Lake Troy District Railroad

Operations: NCE DCC with plug-in throttles. Most locos have sound, with almost all being equipped with Tsunami/Econami or MobileDCC SoundTraxx decoders. Dispatching is informal.

Description:

The Lake Troy District Railroad is an HO scale fictional, regional-sized subsidiary of the Southern Pacific that exists somewhere in the approximate Midwest of the USA. It doesn't model any specific prototype, but does move a wide variety of freight, including coal, grain, refrigerated products, express, and TOFC intermodal. The layout is envisioned as being multi-era, with equipment and power representing 1962, and additional equipment and power representing 1971. The hope is to also allow the layout to represent 1981, with equipment and power that model that era as well. It's ambitious, but I think it's do-able, and will satisfy the layout owner's desire for having a reason to model multiple generations of diesels starting with the end of the transition era and going up to the timeframe just before cabooses were deemed unnecessary. (The LTD Railroad likes it's cabooses!)

The layout was previously fully operational, but recently about 1/3 of the layout was torn down and is being rebuilt/redesigned to accommodate better operating activities. The redesign will not only make operations better, but will also add about 25% more railroad in the same footprint.

Switching is the main task on this layout, and most trains (even some of the passenger trains) do at least a little switching. There's not much scenery yet, however the trains will soon be running and local industries in the five main towns need their shipments of goods. We also interchange with two other foreign roads.

In addition to the local trains that service each of the five towns, there's also a Coal Train that services the local power plant and makes dropoffs and pickups at various towns and switches the coal tipple. As well, there's a separate reefer train (ice bunker and/or mechanical refrigerator cars depending upon era), a daily express train (the Super Express), at least one TOFC intermodal train, and a couple of passenger trains. And that's a lot of traffic for a single-mainline railroad.

Novice operators are not excluded (they're welcomed), however operators with at least some experience are encouraged.

Because of the eras being represented, steam is obsolete and all power is diesel. In 1962, road power is mostly first-generation diesels, with a heavy emphasis on Fairbanks-Morse and Alco road switchers, and FM and EMD cab freights, with a few Baldwins thrown in for variety. In 1971, many early diesels are gone and replaced with locomotives from Alco's recently introduced Century Line of road power. The Lake Troy District Railroad has invested heavily in these revolutionary second-generation locomotives, but is also diversified with a good representation of GE's Universal line of diesels. By 1981, all of the remaining first-generation locos have been retired and replaced with EMD's new 4-axle GPs and 6-axle SDs.

If you like switching, you may just enjoy the LTD!

Layout Owner

Ken Towery

Location

McKinney, TX

Scale

HO

Layout Size

24 ft x 20 ft

Mainline Size

275 ft

Era

1962, 1971, or 1981

Crew Complement

6 - 7

Completion

Track: 100%
Scenery: 10%
Electrical: 100%

Control System

NCE - No Radio

Dispatching Method

Verbal/Mother-May-I

Car Forwarding

Car Cards/Waybills

Pets

Yes - Dogs do live in this house.