Planning Phase

Before committing to building a layout, the planning phase is the most important.

I am into realistic operations, since I like to run trains with a purpose, and I strongly believe in point-to-point track plans that require a proper planning phase.

I usually draw my own track plans, but after reading an article in October 2022 Railroad Model Craftsman issue about Tom Johnson’s Cass County Railroad HO scale layout, I ended up shattering two firm points of my modeling: N scale and original track plans.

Therefore, I opted to switch to HO scale and adapt Cass County’s track plan to the railroad and region I chose, rural north-central Montana.

The image above (source: American Rails website) shows the Burlington Northern rail network map as it appeared in 1988, which is close enough to my 1985 setting. Another Burlington Northern network map from 1983 shows the same information for the selected area.

I chose to model a short 50-mile branch line while slightly altering the geography and history. In place of Power, on the line between Shelby and Great Falls, I am modeling the fictional town of Maple Hollow, where the Buffalo Creek & Western interchanges with Burlington Northern.

The shortline begins in Maple Hollow, and before reaching its western terminus in Choteau, it splits at Eastham Junction to run south to Fairfield.

The modeled portion of the layout focuses on Maple Hollow and the three elevators that serve the town. See the trackplan for more details.