Hashing out a Freelance Road

[Matthew Roberts]

Squirrelhunter, I've been looking at possibilities like that, too. I'm thinking a SLC-Port Lavaca line, with a few branches to Midland, Wichita, KS (via Abilene and Ft. Worth, TX), and Houston might be the ticket. Especially if I wanted to go relatively modern (post-Staggers). I've always thought that lash-ups of third-gen EMDs look quite sharp.

[squirrelhunter]

Do you mind if I ask if you have any particular reason for choosing Port Lavaca as your southern terminus?

It was a major port, but may railroads in the early part of the railroad era in Texas were built out from Galveston.

The main issue I see for such a line (Port Lavaca to Colorado or New Mexico) is that once it progressed much beyond the Hill Country, it would find itself in a traffic wasteland until it could get to the area north of San Angelo and the farming areas of the panhandle. As time goes on, such a line would suffer even more as the traffic from small towns dried up.

The example of decline that comes to mind is the Muskogee roads, which were down to minimal service just before the MP takeover because their traffic had left for trucks. I think if they had remained independent, the only lines that would have been viable into the 1980's were Tulsa-Ft. Smith and Muskogee-Denison. But I digress.

On the systems you have described you tend to have round about branches to North Texas and Oklahoma that are either longer than competitors, serve markets that may not have much traffic between them or have direct parallel competitors (I am mainly thinking of the San Angelo/Abilene to D/FW lines, where they would a third line vs MP and ATSF).

I am not trying to shoot all your ideas down, just trying to provide some constructive criticism. I think what you are trying to do is very interesting. The one major gap in the Texas RR network that was never built is between the Permian Basin and the Central Hill Country, like from San Angelo to Austin. There were planned RR's fro this area, but they were never built.

I would offer some criteria for route selection for a free lance road-
1. Look for corridors with one railroad where several were planned. These are places a new line might make it.
2. Look where traffic originates from today. If your line served these points, even with competitors there is a better chance of its survival to the modern day than it served areas that were once industrially powerful.
3. Make the initial plan compact as possible. Think about the core systems that you really want to have before drawing branch lines all over the map. Most real railroads have a couple of core lines that carry much of their business. Their branches tended to be more marginal even if they reached larger cities because they were off the main trunk.

[Matthew Roberts]

I guess I mainly chose Port Lavaca because of its closeness to the ghost town of Indianola, and how it could have been another Galveston or Houston. Also, the route of Austin-Victoria-Port Lavaca is the shortest route between Austin and the Gulf Coast, and I thought that might have some kind of significance.

Even the GCSF line Galveston-Lubbock goes through this same "void" between Temple and Coleman, as long as it has enough traffic on either end to justify the line, why does it matter? Besides, Brady has some manufacturing (so does San Angelo) as well as mineral sands and limestone.

Its a process of finding the best route. l guess I want a less roundabout way to Kansas.

That gap's what I am trying to fill. I think everyone can learn the no branches to major cities lesson from the R.I.

[wm3798]

Build your line as if it were the last one to connect Austin and the gulf.  It would have a shorter, high speed route, but less on-line traffic since the older lines got there first.  Your line would make it's money on bridge traffic connecting from the trunk line to your seaport.

Landmarks would be concrete and steel, stations late Victorian if victorian at all, and the right of way wide and straight.

That's the story of the Connellsville line and the Cumberland extension on the WM.  High speed, fast money, little if any on-line business.  Along the same lines, logically it would survive into the 70's when consolidations began the elimination of duplicate trackage.

Lee

[Matthew Roberts]

As much as I am a fan of the WM, Lee, I'd like to have a line that survived the consolidations of the 1970s. I am basing this off of a route that partially already exists, the old Austin and Northwestern from Austin to Llano. There were vaporous plans to extend it to at least San Angelo at one time, what if they had happened, and also connected to a line from Port Lavaca? Since the two eras I am looking to model are either the 1950s-early 1960s (Fs, GPs, RSs, Centuries, etc.) or the mid 1970s (GP35s, GP40s, SD40s, etc.)

Although I like some of the rest of your plan.

[wm3798]

Easy, make your line the one that survived!  That's what CSX shoulda done!
The Western Pacific would be a good example... the company's gone, but the railroad endures.

Lee

[Matthew Roberts]

Makes a lot of sense, Lee.

[Iain]

Look at Clinchfield for inspiration.  They built late, over-engineered (for the time) their right-of-way, and every mile of the original railroad is still in use without major modifications. 

[Matthew Roberts]

Thanks, Iain. I had thought about that, but didn't really see the parallel between such a big coal hauler, and a (Mid-)Western freelance road.

[Matthew Roberts]

So after y'all's input, I've come up with a more stream-lined railroad.

Mainline: Denver-Pueblo-La Junta-Boise City-Amarillo-Lubbock-Big Spring-San Angelo-Austin-Lockhart-Victoria-Port Lavaca, with...
Branches: Lubbock-Quanah-Lawton-Oklahoma City, Sterling City-Midland, Presidio-Alpine-Ft. Stockton-San Angelo-Brownwood-Dublin-Fort Worth, Austin-Giddings-Houston, and Victoria-Refugio-Corpus Christi.

 ;D ;D ;D

[squirrelhunter]

I really like the Lubbock to Oklahoma City line via Quannah. It is a staright route that along with the rest of your line to the west opens up service on a Oklahoma City-Denver-West Coast routing. The Ft. Worth to Presedio line presents possibilites for bridge traffic from roads like the Fisco or MKT that didn't reach the border on their own.

Your road would run through some cool and sceneic country in Texas. I think using the A&NW for ideas is good, since they were a line with larger aspirations.

If I remmber correctly, one of your reasons for freelancing was to get a mix of the bigger power like T&P style 2-10-4's with the smaller 4-6-0's and 2-8-0's like the I-GN and St.L B &M ran. I think you would have hit it spot on, with grades on the Central Texas and Colorado portions of the line but enough flat land to justify the presence of smaller types.

One reason why I am partial to freelancing an independent St.L B &M is that it's flat profile lends itself to the use of big flatland engines such as 4-8-2's. Missouri Pacific never sent anything bigger than one of their pre USRA 2-8-2's or pre WW I 4-8-2's. But MP was essentially a relatively low speed railroad even with the flat profile, with passenger speeds topping out at 60 and freight at 50.

Bump speeds up to the 70 psgr/60 frt range, and something like a Frisco 4300 or MoPac 5335 4-8-2 becomes more appropriate.

[Matthew Roberts]

O.K., good news for the Lubbock-OK City line. And the Fort Worth to Presidio line would be what in the real world is the ex-ATSF, ex-KCM&O line that's now operated by Texas Pacifico west of San Angelo and the Fort Worth & Western east of Brownwood, with the FW&W having much higher traffic loads.

If I remember right, one of the biggest reasons the A&NW didn't expand west was that it became just another branchline when purchased by the Houston & Texas Central.

Yes, that was  a big reason. I always thought it odd that MoP had such large power (i.e. 2-10-2s, 4-8-4s, 4-8-2s, heavy 4-6-2s) on their home system (original MoP and StLIM&S) and so did the T&P (2-10-4s, 2-10-2s, 4-8-2s), yet by the end of the steam era, the heaviest power on the the I-GN and the StLB&M were some home road heavy 4-6-2s and 2-8-2s, along with a few remaining I-GN 2-8-4s.

Although, if you look at it, a lot of the Texas roads, besides the SP, T&P, KCS and the ATSF had either smaller or equivalent size power, I mean the Katy, which was the MoP's major rival by the transition-era, had even lighter 2-8-2s and 4-6-2s as it's top power for its entire system. Only the SP (T&NO and SLSW), T&P, KCS, and ATSF operated that large of power, T&NO and T&P because of the grades around the Davis Mountains towards El Paso, KCS (those Super Power 2-10-4s) because of grades in Arkansas, and ATSF because of the big trains it ran through the Panhandle. Did any other lines have big power? FW&D or Frisco maybe? Just thinking out loud here...

[Denver Road Doug]

One thing to consider if you are looking at post-1970, is to plunk down a coal-burning power plant just about anywhere on the line south of Amarillo.  Then you can justify bigger power.  You could go small like the power plant in Oklaunion north of Wichita Falls, (probably a 1-2 train per week affair) or go closer to a larger area like Austin with a big honkin' unit that pulls multiple trains though per day.

Prior to the 70's, big power would still be needed to haul rock trains and unit ballast trains from the numerous quarries in the Austin and/or DFW area.

[Matthew Roberts]

Thanks Doug. I hadn't thought of that either. I just don't know if on my layout that will model the AT&N, that there'll be space to fit a unit coal train.

And I definitely know about aggregates in the Austin area, that's the main job of the ex-A&NW line in town.

[Denver Road Doug]

Well, it sounds like a great concept to me.  Basically a similar line to the FW&D/C&S, only veering west to Austin and Port Lavaca instead of Houston/Galveston.  You could even morph some of their operations/rosters with T&P/MoPac practices if you needed to.

BTW, regarding the coal, you wouldn't have to make it a unit coal train either.  A cut of cars on a manifest freight could feed a smaller plant.  Also, some cement plants accept coal for power. (at least, they do now)