What's your backstory?

  My layout is based on a 'what if' extension of a Milwaukee Road branch line in SW Wisconsin.  I basically extended the Mineral Point branch all the way to East Dubuque where it connects with the Milwaukee Road Iowa Division trackage.  I also combined/removed some C&NW trackage so that a C&NW 'Ridge Runner' line train now travels over part on my line, and I use some of that trackage to reach my 'Pecatonica' branch.  Everything is set in the late 50's, using 1st generation engines like GP9's and some steam.

  The HO layout occupies an 'L' shaped 25' by 20' area and is DCC controlled.  The layout was started in 1987, and most of the base scenery is complete.  Ballasting was finally done last year(Arizona Rock & Mineral).  Trackage is Atlas code 100, with the branch being redone in code 83.  I use about 15-16 engines and 100+ freight cars on the layout.

Jim

i am building a pike set about 1900, which strings together scenes from a number of railroads in my home state (Rhode Island.)   i am building some models of specific buildings, usually somewhat compressed, but still recognizable.    

I am building a layout to help me escape from this crazy world to a better time and place when things were like my Grandpa used to talk about...  and I'm a Pennsy fan because when I was a little boy, I went and rode the Straussburg Railroad and saw the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum...  been a Pennsy nut ever since.

The HVT is a tourist railroad set in 1985 with close ties to the Union Pacific Railroad.   The railroad operates between the interchange yard and engine facility at Thistle and the popular resort town of Hill Valley, traveling through picturesque mountains and rolling sand dunes, passing the famous Mountain Dell Scout camp and historic Fremont Indian cliff dwellings.  These Indian ruins overlook the fertile Hill Valley where the Fremont Indians most likely raised corn.  Trout are plentiful at Browne Lake at the head of the North Fork of Clear Creek, site of the present day Scout camp.  Buffalo still graze in the luscious grass near Tatanka Lake.  

The HVT was originally a narrow gauge line which began in 1897 when silver was discovered in the Clear Creek mine located in Clayton Ravine.  A new Rogers locomotive #3 found its home hauling silver ore to the mainline and supplies back to the mine.  The new railroad connected with the D&RGW mainline at Thistle, located between Salt Lake City and Denver, where an engine facility was being built to service and turn the helper locomotives used to help heavy freight trains over the pass at Soldier Summit.  After the silver vein paid out in 1910 the line sat dormant for several years.  In 1921 several investors got together and reopened the mine, this time looking for coal.  They were successful and the railroad was back in business, complete with new standard gauge track work and rolling stock.  #3 was taken out of mothballs, converted to standard gauge and put back into service.

The flagship of the HVT fleet is engine #3, the recently restored 1896 Rogers 4-6-0 steam locomotive, pulling a set of restored passenger cars from the same era.  The HVT also handles freight using an EMD SD40T-2 leased from Denver & Rio Grande Western and a GP9 in Western Pacific livery on loan from the Union Pacific, which had acquired the GP9 in the recent merger.  The favorites of the younger crowd include excursions behind Thomas the Tank Engine pulling Annie and Clarabelle, and at times his companion Percy.  HVT is contracted by the Southern Pacific to do turn-around maintenance on their FEF-3 GS4 which pulls frequent excursions to Hill Valley aboard the historic Coast Daylight train.  A spare GS4 is often seen in the engine yard.  The Central Pacific Jupiter and Union Pacific #119 find time from their schedule at Golden Spike Monument to visit Hill Valley.   On occasion an Amtrak special chartered train will visit the railroad and a few stray UP locos can always be seen here.

What the heck?   You asked and after all it is my railroad. 

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Here's mine:  The history of the Blackwater and Butte Creek Railroad

In 1882 J. Henry Coulter inherited the claim homesteaded in south central Oregon by his maternal grandmother’s uncle, Norman Shakespeare.  Traveling on foot with his pack-mule, Daisy, he explored his property and discovered that it was forested with the usual Douglas fir trees, but that there were also acres of white oaks.  It seems that Norm was a cooper and he planted the white oaks to grow his own materials.

Hank, as Henry was known to his friends, set about establishing a logging operation, but getting the logs out proved nearly impossible, between the surrounding cliffs and Butte Creek.  The way was only passable via mule or on foot.  Not to be deterred, Hank built a rail line, including two tunnels and a couple of trestles to provide quick passage to the little town of Blackwater.  Business took off and Hank soon had a full scale logging operation.  Three or four times per day, short strings of log cars, pulled by tiny shays, snaked down the narrow right of way to the mill at Blackwater.  Seeing no use for white oak, Henry sold those acres to Ron Stave.

Being a family oriented kind of guy, Hank encouraged his employees to wed, and bring their brides to live in the logging community he named Butte Creek.  Over the next 20 years, the logging town grew to a population of over 1,000, but it was still only reachable by rail.  Hank had the guys in the backshop build a handful of short passenger coaches so the families could come and go in comfort.  These little cars only have one truck, so they let the occupants enjoy every undulation in the track to its fullest

As soon as the rail line went in, Ron Stave started cutting white oaks and selling building lots as the land was cleared.  The white oak logs went to William Stave (Ron’s Brother) in Blackwater.  William established a barrel manufacturing business, the Stave Brothers’ Cooperage.  The barrels were popular among the northern California wine makers.   In addition, an eccentric fellow named Gordon Spock had fallen for the natural beauty of Butte Creek and established a small factory – Spock’s Wing nuts – Their slogan was “Bigger ears for a better grip - the logical choice.”  There was a barrel hoop maker, and other small businesses.  The thriving little town had roads, cars, grocery stores and a gas station, but the only way in or out was via rail.

As luck would have it, the Great Depression (and some unfortunate investments in buggy whip futures) led to the demise of Hank’s logging company, but the town wouldn’t die.  In fact it got a boost when it was discovered that Norman was William Shakespeare’s cousin’s great great grandson.  The theater patrons of Ashland, Oregon started visiting Norm’s grave in droves.  (Ashland is the home of the Oregon Shakespearean Festival).  The tourist traffic became so consistent that the main line was extended 13 miles to a small station at the end of Herbert Street in Ashland.

That brings us up to date (1937).  The present Blackwater and Butte Creek Railroad runs from Ashland to Butte Creek, Oregon – with a stop in Blackwater.  The motive roster includes a number of obsolete locomotives that were purchased second or third hand from other railroads.  Included are 4 small class A shays, 2 Moguls, a Columbia, a Forney, and two railbuses.  Speed is limited to 15 miles per hour, but the shays can’t go even that fast.  The trip from Ashland to Butte Creek is described by the theater patrons as “leisurely.”  They typically invite impatient railway patrons to “Have a glass of wine and enjoy the ride.”

Click on my web site in my sig

I DON'T think that my fellow forumites would be fascinated by a 400 year history of the sociopolitical hi-jinks that led to the complex conglomeration of rail activity in a region of Japan so remote that it has (to quote Wikipedia) only two local passenger trains and one limited express train per hour.  It runs six pages of close-spaced small print.

More significant, I think, is my reason for modeling wnat I do.  Five decades ago I was an Air Force sergeant, serving in the Tokyo area.  My wife, who was fully aware that she had married a model railroader, suggested that we use some of my leave time to visit the Kiso Valley, home of, among other things, a narrow-gauge logging railroad.  She had previously weaned me away from modeling the New York Central with a birthday gift - a brass locomotive kit that built into a nice little Japanese style tank locomotive.

So, we went to Agematsu, Nagano-ken, in September of 1964.  The logger was there, powered by a bunch of four wheel diesel `critters' so ugly they were cute, running semi-disconnects coupled with link and pin couplers.  Right next to it, separated only by a fence, the Japan National Railway was running steam!  And the stretch from Agematsu to Kiso-Fukushima was a helper district.  Twenty car freights and eight car passenger trains powered by D51 class 2-8-2s were pushed up the 2.5% grade by a C12 class 2-6-2T.  Other passenger trains were operating with DMU consists that allowed an intrepid traveler to stand and watch out the head end, two thicknesses of glass removed from the view to the front.  A little way down the valley, where the catenary ended, every train that had a locomotive underwent an engine change from steam to motor or vice versa.  Occasionally a freight or passenger train would be headed by one or two of those new DD13 class diesel-hydraulics.

Away from the tracks, the area was beautiful.  A lot of the buildings dated from the Meiji era and before.  Being, literally, out in the sticks, there had been no direct damage from the WWII air strikes that had devastated urban areas.  The locals had no problem with a squirrely gaijin with a camera and notebook meandering around the place taking pictures and making sketches and notes.  They took my wife (who is also from a rural area - up-country Takamatsu-ken - and has a logging background) to their hearts, and spoiled our kids with candy and attention.  We had a wonderful time and made some wonderful memories.

Then I decided to try to capture the spirit of the area in model form.  I had already begun collecting Japanese prototype rolling stock in 1:80 (aka HOj) scale.  My exposure to the Kiso country focused my buying, and I developed and refined a master plan (of which that six page history is only a part.)

Having survived the Air Force and 20 years of post-Air Force life, during which those two toddlers grew into adults and one of them made me a grandfather, my wife and I moved into our `last in this lifetime' home in 2004.  One feature was a double garage.  For the first time I had a space big enough to build my dream layout!

Progress is being made, slowly.  Some of my past sins have come home to roost in the form of health problems - but hope and determination still carry me forward.  I could wish that I could do more, faster - but I'm thankful for what I have and what I can do.

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

Mine is set in the late 50's early 60's of the remote hills of WV.  I model after the B&O since that is the road many in my family worked for over the years from 1950-2008 when the last one retired.  I have my own subdivision that I created so I didn't have to be 100% exact if I used a real subdivision.  The name of my subdivision is: Blue Ridge.  I had a different name for the division when I started to build the layout but later changed it because I thought it sounded better.  My division has interchanges with C&O, WM, NYC, PRR and a shortline I created.  The prime loads are coal, lumber, limestone, meat, livestock, and paper.  I have several yards on my layout including a working hump yard.  I run a 2 track main, but on section of the layout I run 3 track mains to handle the loads.  On my 3 track mains is where NYC and PRR both cross over and run on B&O's mains before going back into their own tracks.  On a different part of the layout where it's only 2 track there is a point where WM crosses over and runs on B&O tracks all the way to the interchange and then returns to home rails past the interchange where it heads into a tunnel and heads back toward Maryland.   My shortline that I have on my layout is called: Twin Peaks and Southern (TP&S).  My shortline serves part of a major corporation that owns one of the regions coal mines, the company branched out to max the revenue of their lands by starting a logging company and after they found limestone while doing some surface mining they opened a limestone quary.  Also the shortline has a spur that handles a stock yard next to a slaughterhouse/packing house with ice house support.  A spin off business from the slaughterhouse is a paper mill that supplies butcher paper and cardboard boxes for packing meat in as well as the paper mill has several major customers so they have a steady business as well as buying the pulp from the local logging company to use in making their paper products.  Also the shortline has passenger service to remote towns back in the hills that my Class1 road doesn't go to so I have a passenger trains that my shortline runs, the shortline does run mixed trains of freight and passenger.  I have one central passenger station where trains have to back in rather than a simple stop and go my station has trains from all of the roads that interchange with my subdivision.  I have a train shop near the main freight yard where the B&O services and rebuilds engines and cars.  Based on Mt. Claire's shops.  On my shortline there are branches of the line that a wye can't be used or turntables used so there is tender first trains, sometimes the engine is in the middle of the train because of the sidings that are placed to get into a certain business so the crew has to run tender first with some of the cars ahead of the engine until they can reach a siding to set the cars on  and pick them back up on the back end of the train.  I use the theme of mid-late summertime.  I have lots of team tracks on the layout to serve small customers as well as several freight houses for LCL's.  I run alot of steam with some diesel, I know diesel was further along on the B&O at this time but my theme is this is a backwater division that was on the end of the new equipment lists so they always had the oldest pieces of equipment on the road.  So there are still plenty of EM-1's and EL's as well as 2-8-2, 4-6-2, 2-8-0 for the equipment but they do have a couple of used VO's for yard work at the main yard as well as a few Geeps and a couple of F Units for freight service assigned to this division.  On the mains you see mostly diesel power of the through freights and passenger services but still see the big steam pounding the rails with long coal drags and mixed freights.  Plus most of the local freight is still steam but they know that diesel is coming but the hoggers still run their equipment with the attitude of trying to keep them running as long as possible before giving them up.  The other roads run mostly diesel but a few steamers as well since this is the land of the lost for most RR's No one is getting factory fresh equipment sent into this area.  My shortline is pure steam and their equipment is a motley bunch of equipment that they have bought from auctions of RR's that have gone bankrupt.  So there is no set type of equipment that they have.  This includes rolling stock and passenger cars too, they do have one doodlebug that serves one of the mines to carry workers and equipment back to this small mine.  Basically my division is a bridge in WV for the B&O to get to Chicago faster as well as the interchanges that allow all the different roads to come to a central point as their tracks all come close to each other and there is no real competition for multi-roads trying to work each town.  There is one town called Alexanderia that has B&O, NYC and TP&S all serve the same town so there are a couple of diamonds within the town.  In this town there is a major factory that builds parts for the big 3 automakers.  They build sub assembles for suspensions and as a result there are a couple of spin off companies in the town that supply the factory and they receive raw goods and parts by rail so this is the main industial point in the region and the biggest population too.  My area is tough railroading where coal is king but there is enough other businesses to make it profitable to support a division rather than just being a spinoff or forgotten branch.

So there's my backstory of my layout.

Ray

B&O's Blue Ridge Division  "Where the Iron Horses never sleep"

For me, mine has alot of 'custom' history. 

The towns of Elwood and Joliet England were railway towns with American counterparts. To connect these two towns to the main lines of the Great Northern Railway, a branchline was built by a private company. Thus formed the Elwood and Joliet Railway company. 

After the 1923 grouping act, the E&JR operated as it's own company, but had some management was taken over by the LNER, along with the management, Sir Nigel Gresely tested radically new small build locomotives on this branch line. Some of which were never acknowledged by the LNER management. Some of these included preliminary tests on the experimental W1. Many claim that Gresely built a second W1 and put it in long term storage in an abandoned engine shed, or built a new station building around it. 

One management decision thought that made the E&JR management catch alot of flaq was the decision to build a branch line extension to the LMS lines several miles away. The extension was completed by 1935. 

Skipping WWII, British Railways took control of the E&JR, but left the existing management to their own devises. By 1955, aging Eastern region along with Scottish and ex-LMS locomotives were left to run down their final miles before being pulled out for the cutter's torch. 

Thankfully though, BR management lost count of the many locomotives there thanks to an office fire that completely destroyed any modern records of the E&JR outside of historically preserved documents. So many pieces of motive power and rolling stock that were meant to be scrapped stayed there. until, in many cases they were the last of their class. 

The line remained operational hauling materials around the line until 1970. At this point, a historical society was formed and took control of the E&JR, obtaining all the equipment and rolling stock along with operation of modern rail equipment on the line along side of the moderisation survivors. Still operating as a profitable railway but using the profits to maintain the fleet of last of their kind locomotives. Caldonian 812 locomotives frequently hauled small trains of modern wagons along side modern Network Rail diesel electrics and electric. LNER J18's double head to haul container trains, and small tank engines switch industries along the line on short switching run

Passenger service still requires passengers to switch trains, but the passengers don't mind. 

The Legend of Santa Vaca

In one of the early Spanish missions established in Texas to convert the Indians, a priest was telling his congregation they should give to the church even though they didn't have much to give.  He said that God can use our gifts more than we know, and he told the story of the cow who gave up her feeding stall to make a place for the Baby Jesus to lay.  He said the cow's gift-- the manger-- became more a part of the Christmas scene than even the expensive gifts of the Wise Men.

But the Indians confused the cow in the priest's Christmas story with a buffalo cow who was worshipped in their pre-Christian native religion and they began to bring back the cult of the Holy Cow.  The Church tried to discourage the practice but could not stop it entirely.  The village near the mission took on the name Santa Vaca, and it grew into a major city served by a subsidiary of the Santa Fe Railway.

At the cathedral in Santa Vaca near where the mission once stood is a stained glass window with the manger scene featuring the Baby Jesus, the Virgin Mary and the Holy Cow, each with a halo.

To understand my layout (Atm it's basic track mock up) and it's backstory, I guess you have to understand a bit about me. I was born on the Chicago-Aurora Racetrack. I don't mean physically. I mean, for a good part of my childhood, that was all I knew. I was able to be one of the last to be there for Burlington Northern's end. In fact that quote down below on my signature was what a gentleman said to me as we stood and watched the E-9 Retirement Parade. It was something that in later years, I'd understand.

My layout is to/and will be a what if.  What if the during the BNSF Merger, the ATSF disappeared under Cascade Green. What Burlington Northern had continued on. Would we have still taken those green engines for granted? I have 2 setups. Outdoors in G-Scale is BN's lifespan 1970 to 1995. But in HO, because it's cheaper on my wallet, I decided to take a Proto-Freelance take. Prototypical BN Equipment, but freelancing their exsistance as a Railroad into today's modern age. I want to keep the BN's legacy alive even if by a fictional means. I bleed green, among other colors. I miss sitting at the town station and watching those cascade green monsters fly through the racetrack. I miss that small last 5 years of which I can remember the Burlington Northern. So in my HO Setup, my backstory is to keep it alive. To say 'what if they did survive, what would it be like today?'

I'm modelling a twist on the City of Madison Port Authority and Madison Railroad. (That's Madison Indiana not some cheesehead home. Some Came Runnign was filmed there. This is the first Railroad in Indiana, and home to the 6% standard gauge non-rack Incline.

CMPA is attached to the CSX at North Vernon, INand that's about it. In my world though, the CSX decided that CSX was a carppy name, and a waste of resources aftewr having just gotten Chessie all nice and unified, and decided to stick with Chessie. Around 1994, when the Incline was restored to allow movement of a large power tranfromer to a Madison Powerplant (this really happened) the city opted to rearvew thew old rail back to the station and use it as a tourism gig. (This didn't happen, though it should have. And did, in my universe) A few companies then in Madison, and a few that moved in, through their weight in with the rails, which turned the finacncially underwater CMPA around much earlier than really happened. There's a lot of pieces in this CMPA that are refrences to characters in stoies that Dad and I came up with, most of them represented in industriues. Or will whren the layout gets built. However, while the names will be wrong, 90% of them all had some counterpart in Madison at some point in time. For example, there wasa ruber duck collection who sold toy boats in a bathtub. "Ducky Bill's" never existed, but there was a "Madison Speedboat Company" in the 1920s, that Ducky will be filling into.

Also added to the History are a few industries to the currently underutilized Jefferson Proving Grounds. A couple of trucking companies for example ralled up, and the CMPA now has it's own Intermodal dock, and a contract with TripleCrown, whoch can also be handled by Amtrak's Kentucky Cardinal at Seymour Indiana. There's also a rail rebuild compan that does Private Varnish and museum restoratiuons in ts spare time, and operates a museum. The vast starge facility has also allowd them room to do lease equpment, and seasonal trains, includign a hub for a Christmas Gift Express train to be loaded with donations and things from liquidation sales that otherwise woul've been thrown away.  True Story: Walmart had to throw out a good number of patio chairs due to being in the weather. Nothing wrong with them, but they couldn't sell them. In this modeling world, they can at least get tax-right off out of them, and people with NO furniture can get soemthing donated.

Beyond that, CMPA serves prototypical customers in the plastics industry (Meese Orbitron-Dunn and one I've forgotten at the moment), scrap, and a transload industry in North Vernon. They also store cars in the fromer jefferson Proving Grounds. Adjacent companies that either could or are in buildings that used to be served by the rails include Envirex, Phizer Distribution, IMI, an unnamed Co-Op in Dupont, IN, and two currently abandonded warehouses. I've added in a trucking dock, the rail rebuild, Ducky Bill's (getting parts in, and occasionalyl sahipping out large vessels on flatcars, think the Athearn model) a brewery in Madison (probably going to be Frizz since Dad & I always loved Looney Tunes, or named for his German re-enacting character) and an in-renovation formwer Cotton Mill may be sending out scrap by rail and getting heavy machinery brought in. There's also going to be a wood-working company of some kind, and since the US Army really did test depleted uranium shells, there may be infrequent. shipments of "Dirty Dirt" hazmat cars. Oh, and I'm just crazy enough to want to run a Schnabel car down a 6% incline. MWAHAHAHA!

My CMPA right now, is looking into whtehr they cpould stir up interest in unbanking the right of way from North Vernon to Columbus, opening up the switichin gindustry there and in Elizabethtown. It would also gien them a North-South interchange to go with their East-West link at North Vernon, so tor drug all the way to St. Louis, Terre Haute, or Cinncinati to be sent North-South, the CMPA would be able to intewrchange with the INRD and/through the LIRC, and the kentucky Card, surviving in my world on ExpressTrak business in Louiville primarily with an Amfleet car tacked on to remind people this is Amtrak, could make direct pickup of Expresstrak cars and PV coaches and cut up the CMPA to Columbus, instead of backtracking or haivn to use Chessie as an intermediary.  The Board doesn'twant to, but most likely, it will happen.

Roster wise, my CMPA is using an ex-Army SW8, a GP10, and the two ex-PRR SD7s, plus 4 RDCs operated in pairs for the tourism side. If that seems like a lot of locos, it breaks down like this: Three road engien squalified to go down the Madison INcline plus the SW8, or one road switcher, one switcher for the Proving Grounds, plus two backup engiens or engines that can be hauling seasonal cars like Grain Hoppers or Autoracks out of storage and up to North Vernon while the switcher hides in a siding to let them pass. The Board got a grant from the State of Indiana though, and is on the Ops to replace the 60yr old locos with Gensets, using free money from the state. Right now, hey will be testing an NRE unit, and though I do in fact want to paint CMPA gensetlocos, we'll see how that plays out when I get that far in the story.  

In the early days, Moose Bay was a small backwater community in the upper Midwest somewhere.  The Brad family were "prominent" in the town, but only by comparison to those who were less so.  The Brads owned the majority of the sheep that grazed on the low-grade pastures.  When the Civil War came around, their lazy son John Buford Brad arranged to join the Quartermaster Corps, figuring that would keep him in the back lines and out of harm's way.  With his education and guile, he was made an officer, and soon found himself procuring food for the troops.  He figured that he could enrich his family with this position, so one cold December day he arranged for the Army of the Republic to purchase several boxcars full of Haggis from the Brad family.  The Haggis arrived at the front lines on Christmas Eve.  After opening the cars and smelling its pungent aroma, the Union troops, in "the spirit of the holidays," decided to donate the Haggis to their starving Confederate counterparts.  The Rebels sent it back.

When news of this debacle reached Washington, the commandant of the Quartermaster Corp summoned John Buford Brad to headquarters.  They were so disgusted with the incident that, after his summary court-martial, he was ordered to remove his uniform right then and there in the courtroom.  With his coat and trousers at his feet, Brad stood at attention for what he thought would be his sentencing, but the assembled officers began whispering among themselves, and soon began asking questions about, of all things, his underwear.

You see, one of the problems that faced the Union Army was keeping the troops warm in the field, and John Buford Brad was wearing the underwear his sisters had made for him - a neck-to-ankle garment made of wool from the family's sheep.  They were so excited by the design and execution of this garment that they not only cancelled the demotion, but actually promoted him.  And, to this day, the garment is known as a "Union Suit," or as "Long Johns."

The business brought much prosperity to Moose Bay, and a statue of John Buford Brad was erected in the park that bears his name.

My "St.Paul Route" would be a "what if" railroad I guess. It's based on two real railroads, the St.Paul & Duluth which ran between...well, St.Paul and Duluth, oddly enough, and the Port Arthur Duluth & Western. The real StP&D was bought by Northern Pacific in 1900, because of their much shorter line between their namesake towns, and the PAD&W went bankrupt in the 1930's. (Port Arthur and Fort William, Ontario, merged in 1970 to become Thunder Bay.)

In my version, instead of buying the StP&D the NP worked out a trackage rights agreement to use the line, and in return granted trackage rights to the St.P&D from Duluth to Brainerd MN - meaning the road would be in position to haul iron ore once the Cuyuna Range opened up in 1903. The StP&D merged with the PAD&W (which had in real life built down from Canada in northern Minnesota) and connected what's now Thunder Bay to Duluth/Superior with a line along the north shore of Lake Superior. The RR name became St.Paul Duluth and Canadian Ry.

I use info from the real St.P&D as much as possible, borrowing train names and consists to show what this railroad might have looked like had it lasted into the mid-20th century.

The Port Able Railroad is a shortline located on the Massachusetts shoreline that took over an abandoned branchline of the Atlantic Lines in 1937. The end of passenger service after the closure of Neptune Park amusement park in 1935 and low freight traffic spelled doom for the Port Able Branch.

The line was originally 8 miles long, but it was cut back to 6 miles where the lines freight customers were located. Trains went up the branch to Port Able locomotive first and returned to East Haven caboose first.

Fearing that shutting down the rail line would put them out of business in an already depressed economy, the two freight customers on the line, Whist Manufacturing & Regina Distributors, purchased the branch from the Atlantic Lines. Along with the purchase were an 0-4-0 tank engine and an old wood caboose.

The railroad has 8 miles of trackage (6 route miles) and serves the original 2 customers. Carloadings are over 200 cars per year. Trains run twice a week (usually Monday and Thursday, or as needed).

An interesting feature of the railroad is that it has no runaround track. Since it branched off of the mainline at East Haven and continued on into Port Able's waterfront for the Port Able Ship Yard and ending at the beach/amusement park (Neptune's Park).

The layout is basically going to be a 66 inch by 45 inch loop of track with 5 turnouts, thus explaining the lack of a runaround track. Trains will be between 1 to 3 cars long plus the engine and caboose.

I'm modeling the summer of 1979 because I love the shortline Incentive Per Diem box cars that were all over American rails during the 1970's. I also have a few steam switchers around (I love those Varney diecast Lil Joes), so I can switch to a steam era with very few changes.

The name of the railroad explains its concept. The layout comes apart into 3 22 inch by 45 inch pieces to be (portable) and it will sit on my dining room table (por table). I've been toying with this layout design for 10 years and came to the realization that I was over designing my layout. I then decided to keep everything simple in design, concept, and cost. While it's not a groundbreaking design, it will keep me happy for many years to come.

The Port Able Railway has only 2 customers, Whist Manufacturing Corp. and Regina Distributors Inc.
Whist Manufacturing receives up to 4 box cars (hardware, parts, and packaging) and ships out up to 3 box cars per week. Regina Distributors receives up to 2 box cars per week (merchandise). The engine house has its fuel delivered by a local fuel company.

History of the Penn Lake System

During the mid 1920s, the Delaware & Hudson and the Reading Company, began to purchase the stock of an anthracite shortline named the Penn Lake Railway, in an attempt to increase their anthracite traffic. While neither road was successful in gaining complete control of the line, together they acquired the majority stake in it and were able to prevent the PL from falling into the hands of either the Lehigh Valley, or Lackawanna. However, the ICC prevented either company from exercising operational control. As a result, the Penn Lake continued to operate independently, much like the ACL and L&N's Clinchfield. The acquisition also provided a connection to the New Haven for both roads.

Originally, the line carried mostly anthracite. Iron ore and cement soon eclipsed coal as PL's money makers. Following World War II, Penn Lake became a crucial link for bridge traffic between D&H's Canadian connection at Montreal, and Reading's Midwest and South connections at Hagerstown. Soon after Norfolk & Western acquired a direct connection to Reading, CP Rail and Norfolk & Western began the Canada Direct expedited run through trains. Similar New England Direct trains operated in conjunction with New Haven.

Penn Lake's locomotives carried Penn Lake marking, but followed the motive power policies of it's parents. It's diesels sported Reading's unique equipment and D&H's black paint scheme. By the late 1960s, PL operated with hand me down RS3s and S2s. Penn Lake quickly gained a reputation as an Alco lovers paradise. Increasingly though, the priority trains ran with the parent's front line power. The Canada Direct trains used CP and N&W run though power almost exclusively.

On April 1^st 1976, the Reading's interest in the PL transferred to Conrail. Conrail, uninterested in the line, soon sold it's holdings to the D&H. The D&H integrated PL's operations into it's own, but never bothered to formally merge company . During it's purchase by Guilford, D&H lost control of the PL to a group of Pennsylvania and New York investors.

The new ownership consolidated the Penn Lake Railway with other Conrail spin offs and renamed the line the Penn Lake System. Built during the late 19^th Century, the PL had generous clearances. The PLS quickly rehabbed the track and instituted double stack service from the Port of New York/New Jersey.

The PLS, using it's Anthracite Speedway slogan, developed a reputation for fast, on time service, and prospered. By the early 1990s, PLS and it's lucrative traffic from the Port of New York/New Jersey attracted the attention of the expansionist CP Rail. CP began to acquire interest in the PLS. In 1996, CP acquired 100 percent of the PLS, and merged it back into the D&H.

Nick

I am trying to model the Modern up to date NS,however keeping up with modern times and new HO products is difficult. I am also influenced by other model railroaders and their free-lanced ideas as well. So Im between modeling a prototype,free-lanced,modern up to date railroad in central Ohio. Im from Toledo,so the northern parts of OHIO and southern Michigan are hard to pass-up. After seeing David Barrow and Gary Hoover change their Layout concepts so many times,Im somewhat hesitant,The backstory will unfold with time.  

I always enjoy these threads.

My fictional Missouri Valley Western is a line born out of a "what if" scenario. What if two real railroads -- the Sioux City & Pacific and the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley -- merged and avoided being absorbed into the rapidly growing Chicago & North Western system in the 19th century?

The Missouri Valley Western is primarily a bridge route between the Union Pacific at Omaha and the C&NW's line to Chicago. Set in 1954, the line sees tons of fast freight (including the "new" TOFCs) as well as crack passenger trains like the City of Los Angeles, the City of San Francisco, the Challenger, etc.

Way back in the day, the Missouri Valley Western also purchased another real shortline (I believe it was the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph, but I don't have my notes handy) to provide access to Kansas City and -- via the Missouri Pacific -- St. Louis. So the railroad's main purpose is tying together the UP's western connections with two of the major intercontinental portals, Chicago & St. Louis.

My layout is centered around the fictional city of Cedricsburg (named after my late uncle who turned me on to the hobby) in southwestern Iowa. Cedricsburg, with a population of about 100,000, is a division point. Eastbound traffic is dispatched to Minneapolis/St. Paul or to Chicago and beyond to anywhere in the northeast. Westbound traffic out of Cedricsburg is headed for the UP, or re-routed southward to Kansas City and then back east toward St. Louis and beyond to the mid-Atlantic.

The layout is being built in N scale as a sectional on hollow-core doors. Eventually, it will represent Cedricsburg and about 20 miles of trackage in either direction. The eastern and western lines will meet in a shared staging yard.

After the carnage and destruction in Charleston during the Civil War, Alan Wright decided it was time to go West (along with so many others).  Not having any particular reason or destination, he took the right fork to stay on the Oregon trail instead of going to California.

He was taken by the beauty of the Blue Mountains, and the Picture Gorge section of the John Day River.  But Alan had salt water in his veins, and railroading as his destiny.  Exploring the Oregon Coast, he discovered a great natural harbor and the most passable bar between San Francisco and Seattle at the mouth of what is now Coos Bay.  Alan foresaw another great West Coast port that could compete with San Francisco and Seattle.  Such a port would need transcontinental rail service to develop it.  So Charleston, Oregon was started, and the Picture Gorge & Western Railway was chartered to cross Oregon and tie with a to-be-determined partner railroad in Idaho or Wyoming.

Unfortunately Alan saw the Coos Bay bar on a rare fogless summer day.  The perpetual summer fog made sailing ship skippers rather nervous about calling at Charleston.  In fact, all but a very few would refuse to go there.  So Charleston remained a fishing port rather than a center of West Coast commerce.  The impact on the PG&W was considerable.  Funds ran out before the railroad could cross the Cascades; construction got as far as a tie to the Oregon & California at Roseburg.

Meanwhile, the Cooper family had discovered the groves of Port Orford cedar mixed with some redwood in the coastal mountains in Southern Oregon.  How to get the valued wood to market in San Francisco and the rest of California was the question.  Roy Cooper ended up building a narrow gauge railway linking the saw mill on the Elk River, the landings in the forest, and the dog hole harbor at Port Orford.  Without the fog in Charleston, and providing reasonable protection from storm, Port Orford was a choice port for the sailing schooners working the West Coast.

Roy saw a chance to really make his railway pay by expanding through the mountains to tie to the PG&W at Lebanon.  But the Lebanon city fathers insisted as part of the land grant into town that all freight would have to be trans-loaded between the 2 railways by Lebanon labor - thus guaranteeing jobs for the isolated town - and that it wouldn't pay for Roy to convert the Port Orford & Elk River to standard gauge.

Despite the inefficiency of the trans-load, the connection of the 2 railways proved beneficial for both.  Coal and ice from the Oregon interior were accessible to Port Orford, while the logs could go south by rail or ship.  Ships with more general cargo started calling at Port Orford as a way to supply interior Oregon.

that's my story and I'm sticking to it

Fred W

....modeling foggy coastal Oregon, where it's always 1900....

UncBob

Click on my web site in my sig

tHANKS - JUST MADE MY DAY (STRASBURG RAILROAD ) I cannot wait until I get home this evening and show my girls the 0-6-0. I bought them some in HO to run on my layout. They will be sooooo excited! I am going to make the trip just so they can ride that train!

The Toledo Erie Central is a fictitious, free-lanced RR set in northeastern Ohio in the '70's. It represents about a 12 mile industrial corridor between Sandusky and Toledo that is former Norfolk and Western trackage that once also shared trackage rights with the Pennsy and the Erie Lackawanna RR's. Tthe line would have been abandoned except the local rail-served industries in the area bought this segment which connects with the EL and the Chessie System. It is an 'L' shaped switching layout a total of 14 feet long by 2 feet wide. Presently building the major rail-served structures, tracked, wired (DC, two throttles) and not yet senicked.

Would an administrator please be kind enough to fix the glitch on the first page of this thread that is stretching the page off to the right?

Thank-you.

      My freelanced/proto road The Leelanau County Railway is based on a series of series of C&O/PM, M&NE, Ann Arbor and Empire Southeastern branchs that once operated in Northwestern Michigan counties of Leelanau and Benzie. The amount of track is 87 miles. The towns served by my HO scale line will be Lake Leelanau, Cedar City, Solon, Lake Ann, Empire, Honor, Benzonia, and Thompsonville. You can follow the route of my fictional shortline by looking through SPV's Great Lakes East revised railroad atlas.

       Motive power for my line is 3 RSC2's, 2 GP15-1's (internal filters),  1 2-10-0,  1 4-6-0 (52" drivers), 1 USRA 0-8-0, 1 44 tonner, 1 CF7, 1 H10-44, and 1 high hood GP20.

Well, my road has it's roots in the coal mines in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada.

There was a mine and town near present day Banff called Bankhead. My layout will be a somewhat smaller version, the main purpose for it's existance is the six to eight cars of coal is produces daily. The coal is trasfered to the Canadian Pacific and is used mainly as a fuel source for CP locomotives. It is set in the early 1900s. I have a single 2-8-0 that is the backbone, doing everything from hauling coal, logs for lumber (shorings inside the mine) freight (explosives and supplies for the mine and miners) and even a little bit of passenger service and whatever else there is that needs doing.

My mine head and associated buildings are based on instructions published in Model Railroader, October to December 1959, by Jack Work.

It is a small branchline owned and operated by the Hat River Coal and Navigation Company.

At this point, it is a work in progress. I have had two large layouts in the past that had to be dismantled for various reasons. This one will be rather smaller, a sort of shelf layout, occupying about 6' 6" in length and 12 to 18" in width.

There will not be a turntable, so my engine will run tender first for some trips. I am incorporating a kinda, sorta inglenook switching puzzle for interest. The rest will be mostly single track, with, maybe, a passing siding. The coal will be transfered to the CP by running the cars over a trestle where the coal can be dumped into bins the will empty in to the waiting cars below.

I model in n scale. I have a Athearn old time 2-8-0 (which will be my power of choice on this layout), I have 2 Bachmann Spectrum USRA 2-8-0s, and a Walthers Proto 2000 0-8-0.

I'm not yet decided if I will use DCC or just DC. It will depend on how hard it is to intalls a decoder in the Athearn 2-8-0.

I think that about covers it. As time goes on and I get some results, I'll post a few pictures when I get the chance.

Cheers.

Jim R

Oops! I meant NORTHWESTERN Ohio. Everybody knows that Toledo is in northwestern, not northeastern Ohio.

I am modeling another "what if" scenario based on the short lived Santa Ana & Newport Railway in Southern California.  The real history of  this line started when the McFadden family built the railroad in the early 1890's to haul lumber from their wharf in Newport (which still exists as a pier in the City of Newport Beach) to a connection with the Santa Fe Railroad in the City of Santa Ana.  This line operated for a few years until the McFaddens decided they no longer wanted to operate a railroad.  Having enjoyed a good relationship with the ATSF, they offered to sell the line to the Santa Fe.  However, the Santa Fe was recovering from a recent bankruptcy and could not take advantage of the situation.  Thus, the line was sold to another family who owned a sugar beet refinery in nearby Los Alamitos.  This family tried to extend the SA&N line from Huntington Beach out to Los Alamitos but gave up due to difficult construction conditions and steady pressure from the Southern Pacific Railroad.  The line was eventually sold to the Southern Pacific who finished the SA&N extension to their main line.  This extension created a complete loop from Anahiem south through Santa Ana to Newport Beach, west to Huntington Beach then north through Westminster and back to Anahiem.  The SP actually ran a mixed train (dubbed "the merry-go-round train") around this loop for a period during the 1920's.  However, Newport never developed as a commercial port and the McFaddens, who hated the owners of the SP, moved their lumber operations to San Diego where they could continue to deal with the ATSF.  Thus, freight traffic never grew to a point to make the former SA&N profitable and most of the coastal portion of the line was abandoned by the early 1930's (this portion of the line paralleled the Pacific Electric's Newport line so was already redundant).  The only portion of the SA&N that still survives is about half of the SP's (now UP) extension toward Huntington Beach.  A portion of the SA&N was used by the SP south of Santa Ana to service the Holly Sugar Refinery into the late 1970's. 

My fictitious history assumes that the line was indeed purchased by the ATSF in the 1890's but had to be operated independently to hide the transaction from the bankruptcy courts.  This allowed the SA&N to survive into the late 1950's (the setting of my layout).  Because the major freight traffic generator did not leave town, the port of Newport did achieve enough commercial development to prove profitable.  In exchange for trackage rights to connect with it's Pacific Electric line in Huntington Beach, the SP extended the SA&N tracks out to the SP main line.  Thus, my layout incorporates both point to point operations between Santa Ana and Huntington Beach, plus prototypical continuous running through Westminster and Anahiem (off-layout), as well as the presence of four different railroads (ATSF, PE, SA&N, SP). 

I used to live in So.Cal for 13 years when my dad was transferred out there in the late 70's.  I lived in Tustin, Santa Ana, Westminster, Garden Grove, Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Irvine.  I know that terrain all too well.  Use to take the Amtrak to San Diego from Fullerton as well as spending many a weekend in L.A.  Used to go the Newport Beach all the time to the spagetti factory for dinners and hang out on the beach with friend at a fire ring pit and listen to tunes with my gf and watch the "submarine" races at night.  lol  It's been over 20 years since I in So. Cal.  Graduated HS in Tustin, so did my wife.  Joined the service and never went back to So. Cal except S.D. to see my brother when he was in the service as well.  Thanks for giving me a moment to remember those days again.

Ray

B&O Blue Ridge Division "Where the Iron Horse never sleeps"

My Back Story for the Port Destiny Terminal is as follows . It was built at the Beginning of  WW 1 , to serve the navy by the US Goverment  . Port Destiny was orginally a small fishing port in North Florida about 60 miles East of Pensicola , FLA . , that has a deep port the Navy wanted to use  after WW 2 the Port became a Copmercial port serving the Gulf and the Caribean . It is jointly operated by the L&N and the Southern RY . The Line was built off of the L&N Main line and the Southern  reaches it by trackage rights , both Railroads help maintain the tracks and loan the RR equipment . The PDT does have it's own locomotives .

 The rail road is set in the 1970's , business is not what it was but it is still a busy road with a passenger Train that makes a stop plus 2 transfer trains from each of the parent RR's.