After looking over the history of a rail line that only owned one locomotive, served a single industry and only had a few kilometers of track, I got to wondering if anyone here had ever modeled such an operation. (The Gum Stump and Snowshoe elongated, without the switchback.)
The railway that got my attention was the Edgemoor and Manetta, which ran from an interchange (passing siding, 2 turnouts) to a textile mill (3 - 4 turnouts, maybe, including a runaround. It started operation in 1902 with a locomotive (#3) that might have been an ex-New York 0-4-4T Forney. 73 years later #5, a saddle tank 0-4-0T, was condemned - and the railroad ceased operation. Traffic was coal in (the mill was coal fired) and, probably, fabric out - not much of either if a single mini-teakettle could handle it all. I doubt that it ever owned any rolling stock other than the locomotive de jour.
There was a similar operation on the north coast of Japan - 600 millimeter gauge, seven turnouts total, moved liquid (oil or some chemical compound) inbound and sacked refined lime outbound. It, too, ran a single 0-4-0T, but it did own at least one tank car and a half-dozen or more miniature gondolas. Of course, it couldn’t get cars from the JNR. ‘Interchange’ took place through a freight shed with the JNR siding on one side and the extended end of the tramway’s runaround track on the other.
In both cases, the locos ended up on display, under cover.
So, has anyone deliberately set out to model such a railroad as the one-and-only hobby venue? Or, possibly, as an adjunct to a bigger, more complex model empire?
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - not so simply)
I’ve made a start at something very similar. It’s a quarry to mill operation based on the outfit we lived across the road from south of Bloomington, Indiana. We lived there 70-71. At the time, the Monon was just at the point of sale to the L&N. A complex of quarries and mills served by a branchline that ran roughly WNW off of the mainline at Clear Creek saw switching several times a week. This usually involved an Alco RS2 and caboose, although I’ve heard that the C420s did sometimes serve in quarry service from time to time.
A switch off the branch track from Clear Creek brought you to another switch as you neared the quarry and mill. The right leg went to the quarry, which had a significant grade. At the top, was another switch, which formed a switchback. Each end went to a loading area near a tall, metal-framed stiff leg derrick. These lifted the blocks of limestone out of the pit and onto the cars in quarry-to-mill service. These cars were usually beat all to heck and were kept in this captive service, as most would be on the edge of being B/O-ed if they got out on the main. They were a mix of gons and flat cars in the 40’ to 50’ long range.
The loco usually left the caboose at the bottom of the hill at the mill. It would make several trips up and down, depending on where the loaded cars were located and how many. After dropping down with the loads and backing past the switch into the complex, the train then took the left leg towards the mill. After a short length of track was another switch that was the east end of the passing siding. Between its two tracks after the switch were 3 or 4 more derricks, used at one time for stacking and sorting, but pretty rusty by 1970.
Just past that the two tracks crossed the road and entered the mill complex proper on the west side of it. There switches on both tracks completed the west side of the runaraound, with the tail tracks of each extending on west. One entered the mill building and went through it to the
Chuck, I was going to {and may still do so} model a local-yokel short line that serves only three industries…a farming fertilizer substation, a scrap producer-reducer-recycler and industrial-use propane.
it snakes up beside a local 2 lane highway.
It is only about 15 miles long, and I thought of doing it all to scale in N scale…until I figured out how long that woudl be!
I wIll build it someday, and most likely in Z scale as I am getting a fondness for Z scale! and Z scale will result in a shorter length of layout!
Yes. My home town was a mill on the end of a branch and I modeled the town itself (in a compressed version) as a bookshelf module while in the AF. The town was alongside the river with the mill and steam plan reached by a switchback from across the mill race.
Today, I’m using the same, single engine & small train concept for my SR branchline. I’ve added a couple of industries to try to capture the overall look of the area, basically merging a couple of towns into one.
It gives me a good feel of the crew on the ground working the thankless side of railroading back when, rather than the glamour of the streamliner.
My layout started off to be a single engine small-time logging railroad. After a while I felt constrained by that approach, so it grew into a little more robust short line. That allows me to have a variety of engines and rolling stock. It allows for more industry and commerce. I even have passenger service. I started having more fun when I let go of the minimalist constraints.
Not yet but I’m sure I could model the PSAP, I’m not sure of their current roster strength but it’s only a handful of local units and the rest is BNSF and UP through power.
An interesting variation on this theme could be modeling some of captive minute-to-plant railroad like the Black Mesa & Lake Powel. The BL & MP is 80 miles long, and runs from a coal mine near Cayanta, AZ to the Navajo Generating Staion at Page, AZ. The line is fully electrified with several E60 locomotives and hopper cars. The line is completely isolated from the national rail system. It would certainly be a unique model but operations would be somewhat limited.
Although not based on a specific prototype, my switching, shelf-style layout is fashioned after a short line that was once part of a Class 1 railroad, but saved from abandonment when purchased by this branch line. It’s purpose is to serve an approximately 17 mile stretch (selectively compressed, of course), of industrial corridor. It serves about 9 industries and is essentially a push-pull operation. It’s only home-road roster consists of an SW900 and a caboose. However I do get to do switching moves with a class 1 railroad that interchanges cuts of cars with the short line. The layout, including staging/fiddle yard, is about 20 feet long and averages about 16 inches wide.
I’m designing a new Citrus Belt on the less is more theory with 10 turnouts and one train operation, the focus is two packing houses, Sunkist Association has a capacity of 18 reefers and the Citrus Heights Packers Association which will have a capacity of 32 reefers, in additon, a spur branches off the Citrus Heights wye to serve a smuge/kerosene facality , lumber/shook dealer and freight house all crtical to the packing house industry. Might yet find room for the Avacado rendering plant i’ve always wanted and have never seen modeled.