Blackhawk Lines

The Blackhawk Lines is jointly owned by the Illinois Central and Chicago and North Western, operates across northern Illinois and Iowa running from Chicago to the Missouri River cities of Omaha, Sioux City and Sioux Falls. It is the former Illinois Central Iowa Division.
Not strictly a prototype layout, it represents a “plausible” railroad following prototype routes with appropriate equipment and industries to represent an era between 1990 and 1995. The modeled area includes Rockford, Illinois to Dubuque, Iowa and staging yards for Chicago and Waterloo. A portion of the Burlington’s C&I division along the Mississippi River is also included with staging for Minneapolis and Savanna/Galesburg. Former Milwaukee Road trains also provide interchange service between Savanna, IL (Sabula, IA) and Dubuque.

   Blackhawk Lines Intro and Overview.pdf

Layout Owner

Robert Blake

Location

Sawyer, MI

Scale

HO

Layout Size

45 ft x 33 ft

Mainline Size

400 ft

Era

1990 - 1995

Crew Complement

8 - 14

Completion

Track: 98%
Scenery: 40%
Electrical: 98%

Control System

Digitrax - Simplex and Duplex

Wi-Fi Throttles

Yes

Communications System

Family radio system

Dispatching Method

Dispatcher controlled track warrants and radio communication

Car Forwarding

Car Cards/Waybills

Fast Clock

2:1

Pets

None