Part 4 - Trains and Operations on the Knik River Railroad.
One of the nice features of the “Freelance” Railroad is that you can come up with what ever scenario you would like on the Railroad as well as the operation of the Railroad. When I envisioned the KRRR, what I saw in my mind was a short Line RR, which was in operation beyond it’s time and by careful management was able to turn a profit. It’s primary function was to haul coal from the Grasshopper Mine to the interchange with the Alaska Railroad at Knik River Junction. It’s other functions are to haul aggregate from Feltman and Butte, Lumber from Garden, Agriculture Products from Butte and to supply this road-less area with a transportation connection to the outside world.
Did I have any Real-Life railroads in mind? Yes I did, I was seeing several: The Pittsburgh & Shawmutt, the Cambria & Indiana, the Apache and Tucson, Cornelia & Gila Bend to just name a few. I also placed my time period at around 1985 which makes it fairly modern, but not current modern. So now, let’s place ourselves in the shoes of a Railroad Manager who has a 30 mile Short Line Railroad to run in 1985.
As the purchase of new Diesel Locomotives, even in 1985 would require a major capital investment which your budget would not allow, you turn instead to the used locomotives. Mainline railroads selling off their older loco’s such as GP9’s, GP20’s, GP30’s and GP35’s. If you are an Alco person, there are the RS1’s and RS3’s. Another possibility would be to use Switcher types of Locomotives such as SW800’s, SW1500’s or S3’s. I am not turned on with 6 axle power, but if you wanted, you could use SD9’s, SD24’s and RSD5’s. These Locomotives would be eventually repainted, but would probably be operated for some time, even years in the livery of the original owner with their name blocked out and maybe KRRR stenciled on. While a smart Manager would make every effort to standardize on the types of Locomotives, this is a Model Railroad and if you want variety, you can do whatever you wish as it is your Model Railroad.
The KRRR principle shipper and the one that you need to satisfy the most is the Grasshopper Coal mine and to do this, you operate 5 coal trains per day, consisting of 15, 40 foot hoppers and powered by two locomotives. The maximum length for any train would be about 10 feet for HO Scale or 6 feet for N Scale trans. The Coal Hoppers would also have been purchased second hand from class one railroads and as with the Locomotives would probably wear the livery of the original owner for ever. Another thought would be as the KRRR is a major source for the ARR, you might want to work out some sort of agreement with the ARR to supply the cars. Depending how you route your cars and how you handle loads and empties, I would estimate that to make this scenario to work would require 100 to 200 hoppers.
The KRRR has 3 secondary shippers, these being the Aggregate from Feltman, the Lumber from Garden and the Agriculture Products from Butte. The aggregate shipments from Feltman would supplement the aggregate shipments of the present Alaska Railroad “Gravel Trains” and would use the same cars as are used for coal. The cut lumber from Garden could be carried on 60 foot bulkhead flat cars either owned by the KRRR or supplied by the ARR or other railroads. The Agriculture Products from Butte would be most likely handled in cars supplied by the Brokers who purchase these products.
In-bound shipments using cars of all types would be destined to consignees at anyplace on the Railroad. The few cars from the Butte junk Yard would use Gondolas and these would most likely be trans-loaded at Whittier.
As the KRRR operates in a road less area, it must also supply Passenger Service to the local residents. This would most likely be in the form of two Passenger trains a day which make connections with the North and South ARR Passenger trains on the ARR. Depending on how populated you wish to make your communities, I would say a 2 or 3 car passenger train would be required as well as an RPO for Mail Service. There may also be a requirement for local service provided by an RDC Car.
Wow, now let’s add up what we are looking at:
- 5 Coal Train round trips per day.
- 2 to 4 local round trips per day to handle local switching.
- 2 or 3 Passenger train round trips per day.
All that adds up to 9 to 12 round trip trains per day and I would say that is a fairly busy Short Line.
The scenario that I have presented above is based on the Free Lance, imaginary prototype that I have presented in this series. I have made no adjustments for Summer, Winter, any seasonal or other adjustments which could be made at your desecration. You may wish to also add something to the general idea of the Railroad, such as more mines or industries. Another possibility would be to change the time period to an earlier date, say 1950 and use steam for power. The possibilities are endless. If you should use any of this information or any concepts I have presented, I would be very interested to hear about it and also in any pictures.
This concludes my presentation of the Knik River Railroad. If you are interested in what I have proposed, have any questions or anything to add, please free to contact me by e-mail and I will make every effort to respond to you.
Knik River Rail Road - Part 1
Knik River Rail Road - Tails from the Line