Model Railroading on the Cheap

    This old farmer recognized what this load was as soon as I saw it. I thought I could get some mileage from using these front ends of modern row-crop corn harvesting machinery in various scenes on the layout.  So I was excited to use this bit of detail fodder on the layout.  After getting further into it I thought that the load was a bit over-sized.

   I thought this would make an interesting flat car load mounted on a platform with a couple boxes of parts to help support the loads in transit.  But it was too wide for a gondola and I couldn’t find a flat car that was suitable because their stake pockets did not align with any of my flatcars, and there was a center rib on the bottom that had to be cut off for use on a regular flat car. Perhaps the load could work in a gondola if the destination had a way to unload the car. Here was another chore for the Hillton overhead crane and another opportunity for a photo-story. We could unload it at Hillton but the load was too wide and too long for highway trucks. So I cut the load into manageable pieces after carefully separating it from the mounting floor and crate of small parts. I felt that the load was too tall for highway trucks so I shortened it about 2 feet and re-mounted it to the now divided platform.  My friend had some John Deere green and spray painted a set for me. I probably have spent 7 or 8 winter time hours in this project, but I enjoyed the challenge using hand tools, camera, computer and imagination.   

   Then I thought about – what if the destination for this load did not have the luxury of an overhead crane to unload the rail car. That idea is worth another photo story. – See ‘corn heads at Yardley’ (page 98). 

    I doubt if these corn heads and rubber tired hydraulic powered front end loaders should be seen with steam locomotives. However I also believe that freelancing offers to release us from the bounds of real time on my timeless 1950s layout. 10-2014

   We are at the John Deere dealer at Hillton Junction; the workmen are unloading a shipment of corn heads. They are using a front end loader and a log chain to lift this machine from the flatcar.  Also note the ingenuity of using a wooden ramp to gain elevation to be able to reach up high enough for this tall but not heavy load.

With our railroad located in the Corn Belt, we can see shipments of corn heads coming and going.

Edgeport and John Deere

   Having been raised on a farm, I always enjoyed seeing colorful farm machinery moving on the railroad.  My layout has always had a rail served industry in the first corner seen by a spectator entering the train room. Originally I had a manufacturing industry on the spur track that could hold two cars. Later with the availability of nice looking farm tractors by Ertl I was tempted to cheat the scale and use their 1/64 scale tractors for flatcar loads and this corner industry became sort of an all maker’s distribution facility.  Then later yet after finding several plastic John Deere tractors of various vintages I changed their business plan to more of a one-manufacturer dealer.     

   This photo is to show the celebration of the occasion when John Deere and Edgeport hosted a daylong event with local farmers invited to attend this festive occasion with door prizes like a new set of tires, or anti-freeze, or a tune up in the shop, or a free oil-change etc. John Deere sent their boxcar full of brochures, hats, calendars, signage, etc. to give away. They also sent carloads of tractors and machinery, which were spotted as an exhibit for the day on the neighboring coal tipple track.

    The setting of this scene and on the next page uses tricks with both hand tools and software. This flat car above has a load of tractors with air conditioned cabs. The boxcar was from a special set by Athearn available only to John Deere dealers early in the 21st century. I used the computer scanner to get the image from a tin sign of the John Deere monogram of the early 1950s into the computer, and then reduced its size for inclusion into the self-made paper ‘celebration’ sign temporarily hanging on the edge of the building. In the front yard we see an assortment of tractors and farmers and a truck load of tires. Toward the rear are second hand trade-ins, a car-load of corn heads for modern combines and a load of tractors with air conditioned cabs.

    The top picture was close cropped from this distant view of the above scene and embellished with graphic software. (To hide the seam between the false left sky and real background). The hopper cars on the right from the coal tipple were not fully out of the scene for the camera!

Corn Heads at Yardley

     With the front end loader we can handle corn heads at Yardley where there is a bit more elbow room to better show this equipment ‘in action’. I set the scene at the Yardley freight station team track for a different angle and to show fastening the load to the bucket of the front end loader. I needed to find a way to tie the machine to the bucket of the front end loader. That turned into a rather tedious chore; I used heavy button thread as a rope sling. This was too heavy for the bucket to stay upright with the load attached so I glued the bucket in an upward position for the camera man.

     Populating a scene with workmen contributing to the chore adds interest. There is a home printed paper ‘mechanism’ to hide the stark white square visible after cutting the load apart.  The Yardley station has been enlarged and has a paperboard roof. The flat car is a chopped Mantua 50 ft. all plastic model that has been shortened to 39 ft., its floor has hand painted weathering.   The left edge of the photo shows a bit of the tiny Holden Freight Agents station obscured by the boxcar. The lower right corner of this photo has been retouched with virtual grass to hide the edge of table details wrong for the scene.     

       My friend tells me that one time Ertl offered this as a special HO scale loaded flat car*. The load had a protruding rib along the bottom center designed to fit in a slot in the car floor. Later they packaged the load as an HO load only with no car.  Later still Walthers lists these as (#433-1661) a 4 for the money load without the base which is needed to make them stand upright for shipping. I enjoyed finding additional methods for using this interesting load on my layout that has no room for a farm or a crop of corn.  *I was excited to find that car by Ertl in March-2015.