| Ford City Northern model railway homepage |
| Welcome to the Ford City Northern homepage, which is dedicated to the hobby of N-Scale model railroading and to the N-Scale model railroad I am building in my basement. As time permits I will update this page with pictures and details of that construction and progress. Jerry G. A Link to the Milwaukee N SouthEastern model railroad club of Cudahy, Wisconsin MNSE |
| Site maintained on April 26th, 2009 Thanks for stopping by... |
| On the left is the layout of the Layout. The letters are location codes for the Alpha train I. D. system. FC=Ford City RA=Randolph CH=Chase Siding PR=Princeton WA=Wautoma WR=Wild Rose WC=Wisconsin Rapids (all points north) |
Ford City, (photo on right) All but one of the buildings in this photo are scratch-built using stryene stock and Grandt Line doors and windows. With the exception being the Tan brick building in the lower right, that is a DPM "Gripps Luggage" kit that was modified. A "Kwik Trip" gas station is located near the center, across the street from the FCN's Engine shop and Station / Dispatching / General Offices. Behind and to the right of the Engine shop is a turntable and four storage tracks. Where FCN stores locos for spare parts and future projects. Shops Yard is located at the upper left of photo. And consists of a five track yard with a capacity for 40+ cars.. |
(upper left photo) The Hwy D crossing signals are now working. The signals are made from brass tube and wire stock and small LEDs. Light shrouds are MT washers ACCed to the LEDs. With the signal's framework acting as the lighting circuits ground wire, there is only one wire required for electrical hook-up. A 1K ohm resistor is soldered to the brass shelve that the signal's mast slips into. (lower left photo) The Farm scene is complete with plowed fields, "Ford" farm tractors and "Meyer" farm implements and the bovines are in the pasture. The large blue tractor is the GHQ FORD Versatile tractor kit. The small blue tractor is scratch-built as is the red "Meyer" feed wagon and manure spreader. The farm house, barn and fences are styrene creations... Two "Full" corn silos are made from wooden dowel stock, covered with "printed corn" on paper stock topped with a paper roof. The bovines are cast metal creatures.. Still to be added are Forage spreaders and another hay wagon... |
| The CEN-WIS Cooperative at Randolph is open for business as well as the Central Oil company, which is located behind the CO-OP. The open area just across the road from the CO-OP building is the FCN's Transloading site for loading and unloading: Cement , Sand and Farm implements for Off-line customers. |
WP&P, Wautoma Pulp & Paper is the paper mill located in Wautoma, and is the largest industry on the layout. This is the Third incarnation of this structure as this part of the layout has been changed with each new idea. It is constructed of a corrugated cardboard mockup with .040 thick styrene sheet stock as the sheathing. The tanks and silos are made from various items such as: a oatmeal box; bathroom tissue tubes, all covered in styrene. All other building details (piping, railings and ductwork) are also of styrene construction. The chain-link fence is brass rod stock with bridal vail (silver-color)as the fencing. The FCN engine working the kaolin tankcar is the railway's only B18-7, #180. |
(lower left photo) Dairyland Power (Walthers' powerhouse kit-modified) is located on the White River just north of Wautoma. The high-tension tower in the background is made of styrene stock shapes as is the build add-ons and chain-link fence. (lower right photo) A 100 year-old bridge (1891) carries the FCN traffic here onto Wisconsin Rapids. To the right of the bridge is the White River Dam. The bridge is made of Styrene stock and the dam is made from cardstock with movable gates made from styrene. The actual riverbed is only 1/32th thick. Being, Extrued Foam painted with Gloss Medium and artist's paints added to add depth. |
| The FCN is a free-lanced railway, meaning it is not modeled after a specific prototype road. But, is made up from ideas (rolling stock, operations, etc....) taken from many prototype roads. Those being Wisconsin Central Ltd. and Wisconsin Southern RR to name a few. The layout is located in my basement. See Construction link. It is setup to run point-to-point, but a connecting track was added to allow for continuous running for open houses, when I am operating it alone and when I just want to see the trains go by. The overall measurements are: 15 feet long, 11 feet wide and stands at an average height of 52" from floor to track level. Train control is DCC and comes from a NCE (1) PH1 Powerhouse PRO command station with a built-in 5 AMP booster. Throttles are (1) PROCAB and (4) CAB-04 intermediate cabs. These cabs connect to the layout through (7) Cab Bus Fascia Panels (#UTP). The Locomotive roster consists of Atlas B23-7s and locomotives based on them. (3) B23-7s, (1) B23-7B and (2) B32-9Ws (using B23-7 chassis') And a B18-7. All units are painted into FCN's Slate Blue scheme. I will adding to my two other sites, in the coming weeks... one for FCN's Locomotive paint schemes through the years. Roster And one for Scratchbuilding & Kitbashing model railroad stuff. Scratch |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The next set of photos are scenes from Princeton area. (above right) Is an overview of the siding to the Del Monte plant, the storage spur along the abandoned CO-OP and the backside of the buildings in Princeton's Industrial area. This area is NOW changed with the advent of a NEW Industry. The production of Ethanol...... (below photo) is the entire Badgerland Ethanol complex. It occupies the site of the old CO-OP. (The old building will be saved and moved to a new location). The complex had to be greatly compressed to fit into the space at hand. Using photos from the website of an existing plant in Monroe, WI. I found enough photos to model with. I tried to represent most of the operation's main structures..... (below right photo) FCN train, FCWR is crossing over Hwy 23 as it passes behind the Trusdale Implement dealer. |
 |
Wild Rose, is the last swiching location on the Ford City Northern. On the far left is the Northwoods Lumber Company yard. It uses a pair of forklifts(scratchbilt) and Lumber loads made from balsa wood forms wrapped in printed paper stock. Main building and lumber port are styrene pieces as well. Wild Rose Creamery is the beige brick building on the right. It is a DPM "Gripps Luggage" kit, that has been slightly modified . The Wild Rose CO-OP is the center Gray structure with the white roof and is a scratch-built creation. |
 |
 |
| Both of the layout's two main passing sidings now have signals. These signals show GREEN for "Normal" turnout position and RED for "Reverse". If you look to the left of the switch points, there is a "Micro" switch that is directly linked to the points of the turnout. The signal consists of a bi-color T-1 LED and brass mast and ladder. The small round box below the signal is the battery vault (a piece of styrene tubing and top) . |
|
 |
| The last major unsceniced area is finally completed. The Cranberry Bogs are now in place. There are two bog ponds for the cranberry vine plants and a drainage canal to the left for storing the flood waters. The Buildings in the background are for maintenance of the farm's equipment. The sand plie to the right is used to cover the bed each winter to protect the plants from frost. The sand is applied after the bogs have frozen-over. When the ice melts, the sand drains and is naturally spread over the plants. (below left) Iis an Overall view of the Cranberry Operations. The first bog is be Harvested, while the second is being worked by a pair of "Egg Beaters" used to loose the berries from the submerged vines.. The notion of doing a "Cranberry Bog" was done to fill a space on the layout and as another scenic marker to help place my layout's location in Centrai Wisconsin... (below right) is the berrry harvesting operation. Two workers are shepparding the floating berries to the moving conveyor and into the waiting wagons for transport to the sorting house. The (lower right) is an Open House at the Bog during harvest season. |
| Comments , Questions... Feel free to email me at... [email protected] |
 |
 |
 |
 |
