Simplot has been busy building a new plant at Wheeler. Found the new connection as I nosed around at the next public crossing to the south. That's the track headed to left in the center of the image.
Also very prominent is the NP era water tank, looking very tired and forlorn.
Location is on the Connell Northern branch, a few miles north of Wheeler. Part of the right-of-way is now a private airstrip.
By Nick Muff, MMR and John O’Connell
Inspiration for this project came from an article in the GN Goat Group IO by Dan Bolyard….A paraphrase of his article helps explain the creative solution to a very challenging problem:
In 1948 heavy rains wiped out 9 bridges on the Mansfield and Douglas Branches in Washington leaving 61 box cars stranded. The cars were in great demand in Waterville to ship grain out to make room for the incoming harvest. One solution was to lift the cars off their trucks and haul the cars by highway truck. But Freel & Sons, an Omak, WA house mover, came forward with a more expedient solution. The house mover said he could haul an empty box car without removing the trucks by securing a car on track mounted on logs on an improvised trailer. His truck was a three axle 165 HP 1948 rig and his crew could load and secure a car in 30 minutes! He then could cover the 30 miles to Coulee City in three hours!
After studying the photos in the GN Goat, I was having trouble making the transition from inspiration to modeling. I met with Nick Muff, MMR, who translated the photos into a scale diagram using AutoSketch 10 Software. Nick grew up around steel fabrication and was able to not only render a plan but fill any gaps from his own experience.
The Truck
[1] Sylvan Scale Models 1940 – 1958 White Super Power Tandem Day Cab (V-155)
[2] Dulled, dirty, washed out green or grey
The Trailer
The trailer is made up of the forward frame support, the tongue, the rear log support and the logs. The overall effect is meant to appear as hastily constructed unfinished welded steel. The paint used for all components of the trailer was Vallejo Model Color acrylic in Natural Steel 70.864.
The Forward Frame
With the daunting challenge of structural integrity without compromising visual realism, the fact that this is a static model reduces the challenge.
We chose Evergreen I-Beam 275 5/32” (0.156) (4.00 mm). For rigidity, bent two short coat hanger pieces into 90 degrees and glued into the inside channels of the I-beams formed into a U shape with Gorilla Super Glue Gel. For additional rigidity, a thin piece of sheet styrene plastic was fashioned to cover the bottom of the U and provide a base for the trailer tongue. The sheet styrene is meant to appear to be sheet steel and just cover the bottom of the frame and extend forward 4 scale feet for tongue support.
[3] Top: the frame (scale 5’ long, 7’ wide). Middle: .45 mm sheet styrene. Bottom: 5/32” I-Beam
The tongue
The tongue was fashioned from three + pieces of I-Beam (4 1/2 scale feet) glued together around a short piece of wire. A hole was drilled in the front of the tongue so a small wire could be glued in place to protrude just enough to engage the fifth wheel of the truck. Finally, the tongue was glued to the thin styrene support at the front of the forward frame.
[4] Completed forward frame and tongue awaiting priming and painting. The imperfections and gaps can be filled with Bondo and masked with paint.
The Rear Log Support….
Parts from Herpa Trailer kit 5514 were used for the rear wheels and support for the logs.
[5] The Herpa frame was cut down and a single axle with four wheels was used. The frame was glued to a piece of 0.45mm plastic scrap roughly 6 scale feet long by 7 feet across.
[6] Rear Log Support prior to assembly
[7] Underside of Rear Log Support with wheels glued in place and ready to paint
Finally, a rear plate was fashioned using 0.045 scrap styrene approximately 1 ½ by 7 scale feet. For the taillight, a 6” lens (Details West LN-241) was set on a piece of tape and painted using Tamiya Clear Red X-27 and the glued on the rear plate. A 1950 WA state commercial license plate image was lifted off the web, greatly reduced then printed and attached to the rear plate.
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[8] The rear of the trailer includes a scale Washington state license plate and brake light.
The Logs
The logs were shaped using ¼” dowels 7 inches long, mounted in a power drill and tapered slightly over an inverted belt sander, then scraped with a fine saw blade to rough the surface. The final length is 6 inches. Side by side, the tapered ends have to fit inside the forward frame and provide a level contact for the cross ties. If the trial fit looks good, glue two pieces of thin bass wood across the bottom of the logs for stability.
The logs will be set on the rear support and appear through-bolted (Kadee #439 Nut, Washer & Bolt) to improve visual appeal.
The Track
Six by 8” lumber was used for the cross ties supporting the Code 70 rail. I chose to omit every third cross tie and use a piece of Micro Engineering track to set the spacing. The ties were cut to 7 scale feet in length. Two ties at each end were tapped down using green 3M tape and the rails were glued in place. Once dry, the fragile assembly was carefully turned over and the remaining cross ties were glued in place.
[9] Preparing the track
After all the cross ties were glued in place and allowed to dry overnight, the finished track was test fit on the trailer. Note the rails are longer at the rear than the front. They will be trimmed later to avoid an excessive gap during loading or unloading.
[10] Track glued in place on the trailer
Finishing Touches
Before the track is glued to the logs, a brake line and rear taillight electrical wire are run from the truck chassis, along the log on the right and disappear under the Rear Log Support. To do this, N scale spikes are inserted and glued into #60 holes that run along the side. The wires are guided to the bottom to avoid contact with the chains that will restrain the box car when it is underway. Chain attachment points are installed ahead and behind the box car doors. At this point you need to have a reasonably good sense of the position of the track on the logs and the position of the car on the track to know where the chain restraint points should be located. HO scale spikes are used to simulate chain restraints. Atlas HO/N round headed spikes were used. String the smallest gauge wire you can handle from underneath the rear log support and glue in place. Drill two holes in the rear of the truck cab to simulate the brake line and electrical line disappearing into the truck cab.
‘[11] Mounting the logs on the rear wheel assembly
[12] Chain Attachment Points; Brake Line and Taillight Wire Supports; Bottom: Installed.
[13] The forward end of the trailer mounted on the tractor.
A bollard for attaching chain to the car’s coupler was simply fashioned from the same I-beam material used throughout and glued on the tongue just ahead of the end of the track.
Determine final position of track on the logs so bolts can be seen between the cross ties; glue in place.
[14] Truck and Trailer ready for the boxcar and the trip to Coulee City
At this point, a decision needs to be made to glue the box car to the track and install the restraining chains and the wheel blocks or not, which would simulate an empty rig returning for another box car. In the later scenario. The project is finished.
My intent to model my imagined loading scene as described below. Once glued in place on the trailer, the truck wheels were blocked with 6” x 8” untreated lumber, and chains were draped through the open doors and secured in an alignment that would allow the chains to act as spring lines to avoid forward or backward movement. The forward coupler was locked and chain secured around it and the steel bollard on the tongue.
The Scene
A disused siding was altered by cutting the rail and extending the rail over an expedient crib wall. An approach to the stub siding for the truck and trailer was excavated by bulldozer and a compacted gravel roadway used to provide access to the stub track. The operating plan was for a 44 ton switcher to push a box car onto the trailer. The switcher used a flat car as an idler to avoid the weight of the switcher on the end of the stub over the crib wall.
The only points of precision: the height of the stub rail must match the height of the rail on the trailer and the skill of the truck driver to quickly align the trailer with the stub in order to stay on a-three-round-trips a day schedule.
[15] The completed loading scene.
9. Postscript, Musings From John.
My model is not faithful to the prototype. I didn’t have the modeling skills to fashion the forward frame and tongue properly. Perhaps 3D printing or laser cut sheet material would have helped but I chose to use I beams.
There is a treasure trove of inspiration in Dan Bolyard’s website bigbendrailroadhistory.com
My photo.
July 25, 2025
A late July trip to the Columbia Basin Railway caught the turn returning from Connell, WA. Departure time was a bit earlier than I've previously seen, as it is dependent on BNSF to show up with their cars to return to Warden.
Power is a former DMIR SD9 of the same number, a former Santa Fe GP9 (the last one running in blue and yellow, as the other one, the 2294, is out of service at the roundhouse in Yakima), and one former NP GP9, still with it's BNSF number.
Train is approaching the location of Frischnecht, along what was built as the NP's Connell Northern branch.
