Description
Welcome to the Field Western railroad, a proto-freelanced short line, HO scale railroad, serving businesses between Los Angeles and San Bernardino (approximately 60 miles), modeled in the modern-day era. The railroad roughly follows the old Santa Fe Second District, in Southern California.
The double deck layout occupies roughly a 15' x 30' basement area, with additional space used in the basement crawl space for staging and transitioning between the two decks. The railroad is always viewed looking towards the North, so that East is to the right (towards San Bernardino) and West is to the left (towards Los Angeles).
There is one large staging yard with both looped and stub ended tracks. This staging area represents both Los Angeles (to the West) and San Bernardino (to the East). Crews pick up their trains in the staging area and proceed to operate onto the visible layout running Eastbound or Westbound.
Digitrax (DCC), using only WiFi (TCS UWT-50's, or phone if you choose) connected throttles, is used on the railroad. All trains are sound equipped. A modern computer-based (CATS) centralized traffic control (CTC) system, and signals, are setup to manage all mainline traffic movement. Car forwarding is managed using JMRI Operations in a live setting, meaning that manifests and switch lists are generated during the operating session.
The primary yard in the middle of the layout is City of Industry (CI). This yard handles terminating locals, that run to/from the yard to local industries modeled on the layout. There is also an intermodal loading/unloading area that both double stack and trailer trains terminate and originate from. The ADM (Archer-Daniels-Midland) facility is located at one end of the yard and has its' own dedicated switching unit. This ADM job runs the entire plant, transferring cars to/from the City of Industry interchange yard track.
The following trains could run for an operating session:
- Manifest trains to and from staging to the City of Industry (CI) yard.
- Three locals, originating at City of Industry, serving industries on the layout, and then returning to the yard.
--- Pomona local: Handles industries East of CI on the upper deck of the layout.
--- 'Valley Flyer': Works industries West of CI on the lower deck of the layout.
--- Gas local: Is a dedicated run from CI to the Chevron facility located at Dolores on the upper deck of the layout.
- Double stack trains, primarily domestic containers, that originate and terminate at City of Industry intermodal facility.
- Trailer on flat car trains, that originate and terminate at City of Industry intermodal facility.
- Los Angeles Junction Railway transfer runs from Los Angeles to City of Industry and back to Los Angeles staging yard.
- Union Pacific transfer runs from Colton to City of Industry and back to Colton staging yard.
- Coal trains, that run from San Bernardino staging to the Southern California Edison power plant at Rosemead.
- The 'Oil Cans' operate from Bakersfield > Los Angeles > Dolores, over the line. The Chevron oil facility is serviced by the Field Western on the modeled portion of the layout. The 'cans' arrive loaded and return empty via Los Angeles (staging yard).
- ADM plant switching job, operates within the ADM plant (near the City of Industry yard). Grain and corn arrive to be processed into various commodities. A major section of work is corn syrup processing and distribution from within the ADM facility to local industries, both rail and non-rail served.
- Miller Brewery switching job. This inside plant switching duty is responsible for servicing the various spots for the Miller Brewery plant. The job picks up and delivers cars to/from the interchange track to the required car spotting locations of the brewery.
- Sees' candy switching job. This inside plant switching duty is responsible for servicing the various spots for the Sees' candy plant. The job picks up and delivers cars to/from the interchange track to the required car spotting locations of the facility.
- Various passenger trains may operate on the modeled portion of the railroad. Trains may operate in push/pull service along the route.
- Occasional through trains, mostly BNSF re-routing of auto rack, double stack, or manifest trains.
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Copyright © 2023 Front Range Rails. All rights reserved. Last Updated: April 26, 2023
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