Cedar River Valley

The Cedar River Valley layout is a 21.5 foot long S Scale shelf style switching layout built in my Sunroom. It is inspired by many small towns in the Midwest. The layout features a three track yard and a small ice platform and can be extended using a number of Free-mo style modules.

The track is owned by the Cedar River valley railroad but is served by the Chicago and North Western, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, Milwaukee Road, Rock Island and Great Northern.

Operations

The layout when fully assembled will employ 4 operators:

  1. Yardmaster. Operator will build trains, switch the team tracks, freight house and Max Beml scrap. This yard is based on the Chicago & North Western yard in downtown La Crosse, WI as it was in 1962.
  2. Grocery Warehouse Yardmaster. Operator will manage the yard adjacent to the warehouse and make transfer runs to the ayrd.
  3. Grocery Warehouse Switcher. This operator will be responsible from moving freight from the 3 track yard to various spots within the industry.
  4. Road Crew. The Road Crew will help the yardmaster then switch all other industries on the railroad. The feature of this will be G. Heileman Brewing.
The current track plan for the railroad, minus the staging yard.

Progress

  • July 27, 2025: Construction of the layout commenced with the plan to have it operational by the April, 2026. 
  • August 30, 2025: The golden spike for the permanent section.
  • September 8, 2025: The permanent section is fully wired and ready to run!
  • December 23rd, 2025: The first set of modules for the extension of the layout arrived
  • February 1st, 2026: A crew of 5, including myself, worked to get 15 of the 16 modules fitted with leg hardware. We had 2 modules fully wired and 3 modules standing by the end of the day. Thank you Charles Sherman, Ron Copher, Al Lesky and Tom Heilman.
  • February 8th, 2026: 5 modules, including 2 curves and the Second Street Switching district have mainline cork roadbed and base paint, ready for track and details!
  • March 1st, 2026: After a review of how long it takes to set up, a new plan with a center peninsula was created allowing the full railroad to be set up in the sun room.
    • The new plan (above) replaces all of the connector pieces with modules allowing for more flexible use at train shows.
    • All modules were stood up, aligned, and clamped. Cork roadbed was added to three sections of the yard.