Logan Valley RR

[Chet]

Here's another post from Chet on the Logan Valley RR. It was started over 25 years ago. I had been in N scale when I started a small layout while living in an apartment in Florida. I have spent 6 years in the Navy and after getting out I was on the Florida Highway Patrol. Being originally from Montana, when my daughter was born, I figured it was time to move back.

We built a basement for the model railroad, and put a house on top of it. The N scale was enlarged to the point where I had about 16 scale miles of track between main line and branch line trackage. This was in the late 70's. The only problem I had was that the majority of N scale locomotives at the time were, well, trying to be nice, are what I would call crude. With the room I had available, the N scale was torn out and the planning for an HO scale layout was put into the planning stages.

Myself and a friend both started planning an HO layout. Actually two layouts. We were both fans of the Northern Pacific and I also a big fan of the Milwaukee Road. Growing up, I had relatives working for both the MILW and the NP, and when I was about 10, I got to ride in the cabs of Steam, Diesel and electric locomotives. Needless to say, that is where my interest in trains started.

My friend, Robin, had the upper level of an octagon building of about 2,500 feet available for his layout, and myself, not so lucky. I had a room of about 13 x 17 feet, and later tore down a wall to add another 9 x 12 feet.

Planning took over a year before any construction began. My Logan Valley is a short line/branch line that connects to the Northern Pacific at Logan, MT which was a division point on the NP.  From Logan, the LV runs south through Churchill and Anceny, MT to the town of Gallatin Gateway, MT which is where I happen to now live. Here it connects to the Milwaukee Road.

In 1927 the Milwaukee Road opened the Gallatin Gateway Inn in the town of Salesville, MT. After the opening of the inn, the town changed its name to Gallatin Gateway.



The Milwaukee Road promoted tourism to Yellowstone Park. Passengers would come to the Inn, spend the night and then travel south by motor coach through the Gallatin Canyon to West Yellowstone, MT, the west entrance to the park.



The inn finally ceased opeations in the early 50's. The Inn was added to the list of national historic sites in 1980.

Back to the model railroads. The Logan Valley ended in Gallatin Gateway. Robins railroad was named the Gallatin Canyon & Western. The GC&W rand south from Gallatin Gateway to West Yellowstone where it connected with the Union Pacific. In out twisted freelance history, the NP for some weird ICC regulation could not build the tracks for this route. The GC&W was partially financed by the NP, but the Logan Valley came to being as an independent railroad handling the traffic to the GC&W.

Isn't modelers license GREAT !!!  Planning even included using a USGS map to to find a route south to avoid going through the Yellowstone Park Boundaries. With the rough planning completed, construction was started on both railroads. With no hobby shops in the area I took on a dealership with Walthers, Con Cor and other suppliers. I also supplied model RR supplies to the Great Flaas model railroad club and its members at the time.

After about 9 month of construction, tragedy struck. Robin suffered a fatal Heart attack. The GC&W was now history, almost. During the 9 months, I had custom painted a number of Locomotives and rolling stock for the GC&W, and the plan we came up with was so good, that I just continued with the Logan Valley. In my twisted history, the Logan Valley bought out the GC&W and took over their route. Although I can't model that part of the route, I did put in hidden staging tracks to simulate the connection with the Milwaukee Road and the GC&W.

........................................................ To BE Continued

[ACL1504]

Chet,

I see that life got in the way of your model railroad. Very sorry to hear of the loss of your friend Robin. I'm looking forward to the rest of the story!

Tom

[GPdemayo]

Great story Chet.....the photos look good, I'm looking forward to seeing more of your empire. 

[S&S RR]

Great start to your layout thread! I too, am sorry to hear of the loss of your friend.  I'm looking forward to your future posts and following along with the build thread.

[Chet]

I will be giving a tour of the layout as soon as I get a number of photos sized better to fit the format. It was a bit of a shock when Robin passed away. This was over 20 years ago when it happened

While work started on the layout, other projects were also started. The layout is HO scale. I started hand laying code 70 rail and turnouts. After being in N scale, the over size rail height did get to me and for a branch line, code 70 seemed to be a good choice. Like the way it looks.

When not working on the layout, I started custom painting locomotives for the Logan Valley. When I started, over 20 years ago, there weren't a big choice in locomotives. There wasn't the choice that we have today. I started by getting a few Athearn locomotives. There were all remotored with NWSL can motors and constant light was installed. Right about this time, Atlas brought out their line of Alco locomotives. There were great operating locomotives, and even though Alcos weren't that numerous in the area, I always liked to look of them. I chose to model the transition era, 1957 to be exact, so they fit right in. I wanted to come up with a simple "family" look, and this is what I came up with. They all started off as undecorated units and some setail parts were added.



Here are some of the Alcos. There are others, probably off in the hidden staging area.



They are still fantastic operating locomotives today. Wish I had a few more of them. Locomotives on the Logan Valley are mostly B-B Diesels with one RSD 4/5 on the Logan Valley roster. I have a couple of SD-7's, one for the GC&W and one for the Milwaukee Road. The steam roast is mostly smaller locomotives. Consolidations are the most common, but I do have a couple of miles and a prairie.

I am still operating in the stone ages, DC only. I had considered DCC years back, but seeing that the layout was built as a switching layout, point to point,  and I almost never run more than one locomotive at a time, I decided to pass. There are no other model railroaders in my area interested in HO scale.

[Chet]

Gallatin Gateway was one of the earliest parts of the layout that was built. It has a yard and engine facility along with a few industries such as a meat packing plant, Ice platform, TOFC unloading ramps, a dairy, freight station, oil distributor, a milling and cabinet shop and a lumber mill that has yet to be built.

Being that the layout was built for switching, there is plenty to keep someone pretty busy right here. Below are a few pictures of the town.  Classic Metal Works was nice enough to come out with vehicles decorated for the Meadow Gold Dairy. The freight station is right behind it.



Across the street is the local market.



Behind the freight station is the passenger station.



This is the main street in town, with the engine facility at the bottom of the piture.



Here's the Gateway Cafe and the Post Office across the street from it.





Here is the turntable that was posted in the scratchbuild part of the forum.



Across the street from the turntable and engine house is the oil distributor.



In this picture you can also see the grain elevator.



This shot shows the entrance to the yard and engine facility.



The lumber mill will be going into the raised area behind the water tower at the rear of the picture. Below a Milwaukee road switcher is getting ready to depart the yard with a few cars to transfer to one of their trains.





Leaving the yard, the train crosses over the Gallatin River where fishermen are doing their thing.





The Milwaukee train waits on the yard lead as in inbound train passes.



The track in the background goes up to a switchback to a log loading ramp that will bring logs to the mill that will be built at sometime in the future.

In the next post I will move onto the next town which was recently torn down and is in the process of being rebuilt.

[GPdemayo]

Great photos Chet.....you shure have a bunch of cars and trucks on the layout, it really adds to the realism! 

[Chet]

Yes Greg, lots of cars. I have been accumulating them for about 25 years. Back then there were very few accurate vehicles for the transition era. In recent years manufacturers have brought out many good ones. The vehicles are one of the easiest ways to set an era for your railroad.

I am going to move on to the next town on the Logan Valley, the town of Anceny. It was torn out recently and is in the process of being rebuilt. I just didn't like the way it looked. Even in the rebuild, I made some changes.

The first picture is one of Woodland Scenics great buildings just as you enter Anceny.





The residence in the first picture is down the driveway to the left. As you come into town, we have a diner, with the grain elevator behind it. I originally had cattle loading pens behind the diner but little 1/87 people probably wouldn't like the smell so the pens were moved out of town. As you look down the street there is a market, hardware store and a gas station.







Part of moving things around was because I didn't have room for a freight station. It will have to be a scratch built to fit where the white sheet of styrene is. As you can see, the cattle pens were moved out of town past the oil distributor.







Here the cut leaving Anceny headed to the next town, Churchill.

[S&S RR]

Chet

Wow - you have been busy posting while I was away - the layout looks great.

[Chet]

Coming through the cut, the town of Churchill is next.







As you enter town, you pass the local mechanics shop and a company that manufacturers irrigation equipment.



A couple of residences are backed up against the tracks, looks like was day. Then we come to the local Chevy dealer. Again, vehicles sure help set the era you are modeling.







Across from the Chevy dealer is a snall park.



Next to the park is the passenger station for Churchill. It's been here so long that the sign fell off of the station. Across from the station is the local market, anddown the street some of the local businesses that still need signage.







The next picture is a scratch built freight station. I couldn't find and kits that I cared for at the time that could be either used as is or kit bashed, so I built my own, which has a partial interior and is lit.



Next the the freight stations is Tschache Oil (pronounced Shocky). This was a bit of a gag for a friend who's parents made their fortune in the oil industry years ago. Across from that is a hardware store, lumber yard and ag sales business.







As we leave town, there is another residence backed up against the tracks across from the grain elevator. There is a lot of switching to be done in this town.



Leaving town, we pass McNab Livestock. This was anmed after my friend Robin McNab, who worked for the Montana Livestock Association. A couple of stock cars that I custom painted for his GC&W are at the loading docks. The cattle pens were scratch built to fit the available space.



After leaving Churchill, the tracks pass the Van Dkke Farm and head downgrade to the last town, Logan.









In the last picture, the train is coming out of the hidden staging tracks, upgrade towards Churchill.

[bparrish]

Great city shots.

Thanx
Bob

[Chet]

Thanks for the comment. In time work will get done to upgrade the towns. This layout has been around for a while.

The last town on the Logan Vally is the town of Logan. The first picture is the passenger station. With the layout on hold for so long, I ended up rushing things and used mostly Walthers and a few other kits to get the final town started. It is still a work in progress. The structures and track is down finally. With the location of the buildings finally decided on, the track has to be ballasted before any work on the town itself can be started.

What I plan on doing is to use sheet styrene for the streets. I have a number of cheap "For Sale" sign that will be used for the streets and parking lots. For the concrete areas, seams will be scribed into the signs. They will be laid down using contact cement and the building and other items set on top. There will be a park area in front of the passenger station.



The next photo shows a couple of residences on the edge of town. I have a few wood craftsman kits I wanted to use, but in order to get things moving I did use some kits for these structures.



Across from the station is a business block. Out of the picture is a cafe. All of the businesses are actual business that are in the area. The one to the left will be Montana Motor Supply, which sells parts for cars, trucks and farm equipment. Spent a lot of money at the real place. Down from that is a variety store and a building housing a lawyers office and barber shop.



The next business block has the department store "Davenport". This was a prebuilt building. I figured that the time it would take to build and detail this building was well worth the time savings as I and trying to get this town moving forward. Down from that will be a bank, drug store and appliance and radio and TV sales business. Again, all will be named after real businesses in the area.



Across the street from the deprtment store is a market, which was a laser cut wood kit. Down the street from the market will be a hardware store, saloon and a furniture store.







Behind the market will be a restaurant housed in a B&O dining car, a fine dining restaurant called of all things "The Dining Car". My printer crapped out, so none of the businesses have any signs yet. I finally did get a new printer so that will come shortly. Down from that business block is the freight station. Not pictured across the street from the freight station is a Sears store, a Woolworths and a shoe store.



Down from the freight station is a gas station, oil distributor and a potato packing warehouse. That spud warehouse is a Walthers cannery kit I had sitting around for 10 plus years. After getting the tracks down and buildings set in place, it ended up that the cannery kit wouldn't be able to be used the way it was designed. There was no room for the boiler house, which was moved to supply the roundhouse. Also little room was left for a loading dock, so a door was cut into the end of the building and an internal loading dock was installed.









The last pictures are of the roundhouse and turntable, still under construction. I have to again get the track ballasted before construction can move forward. The last picture is of a scrap yard on the edge of town.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures. The camera I used isn't my best, but the picture size does not have to be resized. I'll post more photos as work progresses. I am really looking forward to get working on the town as this is the final town on the layout after 25 years. Then scenery and details will have to be updated in older areas of the layout.

[Powersteamguy1790]

Looking good Chet.


Stay cool and run steam.....

[LongHornCaddy]

LVRR rocks!  Chet, you make the best trees around!

[ACL1504]

Chet,

Very nice layout and thanks for all the gret photos.

Tom