First Post.

Thanks for joining me as I begin to document the construction on my new model railroad. After spending the last 20 years collecting and trying to model the Camas Prairie of Northern Idaho, I'm changing my focus to Northern Wyoming and Southeastern Montana.

The reason for the change? Now that I have the space, I wanted a model railroad built for mainline operation. The Camas Prairie was a very charming branchline in a forested, mountainous area that features 3% grades and giant trestles. While I never had the space to model that part, the switching layout I built based on Lewiston, ID satisfied my operating interests. Like many others, it was heavily influenced by my friend Jim Senese in Claremore, OK - albeit, on a much smaller scale.

Friends operating my Lewiston layout.

As I see it today, the new railroad will run from my home town of Sheridan, WY north and west to Laurel, MT. Sheridan to Huntington, MT was owned by the CB&Q. From Huntington to Laurel, the CB&Q had trackage rights over the Northern Pacific mainline.

Laurel has a large classification yard, roundhouse, icing facilities, grain elevators and a small oil refinery. The NP continues west from Laurel to Washington and the coast. South or Laurel is the CB&Q's line to Casper and Denver through Wind River Canyon. The Great Northern connection to Great Falls was at the east end of the Laurel yard at Mossmain. There were also a handful of branchline jobs that ran out of Laurel like Redlodge and Shepherd.

16 miles or so east of Laurel is the commercial center of this part of Montana, Billings. Besides the typical warehouses and other businesses found throughout the intermountain west, Billings features a sugar factory, two large oil refineries, a coal fired power plant, a flour mill, grain elevators and meat packing. There is also a regional passenger station, a small classification yard, a roundhouse and engine service facilities. The Yellowstone river bisects Billings from the industrial East Billings.

From Laurel to East Billings is double track and governed by Rules 251-254 for directional running, according to the time table. East Billings to Huntley is CTC territory.

Billings and Laurel would make an interesting layout in themselves with plenty of industrial switching and yard operations. The 16 miles between is many times more than most model railroads can accommodate. However, I wanted a significant piece of dark territory that can be dispatched by Timetable/Train Order.

I decided to add the CB&Q between Huntley and my home town of Sheridan, Wyoming. This line wasn't signaled until the 1980s and offers operating interest as a connection to railroads south and east of Laurel.