Howdy all, I'm a new modeller and living in Australia and being fascinated by US railroads makes searching for information pretty tricky.
I am in the process of planning and building a layout based on the Burlington in a generic Montana setting.
I am looking to model a mainly rural focused area with a small town, farm and mountain scenery. This will be in N scale on an 81x33in door.
Basically, what I need to know is what operations the CB&Q had in Montana during the 1950s/60s.
Thank you and happy modelling y'all.
Wal.
Wal,
Welcome!
I'm no expert, but it wasn't much. The CB&Q had a couple of lines reaching up from northwestern Wyoming. I think they had to use trackage rights to get there, but I think they did get trains into Billings, Montana, which would be by far the biggest town around.
The rest would be through very rural and scenic country, as it's just northeast of Yellowstone National Park. I have visted that, but not the area around the railroads which was probably a little less rugged but no doubt still spectacular.
Farming would be mostly dryland and pretty limited. Not much irrigation yet in that era. Lots of cattle, though.
There was also the Montana, Wyoming & Southern, which connected with the CB&Q at Fromberg, MT:
They had a McKeen car: http://www.mckeencar.com/gallery-2/m/montana-wyoming-southern-railroad/
Some pics from Bridger, along the MW&S: https://books.google.com/books?id=3jnaSh5vDnEC&pg=PA67&dq=&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XFsFUaWWKqWIiwLvuYHgCA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Map link from before the CB&Q was built, but after the NP came to Billings. Gives an idea of the terrain, but don't forget Google Earth: http://mtmemory.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15018coll5/id/739
A handful of pics: http://morphotoarchive.org/rvndb/rvndb_railroad_srch.php?rvn_railroad=Montana%20Wyoming%20and%20Southern%20Railroad
Some history, says it quit in the 1950s, so you could have the CB&Q, plus a shortline, which hauled coal and at one time projected a line to yellowstone: http://www.carboncountyhistory.com/downloads/CC_Driving_Tour.pdf
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
If you haven't have a track plan yet. There was one you were explaining what you wanted.
Go to Katousa.com website, then N Scale plans and look for the Milwaukee Road in Montana.
Amtrak America, 1971-Present.
That jogged my memory. Wasn't there a recent layout article focused on the area around Billings? I think it was MR, maybe a year or so ago? Or maybe another pub? It may have been NP that was the subject of that layout, but it could give you some ideas based on how someone else approached very similar circumstances.
here's what came up from one search, but nothing strikes me as the one I'm thinking of...
http://trc.trains.com/Train%20Magazine%20Index.aspx?view=SearchResults&q=Montana+layout
I'm scratching my head here. Somebody posted a lot of information about an HO layout currently being built to represent the CB&Q in Wyoming and Montana. I believe the transition era is featured. I seem to recall that the builder lives in North Carolina, or that general part of the country. The builder had a lot of interesting information and ideas about designing and building the layout, as I recall. Maybe he is monitoring the site, or maybe somebody else can post something that will help our British friend to find this material.
The layout project seemed pretty interesting. I'd love to see an update.
Tom
Tom,
Maybe that's what I'm thinking of?
BTW, original poster is in Australia, so I assume Australian.
Oops! Thanks for the correction, Mike. I had my thinking cap on upside down. Hope nobody is offended.
My Layout Photos- http://s1293.photobucket.com/user/ajwarshal/library/
ACY Hope nobody is offended.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Thanks for all the info fellas, and for the record, I am offended beyond all words! (Sarcasm fully intended, of course)
Thanks for all the info! I'll keep it all in mind whilst designing the layout. As I say, it won't be huge, but I'm pretty keen to start something soon. The table was built the other week and so now it's up to getting track down and starting on scenery and structures.
You might wish to check out the Facebook group "Sheridan and Everywhere West".
Dick Haave
Wal ....
CB&Q had two lines to Billings MT.... One was from Lincoln Nebraska and the other was from Denver Colorado. ... The line from Denver was actually the Colorado and Southern RR, a subsidary of CB&Q, to Wyoming where it connected with the CB&Q line to Billings.
At Billings, CB&Q connected with Northern Pacific and Great Northern.... Those two railroads served much of Montana. CB&Q did not have many miles in MT compared with NP and GN. It had just a few miles in MT at the southern part of MT near Billings. .
Those RR's merged into Burlington Northern, and today are part of BNSF.
Edit .... I just remembered, CB&Q passenger locomotives hauled the GN Empire Builder all of the way to Havre, Montana in the 1960's where GN F-units were exchanged for the CB&Q E-units to haul the train through the Rocky Mountains.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
The only cities served directly by GN, NP and CB&Q before the BN merger were Billings, Montana and Minneapolis-St.Paul Minnesota. GN and NP mainlines going east ended at Mpls-St.Paul on the Mississippi river, so their passenger trains (like GN's Empire Builder and Western Star; or NP's North Coast Limited and Mainstreeter) ran on the Burlington between St.Paul and Chicago. The Burlington was jointly owned by the NP and GN after about 1900.
GN or NP engines were swapped out for CB&Q engines at St.Paul, not in Montana...there may have been situations where borrowed CB&Q engines were used on GN tracks for a short time, but it would be pretty rare.
Here's a link to the CB&Q historical site with a listing of industries served. Scroll down until you get to the state of Montana (MT) and you will find that they only served 2 industries in the whole state.
http://www.burlingtonroute.com/docs/route/industries.html
josephbw Here's a link to the CB&Q historical site with a listing of industries served. Scroll down until you get to the state of Montana (MT) and you will find that they only served 2 industries in the whole state. http://www.burlingtonroute.com/docs/route/industries.html
Joseph,
Yeah, I don't think that list reflects every industry, just larger or better known ones. I've worked with the info in the OPSIG database that list is drawn from and I can tell you it's not comprehensive.
Here there's already the case of the shortline that connects and runs to a coal mine, etc, so traffic off of it would certainly be a part of operations, even if it didn't originate online with the Q.
I would imagine that most small towns had at least a team track, which may not be a specific industry, but which nonetheless saw a lot of use back in the day. Likewise, there would be elevators and other scattered ag biz along the line, too.
mlehmanTeah, I don't think that list reflects every industry, just larger or better known ones.
Anyway in Montana, going south.
BillingsLaurel - joint trackage with NP transcon main from Billings to here.SilesiaEdgarFrombergBridgerWadeWarren
and then Frannie Wy where there is a wye where the main coming from the Wind River Valley (Thermopolis Wy), meets another track coming east from Cody. That could be a really intersting area to model. Heavy main line and a branch.