Era Selection

Hi M Kuchta.

Moving backward in time is a great approach to better use available space.  I chose the late 1930's for similar reasons; shorter cars and smaller steam - both of which look better on sharper curves and take less space.  The date is still late enough that the occasional large steam power that my dad remembers along the N&W in the 1950s can make an appearance.  The first decade of the century will be a challenge from a model standpoint, but since you use the term "scratch build" very comfortably, I suspect that's a positive for you.

Regarding track, consider the Central Valley Model Works tie strips; they are nice middle ground between hand laying and flex track.  The are also nicely detailed and have a couple of choices of tie spacings.

Hi Matt, l have a fast tracks

Hi Matt,

l have a fast tracks #5 turnout template, but I may try to sneak a few #4s in a few spots to maximize space available for a few of the industries. I have been thinking about trying some of the CV components, thanks for the suggestion. I have a decent collection of Labelle kits, which are reasonably close to the prototype as-is, so modifications won't be too hard. Scratch building is my favorite part, so that is definitely a feature and not a bug. Eventually I'll work up the courage to modify an MDC/Roundhouse consolidation into one of the D&IR 4-8-0s, which were ubiquitous up there in the 1900's - kicked out of mainline ore hauling around 1905 with the purchase of heavy consolidations.

New Plan

From what I can see of the model's model it looks like a great plan.  Following the train as it winds through the hills will make this feel a long run given the short trains and slower engines. This is the very reason I chose circa 1900 for my own layout so I look forward to following along. 

Great choice of prototype location

I always liked the DMIR line between Duluth and Two Harbors. Spending my evenings away from studies at UMD down at the Duluth depot and museum. We used to watch the nightly transfer head to Endion for the train swap, so the crews could head back to their home terminal. 

Lots of freight and opportunity for flag stops. Knife River is a scenic wonder.  

Let me know if you plan on building the D&IR depot in Two Harbors. I am going to build a model of that for my Splitrock Mining Company headquarters. Keep us posted. 

1901

 I also chose that era, short cars, short trains, lots of switching.

Although I didn't choose that locale, Irv Schultz's St Clair & Northern was always a favorite and inspiration to me, he modeled about that time frame and an iron ore hauling road.  Also had a very simple track plan.

Another resource is the Yahoo Early Rail group.  I have also found Google books as very helpful for that era.  A lot of books and historical records from that era are in the public domain and have been digitized.

No Trackplan survives...

Here's the penultimate trackplan. I drew out several versions at 1/8th scale. First major revision was trimming about 6" from the original width to maintain a reasonable aisle width on the outside loop. The other was to modify Two Harbors (left, outer loop) to include a wye, as per the prototype. Now passenger service ends at a stub siding, as they did in the real world, and can turn the engine at the wye to go back to Duluth, or take the right hand switch and disappear into the "iron range" staging tracks. Another staging track at Knife River (middle blob) will let trains pull longer log trains onto the mainline and head to Duluth. Again, track plan like the prototype, with generous selective compression.

Endion depot in Duluth (top loop) also has a near-prototype track arrangement, but I had to skip the small turntable and enginehouse in order to fit a long siding for the depot and freight house. Trains will curve past Chester Creek and run the return leg of the loop "hidden" behind scenery until reaching the "westbound" staging. The whole thing is basically a point-to-point plan that can be run as a continuous loop for visitors and because there's something soothing about watching trains run without worrying about what they'll do next.

Currently, I'm about 75% of the way finished with benchwork. Plotting out the full-sized plan on kraft paper to guide placement of the spline roadbed will come after Christmas. I'm hoping that I won't have to change track too much.

You know why they say, though, "No trackplan survives first contact with benchwork..."

Long time no see...

Hi Thom! It's been a while since the halcyon days of Bob's Hobby Junction and getting helpers to make the grade up Knapp Hill, eh?

The D&IR depot in TH now wasn't finished until 1906. The old depot was moved to Palmers as the section house there. I have a few photos, but still trying to find good blueprints. I've got plans for the Knife River and Endion depots. The latter will be an adventure in scratch building the brick and stone facade.

-Matt Kuchta

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1901

Yeah, the turn of the 20th Century has a lot to recommend it.  If I weren't constrained by the end date of my railway, though, I would think about something closer to 1910 so I could operate some of the emerging steel cars. 

Incidentally, don't forget about the Tichy ore cars.  I have no idea about their prototype, but they would be believable on this layout.  It saves work on scratchbuilding and you'll want a bunch of them.  

I'll be following your progress with interest.  

Rene

1901-1910

 The first steel cars started showing up in the late 1890's (the PRR was an early adopter). 

The industry was changing rapidly in those eras so a few years can actually make a difference in the appearance of the cars.  In 1901 many cars only had ladders on the either the side or the ends but not both, they don't have sill steps (stirrups) on all four corners and many grabirons on corners are vertical.  It wasn't until 1906 that cars had to have knuckle couplers and air brakes.  By 1910 the safety appliance laws had changed the ladder/grab iron arrangements and standardized the dimensional data arrangements.

In 1901 the most common car  was a 34 ft car, 36 ft cars were BIG cars and 40-50 ft cars were like auto racks or high cube cars.  By 1910 the 34 ft car was outdated, and the 36 ft car was being replaced by the 40 ft car.

Operating rules in 1901 would have been very different from those in 1910.  With link and pin couplers and no air brakes the pre 1900 rules had pages of rules what to do when a train parted or a section of train was found on the main track, plus requirements that the conductor signal the engineer every time they went around a curve so the head end crew would know the rear end was still attached.  Rule books were completely rewritten in the early  1900's, new rule numbers and a new standard arrangement.

Ore cars

Westerfield has a resin kit for the early pressed steel car ore car. I'm not exactly an expert on the DIR but I know they had this type of cars as a bunch of the DIR cars were acquired by the Algoma Central in the early 1910s.

The D&IR had fully installed

The D&IR had fully installed air brakes and automatic couplers by about 1895: yet another point of pride for the Missabe Road that it was the first railroad in the US to do so.

Chris, the Westerfield kit is

Chris, the Westerfield kit is pretty close to some of the early steel cars they had. There were a few other types the railroad was trying out - they had basically pulled all the wood cars from ore service by around 1906. Wood cars still were used for hauling aggregate and coal for a while after that.

Iron cars

There were some iron cars as early as the Civil War.  I recieved Osprey Publishing's "American Civil War Tactics" as a holiday gift, and was impressed with some of the materials therein.

Smaller size industries, too!

The smaller size of railroad equipment was mentioned in an earlier post but other aspects were also a different size. Rail facilities were smaller as they had been built in the decades previous to a modeling focus. Many industries were also smaller. After World War Two, many industries consolidated operations and grew in size. The 1900-1930 years had more industrial operations that can be easier to model as they are not sprawling. Here's a 1923 Pittsburgh, PA, example. This is a screenshot from a fabulous interactive map site. 

The image contains a few Hopkins Plat Maps that are stitched together for the main map site. These are very good references as they combine structure and infrastructure data. The image above shows a portion of the north bank of the Ohio River, just downstream from the Point at Pittsburgh, where the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers form the Ohio. This space is currently occupied by a casino and parking lots. But in 1923, this was a busy stretch of railroad serving several smaller industries. Note the scale at the bottom left. From left to right, this is hardly 2000 feet along the river. This is less than a half mile, yet we see six industries and a gas works complex. A B&O yard is just off to the right. These industries and the small yard would keep a crew busy in an operating session. 

Above is information from a 1922 B&O Form 6 book that sheds more detail on the industries served here. This is an edit of a page so we can focus on the industries in the map. Note the siding capacity details in the columns to the left. There is capacity for 72 cars for six different industries. These aren't necessarily spots for loading or unloading, just track capacities.  

The B&O line here isn't a main line at all, but a six mile long branch serving a diverse industry base with the two largest industries at each end of the line. The branch starts near the HJ Heinz plant further up the Allegheny River to the right, and ends at the Pressed Steel Car Company plant on the Ohio River off to the left. I believe the entire branch was operated as a yard. with regular transfer runs to and from nearby B&O yards. 

When modeling an earlier era, we need to take a good look at the size of the local industries as well as the rail equipment. Freight houses and team tracks were a more important component, too. In many ways, modeling a moment between 1900 and 1930 is a a very different place than the post-war years. 

Eric

Duluth MN HO Scale Model

A D&IR layout? Excellent!

I have a dream to create an enormous HO scale model featuring downtown Duluth. I am a high school student with some probably unrealistic goals, but to satisfy my creative bug I have started building structures from around downtown. So far I have nearly completed a model of the Northern Pacific 5th Avenue crossing tower. I wanted to model around 1915, and during that time the D&IR log trains powered by consolidations were frequent visitors of the zenith city. After seeing someone's scratch-built steam on Facebook, I decided I would love to try the same thing. A tidy little D&IR log train would be fun to build, but I don't know where to start. I would love to see your progress, and if you could offer some tips as your layout comes together I would greatly appreciate it.

-Sam

1908 Photo of Marquette, Michigan Port

One of my favorite photos on Shorpy is of the port and railroads in Marquette, MI on Lake Superior in 1908. It is a huge panorama that should provide lots of great modeling ideas.

http://www.shorpy.com/node/12492?size=_original#caption

Chris

1908 Photo of Marquette, Michigan Port

Fantastic detailed photo! lots of ideas.

2 things that stood out to me was all the wood boardwalks and the large split lumber pile next to the grain supply.

Had never really thought that split lumber would be a product at this time but it makes sense now.