Cheshire Railway Modellers

On-line Model Railway Club

Members' Layouts - James Stanford

James is an overseas member, based in Australia.

Chicago & South Forest Terminal (HO)

 
The C&SFT RR is an fictional industrial switching railroad located between the IHB and EJ&E mainlines near the Illinois / Indiana state line, mostly within the Chicago Switching District. The layout has about 60 freight cars, and 13 locos, some of which are 'dummy' (unpowered) locos.
 
The C&SFT has connections with the EJ&E, Chessie and N&W via Van Loon, Indiana, and with Chessie, UP, SOO / CP and IHB via Dolton Junction, Illinois. Conrail, Chessie, MWSL and CN trains can arrive on the C&SFT via Midwest Junction.
 
The layout can have up to 8 operators - 3 trains crews of 2 people each, 1 general yardmaster / despatcher, and one roving yardmaster. The layout is operated using DCC, and has about 14 industries which can be switched. The layout is HO scale and requires a space of 21 x 9.5 feet, allowing for aisles for operator access. As the layout is point to point, and a switching layout, trains that are run are mainly transfer runs and local freights in and out of the interchange yard from connecting railroads which are then classified and sorted by a yard switcher, and local switching jobs and branch locals. A full length operating session with 2 train crews takes about 3 to 4 hours.
 
The layout employs 3 active staging areas (which means that train arriving at any of the staging areas might be switched by an available switcher in readiness for another run over the layout).

Some videos of the layout are available on YouTube (click here to view).
 
For more information on the layout please visit the C&SFT website.
 

Photos by the author: From the top, [1] SW1500 #319 switches the Illinois Mineral Company limestone spur at Midwest Junction. [2] Three cars of food products for Midwest Foods, Calumet South. These cars originated on the Mosquito Pass RR, and were virtually interchanged to arrive at the C&SFT via IHB's Blue Island yard. Here, #1519 starts to move them from the Interchange Yard to Midwest Foods. [3] An MWSL GP9 and remotored FT-A haul a mixed freight past the C&SFT Interchange Yard. The MWSL (Mid West Short Line) RR uses trackage rights over the C&SFT between Midwest Junction and the B&OCT's Barr yard. [4] The Calumet South Loop allows trains to pass each other. It is the only passing siding on the C&SFT. Here EJ&E train Extra 252 and an IHB train 816 pass each other. [5] An AT&SF RR loco, having just arrived with a transfer from Galesburg via Midwest Junction, gets a refill of fuel.