My visible model railroad line is about 7 miles long.

JonMyrlennBailey

Active member
It is only part of a fictitious larger railroad as the line disappears into a hidden back room with many more scale miles of track laid.

IAW American railroad naming conventions is my visible 7-mile line a:

Class 1, Class 2 or Class 3 road?

Is the visible (spectator) portion of my line a division, subdivision, section, district, crew district, regional line, branch line, etc.?

My layout has a sign at the front entrance of the yard that says, "Bailey American RR" and "Squatch Valley District" below it. The yard itself is the imaginary "Jonstown Yard" in the fictitious municipality of Jonstown, Idaho lying in the fictitious mountain valley of Squatch Valley where Bigfoot is commonly said to be sighted. I thought it fun to build a Disneylandized (make-believe) scale model railroad in a magical place filled with the Bigfoot legend. The fictitious Buffalo River starts through this valley over the spillway of Squatch Dam from Drummond Lake, a mountain catch basin, as its source and a herd of bison are observed near its banks.

My layout is an imaginary line in Squatch County, an imaginary jurisdiction in the panhandle of Idaho.
 
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I have a model railroad of which the main loop is 5.0 mile, yet the complete route fits on 1/3 of a baseboard.
I have another model railroad of which the loop via the shadow station is 13.3 mile, yet the route fits on little bit over a baseboard.

Both are on the DLS.
 
Jon,

It can be whatever you want it to be.

What determines the classification of a railroad isn't so much the length, but instead it's the company revenue. With that said, I would think that with the kind of signs you placed at the rail yard, that this would be a division of a much larger system. The other thing too is the kind of traffic you are running with the big container trains and Amtrak making their presence, this is more in line with a much larger system than a short line.
 
Jon,

It can be whatever you want it to be.

What determines the classification of a railroad isn't so much the length, but instead it's the company revenue. With that said, I would think that with the kind of signs you placed at the rail yard, that this would be a division of a much larger system. The other thing too is the kind of traffic you are running with the big container trains and Amtrak making their presence, this is more in line with a much larger system than a short line.

John:

I will just think of my layout as a (crew) district. Yes, the presence of large container trains and Amtrak implies this might be an interstate or Class 1 road overall but we only have so much space to model. Within my district, I deliver and pick up freight cars from local customers via the "main line" to a local district yard. Those cars are then exchanged with other similar cars by a set of mainline locos which normally reside in the staging yard and are sent out of my layout to the staging room through a portal in the wall implying they may be taken to larger distribution center, or a division yard, of a larger railroad. In the staging yard, those cars are then parked on a siding with the road engines which are hauled back to the district at a later time so cars are repeatedly swapped from the staging yard and the visible yard on the layout on a regular basis. Local GP9 road switchers move cars between the district yard and the local customers. Bigger road locomotives as SD40s move these cars between the district yard and the back room staging yard continuously.

If John Brown Feed Mill is a railroad customer in Buffalo, NY and he has a railroad customer named John Doe Dairy Farm in Red Bluff, CA which buys his product, it would be very interesting to see the path that a certain grain hopper takes from John Brown's siding in New York to John Doe's siding in California over the national railroad network of America. I doubt if cattle feed really travels this far nationwide but I'm citing this as an example of logistical freight route and load planning.
 
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That's exactly what I was thinking. My Gloucester Terminal Electric is the opposite because it's an actual short line that interchanges with a bigger trading partner. This line is based around an actual commuter line between Beverly, MA and Rockport, MA. The portion modeled, however, is from somewhere past West Gloucester and the Rockport branch just outside of Rockport proper with a fictitious line built along the Gloucester waterfront built to serve wharves and industries there. There are portals on either end to generate through commuter and freight trains. The track is doubled up to Gloucester in real life, but I doubled it up to Rockport to make my life easier. The AI drive point to point with two intermediate stops. The GTE interchanges with the through freights and there are trolleys running on its "mainline". The operation consists of switching the GTE yard and exchanging with the through freights, and then switching industries in between the trolley operation. In my route-history, which I'll post someday, the system once ran freights under the wires as well using steeple cab switchers, but that ended sometime in the 1960s when the freight operation was converted to diesel switchers. The total line is about 7-1/2 miles between West Gloucester and Eastern Point, but it seems much longer than that. I've recently put in a freight-only line along the waterfront to allow for faster trolley operation on the mainline, and to allow for less stressful freight switching. The freight line is wobbly and rusty compared to the main.

It's a pretty convincing system and the route runs for hours before things get goofy, or I get tired and shut it down for another day. I will, however, give George Fisher (GFisher) credit for the original route that I based this upon. He designed this for TRS2006 I think and I moved it along and up to TRS2019. His original was a freight-only switching line that I expanded to the 'system' we have today.

Anyway back to your John Brown animal feed co...

This dude's grain elevator would be located a bit outside of Buffalo in the NY state countryside probably on the Lehigh Valley or Erie Lackawanna, but for our purposes, we'll put him on the LV. The LV would visit once a week to pick up a hopper or two of feed and interchange this up in Buffalo with the EL or NYC to bring to Chicago. The hoppers would then be taken from Chicago Blue Island yard, or one of the many yards in Chicago, and sent west on either the ATSF, CBQ (BNSF), or Espee. Being feed and not perishable goods, the service would be a slow 4-day or longer journey west with a number of long dwell times in the yards.
 
John:

If John Brown Feed Mill is a railroad customer in Buffalo, NY and he has a railroad customer named John Doe Dairy Farm in Red Bluff, CA which buys his product, it would be very interesting to see the path that a certain grain hopper takes from John Brown's siding in New York to John Doe's siding in California over the national railroad network of America. I doubt if cattle feed really travels this far nationwide but I'm citing this as an example of logistical freight route and load planning.

Seems like a stretch here. Maybe put a portal out there to do the time warp to Cali;

Red Bluff.jpg
 
Seems like a stretch here. Maybe put a portal out there to do the time warp to Cali;

Red Bluff.jpg


In all likelihood, happy California cows will mostly dine upon grains and hay grown in that same state. It may travel from farm to farm by semi, train or pickup truck. Some livestock farms even feed their animals what they themselves sow, grow, hoe, mow and stow including silage. So, it might be interesting to see how new combines made by Sam Jones Farm Tractors, Inc. whose factory siding is on the Lehigh Valley in New York state might travel to John Smith's farm near Modesto, California by rail if both entities actually were to exist.
 
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Why would the shipping route path be: "So very, very, interesting" ? ? ?

Customers buy a product from a supplier, or a co-op, because the price works out cheaper, (including S&H) and they make a written contract with the least expensive manufacturer

... but I'm citing this as an example of logistical freight route and load planning

Don't they just load it, block it, and lock it up ... and simply ship it nationwide ? ? ?

It's not really Rokit' Sience' ... It's not like the shipper/receiver can elect his own personal favorite railroad route of his own choice
 
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39 hours or 2,615 miles. That's 40 hours straight driving or about 2 days, which would be right for perishable goods, but as I said being cattle feed or other goods, it would take the longer slower route. There have been cases of low priority freight taking several days to cross the country and of loaded boxcars getting lost in the system back in the Penn Central days.
 
In the case of a farmer needing a new combine ... He would shop at a Farm Equipment Dealer, and order a combine online, placing the order 6-12 months prior the manufacture date ... John Deere in Chicago would start building and shipping hundreds of long heavy farm equipment trains bound for the midwest or west coast John Deere Dealers ... in anticipation that the new equipment fall harvest, next year, that would be purchased in excess of 6 months in the future

The day and age of the local RR delivering 1 (one) combine, cross country, on 1 (one) flatcar, shipped directly to your local feedlot department co-op, is from a long ago time and age, past.

Just as when you buy a car, it is not shipped on a flatcar directly to your car dealership ... Hundreds of thousands of them are shipped and stockpiled in a mega port/terminal, hundreds of miles away from the customer, placing the order

The huge shipment of combine(s) would be shipped to a huge terminal stockpile ... and the combine would be loaded onto a lowboy flatbed truck, and shipped over the road, hundreds of miles away, all the way to the local John Deere dealership, still a hundred miles away from the actual dealership/customer

It would be then again be re-loaded again, and delivered by yet another lowboy flatbed truck, directly to the actual customer

Likewise with grain trains ... they are loaded en-mass, and are stockpiled in a huge grain co-op terminal, for distribution 3-6 months down the road ... empty huge grain trains consists are parked for 9 months (or more) on a siding, and are left sitting unused until the next fall harvest begins, next year

Only your new custom built computer (one high tech enough, that can take actual Trainz screenshots), can be ordered from Ireland (free shipping) ... and 6-8 weeks later it will arrive by jet aeroplane, and via FedEx, without even being handled by a railroad at all

One shot, Railroad delivery of 1 (one) combine, cross country, shipped directly to your local "Columbine County, Combine Co factory siding", is dead, (in most cases) ... Unless you need 300,000 gal of sulfuric acid delivered directly to your factory unloading facility
 
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Yes, I'm outta touch about how freight trains really operate these days. In Novato, CA, 1960s, 1970's and 1980's, EssPee GP9's or SW1500 switchers would bring hoppers and flatcars full of lumber through town. I would witness pickup and delivery of grain hoppers to Dairyman's Milling Company right in town. There was a customer siding for a landscaping materials dealer next door so I would see open hoppers parked there for gravel and other aggregates. My notion of railroading stems from what I had observed during boyhood from my own backyard. This old SP line is now run by NWP railroad and they still make local pickup and deliveries. Their yard is in Schellville, CA, Sonoma County and connects with the national RR network there.

https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/...stronger-better-and-greener-than-ever-part-1/
 
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Yes, I'm outta touch about how freight trains really operate these days. In Novato, CA, 1960s, 1970's and 1980's, EssPee GP9's or SW1500 switchers would bring hoppers and flatcars full of lumber through town. I would witness pickup and delivery of grain hoppers to Dairyman's Milling Company right in town. There was a customer siding for a landscaping materials dealer next door so I would see open hoppers parked there for gravel and other aggregates. My notion of railroading stems from what I had observed during boyhood from my own backyard. This old SP line is now run by NWP railroad and they still make local pickup and deliveries. Their yard is in Schellville, CA, Sonoma County and connects with the national RR network there.

https://alankandel.scienceblog.com/...stronger-better-and-greener-than-ever-part-1/

Back east our railroads have forgotten their purpose and in many cases no longer service the smaller sidings and communities. The scenario that Cascaderailroad mentions is quite common back here where the rail industry is quite depressed even today. A good example of why stuff is shipped via truck instead of rail is the local railroad in my area.

Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI), now known as Pan Am Railways, did away with many local switching jobs as it focused on moving freight from its interchanges with the CNR, SLA, and BAR (or whatever it's called these days), while ripping up branch lines and sidings even when there was a demand for local service, to move freight west to Buffalo. The crux of it was/is if it's not on the east-west route, it's ripped out. These Rip outs and embargoes didn't just apply to a short 3-mile or 1-mile branch to a single industry. This was outright closures of two of the Maine Central mainlines - the Lower Road and Mountain Division, the famous Delaware and Hudson mainline from Scranton (Carbondale) to Binghamton - the line that ran under the famous Starrucca viaduct, and the Boston and Maine Berlin, NH mainline.

The NWP is doing a great job of bringing keeping the railroad operating in your area. Thank you for the article link. I've been following them off and on in the railroad news. We have the famous Grafton and Upton, a former interurban that made a recent comeback although with a big fight on their hands. This short line runs between Milford, MA and North Grafton, MA where they interchange with CSX on the former B&A/NYC/PC/Conrail mainline to Albany and beyond to another interchange on CSX's former New Haven line in Milford. This short line serves many small industries and was once owned by a big textile mill located in Hopedale, MA. They recently rebuilt their line completely along with their yards and interchanges. Thinking about it now, this would make a nice Trainz project because the route is only about 7 miles long and runs through a picturesque area of New England.

As the railroad was being rebuilt, the NIMBYs came out and fought the rebuilding and expansion. They didn't want the smelly trains from interfering with their parades to Dunkin Donuts and kids soccer games, or making too noise. When two new companies came in, they came out and fought a wood pellet plant and a construction company that use the railroad in Milford and Hopedale area, and definitely sent out lawyers to stop the yard rebuilding because they didn't want "the noise" and long trains. The railroad and industries won the battle, so far, but it isn't a nice working environment. The residents in the area, I was told by a coworker I worked with, have wanted to turn the line into a rail trail for years instead of actually using the railroad to move goods and keep trucks off the roads!

You are lucky to still have the business climate that promotes railroads instead of turning them into a tax write-off or a trail.
 
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they didn't want "the noise" and long trains...didn't want the smelly trains from interfering with their parades to Dunkin Donuts and kids soccer games...wanted to turn the line into a rail trail for years

Yes, John, trains just don't have much charm among today's younger people. In 1950, we had American football, American baseball, party line telephones on the wall, large American woody station wagons.... not soccer, smartphones and mommy vans. Rail was still king then for freight transportation and intercity/interstate ground passenger service.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/613263674232349000/
 
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