Operations on the California Oregon & Western
Before starting with JMRI operations, or any car management
system, you must understand how your layout fits into the
overall rail system. With that in mind I this a brief overview of
my railroad, the California Oregon & Western.
The CO&W was created in 1984 as part of the trend by the
class one railroads to spin off unprofitable branch lines. With
the Union Pacific takeover of the Western Pacific, the Southern
Pacific's Modoc line was no longer needed as a through route
from Oregon to the UP in Ogden. The SP abandoned the south-
ern part of the Modoc and spun off the northern end. To see
a more in-depth description of the CO&W, see issue 42 of the
LDSIG Journal.
My first step was determining what railroads connected with
the CO&W, and which trains carried traffic between offline des-
tinations and customers on my railroad.
From the map (1), you can see that the CO&W interchanges
with the SP and Burlington Northern at Klamath Falls, OR.
It interchanges in Alturas, CA with the Lake District Railway,
and the U.S. Army line serving the High Sierra Army Depot in
McArthur, CA. There is a short branch out of Klamath Falls to
the industrial area of Chelsea. The BN has trackage rights on
the SP in Oregon between Klamath Falls and Chemult and on
the CO&W between Klamath Falls and Stronghold.
The lines actually modeled are the yard in Klamath Falls, the
CO&W line to Alturas and the branch to Chelsea. Staging rep-
resents the SP lines from Eugene to Roseville and West Colton,
as well as the BN lines from Bieber, California to Seattle and
Pasco, Washington. The Lake District and U.S. Army connec-
tions are a single staging track each out of Alturas.
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