Kraut Road

    Kraut Road module banner
    Kraut Road module seen from the public side
    Kraut Road track plan, top view
    Track plan
    Kraut Road
    • Builders: Mike and Marshall Skibbe
    • Franksville, WI
    • Built 2012
    • Atlas Code 55 Track
    • 5 ft (1 Module)
    Milwaukee Road F units passing the Franksville warehouse at the Kraut Road crossing

    Kraut Road is a single five-foot transition module, where the mainline swings from front to back allowing us to shift the mainline or account for inside curve modules.

    The prototype is Kraut Road in Franksville, Wisconsin, north of Sturtevant, where the road crosses the Milwaukee Road’s Chicago–Milwaukee main at grade. The Milwaukee Road laid its tracks through Franksville in the 1870s, and the line is now Canadian Pacific’s C&M Subdivision. In 1907 the Frank Pure Food Company built a sauerkraut plant in Franksville, and in 1949 the company held the first Kraut Festival (Franksville, Wisconsin; RailPictures.Net: Kraut Road, Franksville).

    This module features Bluford Shops n scale corn. The product was developed after Steve and Craig saw the amount of effort that went into the East New Lisbon module with its individually planted corn stalks. The efforts to model corn were featured in an N Scale Railroading article.

    Marshall Skibbe scratchbuilt the power house and main Kraut factory following photographs and measurements from the existant buildings.

    Mike Skibbe handlaid the turnout and used Code 40 for the siding. The module is wired for signals as part of the Sturtevant operators CTC machine.

    Kraut Road crossing the double main and the warehouse siding, with the FRANKSVILLE warehouse, brick building, water tank and white house
    Kraut Road crosses both mains and the warehouse siding. Behind the crossing are the white house with its Frank’s Kraut sign, the brick building with its stack and water tank, and the FRANKSVILLE warehouse.
    Dry rock-bed creek running through a culvert under the double main, with the lane bridge in the background
    The dry creek runs through culverts under both mains. The concrete lane bridge is in the background on its way into Franksville proper.
    Pond with a rowboat on the shore and a glowing fire pit under a tree
    The pond at the Kraut Road end, with a rowboat on the shore and an animated fire pit.

    Sources: Franksville, Wisconsin; RailPictures.Net: Kraut Road, Franksville. Module photos: Mike Skibbe. Track plan: Modutrak.