#fallen flags

“The Christmas Tree in the Great Hall at Chicago's Union Station features heralds from many different railroads. Although I counted only three active roads (Amtrak, Metra, and South Shore) plus two train names Amtrak still uses (Pere Marquette, Hiawatha).”

Chicago Union Station

December 9, 2019

So, I've been meaning to start this thread for awhile, and with the seemingly ensuing weeks I'll be spending at home, I figured why not finally now.

The layout doesn't have a name so for now I've decided it is unofficially "Anywhere America". It's more like "Anywhere Mid-America", but that didn't have the same ring to it, and I wasn't a fan of Midwest Mania. The layout is centered on the fictional town of DeSoto, which could be anywhere in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio. I chose this locale because I love fallen flag railroads and passenger operations. I imagine DeSoto is anywhere on a mainline to or from Chicago. The scenery is done specifically to be open ended, allowing me to run anything up to the modern era, though my target time frame is from the late 50s to the early 70s.

The layout is officially 3'4" x 7' and is 3/4" plywood with 2" foam board on top as a scenic base. The plywood currently rests on two temporary horses, which I hope to upgrade to actual legs. Track is n-scale Kato unitrack with DC power and a dual cab tech-II. The layout has evolved throughout the process and its safe to say I would not repeat some of the steps if I were starting over today. Wiring is done but not finalized, and some day the layout will switch to DCC, but for my purposes it isn't necessary nor feasible at the moment.

A little backstory - as a young kid my dad introduced me to the hobby with HO scale trains, but a basement renovation and growing school life relegated the trains to storage. After dusting the trains off years later in high school, I started thinking about a layout to run trains and test me modeling ability. HO scale wasn't feasible, so I asked for an n-scale Kato starter set for Christmas, and started from there. I combed the internet for inspiration and found Calvinwood Crossing, http://geep40.blogspot.com/, a great blog that showed me what I could hope to achieve in my small space. My initial trackplan mirrored Calvinwood Crossing closely, and I used AnyRail to put it together. I ordered the track and started the layout, but 5 years, a high school and college graduation later, I am only now finding the time at home necessary to finally progress and hopefully finish the layout. The trackplan has changed to make a more prototypical look and feel to the layout, and to provide an outlet for expansion if possible. I always seem to think beyond the space I have! I am hoping this blog will not only motivate me to model to the best of my ability but also to pick up on new ideas and techniques from others.

This looks like a road.

And it is.

But is wasn’t just any road.

CCAL is an exceedingly rare container. Upon being acquired by CP Ships, CCAL was not operated as a unique brand.

On 31 August 2000 a deal was closed between A/S Thor Dahl and CP Ships allowing CP to buy Christensen Canadian African Lines (CCAL). CCAL operated at this time a 21 day multi-purpose service between Eastern Canada, Great Lakes and South Africa, using three "Astrakhan" type vessels. CCAL had provided uninterrupted service for more than 50 years. CP Ships integrated CCAL into its Americana Ships division and merged it into the Lykes Lines brand.

Text from Wikipedia. First container image by Pierre Barbe. Second container image by Len Rogers, shot in the UK, 2002; thanks to Hank Suderman of Hank's Truck Pictures.

XCL (Cross Country Container Leasing) was a British lessor. It was bought out by Textainer in the 1980s.