Last night, I went digging through my MR back issues from 25 years ago and came across the old Washita & Santa Fe project layout series, which ran in alternate issues starting sometime in 1983, I think. My collection is incomplete, so I may have missed something, but I’m not sure that the series ever came to a proper conclusion. Now I’m curious what did happen, both to the series and to the layout itself?
The first installment set forth an ambitious plan for a mid-sized layout that could be built in phases. In my back issues, I found articles on benchwork, backdrops, scenery and structures for the first stage, and I presume that the layout was never intended to be built beyond the first stage. But, I didn’t find a final article with pictures of the finished layout. It leaves me wondering if the series was just cut short for some reason, or if the editors felt they had brought the series to its proper conclusion and moved on to other projects. Today, photos taken on MR project layouts are often used to illustrate other articles/books well after the construction articles are over, but I don’t remember seeing any photos from the W&SF in later issues of MR.
Then, of course, I wonder what happened to the layout itself? Was it just dismantled when the series ended, or was it moved to a new location and operated by someone? I know Andy Sperandeo was one of the main builders of the layout, and that he sometimes participates in this forum. Andy, if you come across this topic would you please take a few moments to enlighten me/us? Or, if there is anyone else on the forum that remembers this project and can offer some info, please chime in!
Our original intention was to complete all the stages of the HO scale Washita & Santa Fe. However, over the course of the project I was given additional responsibilities, and ultimately I didn’t have time to continue building the W&SF. We wrapped up the series with part 8 in the August 1984 issue. The layout, which was built in the MR workshop, had to be dismantled to make room for other projects, but we did save many of its structures. You can see the complete series in one place in the Kalmbach book, 6 HO Railroads You Can Build.
My son goes to college in Texas and as we drive along I-35 through Oklahoma, I am reminded of that project every trip. Its also fun because many of the towns on the ATSF route have the same names as on the PRR Main Line west of Phillie where I grew up.
Thanks for the reply, Andy! Since I was so much younger when that series came out, and because it wasn’t that interesting to me at the time, it wasn’t until years later that I realized the series had ended quite abruptly. Now we know why. It’s too bad there wasn’t time to expand the layout into its later phases, but it certainly would still have been dismantled in the end, anyway. Nothing lasts forever.
I actually started to build a version of this when I lived in England in N scale and it was the basis of my upper deck section (the lower deck being based on the Montana Rail Link plan from an article in 2007)
In my version the wye became the interchange track but other than that it was pretty true to the articles, I have even considered rebuilding it again now I live Stateside but the yard is too small for what I want)
Shaun
PS Mr Sperandeo looked very fresh faced in those photos [:)]
I remember that series. I seem to recall that Andy’s favorite ‘hobby within a hobby’ was applying “C” clamps. I also believe that Gordon Odegard’s scratch-built rock crusher was the basis for Walthers’ Glacier Gravel model. (One of my favorites.)
I have always viewed MR’s Washita and Santa Fe as their most ambitions project layout. And like you, potlatcher, it did not immediately draw my attention. It wasn’t until some years later while browsing through back issues that interest was stimulated and I actually read the articles up until it met its quite sudden demise. As Andy S. inferrred it was basically incomplete but it did advocate some interesting operating concepts and had extensive coverage of benchwork and trackwork and scenery. For someone with the layout space available it is an extremely interesting railroad to consider modeling.
Interesting enough my wife and I shared a table at the NMRA banquet in KC in 1984 with Jim Kelly. I engaged the prospect of an N-Scale layout of the same magnitude as this current project layout and his answer was a bit sketchy but I surmised from it that this *W&*SF had turned out to be just a little bit heavy for even the Kalmbach crew.
I have just re read 5 of the issues I have of the project today and re wetted my appetite to rebuild the layout as per the plan, I can’t believe how well written the articles are and it’s hard to believe they are almost 30 years old.
I must admit that the Washita and Santa Fe was probably the best project model railway that MR has ever shown. Most of them are your basic roundy go roundy 4 x 8 but not the W&SF. It actually had real operational posibilites. Too bad Andy S was given “other responsibilites” and it was never completed. IIRC, he became very computer oriented around the time the series came to an abrupt end.
I must agree I also think it was one of their best projects along with the Beer Line and Wisconsin Central projects. The resurgance of this thread has really got me thinking about building it in N Scale.
I am about to start this very layout, so I will have to keep everyone updated as I go along. As far as the remainder of the layout that MR didn’t finish, I am going to shoot from the hip on it based on what I learn from constructing the first part that they did finish. Looks like it will be a lot of fun.
I am going to spare myself the “joy” of the Homosote though.
Having seriously thought about it I’m also taking the plunge. it will be a while before I do anything and I cant see me doing any construction this side of Christmas anyway.
In the first part of the article Mr Sperandeo makes some comments on the Lindsay district and that it would probably have its own switcher, any ideas how this would be serviced? would it have a dedicated facility or a fuel truck pull up at set times to fuel the local?
Seems like someone dug way back into the history for this thread, but since it’s comment, perhaps Andy or someone from MR can chime in again. Back when the series ran, I thought parts of it were interesting, but that the layout’s complexity (in terms of hidden track and hidden loops would make it overwhelming for one person to build or operate, which apparently it was. It also seemed to have a very deep reach in Paul’s Valley. On the other hand, if it got re-planned into an around the room layout, it may retain the same ops concept in a much simpler to build and maintain form.
So, did the ops concept prove out as viable in reality as in the theory? Did the time/complexity cause problems? Perhaps this is something worthwhile for an article in the 2014 MRP to discuss ops concepts vs implementation, and why layouts aren’t finished.
My guess would be that the MT project layout wasn’t “finished” because it was not meant to be. The Pauls Valley scene was the most conceptually important part/ centerpiece of the project, and it was built for the magazine series. A larger (“full size”? “finished”?) plan was drawn to show how the centerpiece could fit in a medium to large room-size layout. A bit of the Washita Canyon scene was built to give a flavor of portions of the overall layout beyond Pauls Valley.
But the full Master Plan layout was not needed for the article series and may have been beyond the scope of what a magazine office has space and other resources for. Note how many project layouts have been “medium small.” Or they have been selected portions of the MR&T layout.
I agree that a future dicussion of concepts vs implemention would be valuable.
