As the title suggests, I recently attended the Milwaukee Road Historical Association 2015 conference in Yakima Washington. I’m really glad I did this, since it was centered on the region where my model railroad is located and there were lots of former railroad employees, historians, and fellow modelers in attendance.
As part of the conference, the MRHA held a model contest to which anyone could submit as many entries as they liked. I brought along several models and there were lots of excellent submissions. Naturally I had my camera along so I took lots of photos of all the models that were there.
The winner of the contest was Mr. Noel Holley, author of the book “The Milwaukee Electrics” which is widely regarded as the authoritative volume on the railroad’s electrified operations. He brought a superbly impressive model of the Hyak substation modeled in HO scale. To accompany the substation he had brought along a 2-3 foot section of track with his custom built catenary wire above it. We had an excellent conversation about how he had built his catenary (since I will be following in his footsteps to build my own) and he was kind enough to let me pose the two Creek series observation sleepers on the electrified track for some photos. He had brought along a 1952 maroon-stripe bipolar which is posed with the Coffee Creek and I had brought my E-1 in the experimental Olympian Hiawatha scheme, which is posed with the Gold Creek. I saved the best photos until the end in this slideshow. Click the title of the image if you want to go to flickr and view it in full resolution. Enjoy!:
Tags: 2015 Washington MILW/RR Trip, f/1.8, Milwaukee Road, model railroading, photography, trains
