The Great Northern Railway in Southern British Columbia. In the early years of the 20th century James J. Hill’s Great Northern battled with William C. Van Horne’s Canadian Pacific for control of the lucrative mineral and forestry traffic in southern British Columbia. The death of James J. Hill in 1916 saw the Great Northern start to lose interest in British Columbia, and slowly start to pull back into Washington state. By 1956 the glory days were a memory and Great Northern only served a few communities in the Boundary Country, through branch lines running from Spokane, WA. Scheduled passenger traffic was gone by World War II. The freight traffic consisted mainly of general freight, agricultural and forest products, and mineral ores. This N-Scale switching layout is a freelanced depiction of GN operations in 1956, the place names are real, but the business names and track plan may not be.
The Prototype
• Style:
• Prototype:
• Location:
• Era:
• Interchange:
Prototypical based freelance
Great Northern Railway
Boundary Country in Southern British Columbia
Summer 1956
CPR at Rossland and Kettle Valley at Midway
The Layout
• Location:
• Scale:
• Size:
• Control:
• Accessibility:
• Mainline Length:
• Yards:
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• Scenery Complete:
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Maple Ridge
N
3′ x 20′
Digitrax Zephyr with UT6 throttles
Upstairs in loft
Mainline 8 feet
3
3
100%
20+
Late Steam and 1st generation GN Diesels
30+ freight cars, one RDC, one Doodlebug
Kato Unitrack Code 80, #4 and #6 turnouts – all turnouts powered
Operations
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1:1
2.5 to 3 hours
3 plus Superintendent
Modified TT&TO
Car Cards & Waybills
Verbal
Grand Forks yard switcher, Rossland wayfreight, Midway wayfreight
Freight maximum 6 cars plus caboose, Passenger single car
Relaxed and fun
