Long before C&NW started with their rebuilding program of their (and bought second hand) fleet of GP7's, the eldest of the GP7's were interesting creatures to fan----and to model.

1522-1549 came with this "Ash Can" (that's what I call it) Red Mars Light on the fronts, Mars headlights, pilot snow plows, small fuel tanks and the one note Claxon air horns mounted near the cab on each side of the hoods. 1535 is a model done from photographs of the real engine as it sat in Marshfield, Wis. It wears an early Pyle headlight; the real one was set up this way and I have no idea why. It also retained her air horns in the original, as-built position, while many of her sisters were having their horns moved to the top of the cab roof, one facing each direction.

No manufacturer markets the red warning light, so that is just some piece of round plastic stock I used, painted red on the end. The horns are Brass Details West parts.

This is a Proto 2000 model.

Keith

The "Other" P2K GP7 done up for the 1522-1549 series C&NW geeps, 1549. This model shows the modifications C&NW did to this series, moving the horns to the roof, a` la the F Unit, and plating over the area where the red warning light was.

If I had had the ambition, I should have very small pieces of square plastic on the areas where the Air Horns were mounted on the side of each hood.

The majority of the 1522-1549 series ended up looking like 1549 before they were taken to Oelwein and turned in to 4300 and 4500 series rebuilds.

I prefer to remember them this way, and recalling watching a C&NW freight coming in to Marshfield one Sunday afternoon in 1972 with 6 of the GP7's on it, and how they ALL were rocking side to side at 10 mph.

Yes, the Baby Trainmasters got the same ride.

To think; our Train Club Clubhouse sits on the very spot where I saw engines like 1549 that Sunday afternoon 30+ years ago.

Keith

When things show up in the background of photographs, curiosity inevitably gets the best of everyone. I get e-mails like, "Hey, what's that building in the background!??" , or "How come you never show the buildings on your club layout?"

So, to end all inquiries, here are some shows of the buildings on my Modules in the Hub City Central Club Layout.

This is the West Bend Roller Mills, based on nothing. I wanted something that looked like a feed mill, so I slammed together three Campbell wood kits and got this result. I added numerous details and scratch-bashed that covered truck dock in between the grain bins. The spur track serving the place does go through the covered dock.

It took me 3 years to build this, but a lot of that time was wasted time trying to figure out how to build that external elevator poking up 3/4 the size of the mainbuilding.

I still wish I had painted it white instead of gray. Most wooden feed mills were white.

Feed Mills are tough to build, because, around this area, most started out as something else, like a Grain Elevator, for example. Time and shifting emphasis in farming changed the nature of the structures, in many cases they weren't repainted after a certain time, so you have to try to model past history as well.

I couldn't sway-back the model like many of the real structures had happen to them over time. But, it's got boarded-up windows using whatever was handy (one sports an International Harvestor sign being used to board up the window from inside), piping, a stack of empty pallets on the side I didn't photograph on one end of the truck dock. I even went to the trouble of putting tissue around the spout used to load a bulk feed truck to replicate the burlap sacking some mills used to try to keep dust down from the bulk feed unloading from the bottom of the hopper into a truck.

I'll never build something like this again!

Keith

"Cindy's Tap", just a regular kit, built as-is. This was, originally, offered by Heljan as the "Two Brothers" restaurant, supposedly located in Milwaukee, Wis. Walthers offered it as something else in their kit line; it may still be there yet.

I named two businesses in this building after two women I went with---"Cindy" would be Cindy Weinfurter, who I went with for a couple years, and "Beth's Book Nook" is for Beth Bornbach, whom I'm still sweet on, but she hates me and with good reason.

The "Huggin's Steambath" is there as a memorial to the real Huggin's Steambath that was located 1/2 block north of the Soo Line Tracks here in Marshfield. Outside of the lettering & signage, there's nothing spectacular about this building.

Unless you look on the roof, that is.

Keith

A kit-bash based on a real structure, the West Bend Lithia Brewing company. I think portions of the real West Bend Lithia Brewing Co. might still stand in West Bend, Wis.

The real building was located across the river in West Bend from the C&NW tracks.

I saved this building. It was originally located inside of the layout In a section I built inwards. Since there was no room for that in our new clubhouse, I dsmantled the module but managed to save the buildings; this was one of them.

I originally had it laid out like the real West Bend Lithia, with the portion parallel to the track now extending straight off the brewhouse, the tall structure.

I won't list all the different parts of buildings that went in to making this structure. There are at least 5! That doesn't include the blue silo's in back, which are supposed to be a part of the brewery.

The fella everyone saw in some locomotive photos I posed alongside is standing there taking a breath of air, he's the Brewmaster.

Keith