Accessibility:
Ground floor of the house. There are three seated position with the track at 30" and 54".
Layout Description:
The Howard Branch of the Santa Fe is a 1952 prototype inspired switching layout. Basics: 4 operators, 14x20’, HO, Code 83, 70, and 55, 2 decks, car cards, 148 turnouts, NCE DCC, 25 staging tracks, all track operational, 60% sceniced.
Crew:4 - Operators
Operations Scheme:
The lower deck is the town of Emporia, KS, with a division yard, livestock feeding station, and around the main industries. Steve serves as Staging Manager bringing trains from staging to yard limits of Emporia where he turns it over to the Yard Master who coordinates the operations on the lower deck. When switching has completed, the Yard Master leaves the train at the yard limits for the Staging Manager to put away. There are two switchers in Emporia. The Local Switcher serves the industries of Emporia. The Yard Switcher works with the Yard Master to serve the trains that come through. All three operators work from desk chairs.
At the east end of Emporia is NR Jct. where the Howard branch leaves the main and takes an around-the-room behind-the-scenes ramp to the upper deck where it travels through Eureka and Climax ending in Moline and a junction with the south Kansas line of the Santa Fe. The Howard Branch operator is in dark territory with no opposing traffic. He switches the towns, swaps cars at the Moline Interchange, and returns to Emporia.
There are several trains that the Local Switcher or Howard Operator run as needed. The Mop serves Eureka on their own line with a 4-car turn. Mainline trains and a rock train run from Moline staging through Moline, working the interchange. A Stock train and an inspection train are also available.
Steve has some unusual amenities. All uncoupler are home made electrical some with lazer indicators. Many turnouts are controlled with 556 ICs and diode matrices. Steel is used to support the upper deck. 603 and 402 LEDs are widely used in scenery.
Steve is MMR 389 and Master Santa Fe Modeler #5. He has consulted with Broadway Limited, Rapido, ClassOneModelWorks, and Lionel on Santa Fe models. He authored Santa Fe Livestock Operations for the Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society.
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