Locomotives for a short-line?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

My short line is 155 miles long,based in central texas. Mostly flat land with small rolling hills and a few creeks.

I run HO scale and shall have 2 tracks running side-by-side.

Steam or Diseal locos-What should I run?

Thanks for your advice[Y]

2

I think that depends mostly on the era you want to model. You could also model the transition era which had both.

Richard

3

Your questions are illogical at best. Your other post says modern shortline, so what era are you modeling? How many steam locomotives are running on shortlines in Texas today? Don’t you have any thoughts on your layout or do you need every one here to design it for you? One hundred- fifty-five miles is a long shortline, double tracked,no less, most be very profitable to maintain two lines. It sounds more like a bridgeline than a shortline.Care to enlighten us on any other plans for this empire?

4

I would start by doing some research into the RR you will be modeling. What type of equipment did/do they use? What time frame do you want to model? What are your goals for your RR? Any interaction with other RR’s? Another thiing to consider is what do you like-Steam, Transition Era, or Modern? Unless you plan on being a strictly prototypical modeler you have some flexiibility.

I model the 1940’s PRR so I can run large steam and the early diesel’s. I have to say steam locomotives are like crack to me…but legal!

5

How about looking at the answers provided here?

http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/186461.aspx

[|(]

6

You could find a copy of the American Shortline Railway Guide by Edward A. Lewis (softbound and still available). This includes rosters for the different shortlines which could provide ideas. I believe that if you Google “shortline railroad roster” you may come to similar information. Shortlines often employ used locomotives from larger roads, so the era of your layout becomes crucial in determining what would be appropriate.

I agree with the earlier observation that the terms “short line” and “double track” are seldom used together.

Bill

7

Sounds from your descrption you are planning a bridge line rather than a short line. Look at a rr like Bessemer and Lake Erie for an excellent example.

8

Not really - the OP has described his layout vision this way in other posts:

  • Layout along two sides of a 12 x 12 foot room
  • H0 scale
  • Modern Texas shortline, based on a shortline that was abandoned in 1939, bought by a Dallas businessman who developed the line
  • But he also asks about whether to run steam or diese …
  • Double track mainline
  • The line will be running from Jacksboro, My created town, Megargel,Seymour and end in Guthrie (ie five towns in H0 scale along two 12-foot walls …)
  • Main money markets are farm equipment, lumber, trucking company headquarters. Maybe a rock quarry.
  • To the suggestion of an ethanol plant, he replied “Maybe a small 2-year college with a wild fire training program. I have never been a fan of Ethanol plants”.
  • Maybe connect with the BNSF

Having also looked at the OPs posting history over the last 7 years, I would say that it seems to me like the OP still is in the dreaming phase, and is not yet quite ready to get down to practical design considerations.

Stein

9

Thanks to all who replied to this post.

Many thanks!

10

Reason I suggested a bridge line is to justify the two track main.

11

My suggestion is to just build what he wants bcause their is no reasonable set of circumstances that incorporates what he wants.

Take the basic premise that a railroad is abandoned in the 1930’s and bought later to be potentially operated by diesels. If the railroad is abandoned, its gone, there isn’t a linefor anybody to buy 30-40 years later(which is the time difference between diesel operation and the 1930’s).

12

I agree-if the track was ripped up and not mothballed…There is a short line that owns a Geep and it hasn’t turn a wheel in years but,its started once a week…The rail is to light to handle modern grain cars.In this case the amount of once a year harvest(fall) traffic doesn’t justify the cost of upgrading.

Then there was another short line that had mothballed 9 miles of its track and IIRC in 2008 clear the right of way and did the required track work and resumed operation after a power plant was built or restarted…

13

Well, in fairness to the OP, his premise was not that the railroad had been abandoned for 30-40 years, and only then resurrected. It was that a local businessman had taken over the railroad in 1939 (instead of it being abandoned in 1939), and that the railroad 70 years later (i.e. these days) still existed as a short line.

But I agree with Dave’s recommendation of the OP just building whatever he wants. It may be implausible - but that does not mean that it can’t be fun.

Smile,
Stein

14

Horton

Kind of harsh aren’t we? Maybe the dream will realized one day. [|(]

Lee

15

Aw, don’t get mad at M. Horton. My first idea was to give him both barrels. Then, after thinking about it all day I realized (in spite of his bluntness) he made a lot of good sense.

I have had to go back and double check everything I knew about the G,T &W. I found out the original charter called for the line to start in Knox county and end in Newton county. I have had to re-think my layout plans.

All in all,he made me go back and take a closer look at what I want in my layout.

Stephen

16

Stephen,Something to think about…With the double track your railroad sounds more like a regional instead of a short line since most short lines are single track workaday railroads.

17

A double track line in Texas would be very rare. I doubt that any of the class 1 railroads had a 155 stretch of double track before the 1990’s.

A double track line on a short line in Texas would be EXTREMELY rare.

A short line from the 1930’s would be a completely different animal than a short line created after 1985. The 1930’s shortline would be a bonafide railroad that started as its own independent railroad. A 1980’s shortline would most likely be a spin off of a class 1 railroad branch line.

If it went bankrupt in the 1930’s, what industry changed it to make it viable later? You mentioned lumber as a major industry. There is very little “lumber” per se originated in Texas. Most of the lumbering goes to pulp mills for paper and is concentrated in east Texas.

A lot depends on era. If you are doing anything 1970’s on, one scenario is that the line was bought by the Dallas tycoon not for the railroad, but for the land it owned and the oil royalties kept the railroad operating as rinky dink shortline. Then in 1975 a power company decided to locate a coal fired power plant on the line and upgraded the line to handle unit coal trains delivered by the BN or MP or MKT. About the same time the outskirts of the large city the line ran near expanded as the Texas cities grew and the line was not “closer” to the city which caused it to attract some industrial parks and lumber transloads to support the balloning housing market.

Your power would be a few raggedy GP7/SW type engines that reflect the pre-coal shortline. Post-coal you would have a couple CF-7’s, a couple GP-18’s as 2nd hand power. Later 1980-1990 power would be SW1500’s, U boats, C30-7’s, B30-7’s, B23-7’s, and finally re-engined SD45’s and 2nd hand SD40’s/SD40-2’s.

18

http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php

Texas shortline pics

Alco built Century 420s/C420s http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php Rivarossi have made them in H0 for years and Atlas have made them for the last few years - including Hi-noses.

[8D]

19

Dave H.:I doubt that any of the class 1 railroads had a 155 stretch of double track before the 1990’s.

Actually the Santa Fe and UP had double track subdivisions as the norm since these was roads was major East-West routes.Santa Fe was well known for its high speed railroading.

20

Remember we are talking about a short line in TEXAS here. Chicago to LA, sure. Chicago to Salt Lake City, sure. Northeast US, all over the place.

Texas, not so much.

Show me a solid stretch of 150 miles of double track in the state of Texas prior to the 1990’s. Yes there were bits and pieces of double track on many roads, but they were all fairly short and clustered around major terminals (Houston, Dallas, Ft Worth, El Paso, San Antonio, Longview, Texarkana). The rest of the lines in Texas were single track. Even today there is very little multiple track in Texas. If you compare the mileage of double track to Illinois, Pennsylvannia, Nebraska, New York, Iowa or Missouri you will find that even though Texas has lots of railroads, not much is multiple track.