Join the discussion on the following article:
Train traffic through Kirkland, Ill.
Although I do not model this area of the US, nor the time frame (about 10 years to early). I do appreciate the added info that the article gives. This allows us to see how the railroads would operate and why!
From prototype to model a most interesting and useful example of how to go about building a pike based upon actual railroad operations and conditions. I commend MR on the composition and organization of this highly useful article.
I’ve just received my July issue (I live in France) and read the kirkland article.
As a strong Midwest transition era fan, this track plan has a lot of appeal.
For a future layout, I was stuck into a project of a small Midwest based CB&Q junction town boasting a medium yard.
Kirkland would be less daunting to model, and could offer a nice variety of rolling stock and operations (passenger trains, through freights, locals) and the MILW seems to be well covered in RTR models.
I’m contemplating to adapt this track plan to Nscale (should be possible to squeeze it in a 1’ x 8’ without ‘wings’) and backdating it to the 50’s (with some Kato’s heavy USRA MILW mikes still
rolling ?)
Many thanks to MR, and to authors, D.Popp and A.Roth for bringing this nice RR town plan up !
This was a good plan, although I wish the article had a little more info. I live the apartment life so this plan fit onto a pair of 2-1/2 x 5 foot N scale modules would work great. The amount of modeling traffic is exceptional for a smaller layout. Through freights, locals, local passenger service, through passenger service. A good article all-round, whether modeling this plan or not.