Logan Valley


I really enjoy looking at all these pictures and the descriptions are fantastic!

Thank you very much!

Louis
 
I've been dragging things out of storage and box's with the idea of building another layout. One thing that has become painfully obvious is how much better the vehicles are now. I will certainly spend some $ on these if I build. It is obvious on your layout what a difference they make.

Steve
 
I love layouts that are reminders of our youth. I think many are whether we mean to or not. The thing we grew up with that shaped our views and outlooks. Many years ago at a Tacoma Mall show an older woman stood looking at my layout for maybe 15 minutes. She finally moved over to me and announced that she knew where this was supposed to be. She told me that she grew up there. I don't remember the town. I told her that I grew up there too. That the town was imaginary. I told her the scenes were just memories from my youth although not from the same place or time. We talked for some time sharing memories from our childhood. I think this was one of the most gratifying moments of my model railroading shows. I really felt that I had succeeded with my layout.

Steve
 
This is a fantastic layout, montanan! I think I will be incorporating a couple of your ideas on my layout. You've certainly given me a lot of inspiration with your first rate work!
 
Thanks for the positive input. I was out of town for a few days to the Mecum auction selling a few of my collector cars. Tried to keep up with a laptop, but it got a bit busy down there in Monterey. I'll put some more pictures up as soon as I get caught up on some other work.
 
Here are a few more pictures of the town of Churchill.

IMAG0296.jpgIMAG0098_BURST002.jpgIMAG0310.jpgIMAG0093.jpg

The first picture is looking down the main street in Churchill where the tanker is onloading fuel at Tschache Oil. The next is 184 southbound passing 189 switching cars in town. Next is a teen ager with his hot rod pickup courting his girlfriend. The last is a close up of Vincent Supple across the street form pic 3. This is another scratchbuilt structure. If you can't find what you need as a kit, build it to fit.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Now I'll continue north and the grain elevator and scratch build cattle pens can be seen.

IMAG0176.jpgIMAG0295.jpg

In he first picture, to the right is a hopper car. Potatoes, which are a big crop in this area are dumped into the hoppers similar to coal loading ramps. They are then moved to warehouses for sorting and shipping. The ramp hasn't been build yet.
In town is also Ed's Market which is a kit that was built, interior details added and lighting installed.

Picture 239.jpgPicture 300.jpg

I enjoy detailing and lighting buildings as they do add interest.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Here are a few other buildings that have had the interior detailed. The freight station and Chevy dealer in Churchill.

609.jpg5235_261151_270000000[1].jpg5235_261152_180000000[1].jpg351.jpg And the diner in Anceny.
 
As I have mentioned, I am a lone operator, so I am still in the stone ages, operating DC. At one time I had considered DCC, but with the cost of the system and booster, and the time and cost of installing decoders, I decided to pass. I have been using a couple of GML walk around throttle with memory, and have extremely satisfied with them.
gmk 2.jpg

The majority of Logan Valley power are old Atlas Alcos. Got them undecorated when they first came out. There weren't many Alcos used in this area, but I just like them. Another nice thing about freelancing. These Atlas units are still fantastic running units even though they are almost 20 years old. No problem at all running them in multiple units either. I purposely put in a two and a half percent grade from Logan to Churchill to limit the length of the local trains, along with the passing sidings, which are good for a 14 car train. Multiple units are necessary if I happen to have a 40 to 50 car train run through from hidden staging.

It took a while to come up with a simple, family looking paint job for the Logan Valley. We had custom decals made for the Gallatin Canyon & Western, but I decided to pass and lettered the locomotives letter by letter after detailing and painting them. I also custom painted a number of freight cars and cabeese.

0020.jpg0021.jpg2034.jpg

I also have locomotives for the Northern Pacific and Milwaukee Road.
 
Hey Montanan,

Everything is super impressive, right down to the interiors. You clearly have spent infinite hours and care on your project. Top notch work!

logandsawman
 
I too am a big fan of first generation diesel power. I have several Atlas RS-3 and RS-11's sitting in a box from when I purchased them some 15 or so years ago. They are still new in the box. I have been sitting on this stuff for years with nowhere to build an HO layout. I now have the space for a shelf layout 2 x 11 feet and have been trying to decide if I want to do a shelf HO layout or use the space for something in N-Scale which I also have a small collection of.
 
I wish I would have picked up more of these old Atlas locomotives some times, but as old as they are, they still run like a gem. There are a few others not shown in the picture so I really have enough. The FA 1 is an Athearn that has been remotored. I was never really impressed with how the early Athearn locomotives ran and have replaced all the motors with NWSL can motors. There was no DCC back then. All the Athearn locomotives also have constant/reversable lighting also. Built my own lighting circuits with a diode bridge. There's just something about the looks of the early Alcos this I really like.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Here are some of the other locomotives. The Northern Pacific geeps are among my newer locomotives, and they are about 10 or so years old. Nothing like this was available when I started into HO years back.

IMAG0460.jpg

If I wanted proper NP equipment, I had to custom paint them, like this F unit. It started off as an undecorated Athearn unit. It was remotored, and constant lighting was installed. Winter hatches and spark arrstors were added as well as many other details. It doesn't show in the picture, but the marker lights are lit using fiber optics.

IMAG0461.jpg

The FA-1 was also remotored and constant lighting was also installed. The Milwaukee Road switcher was also an Athearn undecorated unit. This one had a little more work done to it. Along with remotoring and constant lighting, the front grill was replaces, pilots changes, spark arrestors and wagon wheel antenna was also installed, as well as other details. This little Milwaukee switcher is one sweet running locomotive. I would put it up against anything available on todays market.

IMAG0463.jpgIMAG0469.jpg

One unexpected benefit of remotoring these locomotives was that they now run at the same speed as my old Atlas Alcos, and can be used in multiple units if needed.
 
Really nice work. I always love seeing track plans, so I hope you post one someday (or a link to where you have already posted it, if I missed it).

From the DairyStatePhone
 
I actually don't have a track plan drawn out. I had a basic idea of what I wanted when it was started over 20 years ago and it just slowly grew into what you see.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top