Scale
HO
Status
Legacy
Superintendent
Alan Schroeder
Control
Digitrax
Dispatching
Track Warrant
Communication
Radios
Forwarding
Car Card
Version II of my Burlington Northern St. Croix Sub closely depicts the early 1990’s Burlington Northern mainline along the Mississippi River from La Crosse, Wisconsin north to the Twin Cities. The Burlington Northern used this corridor to move merchandise between the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Housed in a 28 by 40 building, this version is again double-decked much like Version 1. I am attempting to model the same trains and traffic of the early 1990’s, with hot intermodals like #1 and #4, vehicle trains #33 and #34, Expeditors #40 through #47 and the famous Train 110 along with other manifests. The familiar SD40-2 will prevail on the line, but venerable oldies like GP20’s and GP30’s still roam the line.
The layout is currently “Under Construction”. The mainline is in and industry trackage is complete. Both levels are operational now. The Wisconsin Central section is operational, and the downtown La Crosse (Harriman Street) section is next to be completed.
Operations on this railroad will include many run-through intermodal and manifest trains with some local switching action added in for operational variety. Trains originating from the La Crosse yard service several on-line industries including a large grain elevator, printing company, lumber yards and a bottling company. Additionally there will be three connecting railroads- CP Rail in La Crosse, Wisconsin Central in East Winona and the Ashland, Durand and Southern in Trevino.
The layout is a point to point, double-decked, linear design with three short helixi connecting different levels. Total run will be about 550 feet of mostly double tracked mainline. I am using Digitrax command control with two digit addressing to allow simplified use of UT-1 throttles. Eventually I will be transitioning to Digitrax radio system. Home made car cards and waybills are used to manage the flow of cars through the layout. Radios are used to communicate between the dispatcher and the road crews and Track Warrants are used to manage the flow of trains. Current jobs include Dispatcher, La Crosse yardmaster, La Crosse switcher, Foreign Road crew (WC and ADS), and 6-8 road crews.
If you like mid-1990’s railroad action with a lot of mainline traffic and enhanced local switching then give the BN St. Croix Sub a visit.
