Greetings and salivations all! Sorry I’ve taken so long to post something, but finally I have... well... something. I’ve not got the room for a working layout so I plan to build a roughly 4’ x 8’ diorama of the MKT railroad through my home town of Temple, Texas, circa the 1950s. I’m building stand-alone modules around each key structure and eventually they’ll be pieced together on a layout table to form the diorama. I plan to build about twenty structure modules. I also have some period rolling stock from Tichy Train Group that I’ll be building, along with a GP-7 engine that I’ll be refurbishing. The thing that got me started on this project was the interlocking tower that guarded the crossing between the MKT and ATSF trackage – Tower 24. The tower was built in 1903 by funding from both railroads (as was required) but the tower was staffed by Santa Fe personnel. Below is a picture of the original tower around the late 40s/early 50s. As far as I could find out, the mechanical interlocking control system was replaced with an electrical control system sometime in the early 50s. Since my module will depict the MKT through 1959, I’ve modeled (as best I could) the electrified control panels inside the tower. Below are some pictures of my Tower 24 model and its module. The tower is completely scratch built and has a lighted interior. I still have to add ballast to the tracks and I need to change/update some other details but this module is pretty near finished. Thanks for looking!
Very well done! And a great way to enjoy the hobby while you don't have layout space. You captured a lot of the real scene, including the poles/wires etc. Great looking!
Wow, that looks fantastic. You even included a pistol grip interlocking machine and poles outside with crossarms enough to handle all those wires, just like in the prototype picture. Really nice work! Thanks for posting these.
Hello, all, Below is a preliminary diagram of my Tower 24 MKT diorama showing six of the twenty or so modules I expect to build. Two modules – the Tower 24 module and the Auto Repair module - are essentially complete. The Trackside Industry module will represent an actual mile or so of track between the signal bridge and the depot. Even with this compression, the current plan depicts only about half of the trackage and the table is already 10 feet long! One advantage of building the layout in modules is that they can be taken up and moved in the event I’m able to expand the diorama into a true layout. Another is they don’t have to be done in any particular order, which helps reduce boredom .
So, is there an eventual plan to incorporate all of these into one huge layout? If six of 20 modules is 10 feet are you eventually looking to have around 30-40 LF of modules? Following with great interest!
Well no, that's not likely. Maybe a dog-leg with another 4-6 ft or so to represent the other half of the MKT trackage, but not as deep as this one. I may even have to scale this one back if I don't stop getting older... .
My Auto Repair model (Sid's Auto Service) is a model of a car repair shop that I remember being in the area of the Temple MKT depot, but just where it was and exactly what it looked like, I can’t recall. So I re-worked a Plasticville (Bachmann) Auto Repair shop kit (shown below) into a more practical floor plan, redid the front wall, added a bathroom and built a new roof. Most of the interior detail is scratch built, including the lift and the Coats tire changer, plus the office and waiting room. Plasticville (Bachmann) Auto Repair Shop kit #45532 Modified front, side walls and roof. Waiting room and bathroom added. New roof and extended walls. Thanks for looking!
