New Model Railroad - Clinton, OK Industrial Park

Hello y'all!

Now that we're settled here in North Carolina, I thought I'd update you on my latest modeling project.  I've been working on a small layout, about 1.5 x 5 ft (plus a 3 ft staging cassette).  Its based on the Palmetto Spur project layout in Lance Mindheim's book How To Build a Switching Layout (essentially my model railroading Bible!).  

Switching action on the new layout!

The layout depicts a portion of an industrial park just south of Clinton, OK on the Farmrail System.  The industrial park is mostly occupied by oilfield suppliers, and customers receive sand, drilling fluids, and chemicals by rail.  

Here's the Clinton, OK switch job working the industrial park back in February.  Both the boxcar and hopper have drilling fluids, which are actually shipped as a powder mix.

A satellite view of the industrial park.  The mainline of the Grainbelt line (Farmrail's subsidiary that owns a former Frisco/Burlington Northern line from Enid, OK to Frederick, OK) is along the right side of the screen shot.  My layout is based on the longest spur in the middle, but I'm not following the prototype exactly.

One interesting thing about the prototype is there is no run-around track here!  The crew uses two locomotives and separates them for the trip back north to the yard, placing a locomotive on each end of the train.  Since my layout only depicts switching one of the spurs, I don't have to worry about this.

I wanted to get something up and running quickly, so I decided to go for a very limited project rather than using the entire room I have at my disposal.  We rent, so I didn't want to attach a shelf to a wall; the layout is on simple free standing benchwork made with premium pine and topped with insulation foam.

Track is Peco Code 83 with #6 turnouts.  I weathered it with Rustoleum camo brown spray paint.  The layout is controlled by a Digitrax Zephyr system.

I ballasted the track using a blend of products from Arizona Rock & Mineral.

Here's an overall look at the layout early during construction.  Its lit by a single LED light bar I picked up from Lowe's

I decided to model three spurs with three different industries.  The shortest spur serves as a transload point for chemicals for Coastal Energy.  It can handle two tank cars at a time.  The next longest spur serves drilling fluid supplier Rock Creek Environmental.  They receive drilling fluids in two ways: pressurized covered hoppers and in bags on pallets inside boxcars.  This gives me an industry with multiple car spots to increase switching interest.  The longest spur is a team track where multiple customers transload frack sand.  Cars can be unloaded on both sides of the street, so long cuts of cars have to be broken up.  Finally, the end of the lead "main" can also be used for car storage and off-spot cars.

Switching the team track where multiple companies transload sand for fracking.

Switching Rock Creek Environmental.  Notice the off-spot hopper on the lead towards the back.  The grass is a blend of Heiki and Silflor static grass, applied with a Peco applicator.

Overall, its a very fun little layout to operate.  A typical switching session lasts about 20 min.  No bad for three turnouts!  I'm working on the final structure, a large warehouse for Rock Creek Environmental.  I've also started adding details and some more tufts of weeds and grass, and weathering more rolling stock.

I hope to have more updates and a YouTube video to share soon!

Farmrail in 2018

Before I moved to the east coast in March, I got a couple chances to visit my favorite railroad, Farmrail.  I was lucky enough to be able to see them do some switching around Clinton on one day, and chase a train from Clinton to Elk City another day.

GNBC 3637 and a leased GP15-1 are powering a short local in Clinton, OK in this shot from March 1st

After putting together the train in the old Frisco yard, the crew headed south to work the industrial park.  They dropped several grain hoppers for Mars Petcare at this runaround track, to be spotted on the facing-point spur on the return trip.

The local continues south across this neat old trestle.

Arriving at the Clinton industrial park for a good hour or so of switching at the various oilfield suppliers

One of the newly painted additions to the roster.

A nice view of the Farmrail shops in Clinton

The shop crew moves GNBC 8126, a GP10 still in Illinois Central black, around the shop tracks.

Looking north up the old Frisco tracks in Bessie, OK. 

Farmrail had several strings of old hoppers they use for grain shuttles stored on the Grainbelt line in Bessie, OK.  Here's one still sporting faded C&NW colors.

The Rock Lives!  Many of Farmrail Corp.'s shuttle hoppers still sport faded Rock Island "Bankruptcy Blue."

One of the leased locomotives on the property rests at Clinton, OK

GP9 4079 at Clinton

I returned on March 7th.  It was pretty chilly that morning!  The Clinton switch crew's power, with leased GP15 still wearing its Texas flag colors from the Heart of Texas RR, rests at the junction.  Behind it are two old GP10s likely from the "Weatherford Turn" job.  This junction is once where the Santa Fe's Orient line and a Frisco branch both met the Rock Island's Choctaw Route.  All three lines (or at least what's left of them) are now operated by Farmrail. 

With lots of power thanks to former Iowa Interstate and Union Pacific locomotives, Farmrail hauls a long train of sand and drilling fluids from Clinton to Elk City on the former Rock Island.  Seen here at Foss, OK.

Headed across the prairie for Elk City.  A video of this chase is forthcoming on my YouTube channel.

Farmrail's Quartz Mountain Flyer

Hi everyone!  Sorry for the lack of blog posts, but Army life has been as busy as ever since we re-deployed from Korea.  I'm the executive officer for our headquarters company now, and earned my Expert Infantryman Badge back in May!

In August, my wife and I went up to southwest Oklahoma to ride The Quartz Mountain Flyer.  The Quartz Mountain Flyer is an excursion operated by Farmrail for the city of Lone Wolf, OK.  It operates on the "Orient Line."  We boarded near the Quartz Mountain Resort (At the intersection of Highway 44 and 44A) and took a nice ride on a beautiful and unusually cool and cloudy day for August.  This trip really was a treat, and I can't recommend it enough.  Here's some photos and a YouTube video from my channel:

When we got to Altus, OK the night before the trip, there wasn't much
going around the yard.  This GNBC locomotive was tied down on the
south end of the yard.

There were a couple long cuts of tank cars stored in the
Wichita, Tillman & Jackson RR yard.  From what I've heard,
there has been little traffic on that line lately.

The Farmrail crew readies GP10 GNBC 8251, which was trailing behind for the
northbound portion of the trip to Lone Wolf, OK.  

GNBC 8253 was the lead locomotive for the first leg of the trip

There is an old Cotton Belt boxcar being used for storage at Lone Wolf

Looking north down Farmrail's "Orient Line." This line doesn't get much
use, but by the looks of the pile of grain (or feed) on the tracks, there
must be some sort of traffic from time to time.

Hanging out in the vestibule on the trip back south as we
pass through the Quartz Mountains along the shore of
Lake Altus-Lugert

Posing in front of GNBC 8253 at Lone Wolf

A shot at the back of GNBC 8253 as we climbed back on for the trip south

After we got off the train near Quartz Mountain Park, I asked the engineer
if he was taking the train back to Altus.  It turned out, he was, and I was able to
chase it and get some great photos!

Model Railroad Progress Update

I am back from Korea!

It was a great tour, but I am happy to be back in the US of A, spending quality time with my lovely wife, eating plenty of BBQ and burgers, and of course, working on my model railroad.

A quick introduction to my layout: Its a fictional branch of one of my favorite prototypes, the Farmrail/Grainbelt system in western Oklahoma.  My layout depicts a "what if?" sort of scenario: a piece of the old Katy Northwest District from Elk City to points north is saved by a small short line and is later absorbed by Farmrail.

It's HO scale, built on shelf brackets and two hollow core doors in an L-shape in our spare bedroom.  Here is a track plan:

Operations are designed to be simple: Farmrail's Elk City switch job creeps up the branch a couple times a week to switch the Co-op elevator, team track, and the yet unnamed factory or warehouse.  There's been a recent uptick in traffic lately with lots of frack sand being delivered to the local drilling operations.

My layout has been hugely influenced by David Barrow's South Plains Industrial District project layout in Model Railroader as well as James McNab's Grimes Line layout.  However, the work of Lance Mindheim has been the most invaluable.  His book "How to Build a Switching Layout" has been my model railroading bible as I build my first serious attempt at a pike.  Its full of straightforward, easy to follow, and cost effective steps to tackle a small layout one project at a time and make a dream a reality.

Now, on to some photos of layout progress:

Since this is my first layout, and I don't plan on taking it with us to my next duty station, I tried to keep the cost down and focus on learning modeling techniques.  I built the benchwork on shelf brackets and hollow core doors (I even got a deal on the doors because one was slightly damaged).  Fascia and the backdrop are both Masonite.  I painted the backdrop a simple sky blue, as I'd rather have the eye focused on the layout than on scenes painted on the backdrop.  Track is Atlas Code 83.  I operate the turnouts with my fingertips rather than wiring a bunch of switch machines.  Next time I will definitely be using spring loaded turnouts from Peco or Micro Engineering.

I wired the layout with a Zephyr starter set from Digitrax.  Then, I weathered the track with some dark brown spray paint from the hardware store.  Next, I began ballasting the track with ballast from Arizona Rock & Mineral.  This has turned out to be a great investment.  I also got a little ballast spreader from a British company called Proses, and this has proven to be a great tool.  The ballast is all applied and now I'm working on applying layers of dirt to the grain elevator area.  Next projects will include building the staging cassette, installing a control panel for the Digitrax system, building and weathering the warehouse, and installing the road that bisects the track on the layout.  

I hope you've enjoyed this update, please stay tuned for more!