Chicago, Milwaukee, St.Paul, and Pacific - Madison Division - West End - N Scale

[altohorn25]

I've had a few people ask me to do a video overview of my N Scale Milwaukee Road layout, so I finally shot a quick video this morning.

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This is the Chicago, Milwaukee, St.Paul, and Pacific Madison Division, West End.  The layout runs from Madison, WI to Prairie du Chien, WI and is set in 1952.  It utilizes Atlas code 80 flex track and Peco insulfrog turnouts (if I were to do it again, I would use Atlas code 55.....it was just starting to come into use when I built this layout about 15 years ago).  It is powered by a Digitrax DCC system and wireless throttles.  It is set up for operations using train orders and car cards/waybills.  We run 15 trains in a typical 4 hour session and the layout can accomodate 3 operators running at one time and a dispatcher sitting in the other room.

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The towns are protoypical and in the correct order on the layout, however, the track layout in each town is not prototypical.  Due to selective compression, some towns on the line were omitted and one crossing of the Wisconsin River was also omitted.

Because this is 1952, there are no radios for the operators.  Communication with the dispatcher is via telephone call boxes at each town.

Here are a couple of the photos of the dispatcher panel so you can get an idea of how the layout looks.  The operator is always looking south when looking at the layout.

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There is a lot of work yet to do, but this gives you an idea of where things are at.

[Bryn]

Hi Nate,

Thanks for taking the time to upload the video introduction, the layout design flows well and I'm looking forward to seeing this progress.

[sd45elect2000]

I think 1952 is too soon for the nudist camp at Mazomanie....

[altohorn25]

I think 1952 is too soon for the nudist camp at Mazomanie....

Well played sir.... 

[sd45elect2000]

I spent a lot of time on that line segment back in the WICT days. I know the area well. I actually lived Muscoda and Spring Green for a bit.

[Specter3]

The layout is nice and seems to be put together well. So with the operations you have run so far, has it led you to either wish you had done something different or torn something out and redid it to aleviate a problem? Just wondering as you seem to have made sure to be operations capable very early on in the build.

[altohorn25]

The layout is nice and seems to be put together well. So with the operations you have run so far, has it led you to either wish you had done something different or torn something out and redid it to aleviate a problem? Just wondering as you seem to have made sure to be operations capable very early on in the build.

As I said in the video, I'm going to re-do the Prairie du Chien staging yard to add capacity.  The way I have the tracks fanned out is a waste of space and I think I can make the yard sidings longer if I start with the leads back before the final curve.

An alteration that I did make to the layout after running it with guys a few times was the addition of another passing siding in Mazomanie.  We found that with cars being dropped off by passing freights for the local that originates in that town, we needed another passing siding to free up the congestion that those extra cars were causing.  It works much better now with the additional track.

That's really it.  The layout was designed for operations from the get-go and I'm glad most of the original plan worked as intended.

[milw12]

Nate, thanks for sharing this- I've been curious about your layout for a while now after seeing your pictures and videos in the weekend threads. It's a very well thought out layout and I bet that operations are a good time. Great stuff!

Lucas

[MILWprairie]

1952 is an interesting time period for the line due to passenger service, which included:

Eastbound train number 11, the Sioux, Chicago to Canton, SD, which included a sleeping car.

Westbound train number 22, the Sioux, Canton, SD to Chicago.

Mixed train 32, Marquette, IA to Madison with branch-combine.

Mixed train 33, Madison to Marquette, IA.

Mixed train 32/33 ran until 1955, the Sioux until 1960.

[altohorn25]

1952 is an interesting time period for the line due to passenger service, which included:

Eastbound train number 11, the Sioux, Chicago to Canton, SD, which included a sleeping car.

Westbound train number 22, the Sioux, Canton, SD to Chicago.

Mixed train 32, Marquette, IA to Madison with branch-combine.

Mixed train 33, Madison to Marquette, IA.

Mixed train 32/33 ran until 1955, the Sioux until 1960.

Yup - I run both the eastbound and westbound Sioux during an ops session.