Saint Canard Midland Railway: The Current Layout and Theme

First, to get to the point: why the name Saint Canard Midland?

Most people correctly associate "Midland" to mean the "Midwest" or a central portion of some defined geography, but admittedly "Saint Canard" is a bit more esoteric. The name is borrowed from the name of a city in an early 1990's Disney cartoon (Darkwing Duck) that my younger siblings were often watching when I got home from school. Disney of course used the word canard for the "duck" reference. But I like the sort of oxymoronic play on words from canard's other pop-culture dictionary meaning, which loosely and humorously translates to "Saint Distraction" or "Sainted False Accusation" (nobody ever said I don't plant my tongue in cheek). Finally, as a name for components of certain airplane wing designs, "canard" has references in Aviation, of which I'm a somewhat avid buff having grown up under Chicago Midway Airport's runways.

(For what it's worth, I did review a DVD of Darkwing Duck a couple years ago... and unlike other childhood memories, found it to be virtually unwatchable. But I'm still keeping the name).

As my first permanent layout, the STC was constructed in the traditional 4x8 HO formfactor, but designed to be moveable. Construction began in November 2002, and proceeded at an enjoyable pace until it was more-or-less "complete" 2 years later. It would be possible to fully complete a layout like this in a mere month or so; however I did nearly all facets of design and construction myself at my own pace, and there's a lot of multifaceted ground to learn and cover (plus working full time, etc). The layout was moved to our new residence in October 2008. While it passed the move test with flying colors, unfortunately the new home is not quite suited for photographs yet, and the following pictures are mostly from its old home.

The Saint Canard Midland is a "regional Class 1" railroad, in the vein of what the Wisconsin Central ultimately became (although in fairness to my idea, I had it planned that way a bit before the WC's ultimate success was anything but assured). It spans from Wisconsin and Michigan south to Kentucky, west-east from Iowa to Ohio, and has affiliated connections with the Chessie, Santa Fe and Rock Island. The timeframe is set somewhat loosely from the 1975-1990; I would like to pick a firm date (say 1983) but my interests are too varied and I can't afford to build separate layouts for each!

Now, some bird's-eye shots:

West end:

Downtown:

East end:

As one of the few "borrowed" elements in the layout, the track plan from Model Railroader's original 1990's "Soo Line Red Wing Division" project layout is mostly intact, and so are a few of the constrained downtown building footprints. I chose the Red Wing track plan for three reasons: 1) it fills a 4x8 footprint with interesting trackage; 2) it has a yard from which to expand; 3) scenic potential abounds. The 4x8' footprint was the ruling consideration as I knew the layout would need to be moved someday.

Track plan aside, the rest of the scenery and industry is my own interpretation. I modified the street exit on the west end, used a Walthers cannery kit as a dominant scene, and replaced the factories on the original Red Wing with a cement plant and a truck terminal (neither of which should surprise those who know me, ha ha). These and other modifications reflect things and places important to me, and fit the overall quasi-midwestern theme I am shooting for. Of course, while none of these may stand as a singularly recognizable scene on their own, since there is only so much you can cram into a 4x8 without overdoing it nor becoming staid and boring, the sum is convincing overall.

Canard Creek Canning is one of the oldest customers on this section of the line. The building is a Walthers kit which was modified to fit the available space.

In addition, I extended the downtown block slightly westward, and embellished the Red Wing's original hill by making it taller and extending it completely into the northeast corner of the layout. This major change provided a cool canyon-cutout effect for the roadbed, a sheer-cliff (with overhang) facing the downtown area, and a scenic divider separating the back half of the layout.

STC 7655, an experimental hi-hood EMD GP40X, leads a B&O/Chessie GP40-2 and a load of automobiles around the double-track main near Canard Cartage and Transfer. - The need for a truck terminal was obvious: there was one directly behind the house (and in front of the railroad yard) where I grew up in Chicago.

The original Canyon/Hill geography was inspired by my 1999 road trips traversing I-68 to Cumberland, MD; through the Blackfoot Mountains in NC; plus the local geography where I live in Frankfort, KY. I-64 cuts through Frankfort and at the Kentucky River the approach to the bridge looks similar to the cut up to the overpass on the layout.

The layout's fall foliage was also inspired by Cumberland area - a sight that truly must be seen to beheld.

STC 7672, a new-acquired ex-Rock Island GP38-2, works the cement plant near Young's Cliff. The cliff face may not at first seem entirely plausible, but there are features very much like this in Frankfort, KY and elsewhere I presume. The name "Canard Creek Cannery" assists to explain this as originally being cut down over time by a river (with some human blasting to finish the job). The "unnamed" cement plant is an homage to my Italian "mafiosi" heritage... Plus it was tall enough to lend some contrast against the hill.

The Northwest corner is the yard, which is a little crammed in behind the "canyon cliff" but looks functionally authentic and is a good place for expansion. In fact, I have one piece of flextrack (where the Chessie units are) that is not even fastened down yet. This dominant feature with overpass clearly reminds me of Cicero Avenue in Chicago where it passes over the Belt Railway of Chicago's sprawling huge hump yard... albeit on a MUCH smaller scale. While we're at it, the BRC is essentially "every Class 1 and midwestern regional RR in the US". Which is why there's so much varied equipment passing through the STC.

The northwest transfer yard

I like how the downtown in that picture looks fairly distant... Too bad I didn't have a proper backdrop set up.

In the past year I haven't done a whole lot new to the layout, as it is mostly "done". But I am slowly adding details to scenes and trying to improve scenery, and moving on to other facets of the hobby. With the layout in a new permanent home I can also take my time and plan for that yard expansion, and figure out how to integrate the current STC into a larger layout.

OPERATIONS

The layout is wired for standard analog cab blocks supporting two-train operation... as well as DCC. At the flip of a switch (or three) I can run all-analog, all-DCC, or both at the same time (on separate blocks). I figured that one out myself, wish I took better notes!

The heart of blocking are some old-standby Atlas multi selectors; the track diagram divides the layout into blocks

Power for the trains comes from two MRC DC packs, and the MRC Prodigy DCC system. Accessories are powered by low-end trainset packs installed within the benchwork. The table is wired as a gigantic power strip with duplex receptacles along the internal perimeter

The layout is circular continous running, and I do enjoy just letting long trains run... but there are some interesting switching operations that can be staged. The condensed trackwork connecting the cannery and cement plant often requires a bit of car shuffling, while neither can be reached directly if a car is spotted at the transfer facility.

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Here are a few more older pics of other scenes, a shot of the STC's not-yet-repainted ex-ROCK #7672, and one of the overall presence of the finished layout in a room.

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So to further summarize my proto-freelance theme: on a small scale, there are features that remind me personally of Chicago and Frankfort, which are near the proposed north and south terminae of the STC, respectively. The affiliation with Chessie explains the Cumberland references. The real Chessie did purchase a Rock Island subdivision when the Rock went under in 1980; hence my affiliation with the ROCK (as the STC would basically cross the two and use the Rock to interchange west to the Mississippi).

But... all the scenes are somewhat "generic" enough to fit anywhere... so anyone can hopefully relate. Plus, when I started construction, I was not 100% sure on where my future interests would lie, so it would be easy to change. But it works, so it stays :)

Now all I need is a new, bigger basement with an attached house, to expand out from that yard. Actually we just bought the basement. But there's a lot of work required for this beer budget to get there...