I hope one of you can help me locate photographs or drawings of the Oakland Ave. passenger depot that the Milwaukee Road had in Green Bay. This is the depot adjacent to the Milwaukee Road yard, not the nice fancy yellow brick Flemish Renaissance one that is downtown Green Bay (which I have plenty of nice photographs of that one).
I only have the outline of the Oakland Ave. depot from a Sanbourn fire insurance map and an aerial photograph of the top of it. I know it was of wood construction and had a long passenger platform attached to it.
I would like to try and model this depot on my layout as the fancy layout closed in 1958. Would the Oakland Ave. depot have been painted like many other Milwaukee Road stations, dark gray on bottom and light gray on top?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hi JPD,
I found this picture from the WC days. Shows the depot and part of platform.
The photo is in color and the depot is painted white on top and black on the bottom. From my days of working in Green Bay, i do believe that it was the light/dark grey color scheme during the MILW days.
Too bad that almost the entire yard is gone now.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/firstlight55/34171408722
Scott Sonntag
I just looked at the area on Google satellite view, so many ghost images of what was once there, the yard, the shops, the turntable and round house, nothing left, not even any track, but, you can see the long concrete strip that was the platform.
I did a little searching around the Brown County HS page, the Milwaukee Rd,HS, the Sanborn maps, etc., and nothing.
Your picture, Scott is great! Were you a WC employee at the time? I'm a facebook group that is all things WC, I haven't asked anyone in there yet.
Mike.
My You Tube
Hi Mike.
Wish I could take credit for the photo but it's not mine. The album belongs to Jeff Hampton. No I have never been an employee of the WC but I know where the picture was taken. The Ashland Ave bridge goes right over the top of the yard so it was a great spot to get photos.
The first time I worked in GB was during the mid 80's just as the MILW was sold to the Soo. I drove over the bridge twice a day on my way to and from work. All of my photos/negatives from the time period accidentally disappeared when my mother cleared out the attic 25 years ago. Wish I had those back.
I worked in GB 2 other times but didn't have time to get alot of photos when the WC and GBW were still running trains but loved to run around to all of the yards that were still functioning during my lunch hours. Too bad that the cell phones of the time didn't have cameras.
Scott
Thanks Scott, exactly what I needed to see. I am impressed that you found this photograph.
Now that I have seen it, I must confess the Oakland Ave. Depot looks pretty frumpy compared to the Flemish Renaissance one in downtown Green Bay. I think I might abuse prototype and model the nicer looking station but locate it near the yard.
Glad that I could find that picture. Brought back lots of memories of times I worked in Green Bay.
Just out of curiosity, what period are you planning on modeling? By the time the MILW stopped using the depot on the east side of the river, they were down to 2 trains a day, the daily Chippewa and the overnight Copper Country Limited. The Chippewa was done in mid 1960 but the CCL continued until 1968.
The MILW UP line never did have alot of passenger traffic since the CNW had all sorts of trains covering alot of the same territory. I model a section of the that line in 1954 and it was already down to the 2 listed above.
Interested to see what you come up with for the model.
Scott, I am modeling the Milwaukee Road between Green Bay and Stiles in summer 1955. Running the Chippewa and Copper Country Limited will be enough passenger action for me, I am mostly interested in freight. The switching layout I am starting with and have almost completed is the Oconto Branch, which was abandoned in I believe 1939, but I am pretending it was still used in 1955. This lets me model a small rural Wisconsin town with rail service.JP
Neat, almost the same time frame that I am modeling. If you haven't found this site yet, HRM Laser models has all sorts of MILW depot models including the Stiles Junction depot. Could save you some time having to scratchbuild everything.
Scott, thanks for the great tip about HRM Laser Models. I was not familiar with this company and I really like the range of models they provide.So far I have only built one small laser cut garrage for the club I belonged to. I found it easy to do, but most of my experience has been building plastic kits. I do recall one of the club members warning me to make sure I painted all the surfaces to seal the wood and prevent expansion. The garage turned out nicely.
I think perhaps I should order one of these depots and give it a try to see how challenging it is to build and if it blends in well with all the plastic structures.
JP
I just finished the Brokaw WI model as a stand in for the Plymouth WI depot. With a little kitbashing it will be very close to the original in Plymouth.
Make sure that you paint or seal both sides of all the pieces or they will tend to warp a bit. Found that out the hard way when I started shingling the roof. Fits in quite well with the other models on the layout. Just stay consistent with the colors that you use for all railroad structures and the different materials are hard to notice.
Have you tried the Neville museum's photo gallery?
https://photos.nevillepublicmuseum.org/
AlienKingHave you tried the Neville museum's photo gallery?
THAT is a cool site! I didn't see anything about the station the OP's looking for, but as a Packer fan, the early shots of City Stadium were awesome!