The Ottumwa Central plan was described as "similar" to the layout that he was designing and building for himself, but it was not the same. The tentative full track plan that would evolve from the New Lisbon module was included in the 1976 article. As others have noted, there is no indication it was ever completed.
David
R. T. POTEET wrote:An article on Gordy's N-Scale L-shaped layout appeared a good 20, maybe even more, years ago - sometime in the mid-'80s I believe. It was a predominantly flat-land village-themed layout with lots of switching potential which, I guess, was where his heart was. The layout ballooned at both ends and this allowed the mainline to escape into hidden storage beneath the surface level of the platform. [...]
I believe I have a track plan for that or something very similar in an old Kalmbach layout plan book. I think the one in the book was called "The Ottumwa Central" - L-shaped with balloon ends and staging below.
The article in question appeared in the October, 1976 edition of MR, describing Gordon's New Lisbon module. It was an inspiration to me then, and it still is now. It was one of the first published N scale pikes that used code 40 rail.
I never got to meet Gordon. I did often walk past Odegard's Sewing on Beaver Street and wondered. While I was Secretary of the Flagstaff Model Railroad Club (FMRC) I got to go through the past minutes of the FMRC. Along with Gordon's name was Al Wegner's and Eric Lundberg's. Gordon had some strong influences in his early years in Flag.
Milwaukee156 wrote: I've always admired Gordon's work in MR - especially the building the Clinchfield in N scale book - is there an article(s) in a past MR that shows his home Milwaukee Road N scale layout? Also - I seem to remember there being an article where he scratchbuilt N scale ribside boxcars in bulk (in N scale) but I can't find the article in the index (Month, Year). Any help is appreciated.
I've always admired Gordon's work in MR - especially the building the Clinchfield in N scale book - is there an article(s) in a past MR that shows his home Milwaukee Road N scale layout?
Also - I seem to remember there being an article where he scratchbuilt N scale ribside boxcars in bulk (in N scale) but I can't find the article in the index (Month, Year).
Any help is appreciated.
I was fortunate to see the original Clinchfield N scale project layout when it was new, on display at Milwaukee's Trainfest. It photographed well but was really impressive in person where the oversize track and other aspects of N scale at the time were more readily overlooked. That was Gordon Odegard's masterpiece. My understanding is that his home layout, a Milwaukee Road layout, never got to anywhere near that level of completion. Some of the other MR project layouts were also largely his work and in many cases the articles are attributed to "MR Staff" so just using the index alone isn't always going to find them. Yet another reason to collect old issues -- and more importantly, to read them. At any given time I am regularly reading the most recent issue as well as a randomly selected volume of back issues.
Dave Nelson
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Gorden had started a small N scale module in his home, but there really was a not more done to it through the years. I saw it in the late 70's/early 80's.. Gorden died about 1991(at the Denver NMRA National, IIRC). Gorden was a real craftsman and he spent a lot of his modeling time building/machining projects at MR. The signal system/lever frame in the 60's, and the scratchbuilt brass engine articles were outstanding examples of his capabilities.
The Milwaukee rib-side box car article was in the September 1989 issue. Search through the MR magazine index and you find that 'Gordy' wrote over 300 articles......
Jim Bernier
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin