Track Plan - BNSF Fort Benton Subdivision

The BNSF Fort Benton Subdivision is a small 50 mile (approximate) branchline that runs from Great Falls, MT to Fort Benton, MT.  Up until the late 1970's the line ran from Great Falls to Havre.  However, do to unstable soils along the Missouri River, the tracks were pulled up just outside of Fort Benton.  Nowadays, the line no longer runs into Fort Benton.  It stops at the last of three unit-train grain elevators just a few miles south of Fort Benton.  

My plan includes the small town of Carter, MT and two of it's grain elevators.  I left off the unit train loader at Carter.  Once through Carter, trains proceed to the 750,000 bushel EGT Terminal Loader.  After EGT there is a small privately owned elevator at Tunis, before the train arrives in Fort Benton.  My rendition of Fort Benton includes two grain elevator's, a co-op fertilizer dealer, and a team track/ramp.  A reverse loop and 9 total staging tracks are hidden below the main layout and are accessed by a helix in the bottom right hand corner of the plan.  Staging represents Great Falls, MT.

Several types of operations are included with this plan.  Unit grain trains would be needed at the EGT Terminal Loader.  The loader can handle up to 22 covered hoppers and three modern locomotives.  Unit trains would begin in staging and then proceed up the helix to Carter and then onto the Terminal Loader track.  After the unit train is loaded, the engines would cut off from the head end and recouple to the end of the train to take it back down to staging.  The other type of operation of the layout would be a local freight, which would also start in Staging.  The local would then proceed to Carter where it would switch the two grain elevators.  After that the local would run to Fort Benton and switch the four industries there, before returning to staging.  On the return trip the small elevator would be switched at Tunis.  If I just want to run continuous trains, I have included a track that goes behind the helix and reconnects at Carter.  Although not prototypical, I could use this to represent trains running to Havre, MT.  Although the tracks to Havre were pulled up 40 years ago, in my fantasy world the tracks still exist and sometimes serve as a secondary line to reach the Northern Transcon.

I really like this tackplan because it includes my favorite modeling interests; BNSF, grain service, and rural Montana.  However, one of the drawbacks for me is that there is very little scenery or topographic relief along, except where the line drops down into For Benton.  If you've ever driven the highway that parallels the tracks you'll know what I mean.  It's so flat up there, a person can watch their dog run away!  The one drawback is that the trackplan does not have any engine service facilities, which is one of my favorites things to model.

Track Plan - Havre Engine Terminal

Since tearing down my MRL themed layout several months ago, I have have been playing around with a couple designs in AnyRail.  This track plan is the first one that I think is fully complete.  The plan is a fairly close reproduction of the BNSF engine terminal located in Havre, MT.  Instead of modeling the entire yard area (which is huge), I have decided to focus on the engine terminal complex, car shops, and two of the local industries.  The two industries are an oil tank farm and the ADM/CHS Elevator.  The neat thing about the elevator is that it has it's own SW1500 switcher.  So BNSF brings them the empties, pulls loads, and the company switcher moves the empty cars to the loading track.  

The staging area would serve as the unmodeled yard area.  Crews would pickup their engines either from the engine terminal tracks or the ready tracks at the Yard Office.  From there, they would move into staging to get their cars.  To simulate mainline running along the Milk River Subdivision, trains coming out of staging or heading into staging would stop at the mainline fueling area located at the yard office.  

Engine terminal operations would include routine service/fueling, as well as inspections and repair work.  The car shop would also be a source of operations; with a switcher crew pulling cars from staging and taking them to the shops, and vice versa.  The switcher would also be responsible for spotting sand and fuel cars in the terminal.

Due to the size of the real terminal, I made several compressions.  The engine shop has 8 service tracks, and I trimmed it down to 3.  Also, the ADM/CHS elevator is located several miles out if town in the real world, and not located right off the back of the car shops.

I really like how this plan turned out because it allows me to showoff my ever increasing fleet of modern BNSF equipment, while being able to have operations and full mainline trains.  However, the main drawback is that there is very little scenery (other than industrial) or open mainline running.  I have several other trackplans that I'm working on that offer more mainline running.  I hope to get them posted in the next few weeks.

Grain Elevator Scratch Build Pt. 2

I have been slowly plugging along with the grain complex.  I took a break from working on the bins and bridge structures to start on one of the two grain legs.  I need to get the legs and support structures done so I can build the bridge sections that go to the first bins.  I scratchbuilt the leg out of styrene strips and sheets.  The scale dimensions (HO) are 8'x6'x110'.  This leg is used to fill the large storage bins and supply grain to the load out track.

I airbrushed the leg with Testors Dark Blue.  I still need to give it a coat of flat clear.