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Prairie State Railroad design work in process Dream and design
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New member 2 posts PSRCPresident New member 2 posts
PSRCPresident

I have been busy over the past couple of years working on designing my future model railroad:  The Prairie State Railroad Company.  This layout, inspired by Bill Darnaby's Maumee Route layout in HO scale, is essentially going to be designed much like his HO layout, but done in N scale.  As long a mainline run as possible in the space allotted, being a shelf layout inside a 16 by 17 foot room in a 16 by 22 foot garage (the extra space is the workshop and hidden staging yards).

The PSRC will be set in far Southern Illinois (the 'forgotten and virtually unknown' end of the state) in 1955 and will still be primarily steam powered as in 1955, most railroads in this area were steam powered, at least freight trains were.  The PSRC will basically run from Mount Vernon, Illinois (former home of Mount Vernon Car Manufacturing Company, closed in 1954) south to Cairo (locally pronounced Kay-row), Illinois.  The main locomotive shop will be located at Mount Vernon and major yards at Mount Vernon and Cairo, with a smaller marshalling yard at Marion.

The layout will use Atlas N scale code 55 track exclusively and will have a mainline run of 310 feet, which is just over 9 scale miles of mainline run.  The layout will be on a small shelf around the walls of the room and will have a central peninsula.  The entire layout will be a continuous around the room spiral from Mount Vernon to Cairo with a gradual downward grade southbound.  All mainline turnouts will be #10 turnouts and the minimum radius curve on the mainline will be 18".

I do not have a trackplan yet, but I do have a footprint of the layout itself.  With the layout on the five year plan, meaning that I want o have something operational in 5 years, I feel that by doing the required research to find out what industries existed in 1955 in this area as well as what things looked like back then and what equipment was used (yes, I am what some call a 'rivet counter', the small details matter to me). 

Once the layout is operational, it will essentially be like walking back in time.  The layout will use CVP Products EasyDCC system (The system used by AustNtrak while I was active there).

I have heard comments from some of the heavyweights in our hobby and they think my idea is doable.  There are others who aren't so sure.  Come hell or high water, I'm going to build my railroad.

Expect to read more about the Prairie state Railroad in the future.
Edward Bridges President & CEO Prairie State Railroad Marion, Illinois
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mecovey Regular poster 315 posts
mecovey

PSRC Design

This sounds like it would certainly be doable. I just came through this area last weekend on the way back from Florida. We stopped at Joppa on the Ohio River to get a look at the Coal to Barge Transfer...huge. UP unit trains etc.

Are you basing your railroad on any particular prototype? The C&EI, the Southern, The Illinois Central, The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and others were in the area. The C&EI ran close to what is now I-57.

Mike

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PSRCPresident New member 2 posts
PSRCPresident

PSRC design

The Prairie State is not based on one particular railroad, but it falls into the same sort of idea that Bill Darnaby's Maumee Route falls into.  It is a ficticious concept made to be believable.

 

The PSRC has some elements of the NKP, Monon, IC and a few others all rolled into one.  I want to run steam power and with steam still very much alive and well in southern Illinois in 1955 (right in the middle of the coalfields), it only makes sense to model steam power.  I work on diesel power at my day job (I am a conductor for a local shortline) and I just plain do not care for diesel power (never have).  Steam didn't just get my attention from static displays or models, the company I work for now was the last Federally recognized common carrier in the US to run steam power in revenue freight service:  The Crab Orchard & Egyptian.  The CO&E quit using steam power September 8, 1986, long after everyone else quit.  so, I guess you can say, even though I grew up in the 1970s and 80s, I grew up around working steam locomotives.

Sorry for the long delay in answering your question.  Computer issues and too much going on have prevented me from being here as much as I would like.  The ball is rolling and the garage gets emptied out this weekend so minor remodeling can be done so the construction of this layout can begin.

Always something going on at the workbench.
Edward Bridges President & CEO Prairie State Railroad Marion, Illinois
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