Plan for Hiawatha Switching

If you want some ideas for switching the Hiawatha elevators, look at  http://rrclub.umn.edu/model-railroad-ideas/switching-tight-places

Those are the diagrams I

Those are the diagrams I produced when working for the MNNR as an engineer. I shared that at an NMRA function. I also switched those facilities back in the 90s after we leased it from the CP.

Barry

Barry, what is the

Barry, what is the orientation of the mills to each other? This is exactly what I am looking for,,I would love to know how all tracks connect to each other.

Looks like this would be modeled without compression. 

Thanks for the input guys!!

laters, Wyatt

Home turf

Neat to see these photos of the old neighborhood. My brother worked for 44 years at the Nokomis Mill and for several years back in the 1950’s my dad worked there as well. I worked a couple summers at the Cargill feed mill that’s kitty-corner across the track from the Nokomis Mill. I was a summer employee while attending college after I got out of the army so it was merely a passing phase of my life but it convinced me I wasn’t cut out to be a millwright. Too many harrowing experiences in that elevator, one of which still chills me after almost fifty years. And it was hot, dirty, often brutal hard labor. But it had it’s upside too, like the army, and I worked with some really nice guys, genuine no-pretense people, glaring contrasts to the college students I rubbed elbows with most of the year.

In your first photo above, the Nokomis Mill is on the right. The elevators on the left were a Cargill facility and it had a little putt-putt diesel that had it’s own little engine house. The engine house is still there, next to alley-like Dight Ave. it used to be able to shunt back and forth between the two Cargill facilities using a double slip switch that let it us an interchange track as well, without fouling Milwaukee Road switching activity. The building in the background with the four windows used to be  Donaldson’s Dept Store warehouse and outlet store. I loved shopping there because there was a track into the showroom, sank into the floor so car doors were at floor level. Kind of cool to see a couple 50 foot boxcars spotted in the showroom while the parents shopped. The photo view is looking south from 35th Street. Back in the 50’s-60’s most of the cars going to Nokomis were 40 foot boxcars. I remember how the grey air slide cars stood out when they started arriving in the early 60’s but it took years for them to take over. The Nokomis Mill used to have two tracks on the Hiawatha Ave side. (None of that Highway 55 business to Southside Minneapolis denizens. It was Hiawatha Ave). Boxcars had their doors lined up and bridgeplates laid so workers could load across cars. When I was about nine or ten my dad was working that job and he slipped on an icy plate, cutting his leg painfully. Things were different in those days and my mom thought nothing of sending me over with a bottle of antiseptic on a winter night. My dad patched himself up and went back to work.

Your second photo is the northward view from the same location as the first photo. On the right is the Cargill mill where I worked. I worked in the warehouse on the opposite end of the mill and sometimes in the elevator itself. There was a conveyor belt running the length of the building in a basement tunnel that was only about five feet tall. Once in a while we had to go down there with shovels and scoop all the spill back onto the belt. No country for old men in there! Another interesting chore was to move boxcars by hand. You’d go up and release the handbrake and then use a car jack to get the car rolling. This was a long heavy pole with a “toe” you’d stick against the wheel tread, pump it down and nudge the car a few inchs. If you got a rhythm going you could get the car up to a slow walk .interesting. Learned to use a power shovel too and a dozen other jobs. When you look at that photo, just past the elevator there’s a clump of trees . Right in that area is the house where I grew up.

i’ve got a number of photos around here somewhere of the area, taken many years earlier when there was much more industry and track. If you’re interested perhaps I can find them. I’ve no shortage of tales from that trackage either.

well, enough blabber for now. 

Barry P.

Barry P, I would love to see

Hiawatha Ave

I am modeling the BN in Twin Cities in 1977 and I am enjoying this action!

Please, keep the pictures coming.

Terry H.

Atkinson Mill

Gary,

Nice stuff. Just one question how do you get to tracks 3 and 4. I enjoy switching elevators and industries in both worlds (model and prototype). I enjoy good operations and using your brain to solve the problems of setting out and picking up cars in the fewest moves as possible.

Later,

Randy Doman

When we last saw our hero he

When we last saw our hero he was fitting a gallant battle with the evil and treacherous plywood, But our hero succeeded in ripping the plywood with the help of his faithful companions Hitachi and Milwaukee. Together they quickly dispatched the evilness.

We now find out hero in the month of April, of the year 2019, in the city of Troy,,,

The work continues, Seeing that I need two corner sections for the current layout expansion, I used 3rd Plan-it to draw the sections in question. Using the drawing as a reference, I then proceeded to draw a 1:1 version on the floor to verify that everything would work. The corners are basically 3' squares with the ends at 45 degrees and the mating face is 18" to match the existing sections.

Here we have a completed section minus the foam. The 3/4" Birch is not attached yet.. it is there for mock up purposes.

Here are how the legs will be attached. The plywood you see is the top gusset of the leg assembly, just being used for mock up. I decided to keep all the legs the same so there will not be a confusion as to what legs go with what sections,, any legs will work with any section.

Here is a picture of a completed leg assembly.

An under side view of the sections so you can see the construction methods used.

And now the mock up of how they fit together. These are stand alone corners for the home layout,, but at shows they can be arranged any way. I only have one side of the mating faces on, still need 45 the other two.

I did also build a regular 6' section also. So being three total built,, 4 to go. I need to add the 2" foam to these sections also. I have 2 1/2 sheets of the material,, maybe this coming saturday might be good.

That is all, Laters,
Wyatt

Atkinson Mill

@CBQ 1968

Not sure.  I found those on the U of M Railroad Club site.  I suspect there are other leads that are left out.

I think that is ADM at 3745 Hiawatha:  https://goo.gl/maps/Y8TCVKfMwifGDQEQ8

News about the ADM MIll

I saw this today on a facebook group:

https://www.bakingbusiness.com/articles/48469-adm-milling-closing-two-more-flour-mills?fbclid=IwAR3ZKJvJHL8WIwMkBNZAuQXMgDZVQN6dHaRN6JJZwd0Iiz4IUrhrAmlePp4

Whew

Gary, 

Thank you for the intel. I model late 70’s to early 80’s, so the closure does not effect me,,WHEW!!

The more and more that I look at it...looks like each elevator needs an 8’ section..I don’t have that much room.  I just might have to pick one, I would also like room for the scrap dealer.

thanks, Greg

Update 1/4/2020

Hello all,

I know it has been awhile since I posted anything.

I was stuck on a track plan for the Hiawatha Ave part of my SOO/MILWAUKEE ROAD freemoN layout. I reached out to Karl Andraschko to see if he had any ideas, what he came up with fits the bill,, I dare say perfect in my eyes. The turnouts are the Atlas code 55 #7's

These past couple of days I was in the garage looking at the lumber and foam just sitting there, so I decided to build the remaining sections to complete the benchwork phase.

I had this pesky trapezoid looking thing, I asked another friend for his input. Allen Heimsoth offered his 2 cents,, which I gladly accepted and then proceeded to build.


I know the end result does not match the drawing that I drew in 3rd Plan-it, but I like the new one better.






So then I proceeded to build the other sections to finish it all off. The two tall ones are 6'9"x 1'6", the medium one is 4'5"x 1'6". And the shorty is 2'0"x 1'6". The shorty is for the SOO side of the layout, which will hold the International Paper industry.





I ran out of foam,, that is why the trapezoid is not pinked. I have some in a storage locker,, did not have time to get it. I had to drive 1 1/2 hours to the airport to pick up my daughter, coming back home from visiting friends on the west coast.

Next up,, paint the foam with the brown ground color,, print the track plan 1:1, transfer to sections,,, then start on cork.

Well that is all for now, not much,, but I was happy to make progress.

I am Wyatt and I approve this message.

Hi Wyatt: I am the other

Hi Wyatt:

I am the other Barry from Minnesota and I worked both the Soo/WC Minneapolis area and the MNNR Hiawatha Dist. I think we have communicated before on another site about your modeling these areas and would like to help if you like? 

For some reason the photos you posted don't show up and maybe it's because they are from the old site?

Barry

I wonder why

Barry, 

It would be great to have your help.

does the text appear ?, I copied the pics from another forum I posted at.

Wyt

Text but no pics

Text shows up in a box.  No pics, though.  I'd like to see what you're working on.

Gary,, Are all the pictures

Gary,, Are all the pictures missing, or just the ones in the last "update"?

thanks, wyatt

Wyatt, no pictures are

Wyatt, no pictures are showing at all, just large empty spaces where they should be.

Photos not showing

It appears the other forum that you have them on uses a database for storage and retrieval, and so they won't show here. 

You have a sizable amount of space here, go ahead and upload them here on the MRH site.