When the Railroad is TOO Big?

Port Clearwater North getting it's first coat of base paint

     My railroad had a size problem. And I understand this can be a common problem. The fact is that when your imagined reality and your physical reality have such a mismatch something has to give. And give it did! We went from 15 miles to just over 2.5 miles. From a railroad that went from one small town to another to a railroad that serves a single town. And every change has made the railroad better. 

 The original plan was good. Grounded in physical reality and plausible history it work. But the fact is a 7x11 office just makes things smaller then you think even in in 1/87th scale. And the thought of one wall being 15 miles away in Seeley Lake really didn't do anything operationally for the railroad. The more I worked and thought and thought and worked the less sense it made. I plans for a good physical plant. My industries seemed solid. My benchwork went together as it does with vibes and audacity. And when the dust settled I had my layout. Just like I envisioned.  But the space was not what I wanted. I didn't want more space, the physical space was fine. But the mental space did not work. My imagined railroad was simply to big. So I changed it. 

    So far my favorite lessons as I build this railroad is that nothing is permanent and the only person making it so is yourself. There is no secret guild of master model railroaders who will come over to your house and cover you in Elmer's glue and ground foam because you decided to change something. I see it over and over. Robert Todd's Milwaukee Road Des Moines Sub railroad is an excellent example. Or the Last Chance Layout up in Helena. Just. Change. It. Make it work for you. So I did. And I'll talk through some of my changes.

    First up of course was scope. I had made the name change for the layout proper to the Clearwater Industrial a few months ago. I liked that. But why would a layout named that go 15 miles? That sounds like a railroad that might just serve a three mile area. So that's what I did. I turned Seeley Lake, a small town with a lumber background into Port Clearwater North, or Clearwater North, an inland port that supports two major tenets and adds a level of operational variety that is both exciting and reasonable.

    There is a trend in this moment towards smaller layouts with maximum realism and minimalism. While I'm not 100 percent on board this particular train I think the idea has a lot to offer if you know what you're looking at in your own circumstances.  

Clearwater North Track Diagram

    In the case of Clearwater North I wanted a main anchor. And transload is always a good one. combined with the Kalispell Southern interchange track I could plausibly entertain a wide variety of cars and traffic. This replaces the original Seeley Lake Team Track. Another thing is not every siding needs to have in industry. Doing less with more is not only prototypical but adds for variety. So what was Berman Hoof and Hay, more on them later, is now a former rail served industry that acts as the off spot for the transload. This frees up more space but also doesn't add more for the sake of another industry in the port. Breathing room is important.  I also decided to base a switcher here. The Clearwater North switcher works cars brought in on both interchanges and is dedicated to the customers of the port. This means the justification for multiple operators is baked into the operational design of the railroad.

    The other major anchor is Kootenai Fuels, replacing Seeley Lake Terminal Petroleum. Consistent traffic and whatever is on the waybill. A HOLD track was added for overflow or to take in other products, such as palletized lubricants on other car types, adding variety. We'll get into the planned operations in another post but needless to say I'm far happier with how things are looking now. 

Clearwater Track Diagram

    Clearwater too got a makeover. The fact was the original central industry "Blue Star Foods / Logistics / Distribution" never really worked out. The ide was this industry was the driving force of the area and these interlocked car generators would allow for 24 hour operation and a reason for the entire railroad to exist. This is why BNSF did a daily train to Clearwater. Turns out it works on the surface but deeper down it really fell apart. So I changed it.  First thing i did was move Berman Hoof and Hay, now Berman Agricultural Supply into town, replacing Laursen Farms Transfer. Laursen Farms Transfer's role could now be handled by the transload in Clearwater North so it simply ceased to exist. This meant I now had another industry in Clearwater that would function well in the Clearwater Industrial District. The CID is a loose confederation of small rail served businesses in the town of Clearwater.  Updated names followed. And what was Blue Star became "The East Spur". Now separate businesses that are not connected. Front Range food is a maker of Chili, Jerky and other food stuffs. While Northwest Distribution is a cross deck supplier. The Clearwater Team Track became the Clearwater Logistics Center and is responsible for the small non rail served customers in the region. That is ones that don't need bulk or oversize loads, that's the transload, or not part of the nationwide distribution chain, that's NW Distribution. 

Updated Clearwater Industrial District names. 

    Also in Clearwater I fixed Tammany Avenue.  I tried to use Robert Todd's foam trick but Code 83 might be just a bit short. I ended up with constant stalling and derailing. So I ripped it own and simply painted it. Paint alone has been used for roads in model railroading and for good reason. My true requirement for a road is "Does the crew blow the horn to cross it?" If the answer is yes then I think it's doing it's job. I'm not looking to exactly duplicate the real world in my scenery. This is where I diverge from the Mindheim mindset a bit. I want the operational reality behind my scenery.  That's what matters to me. And I think it does that just fine. 

"That looks vaguely like a road. What technique did you use?" "Apple Barrel paint from Walmart."

    We have some new motive power coming to. I ordered an Athearn GP38-2 in an EMD lease scheme and it will join the GP-9 for work on the railroad. Two modernish EMD locomotives, one based at Clearwater North will mean good running, plenty of power and a good time for my operators. Currently the GP-9 "Cedar" is out getting a full ESU set up across the country but he should be back in a few weeks. The NW2 #70 is doing a fine job holding down the western side of the railroad. 

    I've very pleased with the direction the railroad is taking. It now makes more sense. It fits the physical space I have and I'm confident my operating scheme will work better then the one I had planned. But more on that later.