Cathead

More progress on the elevator hay barn, which is now a unified structure: I scored a pattern of plank ends into the elevator's siding; the goal is for them to show up faintly after painting, just enough to suggest this wasn't built with 50' planks. In writing this I realized I need to do this on the hay barn's front wall, too. This doesn't look all that different from the last photo, but there's a lot of work you can't see, like internal bracing (especially within the elevator), and getting all the constituent parts lined up into a nice whole. Next will be attaching about 1" of depth to the hay barn and setting up whatever roof framing I want. At that point it's ready for airbrushing, followed by roofing. If you're wondering, this structure would have been fairly new in 1900, so the goal is for it to look well-kept with just enough weathering to not look toylike. Somewhat different from the usual rough neglect we modelers often like our working models to have. So no missing planks or shingles, no peeling paint, no repair patches, etc. By the way, that brief preceding conversation about what the upper doors are for...that's exactly why I decided to go ahead with a build log. There's just such a richer experience to building models when you can benefit from others' insights and questions. That exchange didn't even change the model, but it makes the model richer to understand more about the prototype. Thank you!

There's only really three geometries to attach a barge to a power source: front, rear, or side. Towing behind the power source didn't develop because early vessels were sternwheelers, so the wheel gets in the way. Even when propellors came along, same problem: tying up a load at the stern messes with the propulsion and rudders. Whereas towing on any kind of line gives you almost no control on a winding river. Side can work, but you need a wide channel for that, and at the scale of most North American loads, you wouldn't be able to do more than a few barges. Plus it puts a lot of shear stress on however you attach the load to the side of the vessel. Front gives you all the room in the world, keeps the load away from the propulsion and rudders, gives you a lot more control, lets the force be a direct push into the load, and lets the pilot watch the load. How many people pull a shopping cart instead of pushing it? The fascinating difference I've seen between North American and European riverboats is that North America seemed to develop separate vessels for power and load (think towboat with barges) whereas so many European riverboats are combined, like small freighters. No idea why that difference developed. Eberhard?

Keith, that all looks so good! I have one question: in my eye, the angle of the stairs looks a little shallow (close to 45º). So many shipboard stairs are quite a bit steeper, to save space, and my eye says that those on the original Lula are also steeper (more like 60º or more). Also, at the current angle, they look like they'd need some vertical bracing halfway along because there'd be some bounce or sag in that long horizontal run. To my eye, on-board stairs like these should straddle the line between ladders and "normal" household stairs. So I'm curious about the thought process here. And since you said they're not attached yet, it's a good time to ask!

Paul, that occurred to me after seeing Keith's photo, and my first thought was why doors and not just large windows? But then it occurred to me that doors are easier to open when needed and seal when not, without the added expense and fuss of glass if the light isn't needed. I still remember my high school physics teacher showing us how to make a cannon out of nothing but a cardboard tube, sifted flour, and a match. Good stuff. So I bet you're right.

There's so many different paths I could take in starting to catch you all up on the context for this project that it's a bit overwhelming. Do I focus on the model-railroad-oriented process of track planning, how we design the track layout to allow realistic operations? Do I focus on more historical details of the railroad in general and Rocheport in particular? Do I focus on building the benchwork and early scenery forms? All of that takes time to write up, and you all are here for the modeling, so let's start with a simpler narrative, the current building I'm working on. This is a really interesting-looking structure seen behind the depot in only two photographs that I've found, shown below with zoomed-on crops. The front part of this building is clearly an early grain elevator, with a loading spout set to extend down to the door of a boxcar on that spur. This is the era when grain was shipped in boxcars with planks nailed over their open doors. But what's going on with that huge building attached behind the elevator, with its massive interior, and even weirder, a wide ramp leading up to a second-story "porch"? In the first photo (1898), the ramp and porch are uncovered, while by the second photo, I think in the 19-teens, there's a roof over that whole thing. I finally got the answer from a very helpful contact at the Katy Railroad Historical Society. While the front part is indeed a grain elevator, the back part is a massive hay barn. The Katy did a serious business in shipping Texas cattle north, and built a series of huge barns to store the hay needed to feed these cattle on their journey to processors in Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago. So that's a hay barn, and the ramp allows loaded hay wagons to drive up to the second floor and deliver hay into the barn, probably through the doors you see in the first (uncovered photos). Very cool! You'll see Rocheport's small stock yard in the lower right of the wider-view photo, just down the street from the hay barn. This also shows the local economic impact a railroad could have; even a small town like Rocheport would benefit from this major source of local farm revenue coming from the railroad. I wish I had room to model this building in its entirety, but then the scene would extend way too far back. As it is, I can only fit a narrow part against the backdrop. So I did some estimated measurements, using the usefully placed boxcar in one photo for scale, and came up with a representative design that fit my space. I then built a cardstock mockup to see how it looked visually behind the depot (that project is a different topic). This told me that my original elevator tower looked a little too squat, so I redrew my plans to make it a bit narrower and slightly taller. I also removed the loading dock I'd somewhat speculatively placed there, as I don't like the look and it doesn't fit the curve of the siding. Once I'd redrawn my plans, I started building. This is really straightforward after years of complicated shipbuilding curves; lots of nice straight walls and square corners. I'm using pre-scribed siding and styrene castings for doors. Here are two quick photos of the progress so far. That's all I've got for now. I'll keep following up as I work on this. One fun question is what those two doors way up on the elevator's face are for? They're clearly visible in the photo, so I included them, but danged if I can figure them out.

I mentioned "Katy" as the railroad's nickname but didn't give the backstory. The official story is that the company's stock symbol was KT and that's where the nickname came from, but I personally think it also just developed organically because it's so obvious.

Keith, I'll give a lot more details of the full layout plan in a future post, but the Rocheport section measures about 2'x11'.

I'm briefly hijacking your log to announce that you're getting your wish. I posted the first wordy intro to that project in the non-ship section of MSW this morning.

I have two fun updates to this log! One is to share some nice photos Mrs. Cathead took of the finished model, since I never really shared a full photo shoot of this build. The other is to announce that I've started a build log in the non-ships section of MSW for the model railroad project that will be Peerless' future home. This will be a major project for me over the next few years, so if you're interested in how it develops, come check it out. It'll feature my typical mix of sharing lots of local history and geography that influence the modeling work. Here's a teaser:

While I'm most known on MSW for my scratch-built Missouri River steamboats (see signature links), my interest in transportation along the Missouri River extends to that great rival of river traffic, railroads. So I'm taking a break from steamboat modeling to build at least one module of a possibly larger model railroad depicting the route of the Missouri, Kansas, & Texas railroad along the Missouri River valley in central Missouri, ca. 1900, complete with at least one river scene featuring a contemporary steamboat. MK&T passenger train along the Missouri River, ca. 1900 (State Historical Society of Missouri): This will be a typical build for me in that it'll be laced with details of local history and geography that set a context for the models. As a former model railroader who transitioned to shipbuilding for a while, I'm finding that I miss the ability to set models in their full context. Most ship models end up sitting passively on a shelf, while a model railroad allows one to actually operate the model realistically through an entire landscape. As a geologist and naturalist who's lived in this area for almost 20 years, I have a strong connection to the Missouri River valley, having extensive experience hiking among its hills, birding within its floodplain, biking along its corridor, and paddling beneath its bluffs. Mrs. Cathead on a shared river trip; these are the same bluffs shown in the next photo below: The Missouri River's route through central Missouri is far more scenic than outsiders with a "flatland" view of the Midwest might suspect. The river follows a 1-2 mile wide gorge lined by limestone and dolomite bluffs towering up to 300 feet over the floodplain. Rail lines built along this corridor were forced to hug the valley walls by the huge river's constant meandering, making their routes often look like overdone model railroads with straight bluffs absolutely dwarfing the trains below. The Missouri Pacific built up the valley's south side in the mid-19th century, while the MK&T (more commonly called the Katy) built down the north side in the 1890s. MK&T main line squeezed between tall limestone bluffs and the Missouri River, ca. 1912, same bluffs as above (State Historical Society of Missouri): This project has been in the planning stage for several years, and directly influenced my last steamboat build, the Peerless, a small steamboat that operated on the lower Missouri River between St. Louis and the small central Missouri town of Rocheport. I built that model at the common model railroading scale of 1:87 (HO) to allow for its possible future inclusion on a diorama or layout depicting this region. Historic photo of Peerless (State Historical Society of Missouri) and model version for comparison: The immediate focus of this build is the scenic river town of Rocheport, framed to west and east by some of the most dramatic bluffs anywhere along the lower Missouri, and home of the only tunnel anywhere on the Katy system. This was a major river port in the pre-Civil-War era, and was the upriver home port for Peerless during its 1893-1903 operations on the river. The Katy built through Rocheport in the mid-1890s, meaning the two co-existed for nearly a decade, the perfect hook for a steamboat-and-railroad enthusiast. Rocheport in the early 1900s, as seen from bluff tops to east and west (State Historical Society of Missouri): Today, Rocheport is a popular tourist town, known for its B&Bs and nearby vineyards, and brought to prominence by its central location along the 240-mile Katy Trail. This is Missouri's cross-state rail trail that follows the old MK&T line (abandoned in the 1980s), and is the longest continuous rail trail in the country. I've cycled the entire length, but like many people, am always drawn back to Rocheport's incomparable scenic setting. The trail also makes modeling the MK&T in this area particularly attractive, since the right-of-way is unusually accessible! Rocheport tunnel and river bluffs (same bluffs as other photos) along the modern Katy Trail: There's a lot more background information to share, and construction has already started, so this log will work to catch up on past progress while continuing to explain the design, purpose, and context of the project. It's going to be wordy for a while but there's also lots of neat imagery to share. I didn't initially intend to track this with a build log, looking forward to being freed from the tyranny of photography, writing, and reporting. But I'm finding that I miss the community that develops around a build, and I think there's a really neat historical story to tell. And writing about one's work can sometimes help clarify or altering thinking about a project in ways that being too lone-wolf can miss. So welcome aboard! One more historic photo, and three shots of the layout underway.

I'd agree that the original trim looks black. I'd been going to suggest, if you wanted a different color, using the dark red used so often in this period for everything from steamboats to barns to boxcars, because it was one of the cheapest and easiest pigments to produce. But then you said you weren't partial to red, so...black is fine. I might suggest that the current black comes on a little strong, and you could either tone it down with some weathering, or redo it using a slightly flatter greyish black. Otherwise I'd double down on the bordello look, put the linoleum back in, and do the trim in a nice purple with flowers twining up the corners.

Your wheel looks great! Excellent detail and nice consistent construction.

Looks great! Definitely a very fun "model" to build. Trying to decide if we'll have the guts one year to tear it down and do it all over again!

Keith, I look forward to your adventures attempting to hand-make that spittoon on the floor by the stove. My vote is for plain wooden flooring. It's something the viewer "expects" to see and so fits nicely with the overall aesthetic.

Woe, woe, the mighty Keith has been defeated. All ye rend clothing in despair!