To All: Another of the scratchbuilt interlocking towers on the E. St. Louis Rail Group layout is Bixby Interlocking Tower at the entrance to Missouri Avenue Yard. Here is a pix attachment of Bixby Tower.

To All: All the interlocking towers on the E. St. Louis Rail Group layout were scratchbuilt by me from photos in a TRRA Historical Society publication. Here is an attached photo of the Interlocking tower at Valley Jct.

To All: One of the railroads on the E. St. Louis Rail Group Layout is the Cotton Belt. The Blue Streak Merchandise is  the premier train that ran on the prototype Cotton Belt , so is it on the layout. This train carried time sensitive auto parts and LCL freight. I painted, lettered, weathered and dullcoated this shell for use on a Proto 2000 chassis,  to pull the BSM. After this pix was taken I installed window glass, grab irons, couplers, cut bars, etc.

To All: Another locomotive run on the E. St. Louis Rail Group Layout is an RS-3 Litchfield & Madison one.I painted, lettered, weathered and dullcoated it.  The decals are by Champion.

Yours, Elvin Howland/E. St. Louis Rail Group

To All: The railroads going into and out of E. St. Louis in the 1950-1970 era were--Litchfield & Madison (C&NW), NYC (CCC&St.L or Big 4), PRR, NKP, IC, GM&O, Illinois Terminal, L&N, Cotton Belt (SSW), Southern, MP, TRRA, CB&Q, B&O, C&EI, WABASH, E. St. Louis Jct. (in the city only), and Alton & Southern. Also the St.Louis & Belleville Electric RY, St. Louis & O'Fallon, Chicago, Peoria & St.

To All: I am a fan of the caboose, that is why I model from 1950-1970. This Litchfield & Madison caboose was kit bashed by me and Champion decals applied (sadly this company is no longer in business). The L&M was a subsidiary of the C&NW, used by that road to gain entry to E. St. Louis.

  Yours, Elvin Howland/E. St.Louis Rail Group layout

 PS: The title to this blog post should be Litchfield & Madison Caboose

To All: Another building I built for my customer in Japan was a power plant in N Scale. Again he sent me drawing of the actual plant to build the model from. This plant was just down the street from the passenger station. The structure is made of styrene as a base and the columns and decorative work built up of layered styrene in the correct profiles.   Yours, Elvin Howland/Layout Concepts,  E. St. Louis Rail Group layout

To All: Many years ago I built this San Diego Passenger Station for a customer in Japan. He sent me blueprints from 1914, that were 7 feet long, to accurately build it!. It is completely scratch built and I made a special box to ship it in, as even in N Scale it is 4 feet long!

To All: About 15 years ago I made a 50ft.Dept of Agriculture Weighting Inspection Car. I am still using it on the E. St. Louis Rail Group layout. See Attachment in Recent Posts.

To All: Photo of Monsanto company, click attachment image number.