# Spokane Southern Railroad



## Guest (Jan 3, 2016)

I figured I would start a thread on my HO model railroad, the Spokane Southern. 

Below is a system schematic of the railroad, its connections with the outside world, and the portion that I actually model. Some of the layout specifics are also listed. I handed out this info sheet during the April NMRA Dupage Division tour. 









*
Spokane Southern History*

In 1904, a famous trust busting case called the "Northern Securities Co. v. United States (1904) was heard by the Supreme Court, which voted 5 to 4 to dissolve the Northern Securities Co. You can read the specifics about this court case here at:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...Co._v._United_States

However, the "Trust Buster", Theodore Roosevelt, did not think that this went far enough. There was concern within the Roosevelt administration about two items. The empire of James J. Hill and the financial house of J.P Morgan had become way too powerful, and even though the Northern Securities Co. was dissolved, it was felt that this did not go far enough to reign them in. There was also a large amount of concern that if railroad building west of Chicago was left unchecked, severe overbuilding, and weakened financial performance of the western railroads would result, which was becoming the case east of Chicago.

Therefore, various governmental agencies, notably the Department of Justice, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Securities and Exchange (which was formed after the financial panic of 1907) started in 1908 to "strongarm" western railroads to form alliances that offered single line service from Chicago westward. 

Out of this movement resulted in the following alliances:

Great Northern utilized Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy to reach Chicago. Northern Pacific utilized the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific to reach Chicago. Both roads had to channel 10% of their Minneapolis / St. Paul traffic minimum to the Chicago and North Western. The Milwaukee Road and the C&NW were "encouraged" to rationalize their trackage in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and in any other area it made sense to make both companies stronger. 

The Milwaukee Road, as the CMStP&P became known, had its eyes of future expansion westward to the pacific coast. However, the Roosevelt administration, with the support of Congress, wanted to forstall the development of a third railroad in the Pacific Northwest. So, as part of the alliance forged between the Northern Pacific and the Milwaukee Road, the Milwaukee road built their line only as far west as Terry, MT. This allowed for interchange of Milwaukee traffic in the Twin Cities, as well as in Terry. The Milwaukee Road got a share of the long haul traffic that they interchanged in Terry in return for conveying the property acquired in the Pacific Northwest to the Northern Pacific. 

This arrangement peaked the interest of James Hill, who was not happy about this arrangement, and felt that the resulting line across Montana, Idaho, and Washington to Puget Sound would enrich the fortunes of his chief competitor. There were, however, synergies that could be mutually beneficial for both the Great Northern, and Northern Pacific, and out of this cooperation, the Spokane Southern was born.

The Milwaukee Road right of way, which was acquired but not built out, was transferred to a jointly held company, the Spokane Southern Railroad Co. 

The Spokane Southern ended up running the bulk of the Northern Pacific traffic that went through to the Puget Sound area, allowing for a shorter route that bypassed Spokane for freight moves, and kept the railroad from having to "go southwest, and turn right" to get to Puget Sound. Northern Pacific road power is utilized on all these trains, in addition to Northern Pacific waycars. 

The Great Northern received the Northern Pacific route through Sandpoint ID, and a preferred routing into Spokane from the east. The Great Northern received exclusive rights to freight traffic south from Craig CO to South Spokane, WA. From there, any traffic heading westward was bid on for the haulage to the west, with some of the traffic going across the GN, and some going across the Spokane Southern to tie in to the NP at Cle Elum. 

In addition, in order for the Union Pacific to get something out of all this, since Harriman didn't want to be left out, the line north from the UPRR main in Wyoming to Twin Falls ID, and Butte, MT was also conveyed to the Spokane Southern, as was the UPRR's share of the Spokane International in return for an equity stake in the Spokane Southern. 

In order for the Rio Grande to get something out of all of this, as they were the outlier that could perish in this consolidation, a line was built south by the Spokane Southern to Craig, CO, where it tied into the D&RGW. 

Provided I have not bored the participants to tears with my revisionist history, my next installment will start delving into the relationship of the Spokane Southern and the Alberta Pacific, who interchange a lot of traffic at Osoyoos BC, Canada and Oroville WA, USA due to the Western Canada Trade and Development Act of 1932. In addition, I'll give more details on the motive power and equipment that runs across the Spokane Southern. 

All this just to justify running Great Northern and Northern Pacific motive power and cabooses on the same railroad, without having to repaint them. 

Regards,

Jerry


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

Nice looking loco. What manufacturer made it?

Looking forward to more pictures.


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## Guest (Jan 3, 2016)

MtRR75 said:


> Nice looking loco. What manufacturer made it?
> 
> Looking forward to more pictures.


The loco is a Northern Pacific Class W-5 Mikado. The model was made by Key Limited around 1984 if I recall correctly. I have to put in a sound decoder, and weather it, but it is a very nice running model. I currently has a non-sound NCE decoder in her.

Regards, 
Jerry


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

No wonder that loco looks so good to me. It is out of my price range.


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## Steamfan77 (Jan 28, 2011)

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for the background and layout specifics. Looking forward to more updates.

Andy


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## Guest (Mar 20, 2016)

At 12:10PM on 20-Mar-1052, Extra NP6014A West was the first train over the Spokane Southern's line relocation. The project took six years to complete. 

The ceremony went by with little fanfare other than two railway officials trackside who popped open Shiner Bocks to celebrate the occasion after exchanging high fives. 

The two railway officials stayed trackside for the first Empire Builder, and the first two eastbound freights also.

The two eastbound freights averaged 2hours 30 minutes across the railroad. (50 minutes actual time at a 3:1 fast clock). 









Earlier in the day, the westbound Denver Empire Builder just cleared the junction at the line relocation. 



























Regards,
GNNPNUT


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## Guest (Apr 2, 2016)

Just a brief photo update. 

I will have my layout on tour for the NMRA Dupage Division April layout tours, so I have been trying to finish up a couple of areas ahead of the show. Here are a couple of shots of the trackwork in the new part of the layout, where it comes through from the old part of the layout. After the train goes over this section of track, it enters a 12 turn EASY HELIX LLC helix down to the lowest of my three levels. I still have some scenery to finish to the right of the track. 









Shot this earlier this week, it is one of my least favorite areas that I've had to work on. The layout is about 75" off the floor at this point, and I have about 10" from the top of the rails to the top of the ceiling, which at this point is a box around my main HVAC duct in this part of the house. The track is only 4" from the backdrop at this point. 









Finishing up the area shown above this weekend, so that I have about 15' of complete scenery in this area ahead of the show next Sunday. 

Looking forward to the layout tour coming thru. 

Regards, 
GNNPNUT


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

The layout looks super. Thanks for posting.


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## Guest (Apr 17, 2016)

My layout participated in a NMRA Dupage Division layout tour event on 10-April. Prior to the start of the event, I shot some overall photos of the layout area. I'll describe the layout from the west end of the railroad to the east. 

The west end staging yard consists of eight tracks, with two of the tracks reverse loops, the other six dead end. This area represents Spokane if you come in to the left, and Cle Elum if you come in to the right. 









The next photo shows the aisle on the left coming from the staging yard which sits on top of the basement underpinning. This area used to be crawl space until we dug out the crawl space as part of our house renovation. 

The top of the three levels on the right will be my South Spokane classification yard. All freight trains except for Northern Pacific thru freight trains will yard here. 









Each of the three levels wraps around the end and goes along the other main aisle. the track that goes across the aisle connects the new part of the layout with the old part of the layout in the original basement. 









All three levels are tied together with a 12 turn dual track helix. The outside track connects the three levels in this room together. The inside track spirals from the lowest level at 26" layout height, all the way up to 76" layout height that goes into the other room. 









Moving from the sub-basement to the original basement, the tracks from the other room come through a closet, and go past the steel mill. Then they turn 90 degrees, and head toward my sub-yard, Worley yard. 









The west end of Worley yard and the engine terminal are on the left, and the track on the right heads around to the east end staging. 









Turning 90 degrees, the tracks go past Worley yard, turn back on themselves, and back to the trackage across from the engine terminal. 

The east end staging yard is 8" below Worley yard. There are four tracks, and each track is about 30' average length.









The final photo shows the trackage that comes from the canyon area, and goes on a downgrade to turn and go into the east end staging. 









The final shot is of Train #28, the Salmon River, on its way to meet up with the Great Northern's Cascadian in Spokane. 









Regards,
GNNPNUT


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

That is great work!:smilie_daumenpos:
I wish I had all that space!


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## Guest (Apr 17, 2016)

flyboy2610 said:


> That is great work!:smilie_daumenpos:
> I wish I had all that space!


The wife and I decided that we want to retire in our current location, so when we decided to do a house renovation, which included an expansion of our family room, we let a Bobcat loose in the crawl space. 









regards, 
GNNPNUT


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

My brother-in-law did something similar to their house. He refers to it as "The Cave."
Our house has a full basement that used to be a downstairs apartment. One of the 'bedrooms' is my layout room, and the other is the man cave where I sit as I type this. Sometimes I think of taking over the entire finished area of the basement, but you know the saying: If mama ain't happy, ain't *nobody* happy!
Our youngest will graduate high school in two years, and then I'm sure he will be anxious to move out. Then Mama can have the upstairs all to herself, and the basement will be mine, all mine! (Evil laugh!!)


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## gnnpnut (Oct 19, 2016)

A few recent shots on the Spokane Southern. 

















Regards,
Jerry


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## gnnpnut (Oct 19, 2016)

*Moving a scene a little further to completion.*

With the snow flying here in the Chicago area, it is a good day to hibernate in the basement. I've been moving forward with scenery on my upper level just ahead of my helix. 

Some shots during construction.

This shot is from about one week ago.









After gluing down ground cover. 









Decided to finish the fascia too. It never ceases to amaze me how good black fascia looks. I'm going to redo my original part of the railroad with black fascia also. 

















Still have to finish the creek bed, and detail a bunch of stuff, but it is starting to come together. 

Regards,
Jerry


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

Nice! I like the blending of the ground cover that you've done. It looks very good.

Mark


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