Last year, I amended my old KBC story to be a bit more plaausable:
The Oregon Midland RR System of today was formed in 1970 by the merger of a number of shortlines in Oregon and the Southwestern corner of Washington. The Newport Terminal, a small shortline serving the industries in Newport, and logs from the surrounding hills, The Willamette Valley Central, a larger shortline operating a secondhand line running between Portland and Douglas Junction, and the Washington Pacific, a shortline serving industries along the Washington Side of the Columbia River. The new regional aquired trackage rights over the Southern Pacific, (which later became the Willamete & Pacific) to Toledo, to access the Newport Terminal, and Trackage rights over the BNSF to Kelso to reach the Washington Pacific. It interchanged with the SP (later UP and Willamette & Pacific) in COrvallis, the Burlington Northern Portland and Kelso. It also interchanged witih a shortline, running from the Willamette Valley to Bend, The Keizer, Bend, and Corvallis.
The new system carried forest products to the KBC interchange, where it was taken to a sawmill in Bend. From there, it was returned ot the Oregon Midland, and taken to interchange, and lumber yards. The saw dust was taken to a paper mill along the Washington Pacific. It also carried Grain, it picked up from the KBC to ports along the Washington Pacific.
To further streamline operations, the Oregon Midland acquired the KBC in 1992, and continues to operate it as a subsidiary.
It makes money by:
Carrying Grain from Central Oregon to Ports on the Columbia River
Minimal amounts of Bridge Traffic between the Southern Pacific in Portland, and the BNSF in Bend
Forest Products in the Coast Range, using a logging branch to a saw mill near Bend
Carrying the Woodchips from the sawmill to papermill on the Washington Pacific
If you go to aslrra.com and check out the members section, it has a map of the US ,just pick a state and see how many shortlines members are there. Idaho has quite a few and some have their own websites talking about their customers.
Other than that Cement and spuds is all I could think of lol.
That was a pretty neat site, but it brought up a question. The Alpha code I understood, an alpha-numeric identifiying mark made up of what would seem to be the innitials of the RR company, example Wisconsin & Southern’s alpha code being WSOR. But what is the numeric code for. Is it something specific to the sight or something more grand scale, like perhaps part of the road number on the side of a freight car.
The Boise Valley is the richest hops growing region in the country; all you would have to do to create a lucrative beer industry is locate a source of barley. Anheuser-Busch some years ago discovered that the soil around a place called Mud Lake north of Idaho Falls in the Upper Snake River Valley–my grandfather, by the way, was station agent at Roberts in that vicinity for over thirty years from the late '20s–produced a beer-quality barley which they ship to their malt-processing facilities. On my last trip to Eastern Idaho five years ago this was a topic of heavy discussion among my relatives most of whom are Mormons; the question arises whether Mormon farmers are not in conflict with The Church by producing a product–barley–which is going to be used for the production of alcoholic beverages. Apparently Anheuser-Busch has locked up the harvest in contract for years ahead to insure their supply of barley. This doesn’t say that you could not acquire barley from this source as other farmers expand their operations into this field. This would be a source of interchange with the Onion Specific in the Boise Valley. However, since you are fantasizing a railroad you could also fantasize a local source of beer-quality barley to go into the production of Old Staggerhome Beer.
In recent years several hardware and software firms have located into the Boise Valley and this might be a source of traffic especially at both the east and west end of that long line from Bend. As long as you are fantasizing you could fantasize about any industrial complex you want . . . . . . . . . . after all Boise is one of the fastest growing metroplexes in the country. This fact could justify a certain amount of interchange traffic with the BNSF in Bend; food stuffs coming up from California via the Inside Gateway could be transfered onto your railroad for shipment to Boise but unless you can find a source of westbound freight mos
Tough one. However, south of Burns down in Nevada is opal country. Further east of that is Elko and copper country. So I’m thinking harder minerals. I’m not familiar how far this geology extends north but it looks very folded. Perhaps some large deposit of something is discovered in one of those geologic folds in that empty area. The extension to the east would be to prevent hauling everything west in order to interchange it. The plausibility would need to be tested against a geologic sub-structure map.
Here’s something off the wall. You might try renting or finding, or if you have a copy, one of the Railroad Tycoons. 2 or 3 or comperable game, and do some realistic playing with your route map. Be sure to limit yourself, but it gives you some ideas to play with. I had a great route on one of them, and when I looked at a real map, I had almost mirrored the SP across the Salt Lake area.
I would second the WSOR, and look at the Intermodal buisness. You could compete with UP if the KBC, an Oregon Shortline if the KBC desn’t make it to the Pacific, WSOR, MRL, and others can offer a cost-effective alternative. Same route could carry the afore-mentioned hops to the Milwaukee beers You also may run into the Import Cars coming from the Pacific, though not in the force that California does. And since you may see a fair bit of UP/BNSF overfloew in the event of their linesbeing swamped by land/rock/snowslides. There’s probably a trash train and maybe even a dirty-soil industry (contaminated earth is used for landfills) to look into. I know there’s such things in WA, you might be able to expand out of state. Don’t be afraid to chain up with the shortlines. They are more than willing to work together to hold off a class 1. And since Half Moon Orion & Northern (My guys) aren’t tied to a specific location, I’d be willing to throw in too if you need another connector.
The main reason I’m asking this is because my fictional roster has SD45s, 50s, and 70s and I would like a plausible excuse to roster these units. Of course, even if there isn’t a plausible reason, I’ll roster them anyways[;)]. I kind of like the beer idea. Perhaps a shortline already existed between Boise and burns, and the Oregon Midland built the link between Bend and Burns. Whadaya say to that?
Go back and reread my 1409/11MAY2009 posting. At one time the Onion Specific had a branch that ran southwest from Ontario on the Snake River up the Malheur River, through the Malheur Gap and Juntura, and then circled south through the Harney Basin entering Burns from the south. I have absolutely no idea at all whether that line still exists at all but even if it doesn’t you can fantasize that the Onion Specific spun it off and your Oregon Midland now owns it. Even if it does exist you can fantasize that you have traffic rights at least as far as Vale, Oregon on the Idaho border where you track away from the UP and proceed on your own trackage into Boise.
Those big high horsepower units you like–I like lokes like that also–are going to need some heavy trains to justify their expense.
Go get yourself a copy of the newest Trains Magazine issue, June issue. On page 34 is an article about how there is a trend in the train idustry of short lines getting rid of their older 6 axles and replacing them with fewer, more tractive power, more fuel effiecent modern 6 axles. I do believe there is also another article in it that was basically an interview of a shortline that is doing this. I know there was a bit about how one AC4400, C44-9W, ES44 has more tractive power (power to the ground) than a pair of SD40’s, and uses around 1/3 third less fuel. Article also talked about short lines buying AC6000’s.
After this article, although few failed attempts at trying to make an HO scale layout plan helped, I may decide to go back with N scale again, plus this reason. SD70M, 70MACs, SD80, SD60, SD60M, SD90, C44-9W’s, and 8-40C are all made in N scale between Kato and Atlas. Bachmann makes a few but not in the Spectrum line. and also with a little bit of creative work a C44-9W can be made into a C40-9W, C40-8W, or C44-8W. I’m sure in N scale all of these models are probably all ready made. I can get the article names and pages to you tomorrow, then maybe you can find someone with a copy or figure out something where you can get a copy of the articles with out buying the magazine, which I would say do instead but I also know myself and while one article may peak my interest I know I will find enjoyement in reading the magazine front to back. And the adds. It seams one company out there is marketing an APU for trains so the loco won’t have to sit there and idle for long periods of time. As the add says, “13 hp or 3000 hp idling over winter”
I like the onion specific idea, but I have another idea I’ve been throwing around in my head. If there is any CONSTRUCTIVE critism, I’d love t hear it.
The Oregon Midland was formed by the merger of all railroads mentioned earlier, in adition to another one. The Boise and Central Oregon railroad, which served the industries of the Boise River Valley, especialy barley, which it carried to a brewery in Burns, and, the other goods from Boise westward to the Willamete Valley, and Columbia River Ports. Meanwnhile, the Keizer Bend and Corvalis had expanded in the early 20th century, eastward, and made it as far as Burns where it conected with the B&CO, which, in 1970 was merged into the ORM. THe KB&C interchanged with with the B&CO, and operated as a bridge line between it and the main ORM system.
To streamline matters, the Oregon Midland bought out the KB&C in 1992, to gain complete control of the line from Corvalis to Boise.