Prototype…
Previously known as Miller’s Switch, this location once consisted of a small country store and a rail spur with capacity for ten cars. According to ICC Field Notes dated December 31, 1927, a milk platform also operated here for a time, though it was later removed as traffic patterns changed.
Layout adaptation…
For modeling purposes, I invoked a bit of license and relocated an industry from a prior layout: the Shapiro Brothers Scrap Metal yard. In reality, Shapiro Brothers operated on the M-I’s Bonne Terre Subdivision at Festus, Missouri, where Leon and Earl Shapiro built a successful business shipping scrap metal to steel mills in Illinois.
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On the layout, crews will load empty gondolas at the scrap yard. The operating placard below provides the necessary instructions for handling and spotting these cars.
