Hinckley Part 2

More progress here too. I got the roadbed down and I started the contouring for the ditches and swamps and such.This shot is looking SW down the BNSF main. The first switch is the Skally Line, the second is NSS Hinckley and the third is the switch to downtown Hinckley.

This is looking straight north on the Skally. At the very bottom of the shot is the start of the Skally Interchange track. The main line curves off to the left. The cork going straight of the edge of the module is the old NP main. Hinckley was originally a diamond for the GN and NP. BN eliminated the diamond and added the switches. The old grade still exists, so I figured I would give my little not to history on that one.

Tiller Part VII

A quick update on the structure progress. The first set of silos are coming along, I mounted them all to one piece of styrene after adding all the bracing for the support legs. The elevators are all installed, as is the safety ladder on the end. Next up is figuring out the mess of down spouts and safety platforms. The silos are over 60 N scale feet tall and the elevators are over 80 feet tall, pretty close to the prototype.

The ladders and cages are a Gold Medal Models brass kit. The platform was modified from another GMM kit.

Tiller Part VI

It was time to start on the Tiller Corp. buildings. I decided to start by scratch building the main sand silos. I scratch build them with 7/8" wooden dowel, .010" and .020" sheet styrene and .080" styrene H beam. They stand about 3 1/2" tall and will be a nice start to the complex once I get some detail parts on them and get them painted.

Hinckley Pt. 1 Cleaning out the garage

The town of Hinckley, MN has a major purpose for the Skally Line. Hinckley is the place where the SCXY interchanges with the BNSF. Cars for the Skally are picked up or dropped of by BNSF's Hinckley Local or by trains heading from Northtown Yard to Superior, WI or back (NTWSUP or SUPNTW). for operations on my Skally Line to work, I have to model Hinckley.

Yesterday my wife decided to clean the house, so like a good husband, I headed to the garage. I decided to clean and take inventory of materials and supplies. By some odd calculation, I had enough stuff sitting there to get a good start on the first two Hinckley modules (at least two more will be needed to finish the scene. Here is an overall view of the two. The top module will hold the BNSF main and the NSS Hinckley switch as well as the BNSF section house.

The south module is where the Skally line starts. After coming off the BNSF main, it makes a sweeping curve to head south. These are the tightest curves on the Skally Line and they will both be 36" in radius. At the south end is the start of the Skally Line's interchange track, the siding the BNSF uses for pick ups and drop offs. It looks like a patchwork quilt because I was using up pieces of foam left over from other projects (aka: cleaning out the garage).

The North module I re-purposed from another project. After chopping it down to size (I keep my "dominos" at a 6'3" max length) I laid out the new track plan. The BNSF line runs SW to NE at this point. The siding to the left will head north to Lakes Gas and a small BNSF bone yard. The line to the right is the Skally Line (the old BN Amer Subdivision) and the siding on the bottom right is the North end of the BNSF Hinckley siding.

All the switches will be #10s on these modules.