Rails Unlimited - Fox Valley O Scalers

The Milwaukee Road - Northeast Iowa
Dubuque Division/Iowa & Dakota Division
Fox Valley O Scalers/Elgin, IL

Scale: O (2 Rail) and On3.

Size:

As of 1999: 30 x 72 feet/Triple Deck (2600 square feet) - 9 foot high ceilings.

As of 2009: Additional 1500 square feet with 10 foot ceilings

Min Radius: O scale Mainline 84” (Superelevated) / Staging 72”/Sidetrack 60” / Branchline Main 44”.

Grades: Mainline - less than 2% - Helper grade Marquette-Beulah 3 1/2%.

Period: Dual/1928 and 1954 Milwaukee Road / Club member’s private roads.

Layout Style: Walkaround with generous 4’ wide aisles average. Point to point for operation / oval to loop for continuous runs.

Benchwork: Open grid. Note laminated front plywood edge. Third level cantileverd without vertical supports. Layout edge has numerous 110v outlets with kill switches.
New addition a true mushroom track plan connecting existing levels.

Roadbed: Five ply 3/4” Plywood with Homasoate, gravel ballast from a prototype source.
Much spline roadbed used in new addition.

Turnouts: Mainline #12, #10 and #8. Sidetracks #8 and #7, all handlaid and fully spiked. Approximately 220 turnouts so far. Code 148, 125 and 100 rail sizes used.

Track: Ballasted flex and some handlaid superelevated curves. About 6500 linear feet installed to date.

Prototype Trackwork Features: Frequent use of double ended tracks, lap siding (Spechts Ferry), siding on trestle (Edmore), lap frog turnouts (Marquette engine terminal), interchange tracks (Ossian, Dubuque and Turkey River Junction.), wye with a diamond (Marquette), simple congested town (Waterville), narrow gauge crossing standard gauge (Beulah), long multiple use industry tracks, dual yard leads (Marquette), towns based on prototype plans (Dubuque, Reno, Lansing, Waukon Junction, Calmar, Marquette, Turkey River & Sewell) and use of full size buildings.

Scenery: 400 linear feet plaster-250 linear feet vegetation covered (weeds, trees & moss).
The scenery is composed of Hardshell, real rocks, plaster castings, ceiling tiles and foam.

Backdrop: Masonite and drywall/spray painted with clouds.

Lighting: Fluorescent, with incandescent in staging areas and some multiple deck areas.

Mainline Run: 1000 linear feet (Savanna to Mason City).

Passing Tracks: 14 each, ranging from 7 to 37 cars long.

Average Train Length: 20 cars or about 24’ in length. Maximum train length has been 40 cars.

Working Yard:

Marquette - 400 cars (52” high) with engine terminal.

Dubuque

IC 53 cars

Milwaukee 420 cars (under construction)

Calmar - 100 cars

Staging Yards:

Mason City/Austin - 600 cars (suspended from ceiling 88” high)

Savanna/LaCrescent - phase I - 800 cars (29” high, 90 foot tracks)

Nahant - 320 cars.

Control: NCE - DCC with some sound.

Click here for a printable PDF version of map. (legal size print)

TOWN DIRECTORY

Iowa & Dakota Division (Marquette to Mason City/Austin)

Beulah: Interchange with narrow gauge Iowa Eastern Railway - top of helper grade.
Waterville: Small agricultural community with a creamery.
East Ossian: Powerplant (Coal destination).
Ossian: Large community with Rock Island interchange, a foundry, circular coal shed, cold storage, small packing plant and machinery company.
Calmar Junction Yard: Creamery, elevator, door factory and pickle station.
Ridgeway: Small farm community with main street facing the tracks.
Conover: Junction with Decorah Line.
Fort Atkinson: Farm town on a curve - crossing Turkey River.
Jackson Junction: Junction with Iowa Division to Ceder Rapids and small farm town.
Lawler: Small farm town.

Branchline

Garber: Schnepf warehouse, agricultural town.
Osterdock: Brick plant.
Volga City: Small agricultural town.
West Union: Large agricultural town, creamery, RI interchange.

Dubuque Division (Savanna/Nahant to LaCrescent)

Green Island: Interchange Iowa Division
Dubuque: Large city with both IC and Milwaukee yards. CGW and CBQ are also present. Packing plant, trackage in the streets serving many large industries. Milwaukee Road has a 40 car freight house.
Edmore: Limestone processing into cement (Vertical kilns), button factory.
Spechts Ferry: Coal mine with 4-50’ loading tracks (One track is depressed for loading boxcars) & washer track. A ferry for carriages and autos.
Turkey River Junction: Interchange with interurban/branchline.
Turkey River: Small agricultural town.
Sewell: Coal & coke processor and narrow gauge interchange (Wilderness Lumber Company.)
South Marquette: River interchange - dock, warehouse, grain elevator.
Marquette: Major terminal/yard. Wye at passenger station. South Yard is the arrival/departure yard. West Yard is the classification yard. 80’ turntable in engine terminal. Madison division connection (staged).
Waukon Junction: Junction with branchline, coal & Oil Dealer.
Lansing: Mississippi River town with a button factory and a live fish car pickup
Reno, MN: Passing track, Coal & Oil Dealer.

Waukon Branch

Rossville: Tiny farm town.
Waukon: County Seat, farm town.
Rockton: Iron mine and quarry.

PRIMARY TRAFFIC

Meat (refers) - Eastbound loads - from Iowa and Minnesota.
Coal - online mines, moving South, North and West.
Stone products - from Edmore, Rockton, Marquette and Dubuque.
Agricultural products - all towns.
Oil, bananas, stock and autos - Other trains.
Passenger trains: Through (“Marquette” & “Sioux”) and local trains.