The Milwaukee Road's Chicago & Evanston Line on Chicago's North Side Lives-in N-Scale!
Starting in 2000 I began to model the Milwaukee Road’s former Chicago & Evanston Line that operated on Chicago’s North Side in N-scale. After several years I finished the section that replicated the prototype with street trackage on Lakewood Avenue between Belmont and Wellington. I was inspired by Bill Denton’s famous “Kingsbury” N-scale layout that also modeled the same Milwaukee Road C&E Line but farther south, in downtown Chicago. Bill was an encouragement to me and we displayed our layouts together at two shows.
As I put this diorama into storage as I move onto other projects I wanted to document it. There were no guides or manuals on creating street trackage in N-scale-everything was HO oriented-so I had to sort of had to use trial and error. I hope what I detail below helps future N-scale modelers of urban scenes.
The scene depicted here combines the best of the 1960s and into the early 1980s when the Milwaukee Road abandoned the tracks north of Diversey in 1984. It shows double tracks down the street though by the early 1970s it was consolidated down to one track. Some compression was used. Best Brewing was a customer of the Milwaukee Road before it shut down in the early 1960s while Reed Candy was served by the Milwaukee Road through 1982. Today this scene is unrecognizable except for the Best Brewing complex which is now apartments. Reed Candy was knocked down in the 1990s and replaced by the “Sweeterville” townhomes.
The coal cars shown depict the interchange traffic the Milwaukee Road had with the Chicago Transit Authority at the Buena Yard in the Uptown neighborhood. The Milwaukee Road would hand off coal hoppers, tank cars, boxcars destined for coal yards, fuel oil dealers, and the lumberyard at Howard Avenue. The CTA used electric locomotives to handle the freight cars until it ended in April of 1973. No more would freight trains pass in front of Wrigley Field.
All buildings on this diorama were scratchbuilt from historic photos using a combination of Design Preservation Modules, various components from Walthers kits, Plastruct sheets of molded styrene, Grant Line windows, doors, and frames, and more. And India ink wash over the brick surfaces gave them an aged look. Floquil enamel paints were used.
The track is Atlas Code 80 chosen for its high rail profile which made it easier to model street trackage around it. The roadbed was built up with cork and the pavement made from sheets of card stock and carefully cut styrene in between the rails and at the switch points. Stained, balsa wood strips were used to simulate timber grade crossing protection. The operating signals are from NJ International. To simulate the period specific use of asphalt siding in its various colors on the houses I took pictures of actual siding, scanned the prints, the printed them using an inkjet printer onto paper. The paper was then cut into the right sizes and glued onto the sides of the houses, cutting out the spaces for windows and doors with a knife.
To see my other diorama showing this same line passing Wrigley Field circa 1973 go to www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157676195056596
Photo of this scene shown below.
The Milwaukee Road's Chicago & Evanston Line on Chicago's North Side Lives-in N-Scale!
Starting in 2000 I began to model the Milwaukee Road’s former Chicago & Evanston Line that operated on Chicago’s North Side in N-scale. After several years I finished the section that replicated the prototype with street trackage on Lakewood Avenue between Belmont and Wellington. I was inspired by Bill Denton’s famous “Kingsbury” N-scale layout that also modeled the same Milwaukee Road C&E Line but farther south, in downtown Chicago. Bill was an encouragement to me and we displayed our layouts together at two shows.
As I put this diorama into storage as I move onto other projects I wanted to document it. There were no guides or manuals on creating street trackage in N-scale-everything was HO oriented-so I had to sort of had to use trial and error. I hope what I detail below helps future N-scale modelers of urban scenes.
The scene depicted here combines the best of the 1960s and into the early 1980s when the Milwaukee Road abandoned the tracks north of Diversey in 1984. It shows double tracks down the street though by the early 1970s it was consolidated down to one track. Some compression was used. Best Brewing was a customer of the Milwaukee Road before it shut down in the early 1960s while Reed Candy was served by the Milwaukee Road through 1982. Today this scene is unrecognizable except for the Best Brewing complex which is now apartments. Reed Candy was knocked down in the 1990s and replaced by the “Sweeterville” townhomes.
The coal cars shown depict the interchange traffic the Milwaukee Road had with the Chicago Transit Authority at the Buena Yard in the Uptown neighborhood. The Milwaukee Road would hand off coal hoppers, tank cars, boxcars destined for coal yards, fuel oil dealers, and the lumberyard at Howard Avenue. The CTA used electric locomotives to handle the freight cars until it ended in April of 1973. No more would freight trains pass in front of Wrigley Field.
All buildings on this diorama were scratchbuilt from historic photos using a combination of Design Preservation Modules, various components from Walthers kits, Plastruct sheets of molded styrene, Grant Line windows, doors, and frames, and more. And India ink wash over the brick surfaces gave them an aged look. Floquil enamel paints were used.
The track is Atlas Code 80 chosen for its high rail profile which made it easier to model street trackage around it. The roadbed was built up with cork and the pavement made from sheets of card stock and carefully cut styrene in between the rails and at the switch points. Stained, balsa wood strips were used to simulate timber grade crossing protection. The operating signals are from NJ International. To simulate the period specific use of asphalt siding in its various colors on the houses I took pictures of actual siding, scanned the prints, the printed them using an inkjet printer onto paper. The paper was then cut into the right sizes and glued onto the sides of the houses, cutting out the spaces for windows and doors with a knife.
To see my other diorama showing this same line passing Wrigley Field circa 1973 go to www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157676195056596
Photo of this scene shown below.