First Engine Complete - CMR 1809

I completed my first of the Central Montana Railroad’s 6 GP9s a few weeks again and am finally now posting up a few pictures of it.  this is CMR 1809 and it started out as a Rock Island engine.  I stripped and then repainted the engine.  The decals came from Switchpoint and Microscale sets.  

For a decoder I went with a Soundtraxx Tsunami 2 emd.  I did headlights, numberboard, and ditch lights.  The wiring looks like a rats nest but I’m just glad they all work!  I’m still working on getting the lighting programming figured out.  I used 2 Scale Sound Systems speakers and also made room for a TCS keep alive.  The frame had to be modified heavily to make room for everything.  

All that is left is a light weathering and I still need to paint the end of the handrails white.  I’m pleased with how it came out and hopefully I should get another one done in a few more weeks as long as I don’t get too tied up here at the farm.

Swing Gate

 Having finished laying track and wiring up my staging yard, I needed to build a removable section of track that carries trains in front of the entrance door.  I’ve used lift out sections in this spot on prior layouts and just wasn’t happy with the results.  The track in this area is on a 30” curve and I always seemed to have stability issues with the previous lift outs.  So this time I decided to build a much stabler and sturdier swing gate.  I built the gate out of 3/4” plywood and glued and screwed all of the sections together.  I plan on turning this into the Judith River trestle at some point, which is why the tracks are so far above the base of the swing gate.  I’m really pleased with the performance of the gate so far and have had no issues testing it with my pickiest engines and rolling stock.  

Side Project

I’ve been doing taxidermy on the side for about a decade now and really enjoy.  I took a break over the weekend from layout construction to finish an antelope mount for my sister.  It was her first antelope and she took it back in October of 2019.  I mounted it back in late September, but the head has just been sitting in my shop since, waiting to be finished.

  

Final Trackplan - Central Montana Railorad

After several months of designing different layouts in AnyRail, I finally settled on a plan and prototype that should keep me busy for a while.  My final choice is the Central Montana Railroad, which is a Class III shortline based out of Denton, MT.  The CMR's tracks start at the BNSF interchange in Moccasin, MT and then proceed to the NW going through Denton and ending in Geraldine.  The railroad used to move a large amount of grain, until their operations were brought to a standstill when the massive trestle over the Judith River was damaged in the 2012 spring floods.  The trestle has been repaired but most of the grain traffic has disappeared.  Currently, the CMR's operation's center around storing cars.  I spend alot of time in that part of the state and there is a large number of tank cars currently waiting for a rise in oil prices before returning to service.  Because of the a washout in Arrow Creek Gorge in 2006, the line has effectively ended at Coffee Creek, MT, with trains no longer serving Geraldine.  

I plan to stick fairly close to the prototype when building and operating the railroad, and it will be set in present day (2021).  However, I will deviate from prototype practices in several ways.  First, even though it's 2021, the elevators in Denton are still going to ship grain.  Second, I'm pretending that the tracks are still in service to Geraldine (represented in Staging), and the CMR will service a mythical unit grain elevator there.  Third, the gravel shipper near Ware, MT is still served by rail. 

My last and furthest stretch of the imagination is that the CMR's trackage (which is former Milw. Road) extends past Geraldine and continues into Great Falls (the tracks were pulled up in the 80's).  This will allow me to use my large collection of BNSF engines from time to time.  The line would serve as a backup to the BNSF Laurel Subdivision.  

The main operations of the CMR will center around Denton, MT.  I figure I will use two crews to work the railroad.  The first crew will take loaded/empty cars back to Moccasin for interchange with the BNSF and switch the Montana Gravel Spur.  The second crew will be responsible for switching out the industries in Denton.  I will run an extra for the unit train service to Geraldine.