Welcome to Our New Home!

The purpose of this blog is to tell the story of an HO model railroad layout based on Big Blackfoot Railway in Western Montana. It won't be a rivet counters paradise but I hope to capture the idea of this piece of the Big Sky States industrial heritage. The reasons are quite simple, I live two miles away from where the railroad once ended. I've driven along it's right-of-way since I was a kid on my way to Seeley lake and remember being in awe of the mighty Willamette #7 on display at Bonner. Today I lead school kids around the Big Blackfoot relics at Fort Missoula, I've seen #7 under steam in the movie Timberjack and am hoping to pick up a Bachmann 3-truck Shay in the next few weeks. What else am I to do?
The saga of my previous attempt at a model railroad can be viewed HERE. I'd rather not go into the reasons for it's demise but it is no more and I have a feeling that nothing will be salvaged. Such is the way with such things. What I'm building now is my first adult permanent layout. This means more work, more time, and more effort. It means I'll really have to get into what it takes to build a layout that lasts. I want a layout I can bring friends over and show it off. So it's going to be a fair bit of kit.
Let's get some of the basics out of the way. The layout will have a length of 120", with a depth of 36" overall. The layout will be constructed on dense blue foam with heavy duty benchwork. Layout height at the time of this writing is set to 40". The theme is of course logging, with the prototype being the Big Blackfoot Railway.
Track work will be exclusively Code-83 and smaller and wired for full DCC.
Mainline will be single track with a maximum curvature of 18" and a maximum grade of 3%. Switches will be minimized whenever possible and no turning facilities save for the 0-5-0 are planned at this time.

The Big Blackfoot Railway, A Brief History:
And for this I refer to the excellent work, The Big Blackfoot Railway by my friend Bob Bateman. Copies available in the Missoula Public Library.
The Big Blackfoot Railway started life as the Big Blackfoot Milling Company Railway and it's almost sole purpose was to provide mining timbers for the Anaconda Copper Mining Companies Butte mines. The A.C.M had taken ownership of the Big Blackfoot Milling Company in 1898. The primary area of logging was the Potomac valley with three camps, Union Creek, Arkansas Creek and Potomac proper. The railway was to haul logs from the tall timber to the Big Blackfoot River where they would be floated to the Bonner Mill. The railroad really got started around 1904 running from McNamera Landing on the Blackfoot north to Greenough. Log cars were 20 feet long and of the Russell type, loading was accomplished by the McGiffert Loader. The railway was extended to connect with Bonner Jct. and on January 13th, 1910 the Big Blackfoot Railway was incorporated.
The Milwaukee Road purchased the line from the A.C.M. Co. and all deeds were transferred on December 30th, 1916. The first act of the Milwaukee was to complete a branch line direct from the Bonner Mill to McNamara Landing, thus ending the practice of using the river to transport logs. With the arrival of the Milwaukee Road the 40 foot log car and the Slide Ass Jammer were introduced as the McGiffert loader could not handle the increasing loads. It should be noted the role of the Milwaukee Road was that of a "Mainline" with the BBRy feeding it from the lumber camps. In the spring of 1916 the Big Blackfoot Railway in it's entirety left the Potomac valley and was moved to the Nine Mile Area, almost forty miles to the west! The new headquarters was Stark and the timber was transferred to the Milwaukee at Soudan. The Blackfoot area was dormant of logging from 1916-1926 at which point the A.C.M moved operations back to Greenough and resumed logging.
The Milwaukee extended the line 14 miles to Sunset, while the BBRy laid tracks to Belmont, Blanchard and Elk Creeks.
In 1934 the camp was moved again with Cottonwood becoming the end of the line for the Milwaukee and Woodworth for the BBRy. Woodward became the base camp for the A.C.M operations.
Eventually the headquarters was moved to Salmon Lake leaving Woodworth behind. The last Shay locomotives ran in 1948, and by 1957 all hauling was done by truck, sometimes over the roadbed of the former railroad. 1960 saw the end of the logging camps and the headquarters moved to Twin Creeks. The Milwaukee continued to run up the branch line known to one and all as the Big Blackfoot Railway until the tracks were torn up in the 1970's thus marking the end of the railroad era.
Today the Milwaukee Road is no more, and the Bonner Mill has closed ending 122 years of timber production in this area. The towns of Milltown and Bonner are struggling to reinvent themselves and the only reminder of the BBRy lives on in the memories of those who lived during the great age of steam logging.

So there you have the history of the prototype. As I continue to work towards starting construction a few thoughts are constant and I shall put them down in no particular order.
-Ballast if any will be at a minimum. From the photo's I've seen the ties were laid on the ground.
-There will be a switchback. I've wanted one since I started building my last layout. I don't think the real BBRy had one but mine will.
-Switches will all operated by ground throws.

The layout itself will consist of McNamera Landing, Potomac, and Camp 3. Potomac will be the equivalent of a lower landing, with a small sawmill and town. From there it's up the switchback to Camp 3 where the heavy timber will be loaded. Of course certain modelers license is in effect but it should reassemble the prototype quite well. A layout to me is to be played with and that's exactly what I intend to do with this one.