Well, I'm doing it...after years of lurking on Railwire, I'm biting the bullet and sharing. So... hello from Anchorage, Alaska!
I was a die-hard N Scaler since the 4th grade (with the occasional dipping into HON3, but that's another story) in the middle of building a layout depicting my local Alaska Railroad after years of modeling the Wisconsin Central. And then it happened, the folks at Model Railroader posted a video of Walthers Proto HO scale WC SD45 online. Before long, goodbye unfinished, stalled out Alaska Railroad layout, hello new scale, new layout, new everything except for my favorite subject, the Wisconsin Central in northern Wisconsin.
The prototype: CNW originally laid track from their Minneapolis-Chicago mainline north to Superior, branching off at Trego, WI to Ashland, WI on Lake Superior. In the late 70's CNW abandoned the northernmost end of this line from Hayward to Ashland. Hayward held two shippers that were profitable, Johnson Timber Corp., & Louisiana Pacific's OSB Plant, both of which take advantage of local forests for their raw material. After the formation of the Wisconsin Central and subsequent further abandonments by UP after the CNW merger, this 5-mile orphaned branch was purchased by the WC. Today these two industries are switched by the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad as part of their non-tourist business, interchanging with the CN. Grrrrrr, the evil CN who sent to scrap my beloved SD45s.
Jump to my version of this branch my 50% prototypical, 50% proto-freelanced Hayward Junction. So why would I choose an obscure 5 mile section of track that is over 2500 miles from home on a fallen flag you might ask?
Well, familiarity. I grew up in Illinois and every summer growing up my family would spend a couple weeks at a lakeside cabin north of Hayward, not far from the old right-a-way. I have vague memories of still seeing track in Cable, WI, which is north of Hayward and wished trains still ran. And modeling pulpwood industries gives me a chance to do something I love-chopping twigs and branches from my backyard into 8' long HO scale logs for hours upon hours to fill pulpwood gondolas. Living in Alaska, we benefit from having heated garages. And since my Tacoma won't fit in my low ceiling garage, I walled in a 8' by 19' studio/train room. The studio portion for my faltering side-gig as a fine artist. The layout an around the wall shelf type with a lift-out in front of the door. North is always to the right as you face the track. The layout (relatively) closely follows the WC junction with the Superior-Neenah main to the LP plant. I skipped modeling Johnson Timber due to space considerations. The real life track ends there at LP but I re-laid it north into town, adding the Northland Co-op Elevator back in as a track served industry, and created a new customer in the Ocean Spray Hayward Cranberry Processing Plant (lots of cranberries are grown in the area and in Wisconsin). Track continues north into my staging yard, which I located in Ashland on Lake Superior for really one and reason only-mid-way thru track laying I got an itch and built a Great Lakes ore boat and needed somewhere to dock it. So out came a yard track and a layer of foam, in goes Lake Superior and my yet to be name ore carrier. Ashland has a sort of multi-purpose siding that I originally intended as another pulpwood siding and a small MOW spur.
I leave this as the introduction. Below are a quick CADed-up track plan along with some photos.
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