Well, I decided to start writing about the Camas Prairie RR railroad model I am building in the upper floor of my Tejas house. Writing, is a great diversion from working on the layout, but since only a few of my model railroading compatriots live near me, I wanted a way to share what I am up to. Over the years, I have had numerous ideas on what I should model. Different eras, different locales and MANY different railroads!
The Milwaukee Road in the west has and always will intrigue me due to its quirky operations on the Rocky Mountain and Coast Divisions. When the Hyrail Milwaukee Road Book came out in 1990, I was absolutely hooked! I built a few freight cars and a couple of locomotives that I figured would work on a western themed layout. I even went so far as to acquire some OMI brass "boxcab" freight motors, just in case I decided to model the Milwaukee under wires!
Later on, I sort of settled on the St. Maries and Plummer Idaho areas as a potential modeling subject and in 1993, I made a sojourn to Idaho and Washington to look at the abandoned carcass of what was once the Milwaukee Road, Lines West. My base of operations for this trip, was at the home of some family friends in Pullman, WA, which was fairly close to the parts of the Milwaukee Road I was interested in looking over.
Stencil on the side of a BN caboose at East Lewiston
