I was on a business trip to Newton, Iowa, recently and did a little exploring along the Iowa Interstate mainline which runs through the town. The railroad delivers bulkhead flat cars (with sheet steel) to a siding where a trackmobile switches them into the Trinity Structural Towers plant. The company makes wind turbine super structures.

The track configuration consists of just two turnouts: one off the IAIS siding, and one to split the track at the company for holding and receiving spurs. The whole scene makes for a very interesting, albeit simple, switching module. 

I just got back from a very enjoyable time in St. Louis at the Tenth Annual St. Louis Railroad Prototype Modelers Meet. 

This was my first experience with an RPM meet and it was fun to see the amazing array of modeling talent on display as well as meet many modelers whom I knew only by name through several of the modeling forums, including MRH. 

This is a follow up post in my quest to find a realistic as possible approach to replicating old, weather-worn ties on the Milan branch. Please forgive me for repeating the first two steps, but I believe I’ve got results that are worth sharing. 

I’m in the process of ballasting and would like other modelers opinions on a scenery approach. 

See the photo below. I’m thinking of not including ballast on the slope of the roadbed for the initial ballasting so that I can vary the scenery material and color at a later time. 

Do you think this is a good approach, or should I include ballast on the slope with the initial go-around? (Note: I plan to include ballast between the runaround tracks before the initial ballasting.) Thanks.

The photo below shows the current state of progress on our ProtoThrottle, a realistic wireless control stand for diesel modelers.  NOTE: we will be demonstrating the throttle at the St. Louis RPM meet June 23 & 24. Please look for the Iowa Scaled Engineering booth. 

Since my HO branch line layout is point-to-point, this slick module built by Iowa Scaled Engineering (iascaled.com) will allow me to run a train back and forth independent from my DCC system. This is very handy because I’ll be able to run a train while I’m working on the layout or to break in a new locomotive. Forgive me for the rough looking test setup.

One advantage of using sheets of homasote as a base layer for my roadbed is that the sheets have slightly natural dips and crests. This is an advantage when modeling an older branch line because those gentle rolling waves are realistic when viewed from a lower angle. 

I didn’t plan it this way, but it’s a nice discovery.

There are four areas on the Milan branch where I want to incorporate ambient or triggered sound: 

1. random flange squeal on all three of the layout’s curves

My model of Iowa Interstate’s SW1200 250 just got a sound upgrade. It has a Loksound Select decoder and I had been using ESU’s 16 cylinder 567 prime mover sound. But ESU recently released a 12 cylinder 567 which is a perfect fit for the engine. 

The sound is incredible. Since the 250 is my layout’s primary locomotive, having the correct prototypical sound is very important. The 12 cylinders have a nice throaty chant that ESU captured well. 

If interested, you can hear the sound at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EYTMJWnMT0

Work is progressing on my Milan branch of the IAIS. I’ve been laying roadbed and testing different approaches for tie distress and staining. Take a look at the images with captions in the next post.

Scott Thornton
Modeling the Milan branch of the Iowa Interstate
http://www.iaisrailfans.org/gallery/STMilanBranch