baldeagle Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 I now have a SW1500 switcher, numbered 1401, and in "SOO Line" livery, and an SD45 in BNSF green. Â Why them? Â Because I saw the "SOO" at the TVNAM show at Rugeley in June, [which got me started in US outline], and later, because I liked the nice green of BNSF. Â Perhaps not the best way to choose locomotives, but I don't care. Â My proposed layout is to be a fictitious interchange yard, somewhere adjacent to the "SOO" line that runs from Portal, on the US/Canadian border, and runs down North Dakota, to Carrington. Â Three of my four baseboards are completed. Â The switcher is for....erm, switching, and I would expect to see rail cars brought in and taken away by loco's in Canadian Pacific Red. Â My question is, would it be feasible to also see BNSF loco's bringing/collecting from this yard? Â I've tried tracing trackage on Google maps and satellite views, to see if the two companys' lines are connected, but it's very difficult. Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 We do have an expert on the SOO line - I expect he'll pop up shortly, particularly if you edit your topic header to include the word SOO............... Â Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 Thanks Pete - title amended as per your suggestion. Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1905 Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 The BN (GN) had a line that ran E-W through N Dakota, and crossed the SOO at Minot. The BN had branches that looked like fishbones that ran north of the E-W line about every 20 miles, Including a line from Berthold to Crosby through Lignite Jct. There was some sort of connection between the SOO and BN in the Rival Jct area and a BN line branched off and crossed the SOO at Bowbells on its way to Northport (CN). Â So even if the BN didn't go to Portal it was close enough that you could use modeler's license and say there was an interchange with the BN at your yard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 Dave 1905, Â Thanks very much - that's just what I wanted to hear - it's good enough for me. I'm not too much of a "rivet counter" - as a bit of a beginner, I don't have enough knowledge, but just as long as I can put a layout together that is mostly believable... Â "Licence", now there's a word that covers a multitude of sin's, I'll go and order another box of it now! I'm already using a bit of licence, because my yard is supposed to be the interchange between a main line and a [fictitious] branch that wanders off to serve various industries along it's route. Â The industries are a bit variable, they match whatever rail cars I am gathering together, and the few that I've bought so far are a bit of a mixture, mainly representing "best price" rather than a carefully constructed plan! Â I'll press on, then.... Â Thanks once again, Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 The industries are a bit variable, they match whatever rail cars I am gathering together, and the few that I've bought so far are a bit of a mixture, mainly representing "best price" rather than a carefully constructed plan! Â an all-too-common approach over here, I think.....say's I, with a drawer-full of best-priced stock! Â I also had a habit of finding useful, easy and appealing model-bashing articles in the US press......hence, I have no idea what to do with a bright orange bashed PBNE mill gon...so long, even Jack didn't have room for it! Â And exactly what do I do with all those Varney ore jimmies? Â Or...the Milwaukee Road rib-sided steel boxcar converted to an [emergency] grain car...complete with round roof hatches pinched off a [MDC?] hopper, which now has no roof hatches, but I have a bunch of whitemetal square hatches.......oh, I give up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveB Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 Wot no Jordan?!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 I think he will apear in half an hour or so - he works nights. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 If any of us were to add up the total amount of track, driving stock, rolling stock, controllers and other "useful" bits which we own, and then work out how much of it we are using in any one session......ooooh, it doesn't bear thinking about! Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 The industries are a bit variable, they match whatever rail cars I am gathering together, and the few that I've bought so far are a bit of a mixture, mainly representing "best price" rather than a carefully constructed plan! Â Hi John, the other thing that Dave mentioned is "interchange", basically cars connecting from one railroad to the other - so if you have BNSF and Soo Line both serving that yard you can effectively model 'through' cars, passed from one railroad to the other. The benefit of that is that you don't have to have an industry for (for example) that propane tank car you fancy, it can be passing through in interchange. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1905 Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 Correct, typically an interchange on line of road, especially an "endpoint" junction, implies that the vast majority of the cars handled do NOT go to any industries at the junction point. They would go to from industries in Western Canada to points in the US midwest or east. Virtually all the cars would be "just passing through". So you can have any type of car you want (thus the power of an interchange) If you were modeling an interchange in an urban area or some local intechange (as is very common on most ISL's) the majority of the cars would be for local industries. Â The reality is because of the business, the majority of the cars would most likely be 3 commodities (grain, potash, lumber), but you can model anything you like. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 A lot further South than you might think, Kansas City played host to both railroads. The SOO line yard was the "Joint Agency" yard which is also known as Knoche (Ka-no-kee) Yard. It was shared between KCS and Milwaukee, then SOO, then I&M rail link. BNSF's main yard is Argentine Yard, but they also have other, smaller "satellite" yards around the KC metro area. Â Check this out: Â Also, what about Minnesota? I believe both railroads go through that city... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted August 30, 2011 Author Share Posted August 30, 2011 The idea of an interchange between the "BNSF" and the "SOO" is a very attractive one! Â However, one answer usually provokes another question, and this is no exception. Â I won't apologise for appearing dense, after all, I've spent over sixty years polishing up the art of appearing dense, but would such an interchange have separate tracks entering, each belonging to it's respective company, or a single shared line, the switching being carried out further along? Â At the moment, I've cut my boards at 18 inches width, to accommodate a single line running through the centre, my intention being to build to modular standards, if two tracks are needed, then I'm happy with that, but I'll end up with something that is almost to modular standards - [on reflection, a sort of "narrowed gauge" module!] Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 There are plenty of places where a railroad goes onto another railroads track to collect connecting traffic, so having both railroads accessing your layout along the same single track is fine in my book. Â There are different ways it could be set up though, the industries at your site might be capable of being switched by either company - or they might only be able to be switched by the company who owns the track that serves it - if you picked the former then operationally it's simple, if you picked the latter then the second railroad would bring in cars and leave with others, but the 'home' railroad would have to deliver them to the industries as well as the cars it brought. Â Anyhow, if it's modular you could always model the actual junction between the two routes later if you wanted to. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave1905 Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 I won't apologise for appearing dense, after all, I've spent over sixty years polishing up the art of appearing dense, but would such an interchange have separate tracks entering, each belonging to it's respective company, or a single shared line, the switching being carried out further along? Â All different ways to do it, especially if you are just modeling a small portion of the railroad. Â At the moment, I've cut my boards at 18 inches width, to accommodate a single line running through the centre, my intention being to build to modular standards, if two tracks are needed, then I'm happy with that, but I'll end up with something that is almost to modular standards - [on reflection, a sort of "narrowed gauge" module!] Â Â You can make a separate line in for the BNSF (which can also be its staging track). For example you could make an elevator one of the industries on the layout and hide the BNSF track behind the elevator. A BNSF engine comes out of its track, swaps cars, then goes back into its staging track behind the elevator. If you have two main lines you could pretend that one is SOO and one is BN and bring the SOO trains in on the "front" main and the BN in on the "back" main. You could say that the BN and the SOO physically connect about 6" to the left of your modules and that the BN drives over the SOO to get to the SOO yard where it exchanges the cars. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 or even....like a good ol' 'through' station...? Â BN in from one end, exchange cars, departs same way...SOO accessing the yard from the opposite end? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Wot no Jordan?!! Sorry Chaps, been on Hols for a week with a rather dodgy and slow Interweb connection, so am just playing catch-up... Â I'm not taking full responsibility for the bad influence - there was more Soo Line stuff around at TVNAM than just mine!! (Although mine was the biggest!! ) Â I can confirm that BN and SOO went through Minot; they crossed at grade, the junction was appropriately called "Soo Tower" Â Pedant alert - I think I'm right in saying that technically, if the road engine is BNSF, then the Interchange would be with CP Rail, since they took over Soo completely in 1992, well before the BNSF merger... doesn't stop you using the Soo switcher 1401, of course, at least until Dec 2003, when it was retired, and sold to Progressive Rail the next year, where it has become #37 in MN&S blue, which, ironically, I am making a model of in HO scale... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted September 3, 2011 Share Posted September 3, 2011 Also, what about Minnesota? I believe both railroads go through that city... Sorry, further pedantry... Minnesota is a State. You mean Minneapolis..? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 F-unit, my road loco is BN, it's an Athearn, and numbered 6465. Â I spent an hour or so the other evening, trying to find a photo of it on the 'net, in green, and sporting 6465, and hopefully some info indicating when it received the livery/numbering, but came away empty handed. Â Mind you, I did find hundreds of lovely piccies of other loco's! Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 F-unit, my road loco is BN, it's an Athearn, and numbered 6465. Â I spent an hour or so the other evening, trying to find a photo of it on the 'net, in green, and sporting 6465, and hopefully some info indicating when it received the livery/numbering, but came away empty handed. Â Mind you, I did find hundreds of lovely piccies of other loco's! Â John John, is this your loco? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Yes John, it is - except that mine is a lot cleaner, and being much smaller, is sitting in a box in my bedroom! Â Seriously, was there any info to accompany that picture? Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pH Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 That photo was taken at Whitefish, Montana on 27 February 1982. Â Here's another photo, with some more details of the loco (roll down the page to get to 6465): http://www.locophoto...ch&PageNumber=3 Â Even though it was built for CB&Q, it was delivered close to the formation of Burlington Northern. Presumably because of that, to avoid a quick repaint, it was not painted in the regular CB&Q red and grey colour scheme. Instead, it was painted in a green scheme, close to what BN eventually used. Here's a picture of another CB&Q SD45 in that scheme: http://www.rr-fallen.../cbq0522gea.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-UnitMad Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 F-unit, my road loco is BN, it's an Athearn, and numbered 6465. Okay - just that your OP said BNSF, which is a slightly different animal.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldeagle Posted September 5, 2011 Author Share Posted September 5, 2011 Thanks John, so the time frame for BN 6465 would coincide with SOO 1401, making the sight of them both together quite feasible. Â All I need to do now, is to find a CP road engine that is also in the same time frame. Â I'll have to stop at that, because I could end up with "two feet of track, and three feet of loco", syndrome! Â F-unit, yes, I did say "BNSF" on my first post, but that was my mastike - I should have gone into the other room to look. Â John Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glorious NSE Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Hi John - I wouldn't get a CP loco, BN's SD45s went off the roster back in the mid 1980s so before the CP bought the Soo. A BN/SOO mix from the late 1970s or early 1980s would work well with both loco's in any of the locations mentioned. Â Another good site for BN pics (although it doesn't have the #6465) is this one: http://www.trainpix.com/bn/ Â That site reckons the #6465 left BN's employ in Feb 1984 (to work for CNW, later passing to UP ownership in the 90s!) - it would have been painted in the standard BN green scheme from the 'Hockey Stick' CB&Q green by the mid 1970s - SOO1401 was built in the 60s and used by Soo into the 90s so the BN loco's mid 70s to mid 80s usability probably gives you a decent set of bookends to your era? Â Jordan can probably give you a better idea of Soo power of the time than I can, but for BN if you wanted another unit then a GP7/9/20/30/35 would probably be the mundanely practical choice, or they had F units working in the Northern states into 1981/82 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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