A sketch of the proposed logo
Layout Planning
Having sat on both sides of the miniature railroad fence: scale model vs. toy, I can now appreciate what both have to offer. Part of the fun of scale model railroading is taking the time to develop a story or theme for the layout. Many modelers, like myself, go for planning a layout based on a totally fictitious 'history' while others like to replicate a prototype railroad. Here's how I view the two differing approaches: Scale modeling is the equivalent of sitting down in a comfy chair and slowly sipping a fine glass of wine. Playing with toy trains is kinda like gulping down a coke. Both are fun in their own way, just different.
In 1983, while living in the NCO barracks at
Zweibrücken AB, I began to build a small 20” (50.8cm) x 5’(1.52m) HOn3 switching layout. The layout base, a few buildings, and some track work were all that was ever completed. Project railroads which appeared in Model Railroader magazine were the inspiration for the layout which was finally built. Reading John Olson’s series “Building A Model Railroad With Personality” got me to
thinking about a larger layout, but it was Malcolm Furlow’s “Building The San
Juan Central” that pushed me over the edge. After getting married in late 1983 and moving into a modest apartment the switching layout got canned as the urge to build something a little more substantial took hold.
Before building the layout a skeleton background story of the S&TRV was developed incorporating places and names that meant something to me. Then a map was drawn of the fictitious area the railroad
was to serve.
The layout would be callled the 'Shawano and Twin River Valley Railroad'. Shawano (SHAW-no) is a town in northern Wisconsin where my parents had a summer place for many years. The Twin River Valley part just sounded neat so I stuck with it. The fictional locale was never really certain, but as my interest in narrow gauge deepened it looked as if Colorado would be the setting. Writing a fake 'history' was a nice way to pass the time and helped in
giving a sense of purpose to the layout. The following is the fictitious raison d'être for my layout (you can skip it if you want, but this was the kind of stuff the hobby press expounded upon a lot back in the day):
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"The Shawano and Twin River Valley Railroad
The railroad had its beginnings with the founding of the Twin River Valley Lumber Company in 1870. Vast regions of timber were to be found in the hills west of Lake Smiley. The town of Shawano had, by 1888, become a prosperous town of nearly 1,000 hearty souls. As the town grew so did the need for lumber. Farmers settling in the Twin River Valley fed that need ever more. In 1888 the owners of the Twin River Lumber Co., in answer to the growing need for lumber, decided to lay tracks in 3’ gauge into the hills to work the stands of forest. And thus the Twin River Valley Lumber Co. Railroad was the first railroad in the valley.
By 1892 the town fathers of Shawano had woken up to the realities of the situation and decided the valley required a railroad to serve its ever growing needs. By now the valley had seen not only the growth of the town of Selters (at the confluence of the Wolf and Little Wolf Rivers and the terminus of the Twin River Valley Lumber Co. RR) but the growth in tourist trade to the town of Maxsain by the shores of Wind Lake. Tourists flocked to the lake lured by its promises of healing thermal baths, idyllic scenery, and good hunting. And so, in May 1892 the city council let the voters decide. In overwhelming concurrence they voted to let the railroad in. Bonds were on sale almost immediately – having been printed in advance by a farsighted member of the city council.
The first rails of the standard gauge Shawano Shortline Railroad were laid in 1892. The town of Selters was reached in March of ’93; work on the line having been hampered by a particularly harsh winter and a dry spell in funds. The railroad grew in fits and spurts over the next few years reaching only as far as Middlebrook by 1896. In 1898 that changed with the discovery of zinc deposits on the south face of Lookout Mountain. A geology teacher, one Morris Adlekopf by name had been camping on the eastern slopes of Lookout Mountain when his horse ran off spooked by a grass snake. Old Morris went looking for hiss less than trusty steed and found himself on the natural cutout on the south face of the mountain. While there he noticed some promising rocks (not just anyone can spot a promising rock – Old Morris was good!). After gathering some samples and taking them to the assayer in Milwaukee, his hunch had proven correct. There was zinc in Lookout Mountain. Morris quit his teaching job, returned to the mountain and laid his claim on The Lost Horse Mine.
The Shawano Shortline RR board of Trustees, wanting to get in on a good thing, began pronto to scarf-up some money and lay tracks for Lookout Mountain. The steepest grades of the railroad are on the approaches to the mine. By 1899 the mining town of Victorville had sprung up along the south slope.
Up to now the railroad had been going ever westward, with a southward bend at Middlebrook to reach Lookout Mountain. In 1900 the railroad closed the loop and continued the line from Victorville east to Canona and finally back into Shawano. That same year the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul RR pressed its way into Shawano from the south. Now the Shawano Shortline RR had an interchange and a ready way to ship the products of the Valley to the outside world.
1905 was an interesting year for the Shawano Shortline. The chairman of the Board, one Rudolph Pressluft III, who had made a bundle in the stockyard business down Chicago-way, had decided to ‘retire’ to Wisconsin. Retiring for him meant buying out a quaint little railroad in the tourist region of Shawano. You guessed it – the Shawano Shortline. He then set his sights on the Twin River Valley Lumber Co. However, Grover Broadleaf, primary shareholder of the lumber company was not about to sell out. But Randy Pressluft the Third wasn’t about to quit. With rhetoric to talk the fur jacket off of an Eskimo in winter, he convinced the board of directors of the lumber company that they were losing money operating their own railroad. Why, if the railroad were owned by someone else, they needn’t worry about maintenance costs, payrolls, strikes and all the other headaches that go along with owning a railroad. After all, he maintained, it would be a lot easier for them to rent the use of the railroad. Before you could take a slug of Jack Daniels, belch and say ‘’scuse me" – the Twin River Valley Lumber Company had been divested of its narrow gauge. It was incorporated into the Shawano Shortline and the name changed to the Shawano and Twin River Valley Railroad
In 1908 Grover Broadleaf passed on and Randolph Pressluft III managed to buy out the lumber company. His dream of acquiring the Lost Horse Mining Co. and becoming the undisputed financial King of the Valley never materialized as Randy P. No. 3 passed away in 1910 of a heart attack while trying to convince Morris Adlekopf to sell out.
The next 15 years saw a decline in business. The lumber in the region was becoming more sparse. The Lost Horse mine was nearing the end of its productivity as the vein was being worked out. The tourist trade was lured away by other slightly less crowded areas. The only industry left to support was the farming trade, and with the advent of better roads and motor vehicles much of that trade was being lost as well."
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After giving the railroad a purpose, layout planning was the next phase. There were some very specific goals in mind. It had to have a:
- mine
- logging operation
- sawmill
- depot
- town
- farm
- mountains
- river
valley
- wooden trestle
- lots of switching possibility
- and be photogenic
- and
all in narrow gauge.
Not much huh? The
drawings below show the initial plan with appended notes and a cleaned up version of the plan.
A full size paper template of the layout was made but it convinced me that even though this design was small it would still be
too big for the apartment.
