Trackwork begins

CODE 80 vs CODE 55?

If I had to start over again, I would consider using Atlas code 55 especially seeing what they have added to the line since it first made it's début.

Since the yard was already laid out with Atlas code 80 flex and a mixture of mainly Atlas and some Peco turnouts, I decided to continue down the same road.  Not too mention that I could use what I had saved and salvaged from previous layouts. This also kept Mr. Wallet very happy. 

Some folks say c80 looks so big and out of scale, which I agree.  It doesn't look as prototypical as the Atlas c55 and Micro Engineering products [both the c80 and c55] but nothing a coat of paint, ballast and a little weathering won't take care.  It's also reliable and more forgiving than the smaller rail can be, and since I would be going for operations, I could live with a little larger looking rails and ties and less aggravations.   

The only turnouts that would be powered, would be a few on the rear yard behind the engine facility.  It's a little bit of a reach for these, so a good friend built a Diode Matrix for a routing control which solved that problem nicely.

All of the turnouts on the mainlines and sidings are Peco large or large curved.  The yard at El Dorado is  laid mostly of Peco medium turnouts.  At Malvern there are both Peco large & medium turnouts.  At a few places there are a handful Atlas #8 that I have spiked for a single route only.

The track on the right leads to the main yard.  It serves as both Biddle Yard in Little Rock, AR on the north end of the line and the yard in Alexandria, LA on the south end of the line.

The track that runs through the back drop is for south bound trains that originate in Little Rock and the track that crosses the diamonds is used for the north bound trains originating in Alexandria.

The track in the middle that parallels the edge of the benchwork is used for continuous running.

In this shot we see an overview of Winnfeild, LA and Tioga Junction.  This is the southern most terminus on the line for the local turn.  In the following shots, we will be following the track northbound.

This is where The Rock Island leaves their rails and exercises trackage rights on the KCS to access the yard in Alexandria, LA.   At one time there was only a crossing for the KCS. 

The single industrial lead is for Union Scrap and Iron Co. which is the only customer in Winnfield [at least for now]

The tracks against the backdrop are the visible staging yard for the ICG which will interchange with the Rock Island at Ruston, LA. the next town north.

Here in Ruston, LA the ICG hands off chemical tankers and pulpwood cars to the Rock Island who in turn hand them off to the W&OV [Warren & Ouchita Valley] in El Dorado further north of here.

The W&OV serves the town of Malvern, AR [which can be seen in the upper left and behind the column, the tracks are all in at the time of this posting].

Another shot of Ruston, LA.  The front half of the main yard can be seen in the background.

This is the South end of Dubach, LA. the next town North of Ruston, LA.

This is the only siding between Winnfield, LA and El Dorado, AR. on the south side of the layout.

The town of Dubach is home to three industries:

In the front right is ARKLA Distributing [A distributor of plastic pellets].

A&A Precast Cement Co. in the corner.

The Piggly Wiggly Distribution Center off the picture and to the left.

Here we see the north end of Dubach.
In the bottom of the picture and to the left of the tracks is where Piggly Wiggly will be located.

Next stop: El Dorado, AR.

After leaving Dubach we cross the state line into Arkansas and we see the South end of the yard at El Dorado.

You're looking north at the midpoint yard at El Dorado.

Left to right:
The passing siding, mainline, Arrival/Departure track, four yard tracks. 
The track on the right will reach the town via a switchback to service a couple of local industries.

The actual town will be located to the right of the yard and elevated against the back drop.

Looking South at El Dorado.
The engine facility and caboose track can be seen in the foreground.

El Dorado is where the North and South bound locals originate from, as well as the interchange between the Rock Island and the W&OV.  The W&OV has trackage rights to El Dorado for just this reason.  They own a couple of second hand SD-9's to handle this job.

The left hand turnout that leads to the Arrival/Departure track and the yard ladder has been replaced with a right hand turnout and has been re-aligned since the picture was taken.

The piece of paper under the engine tracks is the footprint for the engine shed.

As we leave El Dorado and continue north, the switch lead for the yard can be seen behind the mainline and the passing siding.

After the turnout, the track straightens out just before crossing the Ouchita River Bridge [which has yet to be designed and installed].

In the background we can see the south end of MQ siding and the town of Calion, AR.

A close up of Calion, AR.  

Calion Lumber Co is the only customer in town [the sidings have been installed since the time of this picture].
Just around the corner and the other end of "MQ" siding lies the town of Fordyce, AR.

"MQ" siding is the only siding between El Dorado, AR. and Haskell, AR. on the north side of the layout.

With only two industries, Fordyce, AR. will be the busiest town for the northbound local to work.

The track leading to the left will service the Flappers Chicken Plant and there will be a Furniture company on the opposite side of the tracks [again, the industrial leads have been installed since the time of this picture].

Only one more town to go.

This is the sleepy little town of Haskell, AR.  Last stop before reaching Biddle Yard at Little Rock, and the northern most terminus for the north bound local.
A couple of low key industries are planned for this town, but the junction is the big ticket in this town.

Here the tracks split via the junction and head east to Malvern, AR. which is around the corner and off to the left of the picture.

The Rock Island has leased this section of trackage to the W&OV when they slimmed down in the effort to avoid bankruptcy.  [The W&OV already leases trackage further south of here, between Tinsman Jct. and east to Warren, AR. on the prototype]

The W&OV is kept busy serving the following industries in Malvern:
A chemical plant, a small metal manufacturing company, a pulpwood plant, a rock quarry and a LPG dealership called Frump Gas & Supply which will be located on the unused leg of the wye.  The W&OV also has a modest engine facility located in Malvern as well.
[The tracks at Malvern have all been installed since the time of this picture...Man I really need to get these pics updated...]

The W&OV also has trackage rights from Haskell to El Dorado.

Here's a closer view of the Junction at Haskell.

After leaving Haskell, the tracks duct through the backdrop and head into Little Rock and enter Biddle Yard.

The single track against the backdrop has been removed.  The un-used leg of the wye will start from the switch on the left of the picture [now installed].

Backdrop and Sub roadbed

Once I got the benchwork completed, I made miniature stud walls from 3/4" plywood cut to 1" wide.  I then screwed them to the benchwork from underneath, This way I could remove them after the back drop had been installed if I need to make any changes.  

The back drop is 1/8" Masonite.

A few friends have used ceiling tile panels glued to the plywood sub roadbed. I took it a step further and glued down a layer of the 1-1/2" thick white foam board using PL300 so it wouldn't melt the foam. Then I glued the ceiling tile on top of the foam board.

This will give me enough room to carve out rivers, creeks, sloughs and depressions in the scenery without having to cut into the plywood base.

 

Once I had this was down, I started in on laying the cork and track.

The benchwork takes shape...

The benchwork was built using two methods:

Framed boxes and "L" girder.

IN THE BEGINNING...

The only thing that resembled a layout was the yard seen in the background.

The Plan

The idea of modeling this portion of the Rock Island line came after reading the May 1982 issue of Railfan & Railroad.

The idea of this layout had been rolling around in my for the past 10 years.  It wasn't until I got the basement cleaned out that I was able to get a good feel for the way the layout would fit within the constraints of the basement walls.

Once I got a feeling for size and shape, I started doodling.  

What I had in mind was:

1] A Linear type layout with a single mainline with sidings. 

2] Operations rather than just a roundy round layout, but also wanted the option for continuous running.  There are times when you need to set back and just enjoy the trains with a big bag of Cheetos!

3] A small yard on the main layout where the local could originate from.

4] A live interchange with the Illinois Central Gulf at Ruston, LA.

5] A short line that The Rock interchanged with called the Warren & Ouachita Valley.  The W&OV operated over a small section of the line from Banks, AR to Warren, AR.

6]  Plenty of industry to keep busy with switching.

 After Months of sketching and doodling here is what I came up with.

Several minor changes have been made since I started and since the track took form.

This is pretty close to what is now The Little Rock Line.

I started with the placement of the yard.  This was the best option since it was 16' long and the general shape seemed to fit nicely in the corner.  This is also where we had it set when we had our Bend Track modules set up in the basement.

 

Since I didn't have a 60' x 100' building to create the layout in, I had to make some pretty heavy compression.  None of the industry or track placement is modeled prototypical, I freelanced about 90% of the layout.  There are a few sections that give the feeling of the prototype, but not many.

Since I was freelancing the layout, I also decided to set the era in June of 1983, which is about three years after the actual shutdown of The Rock in March of 1980.

With the date set I was also able to include some of my other favorite railroads as well as being able to re-write history a bit.

After watching the movie Forrest Gump, the spark of inspiration took hold.

In the part of the movie where their boat was the only one that seemingly survived the hurricane and they made their fortune with shrimp. This gave me the idea that hauling frozen seafood from the Gulf would turn out to be the Golden Fleece that The Rock was looking for.

The re-written history (according to me)

In the early months of 1979 as bankruptcy was drawing near, The Rock started hauling the seafood North from the Gulf and actually made a small profit from doing this, but they needed more capitol.  They decided to start shaving off the mainline down to the bare minimum and sold off two portions of the line to the newly formed W&OV.

The first section to be sold off was the original line that the original W&OV had operated: Banks to Warren and the remaining section that connected to Tinnsman Jct.  The second section was the branch that started at Haskell, AR and ran to West to Hot Springs, AR and South to Sparkman, AR.

After the purchase of these two separate sections, the newly formed W&OV moved their headquarters to the northern section and setup shop at Malvern, AR. They also received trackage rights to run between these two lines and interchange with The Rock at El Dorado, AR with a train they nicknamed The Razorback.

This helped but they still needed more capital.

Two other railroads seen their chance and opened talks with The Rock.

The Chicago and Northwestern seen and opportunity for a Gulf port to interchange intermodel at New Orleans, LA.  The Missouri, Kansas & Texas wanted to haul a coal train further south.  

They both offered to help revitalize the line in exchange for trackage rights.

Amtrak also jumped on board and created another train called The Rebel that ran from the New Orleans, LA to Little Rock, AR.

The Rock also continued to interchange with the Missouri Pacific at Alexandria, LA.

Things started looking up for The Rock.

Since I was pushing the envelope with this re-written history, I decided that I would push it a bit further (Hey it's my railroad right?).  This would give me the excuse to have some of my other favorite railroads appear from time to time as detour trains.  Namely the NS and the CSX. Since they were in the early years with their mergers, their trains would have most of their predecessors making an appearance as well.

The last thing, since it was 1983, cabooses were still widely in use.  To me, a train just isn't a train without a caboose tagging along to bring up the rear.  It also adds a little to the operational end of things.

The Operations 

  

With all this set into play the only thing left was to create the trains that would operate on the line.

Using the yard at El Dorado as a starting point, There are two manifests that feed the two locals based out of El Dorado.

The South bound LRMP [Little Rock to Missouri Pacific's yard at Alexandria, LA] and the North bound MPLR [Missouri Pacific to Little Rock]

Then the two locals: The NB Haskell Turn and the SB Winnfield turn.

The hottest train on the line is The Shrimper. This is the train that hauls the frozen Seafood from the gulf and is made up of mechanical reefers and refrigerated TOFC's. The only stop it makes is on the Southbound run to drop off livestock cars at the chicken processing plant called Flappers, located at Fordyce, AR.

Amtrak's Rebel makes one stop at El Dorado.

And finally, W&OV's once daily turn, the Razorback runs from Malvern to El Dorado and back. 

Other trains that run are a grain train, an oil tank train, and an Intermodal.  Also CNW's stack train, MKT's coal drag [BN will show up at times].  Detour trains from the NS and CSX.  These all run as through trains and are staged in the yard and run to create traffic for the locals to work around or if we have enough operators that need something to do or just want to run a train.

With this set into place, the building commenced.