Prototype

Modeled

Top Deck

Middle Deck

Lower Deck

BN Avard District

Diesel Roster

Rolling Stock Statistics

Control System

Operating

The Future?

Photo Gallery

The Oklahoma Sub Division - modeled

I grew up in Enid, the son of a Santa Fe switch engineer, who held one of the Enid switch engine jobs from 1946 until he retired in 1975. I worked for the Santa Fe as a yard clerk (mudhop), and a car clerk during summers while going to college, so I grew up on this line.

In 1989 I demolished a freelance railroad in my basement, called the Mojave Western, and decided to model the Santa Fe’s Oklahoma Sub as it was on June 8, my birthday and harvest season) in 1989. The year was chosen because as of June 8, the Santa Fe still owned the Orient Line from Kansas to Texas which connected with the Enid District at Cherokee, the Santa Fe still used the Enid District west of Enid to Kiowa on a regular basis, and the Union Equity Coop and Farmland grain cars could be used, as this was the year Union Equity sold to Farmland. Later in 1989, the Orient line was sold to the Texas & Oklahoma, and the Santa Fe & BN signed an agreement to allow local Santa Fe traffic to use the BN Avard Sub to Waynoka, which was shorter, from Enid west. However, I have modified the truth to include a new freelance regional railroad, the Oklahoma Northern, which purchased the old Orient line, and now runs unit grain trains onto the Santa Fe at Cherokee and on to Enid and Oklahoma City.

The Oklahoma Northern was a part of my earlier freelance days and the Mojave Western. The ON has a grain car fleet, several diesels (most purchased from the Santa Fe and repainted) and most of all, has the red and white color scheme with custom decals.

This date allows me to operate unit grain trains with large numbers of covered hoppers, mostly Santa Fe and Farmland/Union Equity.

Also stations on the Oklahoma Sub mainline had large grain elevators, and Oklahoma City has a large GM plant served by Santa Fe, so a good traffic mix is possible.

I decided to build the railroad with three decks using a helix to connect the top and middle deck, with a long hidden ramp track from the middle to lower decks. The original intent was to use the lower deck for hidden staging tracks, without lighting or scenery.