N Scale Milwaukee Road Branch

[railohio]

I've been working on an N scale layout featuring a Milwaukee Road branch for a few years now. The branch is loosely based on real grain lines the Milwaukee operated in eastern Washington State. I wanted to buck the trends of model railroad design with this layout. First, it's small, roughly 18x34 inches. It also realistically doesn't need a run-around track or a yard. Finally, although I added a complete circuit in the oval for exhibition running what appears to be the mainline is actually another industry, a stone quarry loadout, to add more operation to a compact layout.



From the schematic at the bottom one can see that it's actually two branches that, in real life, would form a Y-shape. One local serves both sides of the branch. The trains on stage from a dropleaf staging track and works each of the two towns before shoving it's train, complete with caboose, back into staging. To operate the layout I have a fleet of Atlas Trainman 40' boxcars for grain service and some Atlas 70-ton open hoppers for stone service. I need to find appropriate motive power, either a Life-Like SW1200 or Kato NW2, and some 40' interchange cars for inbound loads.


So far the track (Atlas code 80) is laid on cork on a 2" foam base. The wiring is complete and tested. Scenery is all that remains. The main structures, two elevators and their support buildings, have been completed from Walthers kits and finished by my friend Dale DeVene Jr. Here is some of his handiwork:


Elevators9-5-10 by railohio, on Flickr


Mathewsville2_9-5-10 by railohio, on Flickr


Wehbyrn1_9-5-10 by railohio, on Flickr

My goal is to have the layout ready for a train show by the end of the year. I think that can be accomplished with some ballast, ground foam, and vehicles. I'll keep you posted.