.  Good friends with connections are great!  The legs and support wires are just scratch built from styrene and brass.  

Finally, just a shot of the north side of Jasonville.  Someday I will get up the courage to weather those beautiful Athearn Genesis GP38-2s.  (Here's a shout out to Athearn - great job!!)  For now I am practicing on my fleet of freight cars.  

Work on the model railroad is slow.  We have two young children, ages 4 and 6, who actually like playing with daddy, so that takes a lot of time.  Add in my running addiction and time is scarce.  They do play with "daddy's trains" when I work on the layout, which I encourage.  Things get broken, but that is a small price to pay to share a hobby.  

Really nice!

I really enjoyed the tour. You've captured the look and feel of a real place and time. Very atmospheric!

What a neat prototype!

I love the Milwaukee Road, the Milwaukee in Indiana has always intrigued me, and I love the Soo! But I never connected the dots about what occurred in Indiana after the Little Jewel acquired the Milwaukee. 

Geez, a guy could have his cake and eat it too --coal trains, Milwaukee Road power, Soo power, beautiful southern Indiana -- what's not to like?

And that's a good-looking layout, Jemley! Thanks for posting this.

Nice work and enjoyed the

Nice work and enjoyed the pictures!

I was in Jasonville, IN in the early 1990s for a model airplane contest and I recall being surprised seeing Soo Line power in Jasonville, IN???  Now I understand why!

Good job. Looking forward to more photos.

Andre

Great layout!

Really a great layout!  My kind of prototype.  I hope you'll share more of your work.

Soo Line

You have to love any Railroad that runs thru Indiana!  You have a Good Teacher and mentor in Mr.Johnson. I love the C&EI line over to the west of me. Its nice to see someone that Models the lines of Indiana. Looking to see more of what you work on.    Kevin

Excellent!

Very nice look to the layout.  Thanks for sharing.  We would love to see more!

Nice!

Your model railroad is a beauty John! Thanks for sharing these pictures.

I really like the warm sunny feel your photos convey and your backdrop work is fantastic.

I hope you will share more and if you have a trackplan to post, that would be great too.

Suggestion for posting: set your photos to 750px wide so they are not cut off on the right in the forum.

Cheers!

All of the above...

I agree with the others!    John

Thanks guys

Thanks for you kind comments guys.  Sometime I will get around to posting more.  As I said, progress is slow.

Bill, I'll keep that 750 number in mind for the next time I do post.  

Joe, I like your Iowa Interstate too.  Maybe it is the secondary mainline status of both of our lines. 

Welcome to Indiana

In a month, a number of you will be converging on Indianapolis for the NMRA National Convention.  So, as a former Hoosier and modeler of Hoosierland, let me say welcome!  A few of you might even venture down to Jasonville and surroundings to railfan the Indiana Rail Road.  A lot has changed since the early 1990s which is the timeframe I model, but you still might recognize some scenes, others not so much.  

First of all, below is my rendition of downtown Jasonville where main street crosses the tracks.  

And here is a little more of a bird's eye view.  I tried to replicate the four buildings on the corners of the railroad crossing pretty faithfully.  The water tower was pushed to the east side of the tracks so it wouldn't be in the way.  I tried to space out the structures like the real thing.  I think Lance Mindheim has made a point of putting prototypical space between structures so that is what I did.  In fact, at any place along the line, there is only one property between the tracks and the backdrop or the tracks and the front fascia.  Cutting down on the number of structures can sometimes increase realism and decrease costs.  

To compare to the real thing, check out Bing Map's Bird's Eye View below.   

There are new crossing gates, the repair shop got a new roof, the convenience store got a face lift, but you can still tell this is the same place.  

South of town is Latta Yard.  Now it is called Hiawatha Yard.  They just built a new engine servicing facility, but the one before that had a lot of personality.  Below is the real thing and below that is my model.  The picture of the engine house is after it got a new roof and mine was from before that time.  Need to model that pink sanding tower too.  

I think one of the next projects is making that Milwaukee GP40 into a bandit.  Poor thing won't look nearly as nice as it does now.  Now I just have to decide between Tsunami 2 and LokSound.  

Nice Layout

Nice looking layout you have there and enjoyed the background information.

Also a good example of how using prototypical photos as a guide can improve the overall design and look of the layout.

Joe

Comparison photos

I love the proto/model comparison photos.  You did a terrific job replicating those scenes!  Nice work on the details as well, like the chains on those roller doors on the enginehouse.  That's an outstanding scratchbuild!

Lewis Dock

Lewis Dock is the name of a coal load out just a mile or so north of Jasonville.  Today it is just a long siding and a field of coal dust, but back in the 90s it was used to load strings of hoppers.  The first picture is of the actual facility.  The boom was on wheels that would roll it out of the way when locomotives would pass by.  Note the steel structure by the operator's cabin that was probably there to protect the operator in case somehow the boom was pushed a little too far.  I didn't have room to make the boom as long as it really was, but that is part of selective compression.  I will say it is nice to have such a compact industry that prototypically loads a lot of cars.  

Lewis

The rest of my layout is just rural farmland, as is so common in Indiana.  The corner of the layout has a lot of soy beans.  These are just black pipe cleaners with ground foam on them. The corn is a combination of Bluford Shops cornfield builk pack and Busch corn.  I liked the look of the Busch corn and the economy of the Bluford corn.  So, the Busch is in front with the Bluford in the rear.  I painted all of them so they would look identical. 

Next up is Lewis, a little hamlet where state route 159 crosses the Soo.  The Bird's eye view is below.  I liked the abandoned feed mill so that was a part of the scene.  I didn't scratch build as much with this, I just wanted the feel of the scene so kits were the order of the day for the feed mill and homes.  The crossing gates are Tomar controlled by Logic Rail's Grade Crossing Pro.  

That is the extent of what I have on the Latta sub now.  In fact, it is getting to the point where I can say I have a completed layout.  Sure, there are more details to follow, and the layout only occupies about 1/5 of the area in the basement that could be used for a layout, but it is at a stage of completion, emphasis on the word "a."  I hope for more stages of completion in the future.  

I guess this is sort of an endorsement for the TOMA concept.  I'll write about this more in the future, but by working in sections over a number of years, I am able to see coal trains running through Indiana scenery, even while raising a couple of young kids.  If I had tried to fill the basement with benchwork, I probably wouldn't even have trains running yet, let alone scenery.  For me it was best to bite off small chunks and not get discouraged.   

The goal was to get it ready for the North Central Express Regional Convention this October in Northville Towenship, Michigan.  We might actually make it. 

Nicely observed

Looking forward to another stage of completion

Great looking layout!

Jemley.  What a GREAT looking layout!  My best friend, Quintin Schini and I spent some time rail fanning down that way a few years ago.  We saw a bunch of Indiana Railroad equipment sitting around along with Indiana Southern (farther south).  We also caught a SOO train in Linten, Indiana I believe.  Thanks for the recognition on the background trees.  I've found that it helps get rid of that cut out look.  

Tom

The sparseness of the scenery

is very refreshing. I love the fields and trees. Do you have a plan for eventual expansion of the layout, is ( was) there more railroad business at the locale that can be added? ......DaveB

Quality modelling. Really

Quality modelling. Really good scenes and structures

Mike

Nice looking layout there...

Love the SOO!

You've built a very nice model railroad. Any superlatives I could offer would echo everyone else's! Hope you get lots of kudos from the in-person visits!

That part of Indiana has always intrigued me, whether it's the SOO or the Milwaukee. Not a part of the country one immediately associates with either railroad.

Ditto for the Southern across southern Indiana. I think I discovered that the Southern had a line through that region last year.

Amazing!

You have done an outstanding job on this so far.  Look forward to much more!

John Dick

soo line

very nice looking layout