Week 34 - 2005Well, I have now finished all the bench work and laid track that will get the railroad from one end to the other. It took some time and perseverance, but it's done!
The railroad now leaves from the "visible" staging yard heads through a 2 and a half turn 2% helix to the upper level. From there it goes around a "W" as such, before going down a symmetrical helix on the other side and into the main yard that is on one side of a peninsular. From there back to the staging yard is a short run, but in total, the whole layout is quite long.
Time to run a train around the layout with no stops and at prototypical speeds is basically 20 minutes.
So without further ado... lets see a train around the layout.
We start off at the visible staging area (Stryker) with a departing east bound BNSF intermodal. The train is lead by two BNSF executive scheme SD70's.
The train proceeds through the switches before hitting the high rail to Whitefish.
The intermodal heads through what will be rolling hills and mountains on its way to Whitefish, a short distance away.
In the lower photo we see the unit taking a bend shortly before Whitefish.
Our Intermodal enters the town of Whitefish. On the near side is the diesel servicing as well as the caboose tracks. The station is a crew change point.
Now the locos idle past the soon to be developed town and station.
When leaving the train takes the main and starts heading towards Collumbia Falls.
This is Collumbia Falls. The train will have to climb the west slope of the Rockies on its way to West Glacier. Here there is a torturous 2% climb to the crest of the mountains.
Nearing the top of the mountains, our train comes out of the last tunnel and the gradient starts easing before the town of West Glacier.
This climb is basically a 2 and a half turn, 2%, 27 inch radius helix.
With nothing for an Intermodal to do in West Glacier and no meet planned, our train flies through town and towards Summit.
Before reaching Summit, the unit Intermodal passes what will be a forest and hills. Hopefully a river or two will be added as well.
Below, the train rounds the bend before entering the station stop of Essex to meet any West bound trains. Essex is an Amtrak flag stop and is one of the main entrance point for tourists visiting the Rocky mountain park.
This photo give a better "OVERVIEW" photo of the layout in the room
Essex will be here.
Here the train enters the town of East Glacier Park village. There are quite some industries here as well as a quaint little town.
On the other side of East Glacier Park village, our train needs to descend the 2% decent down the East side of the Rockies into the plains of Montana.
First photo below shows our train coming out of the last tunnel before heading back into our "Visible" staging (Browning).
And that is a pictorial view of the layout. One day I hope to have a drawing of the layout for reference purposes.
