Howdy friends! I'm in the very early stages of planning a layout so I thought I'd start a thread about it here. What I'm thinking so far... Era: Modern (post 1980) Railroads: BNSF & UP will be the stars of the show but there could be opportunities for smaller local railroads based on the area I'm interested in modeling (TXN, TXDR, SSC, FWWR, LBWR, CTXR). There are opportunities for passenger service as well. Scale: I'm thinking N scale but possibly HO. I haven't identified the space for this yet so it will depend on that, but I want to run long mainline trains so likely N scale. I'm a born and raised Texan so the vast majority of my "railfanning" has been in Texas. I found a map of railroads in Texas and started looking at places that would provide for interesting operation. I'm a fan of both UP and BNSF so one criteria I was looking for was a place that lets me run both. There are multiple opportunities for that in Texas, but the BNSF/UP interchange in Sweetwater caught my eye as a good place to start. There are similar opportunities in the eastern half of the state, but it's a spaghetti bowl of Class 1 lines there. So, I think I want to head west toward the wide open spaces where there is less clutter. Below is the area I think I want to model. This would be the BNSF line from the Temple Yard to the Lubbock Yard and the UP line from Davidson Yard in Fort Worth to the TXN interchange yard in Monahans. The two railroads intersect in the middle at a small BNSF/UP exchange yard outside Sweetwater. This will allow me to run the two railroads I see the most as well as a lot of interesting opportunities for industry and/or some of the smaller local railroads (the ones in black). I'm pretty much starting from scratch at this point. Right now I have absolutely nothing other than an idea and the map above identifying the area I think I want to model, but you've gotta start somewhere. Thoughts and opinions are welcome! It's a blank slate at this point so any and all suggestions are welcome. I haven't modeled in 20 years so I'm really in the research and re-learning stage right now.
There was comparatively very little interchange between the BNSF and the UP at Sweetwater since both railroads went to Houston and both railroads went to Ft Worth. You might want to pare down the scope since your railroad covers at least 4 crew districts, 2 on each railroad. You would probably be better picking one railroad as the primary one and the other as an interchange. For example if you did the UP between Baird and Big springs you could get the BNSF in plus 3 short lines.
It sounds like a well thought out plan, Hoss, assuming you will have a space large enough to fit it in. I look forward to seeing this layout come to life.
If you want interesting operation do Tower 55 in the 1950's. ATSF, MKT, SP/SSW, MP/IGN, MP/TP, CRIP, FWD all crossing. Move it up to the 1980's and its the MP/UP/MKT, BN, ATSF, SP and Amtk. Include Dallas and you get the Dingo, DGNO. Another cool place is Galveston, ATSF, SP, MKT, MP, TCT, GH&H, GW all in a narrow area. Include the mainland and you add the TCT. Temple/Waco is also cool. The ATSF, MKT, MP and Amtk. Beaumont is also good, that gets you the MP,/UP, SP/UP, ATSF/BNSF, KCS. Both Galveston and Beaumont give you a port and unit trains, grain at Galveston and both grain and potash at Beaumont. Those two also give you a lot of chemical plants (Beaumont, Pt Arthur, Texas City).
I appreciate your comments, Dave. After reading them last night I did a little math and realized that one N-scale mile of track is 33 feet long. What I highlighted on the map above is about 800 miles of track, so there's no way I could realistically scale that and be able to fit it in a room of my house (or afford it for that matter!). Definitely going to need to pare it down some!
Thanks! But after doing a little math last night I came to the realization that modeling what I highlighted above would take WAY more room than I'll ever have available...at least if I want it to be mildly realistic (which I do). Gonna have to wittle it down to something more manageable.
I just Google mapped Tower 55 and the amount of rail coming through and into that junction is almost overwhelming! It would be interesting for sure. I'll have to take a closer look at that. The Temple/Waco area appeals to me because I've spent a lot of time. I drive over the west end of the BNSF yard there every day and every day I glance over there to see what's happening. I'll probably stay away from the coastal areas. Thanks for all the input!
I took a deeper look at the Sweetwater area and there is a LOT of railroading opportunity there. Not only is there a small BNSF / UP interchange, but there is also a spur for the TXOR railroad and four good industry sites. If I built this to scale it would be around 20 miles of mainline track plus yard tracks, interchange tracks, sidings, and industry tracks. If I made turnaround accommodations it could provide continuous running for both UP and BNSF as well as a lot of local switching work. HIGH LEVEL VIEW Blue - BNSF Red - UP Purple - TXOR Orange - Industry, Turnaround, or Interchange EAST SWEETWATER INTERCHANGE & TURNAROUND Blue - BNSF Red - UP Orange - Interchange & Turnaround BNSF Sweetwater Yard (north of town) INDUSTRY 1 - UNITED STATES GYPSUM INDUSTRY 2 - SILICA SERVICES INDUSTRY 3 I'm not exactly sure what this is but I think it's an offloading location for wind turbine blades. INDUSTRY 4 & WEST UP TURNAROUND Plains Cotton Warehouse & Global Fiberglass Solutions
