Ah so a little update for JRs UPRR:
Progress has continued on the acquisition side of things that includes rolling stock, parts, decals, paints, locomotives, structures, tracks, switches and even construction materials for the more bench work & shelving and valance work.
The transition of summer to fall has kept me quite busy. I even had time to clean out one bay of my garage and will finish the other bay tomorrow. Winterizing things outdoors around the house is near completion. The "Grizz" (my boat) will still be out on the water until the 1st or 2nd week of December or until first ice. Yup hard core I am. As I mentioned in the coffee shop hunting is in full swing. I will be taking 2 days off mid-week the following week to tag out on bow season. I have my eye on a few meaty deer that will fit nicely in my chest freezer.
So as for the layout I will be spending a lot of time the week of Thanksgiving making huge progress and updates as I will not be traveling to NC like I would normally do due to COVID. I will also squeeze in a few weekends before hand as soon as I tag out on my hunt for them critters for the freezer. Some guys hunt for trophies etc. I hunt for meat plain and simple. I love to eat lol. I do not care about mounting some critter on my wall. I just love organic meat. So back to the layout.
As some of you know already, I have established my southern exchange with ASAB Atlanta & St. Andrews Bay "The Bay Line" Well I have been working on figuring out the RR for the North interchange on my layout. I am torn between the following RRs. :
1st on my list is GBW Green Bay & Western. Why? well of course the logic is they had ALCOs
but also I always loved it up in Greenbay. I have mentioned that I lived in WI from '74 to '85 so I have some very good memories running around the entire state there. I am a Packers fan as well but as of late I am disappointed with the NFL mixing politics in the sports venue. Nonetheless I have not followed the NFL this year or last year but I have kept an extreme low profile on following the Pack. A little tib bit of information...
(info from Wiki)
The Green Bay and Western sold off the
Ahnapee and Western Railway to Vernon M. Bushman and a group of private investors on May 31, 1947. The
Itel Corporation purchased the Green Bay & Western in 1978. The Green Bay & Western and the
Fox River Valley Railroad were merged into a new
Wisconsin Central subsidiary, the
Fox Valley and Western Railroad August 27, 1993. Wisconsin Central was, in turn, purchased by Canadian National railway in 2001.
Here is their locomotive roster...
ALCOs!
https://www.greenbayroute.com/roster.htm
So next in line for the my 2nd choice of the RR north interchange is the MT&W Marinette Tomahawk & Western although a very short line. 6 miles to be precise. The appeal is that it's nothing but a switcher roster. Although the history is rich! The appeal to me is the paper mill so having said that woodchip hoppers etc are nice attributes that I like.
(info from Wiki)
The Tomahawk Railway, currently owned by
Genesee & Wyoming Inc. has roots dating back to 1891, when the founder, William H. Bradley, organized the Wisconsin & Chippewa Railroad. In 1894, Bradley organized the Marinette, Tomahawk & Western Railway Company, then merged the W&C into the M.T. & W. in 1898. The main purpose of the railroad was to serve the timber and paper mills in the area at that time with its connection to the world via the Milwaukee Road and Soo Line. During the 1960s, the MT&W Railroad made daily runs to Kings Dam, and an occasional run to the boat factory located where the
Harley-Davidson Plant is located today. By the late 1970s, the MT&W stopped providing service to Kings Dam and used the tracks there to store boxcars. It continued to provide service to the Owens-Illinois paper mill. In 2005, Genesee & Wyoming Inc., bought the Railway and renamed it the
Tomahawk Railway. Currently the Tomahawk Railway operates 6 miles of track, providing daily service to the pulpboard mill at Wisconsin Dam, owned by Packaging Corporation of America, as well as its own 105,000-square-foot warehouse located in Tomahawk. The TR handles over eight thousand carloads annually, consisting of coal, chemicals, scrap paper, woodpulp and pulpwood inbound, as well as pulpboard outbound from Wisconsin Dam to its connection with CN at Tomahawk.
(edit) Info by me....When I was living in WI. Pops worked in West-Allis in MLW. His office faced the HD plant. The RR action was nothing but short of amazing in that area. The hub was insane with heavy equipment coming and going out of the Allis Chalmers plant and later Siemens-Allis plant then Siemens. I wish I had taken photos during that time but sadly I didn't. When your young ya didn't think about it much. I remeber crossing the
Allis Chalmers sky walk bridge many times with pops.
before they ripped out the tracks...here's a pic of the construction of the bridge.
This next picture is what is cemented in my memory of the bridge.
And finally my 3rd choice is the WC Wisconsin Central. The appeal here is the diverse locomotive roster (although small) and the area of service that it provided in Wisconsin as well as the heritage acquiring some of the old RR names. I currently have 2 locomotives of the WC on my roster and well can't seem to not have them. I have a F45 #6650 and SD45 #6655. I may get a GP30 to add to the roster.
(info from Wiki)
Wisconsin Central Ltd. (WC) started in US in the mid-1980s using most of the original
Wisconsin Central Railway's rights of way and some former
Milwaukee Road rights of way after the
Soo Line Railroad acquired the Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Minnesota holdings of the bankrupt Milwaukee Road and divested its older railway trackage in Wisconsin. In 1993 the Wisconsin Central also acquired the
Green Bay and Western Railroad and the
Fox River Valley Railroad.
In 1995, Wisconsin Central acquired the 322-mile (518 km) Canadian
Algoma Central Railway whose tracks ran north of Sault Saint Marie to Hearst, Ontario. The Algoma Central runs a popular tourist passenger train through the
Agawa Canyon and Agawa Canyon Wilderness Park near Lake Superior Provincial Park
SADLY....(info from Wiki)
In 2001, the Wisconsin Central was purchased by the
Canadian National Railway. Along with the former
Illinois Central Railroad, the former Wisconsin Central became part of Canadian National's United States holdings and its property integrated into the CN system.
At the time of its sale to
Canadian National, Wisconsin Central operated over 2,850 miles (4,590 km) of
track in the
Great Lakes region. The railroad extended from Chicago into and through
Wisconsin to
Minneapolis/St. Paul and
Duluth, Minnesota, to
Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, and north (through the
Algoma Central Railway) to
Hearst, Ontario.
So as you can see I have to figure out which way to go. Funny thing is I have toyed with the idea as keeping all 3 on the north interchange and I think that it can be done. It's is after all my RR.
That way I will have the variety. I will chew on that for a bit. Although I do not have any locos for the MT&W on my roster but I think I know someone that can help me there.
As for GBW I am currently reviewing the internet universe for an ALCO or 2 to fill that void. It seems there is a nice selection out there. The WC roster I have is sufficient at this time....well maybe.
SO that's it in a nutshell for the time being. Expect to see some layout progress in the near future. I am still diligently working on my parts list for the RS-1 ASAB loco. JRs UPRR saga continues until the next update thank ya'll for taking this journey with me here. Slow & steady as it goes around here.
Peace.