I model a freelance bridge RR The Missouri & Arkansas Railway used by the CB&Q & MKT. The location is in Eastern Missouri. The line starts out at Old Monroe Mo. on the Cuivre River at MO. State Highway 79, then goes west to Hawk Point Mo. From Hawk Point the line swings south along MO. State Highway 47 where it crosses the old Wabash / Norfolk & Western RR line near Warrenton Mo. The line continues south thru Missouri Wine Country to connect with MKT near Marthasville Mo. near State Highway 94. Since this is "My" railroad most places will have the "flavor" of this area but may not be perfect to the prototype. Time is pre Burlington Northern (1970). The location & time frame gives me a lot of room of the type of motive power I can use plus pre-merger freight cars from so many different Railroads from all over the country. As with many railroads built in the 1800’s they never reached all the way as planned. So they never made it all the way to Arkansas.
#1 This will be a point to point RR built on Hollow-core doors (about $24 ea) along two walls, so it will be in sections.
#2 It's going to be less track, no large yards, no switch machines, open staging, & simple engine service area.
#3 Just a few small towns with one or two sidings.
#4 More open scenery between towns.
#5 Interchange with the MKT on the West end & the CB&Q on the East end.
My version of the Turtle Creek Central is based in Northern Ontario. It has close ties with the CanPac and the Algoma Central. The line between Sault Saint Marie and Sudbury was built on a route surveyed by the ACR to join it with the Algoma Eastern Railway. The TCC bought the AER and incorperated it into its system. Once reaching Sudbury, the railway turns north to end up in the grain port of Churchill Manitoba. My layout is based in the late 70s to the late 80s. The town of Turtle Creek is based north of Sudbury.
The Lone Geep
Lone Geep
\
My layout will have two real railroads (C&O and B&O) running through a WV town (not named yet) on the Ohio River a bit north of Kenova in 1944. Both those roads cross the Ohio in Kenova, as well as the N&W. In my tale the B&O already served this town but didn't cross here, but when the government built a large munitions plant just across the river in Ohio right before WWII, they wanted at least two shippers so the C&O built a new line to the plant through the town and the B&O built a new river crossing. The B&O has the water-level route through the older part of town, while the C&O has the high ground above where the newer part of town is rapidly growing to support the war effort.
Sean
HO Scale CSX Modeler
My model railroad is a fictional divison of the Burlington Route in the 1945-1965 era. It includes CB&Q, C&S, and FW&D, Also, GN and NP have running rights. Santa Fe and other railroads occasionally are detoured on my line.
The layout includes the rural Midwest and a smal area representing the high plains region. There are some towns and small cities. The steel mill is the largest industry. There are several other industries, too.
Passenger trains are normally "pike sized", and they include some prototypically correct cars.
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
Everything you ever wanted to know about my layout, but were afraid to ask...
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
I am modeling Montana Rail Link and the Great Northern through western Montana in the 1950's and 60's. I know MRL did not exist in that time frame (began in 1987) but I spent 22 years in Helena, MT and daily saw the MRL locomotives and switching yard there. My existing 5 x 10 HO layout will cover the Helena, MT area with Last Chance Gulch, Sleeping Giant Mountain, Gates of the Mountains and Mullan Pass tunnel. Eventually, I will expand off both sides to include branches to Bozeman/Livingston, MT and west to Missoula, MT. The Great Northern station was torn down in late 80's early 90's to build the new Federal Reserve Bank but the area just north of the station area is still called "Great Northern." Great Northern merged with several other lines in the 1970's to form Burlington Northern and I will surely have a few of their locos and cars running also. I would like to scratch build the original Great Northern Station and several of my wife's and my hangouts on Last Chance Gulch including Bert and Ernies, The Parrott Confectionary, The Montana Club, etc. Now living in Montgomery, TX it will be a great conversation piece when family and friends visit.
Conemaugh Road & Traction's "layout what ifs"...
What If #1: What if PRR had completed Harrisburg to Pittsburgh electrification?
What If #2: Local city traction was a passenger & short-haul freight interurban?
1956 Prototype Reality...
-- PRR had a 4-track mainline through the Conemaugh Valley including the Broadway Limited pulled by EMD E7s & Alco PAs while interchanging with Bethlehem Steel.
-- Johnstown Traction Company ran the largest PCC fleet in a USA 3rd-class city.
-- B&O GP7s & GP9s interchanged freight.
-- Bethlehem Steel ran its Conemaugh & Black Lick (industrial railroad) serving its various mills, freight car division, and coal mines interchanging with the Pennsy.
-- (Channel 6 NBC) WJAC TV was busy "Serving Millions from Atop the Alleghenies."
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
When I finally got into a larger house where I had room for something more than my usual plywood pacific, I thought I would model the Canadian Pacific from Vancouver to the prairies. It didn't take long for me to realize that modeling the port of Vancouver to scale would require a 300' long room alone and I should have bought a bigger house. In the end I have my version of the CPR going through my version of the Rogers Pass in the Canadian Rockies.
One end of the layout is a small town in the Rockies that maybe services and provides the pushers required to get those trains over the continental divide. The other is a small prairie Elevator town that will have lots of my friends and families names on the small town businesses.
The layout will have the things on it that you may have seen along the CPR mainline in the 1950s.
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."