An overview of the layout

Before we climb aboard the office car special, let's take a look around the layout.  For a guide, here is the track plan and be sure to check out the website at spsfrailway.com for more information.

First stop is the workbench, where the main action happens.

Then the crew lounge.

And the dispatcher's desk and operations center, where the layout is controlled using JMRI.

And now for some views down the layout aisles.  Here is the diesel shops on the bottom and the Belt Line above.

Looking toward South Omaha with the South Omaha yard on the left and the mainline through Richfield on the right.

Looking back toward the South Omaha diesel shops with the South Omaha yard on the right and the mainline through Richfield on the left.

Looking toward the Husker Industrial Park with Bellevue on the left and Papillion on the right.

Looking back toward South Omaha with Bellevue on the right and Papillion on the left.

Now looking toward Meadow with Plattford on the left.

And a view to the end of the track with Meadow on the left.

And now the office car special

We'll get our power at the Chuck Shell South Omaha Diesel Shops.

Here are a couple overhead shots of the shops.

Here's the Omaha staging for the IAIS and UP transfer jobs.

And the Amtrak staging in the background with the yard office in the foreground.

We'll use the local power today, GP39-2 3201 and B23-7 2637.

After acquiring our units, we have to pickup the office car at Bellevue, so we take the engines past the South Omaha Yard.

An overhead shot of the yard.  To the right is the UP mainline - CRI&P Jct is where the Meadow Sub splits off from the UP.

And past the South Omaha industries.  Here is the Sutherlands lumber yard.

This is the old Rock Island depot in South Omaha.

This is the ConAgra flour mill complex.

And now we arrive at the Bellevue Station.

We have to switch out the business car and then run around it to take it westbound.

While the engines are switching the business car, let's check out the Belt Line, which starts from this junction, where the lead to the UP mainline also splits off from.

The Belt Line area used to be the domain of the South Omaha Terminal, which SPSF purchased in the 1980s.  Here is a photo of the industries on the south end.

The Ready Mixed Cement Company, a NEBCO company, is the main industry on the Belt Line.

On the north end, behind the BN bridge, are staging tracks for the BN interchange and a layover for the light rail vehicle.

Now we have the business car and can continue west.

Hey Eric

I'm enjoying the tour! 

Continuing westbound on the office car special

First we pass the Maytag plant, first the area where plastic pellets, kaolin clay, and carbon black are unloaded.

Then we go past the Bellevue Yard where the UP interchanges with the SPSF, cars are staged for switching, and in the background is where appliances are loaded onto boxcars at the Maytag plant.

Up next is the Husker Industrial Park, which features four customers.

First is Drywall Supply, Inc.

Then the Bellevue Leader printing press.

This photo shows some of the off-spot locations in the industrial park.

Here's the Alter Metal Recycling scrap yard.

And the Standard Distribution warehouse.

At the end of the industrial park is MO Jct, where there is a connection to the UP mainline that the Amtrak Missouri River Eagle uses to go to/from Kansas City, which allows it to serve Bellevue.

An overview shot of the Husker Industrial Park.  I have a lot of structures yet to build here...

The OCS passes the White Castle (another structure that needs some work).

And passing the MO Jct signals.

Crossing the Papio Creek, we are getting to the edge of the Omaha suburbs.

The final leg of the journey, to the rural part of the branch

Papillion is the last suburb before we get out to the rural area of the Meadow Sub branchline.

The first industry is BulkWest, which handles dry and liquid bulk transfers.

Next is Payless Cashways, a lumber yard.

An overview shot of Papillion - still a bit of work to go in this area.

Crossing over Highway 370.

Going through Richfield, a sleepy farming town.

Now we get to Plattford, where Western Sand & Gravel has some large sand and gravel pits.  I started working on the scenery here, but still have some work to go.

Another view of Plattford and the Western Sand & Gravel spurs.

Going through the rural area between Plattford and Meadow - this is an area that is completely finished.

Meadow Siding is also completely finished.

The business car on the train today is SPSF 50, the "Santa Fe."  This is based on a real Santa Fe business car, also called the "Santa Fe" and numbered 50.

Meadow is a very small town.

Here is the Meadow depot.

The main industry at the end of the branch is Meadow Co-op, operated by Midwest Farmers Cooperative.

I am planning to add more elevators here.

This is the end of our tour, and the officials can stop for lunch before heading back.

I hope you enjoyed this and let me know if you have any questions or want to see anything else.  Thanks!

Thank You

Thanks, Rick - glad you are enjoying it!

Awesome

awesome layout.  Thanks for posting all the pics.  Pictures most of the time are a lot better than watching a video clip

Thanks!

Thank you, glad you enjoyed all the photos!

Cornfield and stream

Love the cornfield and stream scene!!

Thanks!

Thanks, OSCR, I have a few more scenes like that to add, so that is helpful.

Great job!

That is some really good model work and I love the idea of a layout where the SP/SF merger succeeded!

I agree... but I noticed something else that got me thinking...

I am a huge fan of the Santa Fe!  Big time Santa Fe fan with SP and D&RGW taking second place (surprising?  I just figured there were enough "Santa Fe something" fans out on the internet, so I chose something less "generic" when naming myself).

Now that we've got the matter of my favorite railroad cleared up, however, I noticed an interesting locomotive on the bridge over the BN interchange.

Is that sky-blue comfort cab diesel (can't tell what class from here) a heritage unit?  Because it looks a bit new to be an original Great Northern diesel.

I certainly HOPE it's a heritage unit, because my dad is a big-time Great Northern fan who takes great offense at non-Great Northern locomotive models in Great Northern paint schemes, such as the model below.

Of course, for all I know the Great Northern merger might have taken place a couple decades later in this alternate reality of yours.  Who am I to judge?  I'm not even sure exactly what decade this is supposed to be!  ('80's?  '90's?  2000's?  Current decade?)

Here's some more protolancing (am I using that word correctly?) food for thought.  Athearn released these four models a while back, imagining a world in which there never WAS a Burlington Northern (let alone a BNSF)!  Personally, I wished they'd make another run of these some time, but if we're being honest here I'd be more likely to wait around until one of these showed up on ebay.  Hey, you gotta admit it, that Chinese Red with grey roof and white stripes is real classy!