Some Pictures of Lynden, WA back in the day

Well, it as been a while since I have posted.......a long while.....wow.... Much has happened over the last few years. I went from HO scale to O scale 2-rail and was jumping into G Scale and now I am back to HO.... Most of it has to do with availability of certain models while expense and room has some to do with it as well. Love the G scale but a limited selection of equipment and availability of what is produced forced me to make changes. O scale 2-rail--love it even more but with the amount of room available in the basement it was not feasible to run anything greater than 4 axle engines or longer than 40' box cars. So, back to HO which has the greatest amount of product available and at decent prices. So I have been selling off the G scale and O scale equipment. If interested let me know and I can get you a list. Meanwhile I am building up my collection of equipment a few cars at a time and it helps that a few manufacturers have jumped into the hobby since I was last in HO scale.

Changes in the making

It has been a while since I last posted and things have changed. For various reasons I have decided to exit 2-rail O scale and move up to G scale. One factor was that I felt I was not going to have enough room in the basement and the layout of the basement was such that I do not believe I could model Lynden correctly. That and the main room in the basement is not going to be free for full utilization for another 10 years or so. I certainly could have gone backward into HO scale which would have given me the ability to model as I wanted but as I have noted the eyes and fingers are not so great. I do like to put models together along with painting them, applying decals, and weathering so HO was out of the question. So I am in the process of weathering and such on my current equipment to sell over the next 3-6 months.

Why G scale or 1/29th scale? I have an entire yard that can be used for a layout as the boys are not using the yard so much now as they are getting older. I can now create the Lynden track plan as it should be with no compression or things left out. The equipment options may not be as great as in HO or O scale but I can certainly scratch build the equipment I need. I already have a NW-2 on hand ready for paint stripping, then new paint, lighting effects added, motor and sound decoders installed along with on-board battery power. No track power and no cleaning track to maintain electrical conductivity.

I figure for the amount of dollars I would have to put into the O Scale equipment (accurate trucks and wheelsets) that I could attain G scale equipment at a lower price. One USA Trains 60 ft boxcar at $100 with accurate details essentially taking up the same amount of space as two Atlas O 60 ft boxcars at $70-$80 each that require new trucks/wheelsets that cost from $35 to $60 a pair, you do the math.

I will post more as I move along, especially of the work I will be doing on the NW-2.

Map of Lynden

I was able to ascertain pdf files of maps covering all of the Milwaukee Road lines from Bellingham north to Sumas and over to Lyden. The only thing is these maps are from the 1930's time frame. Even though they are way before the time frame I am modeling they are a great help to me in being able to model Lynden, WA accurately.

Hope and Dreams

My dream was originally to model the Bellingham area of the Milwaukee Road especially the portion around the Whatcom Waterway and Citizen's Dock. However, I have had difficulty getting pictures, information, and details about the industry that the Milwaukee Road served. I am also realizing that I don't have sufficient room in the basement to adequately model the area.

So, I have decided to focus on Lynden, WA as the area to model. There are several reasons for choosing Lynden: one being the famous Lynden Feeds spur for my 4427 hopper fleet, a cold storage industry for my 57' mechanical reefer fleet, the Darigold industry for my boxcar fleet, and I feel that I can adequately model Lynden in the basement. Pictures are still hard to come by but thanks to friends on the Milw and MilwModeler's yahoo groups I have good details about the industries.

I hope to collect more information and will post what I have so far soon.