The Milwaukee Racine & Troy

[Anonymous]

Flipping though some old Model Railroaders I found a article about the MR&T layout and I was wondering if there where any photos that could be posted and whats the story with the layout?
thanks
-Justin Franz

[AntonioFP45]

If I'm not mistaking, that's a club layout that Andy Sperandeo from Model Railroader is or was involved with. Might have been sponsered by Kalmbach. May be a good idea to e-mail Bergie or one of the MRR staff for the information. [:D][8D]

I remember bits and pieces because during the early 90s this layout appeared on a TRACKS AHEAD episode which aired on PBS. Impressive layout with a modern theme, realistic operations, and long freight trains as well as Amtrak. Andy spoke about the layout's operational basics. Operators were wearing headphones. [8D]

In one scene an engineer of a local switcher is asking the dispatcher for permission to use the mainline for switching. The dispatcher comes back with the alert that the Amtrak train is on its way. The dispatcher continues to communicate with other crews that also have trains rolling. Overall, pretty good presentation.

[aussiesteve]

[2c] It is the MR staff layout [:)] [:)] [:)] [:)]

[Anonymous]

MR&T = Model Railroader & Trains.

BB in Canada

[Anonymous]

The MR&T. One of my favorite layouts, hopefully it will be in MR again soon.

[CNJ831]

The MR&T, and its subsidiary the Troy & Northern, have appeared several times in the pages of Model Railroader but not recently. Probably the last article to deal with any portion of the Kalmbach layout was a 1997 piece by Art Curren addressing the construction of an industrial corner on the layout. There hasn't been anything in the pages of MR that covered the entire MR&T in about 12-15 years. Incidentally, circa 1990 the MR&T ran a number of SD40-2's (plus some other engines) adorned in a very striking blue and white paint scheme that absolutely humbles the latest repaint used for MR's 70th Anniversary loco issued by Athearn in 2004. Try employing MR's search engine if you desire to locate specific past articles addressing the layout. It's certainly worth the effort.

CNJ831

[BRAKIE]

Speaking of the MR&T I would like to see a article on the new layout...

[AntonioFP45]

CNJ831,

Turns out that I had recorded the Tracks Ahead episode back then. I have the episode!
I apparently had set the VCR to do it automatically. You're right, that is a very sharp looking paint scheme. My favorite scene was the small town that had a couple of industries that utilized boxcars.

I think that we all agree that we like this particular layout. Click on the "Contact Us" category on the bottom of this page. Just e-mail Bergie and tell him to pass our views on to the MRR staff that we would like to see this layout featured in detail. Andy Sperandeo is still on board with MRR, so he may very well "go for it!"

Cheers in Run 8!

[michealfarley]

I visited Kalmbach Publishing around two years ago and got a wonderful tour from one of the Classic Toy Trains guys, but his name escapes me.

Anyway, he showed me the MR&T layout and told me, remember this was Feb '02, that interest had fallen off on really working on or running the layout. I could see that from the room itself. It was a mess indeed. The layout itself was dusty, the track was dirty, and I don't think you'd have gotten a train to run from one end to the other. I was so discouraged by this, but it's a very similar situation in a local club that I belong to. Very little motivation, interest to really get out and work on the layout. Most people come to tell stories, and if someone actually runs a train, they complain that nothing works, and do nothing about it.

Food for thought.............

[BRAKIE]

Micheal,Your story reminds me of the club I go to before we rebuilt the layout back in 90-93 after the membership split.Of course when we torn the layout out a lot of the dead beat members quit.We begin a membership drive and picked up some new blood..Today we operate twice a week,have 46 members(including the two that just join this past Sunday )and the membership stays active in the club..I think the best thing we did was to tear out the old layout..You see like I said the dead beat members left..
Back to topic..That is sad news about the MR&T layout falling into such condition.

[Noah Hofrichter]

I wi***hat MR would do an article on it. I've seen old ones but the pictures aren't the best. It would really be neat.

Also, an you get a tour of the layout, I mean is it open to the public at all? Do you have to ask somebody there, like Bergie, to give you a tour?

Noah

[JPowell]

Ok...I'm game in joining to get MR to do a story on the whole layout. After reading about it in this post, how could I resist wanting to read about it in a future edition of MR? After all, I'm designing/building my own freight/industrial layout and any/all ideas for everything from layout design/building to industries to equipment are all in my "information needed" area. Question I have is this....Which link for email shoud we use? The 'modeltrains' or the 'forums' link for emailing Bergie?

[CNJ831]

As something of an addendum to my post of this morning I note that, were some modeler(s) so inclined, it would be possible to replicate exactly whole portions of the MR&T for your own home layout based on already published articles about the Kalmbach layout.

Right off the top of my head I recall highly detailed articles on the Kelly's Island industrial area, Hansen's storage (a large, rambling, one-story facility), a very impressive and modern downtown passenger (AmTrak) station area, and the entire town (!) of Mukwonago. In each case detailed switching/trackplans were provided along with step-by-step instructions for kitbashing the structures employed.

All these articles were a wealth of modeling ideas and techniques and I've often wondered, with Kalmbach propensity toward recycling MR articles into books, why one on the MR&T was never done.

CNJ831

[Anonymous]

The MR&T can be seen on trains.com . If you guys have ever watched the online videos of the locomotives MR reviews, the layout the loco's running on is the MR&T. Also in the product review section of MR, the picture of the loco they always show is (I think) of the locomotive on a section of MR&T track.

[Anonymous]

Yeah all of the HO reviews are on the MR&T, hopefully we'll see an article on it soon.

[trainfan1221]

I have been getting MR for about 10 years now and have yet to see anything significant about the MR&T.

[Noah Hofrichter]

Jonathon, I wish i could watch those vidieos, but they never load right for me.[:(]

Noah

[cwclark]

Thjat's where the MR staff goes to play with the trains when they are really bored...

[CNJ831]

I might add that back a couple of years ago the Kalmbach/MR website had an option on the lefthand side of the opening screen that if clicked on gave you a fairly good virtual tour around the MR&T layout. Perhaps Bergie or someone at MR could be induced to resurrect this feature.

CNJ831

[Anonymous]

My favorite MR&T article was where they did the photo Backdrop of the City of Milwaukee. It has inspired me to do something similar on my layout. I would also like to see an article on how they built the Milwuakee Union Station Bulding seen in that article.

James

[decoy706]

ATTENTION MR&T
PLEASE rerun your Blue Box Car. There are a ton of guys looking for one why I even offered $40 for one and the guy still wouldn't part with it. Maybe you could run a new article on the layout with a new release of the box car in MR for all us poor people

[jjbmish]

I had the pleasure of visiting Kalmbach back in 1992. My wife, son, daughter and I were treated to a tour of their facility, up to and including the MR & T. The Layout was a work in progress (much like most railroads) but very impressive. The gentleman who gave us the tour was *** Christianson (not sure on the spelling, sorry if I spelled it wrong). Not bad for someone who just walked in off the street. Everyone we met was very friendly and I would recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to visit.

John

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dougal

Yeah all of the HO reviews are on the MR&T, hopefully we'll see an article on it soon.

No, to the contrary, the vast majority of the still photos of HO scale locomotives reviewed in MR are shot on small, purpose-built dioramas in Kalmbach's studio, which is just a few doors down from the MR&T. Many of the videos shown on Trains.com are shot on the MR&T, the cover of the May 2003 issue of MR was shot on the MR&T, and the photo of the Rivarossi Allegheny in the August 2003 MR (Readers Choice Awards) was shot on the MR&T.

QUOTE:
That's where the MR staff goes to play with the trains when they are really bored...

Yeah, as if there's lots of time to be bored at MR! There's a magazine to produce, you know.

When I was at MR, the layout had been in a sort of stasis for a couple years, maybe a bit less. Interest in the MR&T, which is the Kalmbach employees' club layout, had fallen off for a variety of reasons. Hope was that some of us new staff members would rejuvenate activity on the layout. However, I'm not much of a club guy and spent my modeling time working on my layout projects.