READY TO START BUT DON'T KNOW WHERE TO

[Anonymous]

I WANT TO INCORPORATE SOME OF THE THINGS I REMEMBER FROM MY CHILDHOOD; GROWING UP IN BILLINGS MONTANA ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF TOWN. THERE WAS THE GW SUGAR FACTORY AND THE MONTANA POWER PLANT ALONG WITH THE RALSTON PURINA ELEVATOR. I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE ANY HELP ON WHERE TO LOOK FOR THIS INFORMATION

[ericsp]

Are you talking about information on the real plants or information about model buildings to represent them on a layout?

[Don Gibson]

START at a local hobby shop. Those buildings may be long gone, but you may find similar ones in Walthers' Catalog.

You may build a layout to see trains run, bur RR's picked up and delivered cars to customers. YOU can do both.

[Anonymous]

I am talking about information on the real plants and model buildings and where I live the closest hobby shop is 1.5 hours away

[RMax1]

Sounds like you need to call the city hall. Where I live the city was started on top of a flatcar pulled down the Rock Island line. The city has all kinds of documents and photographs dating way back. They also have documents about land plots and areas next to the tracks. Usually there is someone around that can tell you where to find research information at the local library. You may need to scratch build or find the generic parts to make some buildings. Walthers has a new line of building parts that look good. One the best things at city hall is arial photos of the city showing the growth and change over the years. You can see some details no other way. There are places and items you would never know about.

Rmax1

[simon1966]

Do you have photos of these buildings? If not there may be a historical society for the town, that may help. Once you have a good idea of what you are trying to model, you have a choice of either finding kits that are close to the look you want, "kit-bashing" or modifying the kits to look better, or build from scratch. Obviously building a kit out of the box is an easier proposition. I would get a copy of the Walthers catalog for the scale you want to use and look thru the hundereds of pages of structures and see if anything looks right.

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jr reiter

I am talking about information on the real plants and model buildings and where I live the closest hobby shop is 1.5 hours away

The Walthers catalog has almost everything in it. You could buy one or search online. While it is cheaper to search online (no cost), it might be easier to look through the hard copy,
http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/search

As for plants, I would search the internet (keep in mind there is some really inaccurate stuff on some websites, so unless you know who has the information, be skepitcal). As others have said, see if there are any historical societies or museums around. Are these plants still operating? I am assuming from the original post that they are not. Keep in mind that these days people will be hesitant (to say the least) to give out information on an operating industrial plant, unless they know you.

[Anonymous]

A good source of pictures of trains of the west is the American Heritage Museum at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. They have a very extensive collection and are open to the public. Their web site is at www.uwyo.edu/ahc. It's worth a vacation trip just to see their collections, but you might try to contact them first to see if they have coverage of the Billings area.

You might also check out http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/12/30/build/state/70-railroad.inc. They are starting a new railroad museum in Great Falls and have an extensive collection of books.

The Billings and Paradise is a model layout that covers Montana areas. The web site is at http://www.billingsandparadise.com/index.html. There is an email address to get information. Looks like whoever built the layout did a lot of research and might have some ideas to help you.

A couple of RR history sites for Montana are at http://www.mtnwestrail.com/wmnrhs/ and http://www.gnrhs.org/. People in those organizations might also be of help.

[Anonymous]

this info is great and thanks for all the help so far

[ericsp]

You might also try searching for Great Western Sugar.

Is this the old GW Sugar refinery (bottom of page)?
http://www.westernsugar.com/loc_manf.asp
http://research.nprha.org/Telltale%20Archive/Sugar%20Beets.htm

[BRVRR]

jr,
Contact the Billings newspaper. They all have archives and can usually reproduce photos and articles from them relatively inexpensively. Give them a list of what you want, plants, elevators, dates etc. You're on the forum so contact them via e-mail and ask what they have available.
Billings does have a historical society, mostly dedicated to the mining industry, but they can probably help too.
Contact the Montana State Archives, or the equivalent, they will have records and photos too. Here's a link:
[url="http://his.state.mt.us/finduse/related.asp"]
Hope this helps.