Prairie River Bridge | Final Details
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Centerbeam Flatcar | Basic Construction
Introduction Part of the plan for my BNSF Lakes Subdivision layout includes modelling the Potlatch operation just west of Grand Rapids, MN in the 1980s. Potlatch was a manufacturer of Oriented Strand Board (OSB), a sheet material fabricated from wood chips which are combined with a resin and compressed under heat and pressure. The material is shipped in 4' x 8' sheets and used for home construction. I don't have any photos of carloads coming out of the facility, but it is likely that Burlington Northern used their "opera window" centerbeam flatcars manufactured by Thrall. These cars are available commercially as ready-to-run, but I thought I would take the opportunity to build three of them from scratch in N scale. I have never scratch built any freight cars before, so everything here is new to me. At this point, I don't expect to create something that I would have evaluated for the NMRA Achievement Program . They should be adequate to meet th
February 2023 Crossing Gate Editorial
From the Workbench of the Assistant Superintendent My name is Randi Relander, and I am currently your division assistant superintendent. This is my first editorial for “The Crossing Gate” so let me start out by welcoming all the new members who have joined the division lately. Looking around, I find it humbling to be associated with such a talented crew and am looking forward to where the division is headed. For those who don’t know me, and even those that do, here is my story. I was born in Grand Rapids, MN in 1964 and grew up in a “suburb” of Babbitt, MN, about 50 miles straight north of Duluth, at the end of the iron range where my dad worked as a truck driver for Reserve Mining. We lived in a small trailer house on the edge of a swamp outside of town and I slept in the front room until my sister moved out in 1976 and I inherited her 8’ x 8’ bedroom. Shortly after, I became interested in model railroading and started reading everything I could on the subject, eventually building an
