My memory is not so good anymore I guess, was there a prototype for this type of industry on the CNW in Neshkoro Wisconsin? I remember seeing pickle vats someplace out there in Waushara County…
Randy Stahl
I remember reading an article about a pickle plant in an issue of Model Railroader from the 1950s or 1960s. IIRC, the article was by Gordon Odegard, and the pickle plant was located in Wisconsin. I think there were drawings with the article.
I’m saving my money for the Model railroader collection on dvd/cd. what a resource that will be !! Like I said , my memory is nearly fried I need all the help I can get .
Randy
Pickle stations were common all around the Great Lakes and in Minnesota and Iowa as well. The designs varied in the specifics, but the AMB kit is a good representation of a typical pickle station.
A quick check through the OpSIG’s online Industry Database lists quite a few pickling stations in towns throughout Wisconsin (see http://www.opsig.org/reso/inddb/). This list is by no means exhaustive, but is a good starting point.
Back when Athearn, Revell, and Ambroid all had pickle cars in HO, Dennis Blunt wrote an article in the February 1961 MR – “A Factory for those pickle cars.” His prototype was in Elk Mound, WI, together with his recollections of a plant in Knapp WI.
Paul Larson, an excellent modeler and editor of MR for a time in the late 1950s, had a photo feature on a pickle works in the January 1955 MR, page 40. His photos were of a plant in Palmyra WI on the Milwaukee Road.
I have both issues but agree that the advent of the Model Railroader DVD will be wonderful for just this sort of thing. Presumably searching for certain terms will even turn up corrections and addendum that appear in the letters to the editor section, which is not indexed.
My good buddy Dave Leider of Illinois gives a superb clinic on pickle cars and pickle works. Fortunately he wrote up his info on pickle works for the February 2002 issue of RMC. Highly recommended
Dave Nelson