Saying hi to everyone, from central Illinois. I am getting back into the modeling portion of the hobby again after about 22 years without a layout. I used to model the Burlington Northern in N scale back in the 80's, then a move back to Illinois from Arizona put an end to the layout. Fast forward and now I am getting ready to start a new N scale layout this fall based on the Burlington from about 1960-1965, give or take a year or two. NO premerger green will be found on this layout! It will be loosely based on the Beardstown Sub south of Galesburg. I am buying all new locos because they are SO much better than anything that was available back in the late 80's and it will be DCC. Installing decoders is not my favorite thing to do but they are definitely worth the time, money and trouble. Looking forward to getting some new ideas and learning new ways of doing things (so much has changed!) and I will be asking for help, I'm sure, especially with the DCC! Thanks, Bob.
Vern says, "Welcome aboard!" Where in Central Illinois are you Bob? I'm in East Central and belong to the Bloomington/Normal N-Trak club. I model the CB&Q myself and have collected a fair amount of books. I look forward in seeing your progress on the layout. Also, I'm sure your aware, are you heading to Galesburg RR Days? I blame this show for getting me hooked on the "Q"!
Thanks for the welcome, guys. I hope to get about everything I need to start laying track and running trains very soon. I've got a real good start now, just want more! Jim, I'm in Fulton county. It isn't the edge of the world, but you can see it from here! As for Railroad Days.................I was planning on that for about the last 11 months, but we are going to Texas to see our son and daughter-in-law during that time. Oh well, there's always next year. Wait, I had to say that last year! Life tends to get in the way.
I do the Q in Z scale. Same era, same track. Between Waltonville and Sesser. I would recommend this book >>The Q in the coal fields of southern Illinois Issue 35 of Burlington bulletin. Authors, John D. Mitchell, Burlington Route Historical Society. << Lots of NICE coal hoppers and composite gondolas in N scale for long coal drags on that route. And you can get off the shelf SD7s too. Burlington guys, we need to stick together.
Burlington Route, I plan on loosely modeling the area from around Arenzville to Bushnell. I used to work at a coal mine in the mid 70's to the end of '83. I grew up along side the CB&Q tracks when I was a kid growing up on the farm. A lot of good memories from those times. There is a fair amount of Q items in N scale, I sure would like to see more. I've got an Atlas SD9 redbird and an Atlas GP7 blackbird. Also, a couple of Kato F3A's in silver for the CZ. On the hunt for more. You're definitely right about sticking together!
And that part of Illinois is soooo easy to model. Flat piece of foam and a grass mat and its done. Im using Google Earth and you can find 1939 to 41 aerial photo survey online. Finding were to put the coal chutes and water tanks and other stuff.
Yeah, from Arenzville to Beardstown that is true, but you do have the Arenzville hill just south of Arenzville. Once you cross the Illinois River at Beardstown you have the climb through the bluffs and it's very hilly country with a couple of good sized trestles until you get to Vermont then it's mostly flat as a pancake all the way to Galesburg. I'll be checking out the old aerial photos on Google Earth. Didn't know that anything like that was available, thanks. That will help with some of the abandoned track right-of-ways.
Thank you very much, Burlington Route!! That is fantastic! Found the farm where I grew up. From the looks of the photos it looks like it was before the tornado came thru that year. I'll be spending a lot of time on that site!
