Wichita

I lived in Hutchinson for 7 years and worked for the K&O railroad. Not mentioned in this article, but also a regular along the line is both the SKOL railroad and K&O railroads make trips into Wichita. The K&O make a transfer to the UP and BNSF between 6-7 days a week. Also they also make regular interchanges on “the hump” picking up and delivering grain trains.

I always thought a layout could be built just based on the area around Frontier/Vulcan. Between Debruce (Gavillon) (largest single head elevator in the US,) Airporducts, Oxychem(Vulcan/Frontier) and  a power plant it would keep a couple of operators pretty busy. 

My layout is similar

I did not like having my layout in a garage.  A friend built his in a garage and it was not clean enough for me.  So I built a second story above my garage which included two bedrooms, a bathroom and a train room.  The train room is 22' X 23'.  I attended the 2000 NMRA Convention in San Jose and had the good fortune of running into David Barrow and John Armstrong.  I showed them my preliminary sketch of a layout plan which is very similar to this, except the loops face each other instead of facing the same direction.  Twenty years later, I am very happy with the plan.  If someone choses to build the layout featured in this article, they will undoubtedly be very happy with it.  

I really enjoyed this article.  

Derek, Your article was

Derek,

Your article was amazing. How you selected and adapted your choice of industries was something I found enlightening. The bench work you described is something I had considered but seeing a plan me me realize that it will be a good fit for me. I'm in the startup stages of model railroading and the information and rationale you included was very helpful to read about. I am planning to have a basement layout about the size you described so I have added this article to my list of reference materials that will one day help me to build a successful model railroad. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

Wichita

Wichita was one of the first places I visited after hiring on with the MP.  The large building with the truck docks at the yard was the Superintendent's office and the truck docks were the brand new LCL facility, which was quickly obsolete after it was built.  It became the Overnight facility when the UP bought Overnight.

Very Nice

Great article.  I like how you walked us through your decision making process.

I'm new to this great hobby, and I've recently decided to model modern BNSF after thinking I wanted to go with 1920s era Great Northern, and I already have a GP40 painted in modern BNSF scheme.  Anyway, I've thought about modelling a section of the Spirit Aerosystems plant in Wichita, in part because my grandfather worked at that plant in WW2 building B-29s in the off season when he wasn't teaching in Missouri.  Also, I have an uncle that worked at a wheat/grain facility along the Columbia River in Washington state, and the place was historically serviced by the Northern Pacific, and now currently BNSF. So, I want the layout to honor those family members, in addition to others.

Your article has given me a lot to think about and consider.