The Midwest Lines Railroad

Welcome to our model railroad website. The railroad is freelanced. Locations and the era are made up.
By our measure the layout is finished and we love sharing it. Enjoy your visit.

The Midwest Lines was formed in 1919 and had facilities for major steam and rolling stock rebuilding. They also owned the Haagen Mining and Transportation Co shortline, which mined copper and coal. The Haagen coal mine became un-profitable and the tipple was torn down. Traces of track and coal can still be seen.

The MWL had other financial problems, and when they could not afford to dieselize they went bankrupt. Seeing a vital link between Kansas City and Denver, the Union Pacific (UP), the Rock Island (RI) and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) tried to buy the line, but ended up operating it jointly through an I. C. C. agreement, while the Midwest Lines retained ownership of the line. Only the HM&T Co. shortline was sold to the UP, who still operates the copper business.

The Midwest Lines shop facilities were divided up. The RI took over the shops in Richfield, the CB&Q got the shops in Colby and the UP runs the engine facilities in Elk Springs and Alpine. The Mainline between Kansas City and Denver is single track, with passing sidings at Colby, West Fork, Golden and Indian Hills.

The Layout:

It started way back in 1966. Because of our two boys, I needed a "Father and Sons" project. Toy trains came to mind. With 4' X 8' sheet of plywood and an oval of sectional track our model railroad was born. The boys would have preferred a slot car racing set, but I was hooked on trains. I joined the local model railroad club and read all the hobby publications I could find. John Armstrong's book on track planning was my guide for drawing and designing our "real layout". After negotiating one fourth of our 25' X 33' basement I took pencil to paper, but I was not satisfied with the results. It seemed to be a shame not to use at least half of the available space. My dear wife noticed that I now spent a lot more time at home, so it was not hard to negotiate for the additional space, approximately 12.5' X 33'.

Now this was a very ambitious project, and many of my friends gave it little chance for success. You see, I knew very little about this hobby and even less about real trains. But at the same time I was designing the track plan, I enrolled at the local technical school for a crash course in electronics. I found out that if one can stay away from capacitors, vacuum tubes and the like, it is basically just TWO wires. A plus and a minus. Yes, many times, but only the two!. How many times can one screw up with just two wires? OK, I did.

Construction began late in 1966. Our two boys first helped, but it was too much like work and no trains running. I have always been a hammer and saw kind of guy, and building the bench work was very satisfying. The layout was built almost exactly to the plan as was drawn on graph paper, I still have the original drawing. Despite all the good guidance from John Armstrong, the layout turned out to be much like a "spaghetti bowl" but it worked conceptually and mechanically. We began regular operations two years before the NMRA's 1985 National Convention in Milwaukee. Just about that time my younger son Richard got seriously involved in the model railroad. He was better with the visual aspect than I and many of his scratch built structures grace the layout today. The original layout was wired for block control, with two cabs each in Elk Springs and Alpine and two for the main line. The power packs were home made, (kudos for learning electronics).

When I retired in 1992, I had accumulated enough structures and materials to start a new layout, but we added to the original instead. We almost doubled it in size. The cities West Fork, Colby and Richfield were added. Richard designed the City of Richfield and scratch built or kitbashed most of the structures there. At this time the layout was still true point to point. As the new track was going in, we wired every thing for DCC. A few years later we added double ended staging tracks. That tied both ends of the mainline together. We now have a huge "Christmas tree loop".

The double ended stage is called Denver (west end) and Kansas City (east end). When a train leaves the stage traveling to the left/west, it is leaving Kansas City, heading for Denver. Traveling east/right, the train is heading for Kansas City. The computer generated train orders, list the cities in the correct sequence, depending on direction of travel. So, physically the layout is a very large loop, operationally it is point to point. We see it that way. Operations have become closer to prototypical. We have many good times sharing with other model railroaders.

Electronics:

I think the icing on the cake was the change from block control to DCC. There were some moans and groans when my friends had to get used to the "newfangled" technology. Well, we all had to learn. I recommend DCC to everybody. Many new systems are being offered, with nearly "Plug and play" features. The prices are coming down too. The Midwest Lines RR. is powered by Lenz DCC (LZ100) and seven boosters (LV100). There are four polarity auto reversers (LK100), one for the turn table in Alpine (Wilson aluminum pit), one for the mainline leading west out of West Fork, and one each for the return loops in the crawlspace.

I am not yet in the sound camp. Sound is OK when running ONE engine. When technology produces a system that will let me hear ONLY my engine, I will jump in with both feet. The hobby industry is already producing wireless throttles. One should be able to call up the number of an Alco RS1 and receive sound to a head set or ear plug. A bank of sounds, of a number of locomotives could be stored in the command station. The sound would be many times better than what comes out of a little speaker buried in the engine. Just think, the one operating a Big Boy won't have to listen to the diesel engine running in the next town. With DCC anything is possible. Gold mine here !!!

General information:

Layout Statistics:

Name: Midwest Lines Railroad
Scale: HO (1:87)
Gauge: Standard
Prototype: Free lanced, UP-CB&Q-RI
Theme: Bridge line
Locale: Kansas City to Denver (stage, not sceniced)
Period: 1960-1965 (with a rubber band)
Layout style: Point-to-point with continuous running for open house operation.
Layout height: 43" to 53"
Size: 500 sq. feet sceniced area (not including aisle space & staging)
Bench-work: Open grid
Roadbed: Cork on 3/4" Plywood
Track: Flex track, Atlas, Shinohara, Micro Engineering, Casadio, Peco - code 100
Turnouts: #4-6-8; Atlas regular line 60, Shinohara e.f. 48, Peco e.f. 29.
Minimum radius: Mainline 36"
Maximum mainline-grade: 2 %
Scenery: Hydrocal over used window screen
Structures: Kit 10%, kit-bashed 70%, scratch-built 20%
Control: DCC - Lenz Digital Plus

Jobs on the MWL:

Operations:

Mainline operations are by track warrant. A dispatcher directs traffic with the aid of magnetic train numbers on a straight line schematic affixed to a sheet metal panel. Communication is by radio. The railway agent (Computer program) issues the classification list to the crews in Denver and Kansas City. Auxiliary lists go to yard crews in cities along the line, with instructions for pickup. Separate orders are issued to yard crews for industrial switching. Through trains drop and pickup only in yards.

Most trains that arrive on the production portion of the layout originate in Denver or Kansas City (staging). Additional through freights run from Alpine to Kansas City via West Fork and Richfield or returning in the reverse direction. Peddlers/turns switch the Haagen Shortline branch out of Alpine branch out of Alpine and Elk Springs. The copper mine at Blackwood Pass generates a ten car ore train daily for the processing plant at Golden on the branch. Passenger service has dwindled to a local between Denver and Kansas City twice daily. A rail bus (gas electric) connects the towns on the branch to the rest of the system.

Each operating crew carries only one sheet of paper/switchlist. Operations can be halted at anytime without loss of data. NO setup is required between operating sessions. No record keeping is needed either. All train/car movements are recorded with a single keystroke.

Very little steam power is used on the layout. Most diesels are four axle and are pre-1965.

Operations are held twice monthly and on special operating nights for NMRA regional and national meets.

The Locomotive Roster:

Qty	Engine Type	R.R.	Mfg.	Qty	Engine Type	R.R.	Mfg.
1	0-6-0	UP	Tenshodo	1	SW12	RI	Life Like
3	NW2	UP	Kato	1	SW15	RI	Athearn
1	SW9/12	UP	Life Like	1	RS2	RI	Steward
1	GP7	UP	Atlas	4	GP7	RI	Atlas
2	GP20	UP	Life Like	1	GP35	RI	Kato
3	GP30	UP	Life Like	1	Gas Electric	RI	Bachmann
2	GP35	UP	Kato	2	FA1/B1	RI	Life Like
2	F3A	UP	Steward	1	NW2	CB&Q	Kato
1	RS2	UP	Atlas	1	GP7	CB&Q	Atlas
2	RS1	UP	Atlas	1	GP35	CB&Q	Kato
2	SD7	UP	Life Like	1	SD7	CB&Q	Life Like
3	GP9	UP	Life Like	1	F3A+B	CB&Q	Life Like
1	E7A	UP	Life Like

Credits:

Web Site: Chuck Auclair
Scenery on back drop: Marty Edwards.
Computer program: "Waybill" Marv Kreuser.
Scenery: My son Richard and my son in-law Ray Petz.
Signal lights/high tension towers: Gerhard Knautz
And of course to all whose ideas I copied or stole.

Tell us what you think about our web site, our organization, or anything else that comes to mind. We welcome all of your comments and suggestions.

Union Pacific excursion departs Colby while a CB&Q switcher works the yard and UP F units await assignment. Photo by Joe Russ	The Layout
	Electromics
	General Information
	Layout Statistics
	MWL Job Assignments
	Operations
	Locomotive Roster
	Links & Credits
	New Pictures
	E-mail to Rolf Plachter, "Superintendent"

1	Stage Master	5	Yard Masters
1	Stage Hostler	4	Road Engineers
1	Dispatcher	4	Conductors