My Update

Well it has been a heck of a long time since I have posted or even been here on TrainBoard....just to darn busy.

So I moved from Saint Paul MN to an apartment in Coon Rapids MN in September 2013 and in Feb 2014 moved into a house in Anoka, MN (my home town). Needless to say I dont have a layout at the moment. But I am a member of the North Metro Model Railroad club and we are building a very large layout there so that keeps me going (NMMRC.org).

I have shifted my modeling interests back to the Burlington Northern which is what I was into when I started in this hobby in 1978.

I building my roster and will be moving at least one more time to a nice big custom basement with a house attached....goal is to do this in about four years from now. Will be modeling the Burlington Northern and Soo Line inspire by rail operations of the Twin Cities area. So will have guest appearances from Chicago Northwestern, Milwaukee Road, Rock Island, Twin Cites & Western, Minnesota Commercial, Wisconsin Central.

Planning on modeling two specific years 1980 and 1993.

I picked 1980 because that was a pretty good year of interesting locomotive rosters for both the BN and Soo Line where heck there were still F unis being used by both roads and lots of SD40-2 and C30-7 locos and of course BN and Soo still were running some Alcos (on their way out). Also this is the same year the BN and Frisco merged (ok BN took over the SLSF). So I will have a few Frisco locos on the roster as well (currently only have 1 U30B). I would love to get some Frisco SD45 locos and I am shocked that neither Life Like Proto 2000, current Walthers, Athearn, has not made a Frisco SD45. I know about a dozen or so made their way to BN with the Frisco merger and have a few pictures of BN and Frico SD45 lashups.....now that just looked cool. Now granted I know the BN Frisco merger was in the later part of 1980 but I am not going to sweat a few months.

1993 is the alternate year and this has mostly to do with my love affair with SD60(M) and SD70MAC locos. 1993 was the first year BN received SD70Macs and allows me to run C44-9W locos for CNW coal train.

Still planning that phantom huge layout (started in N scale, then planned for it in HO when living in Saint Paul) it will happen some day

In the meantime, I will likely build a simple mostly scenic layout for where I am living now. I know if I dont start building it by late 2014 or early 2015 than I will probably decide not to build anything until we move again. (renting now)

I have nearly sold off my entire BNSF and CP collection. Loco roster was about 200 locos and got as small as 20 locos. Now sitting at 160 mostly that wonderful BN cascade green and of course Soo Line.

I am also toying wtih the idea of including 1974 or 1975 to have a few really interesting BN lashups with GN, NP, CB&Q locos.

As far as changing eras on future layout....will mostly be locos and some cars swaped out, vehicles, and other minor details. There is allot of overlap of equipment from 1980 to 1993 and heck even between 1974 and 1980.

I will post again....but thought I would say hello everyone.....been a long time.

 

Yes, it has been a while! You noted yet another future move. Staying in Anoka, or elsewhere? Any ideas as yet how much space will be available, so you can plan a layout?

 

Hi Matt! It's good to see your face in the Trainboard door again! Are you considering building modules for the future move? Is your club modular by any chance?

 

Actually, Athearn DID come out with SD45s for Frisco in the RTR line. They were almost immediately snapped up (not by me, I still have some Rail Power Products/Athearn hybrids, plus a couple of P2K SD45s awaiting their turn in the shop). When it comes to Frisco models, you have to be quick to get them- they tend to fly off the shelves, mostly to the layouts/collections of Frisco modelers like myself.

 

I will have to keep an eye out for the Frisco SD45 locos or as others have done, custom paint (not my skill set).

The club is not modular but the planned simplified layout for the current home I am thinking of making it modular. Whether or not any of it gets used in the future "dream" layout is difficult to say. But at least this way if there is another move before the final move, then I will at least have something to use in the meantime. The simplified layout plan will only use a small fraction of my model-railroad collection but as stated, there is always the club in the meantime.

For the dream layout, I currently settled on 1980 and 1993 as the two years to model with the use of the modeling license a bit here and there. I may include a third year to allow more rainbow colored consists for the BN say 1974 or so. But for now, I concentrating on 1980 and 1993 to fill out my rolling stock rosters. To switch between eras, between 1980 and 1993 for the most part only involves swapping out some locos and rolling stock and some supporting scenery (paying attention to vehicles for 1980 that are not 1990's models).

For example: 1980 for the BN would have F units, SD45, F45, some Alco's, some 40 foot boxcars in grain service (still wearing the old Hill Lines colors of GN, NP, CB&Q), some Frisco locos, and a few other changes.

for 1993 for the BN no F units, no Alcos, no SD45, no F45 locos. But then I would ad SD60, SD60M, SD70MAC (stretched a bit), no 40 foot grain box cars, well cars for intermodal, Aluminum coal cars,

Of course there would also be allot of overlap rolling stock and locos such as SD40-2, C30-7, and a few other GE locos that were retired in '93 or '94. Some overlap freight cars include, autoracks, TOFC cars, Coal hoppers, box cars, and many others.

This same method would be used for Soo LIne (my secondary road I model) and run through / transfers of other roads such as CNW,

Roads to be present for 1980 in order of importance on layout:
1. Burlington Northern (yard on layout - Primary Road)
2. Soo Line (Yard on layout - Secondary Road)
3. Chicago Northwestern (Coal train and transfers)
4. Milwaukee Road (Coal train and transfers)
5. Rock Island (Transfers)
6. Amtrak

Roads to be present for 1993 in order of importance on layout:
1. Burlington Northern (Yard on Layout - Primary Road)
2. Soo Line (Yard on Layout - Secondary Road)
3. Chicago Northwestern - Coal Train & Transfers)
4. Minnesota Commercial - Transfers (2 or 3 Trains)
5. Wisconsin Central - Transfers (3 Trains)
6. Twin Cities & Western - Transfers (1 train)

Staging for the plan layout would have to be very very large as many of the trains for operations would originate or terminate in staging. And some trains would be through trains not making a stop on the layout except for "crew changes" at one of the yards.

We are looking into the options of building our own home (and still looking at pre-existing homes) with a target move date in 2018, so there is plenty of time for planning. As far as space goes it varies quite allot with the small end being about 40'x60' that will also need to host a bathroom, small workshop area for painting and working on rolling stock, etc and an office / crew lounge area. The large end of some home plans we have looked at would be 60' x 100'

Once my current semester ends this Tuesday, I will start roughing out some layout plans with some of the potential space sizes available to better determine what I can do and what space size I would like to target.

 

Hi Matt, sounds like you are doing a lot of planning! I love the 70-80 era for the huge variety of stuff running, both in locomotive types and paint schemes. Also a fan of the BN, so look forward to your future layout