OperatingSessions.com | Chicago & North Western Waseca Sub

Layout Description

It's September, 1980 something and the harvest season is upon us. We find ourselves in Owatonna, MN where Lakeside Foods is busy canning this years harvest. The Chicago & North Western works closely with the Milwaukee Road (Austin, MN) and Rock Island (Albert Lea, MN soon to be Union Pacific) railroads to move freight through the region.

Available Jobs

Owatonna Yardmaster
Interchange cars with main line trains as well as the Milwaukee Road and Rock Island transfers. Directs the work of the Owatonna Roustabout to serve local industries.

Owatonna Roustabout
Pull and spot from local industries per the direction of the Yardmaster. Also acts as agent for Owatonna Elevator loading corn.

Milwaukee Job
Switch all tracks served by the Milwaukee Road including Chiquita, H&S Distributing, Standard Oil and L&N Concrete. This job works in it's own area away from the mainline and will usually operate for an entire 3-4 hour session.

2 Road Crews
Works all main line trains including Chicago & North Western, Milwaukee Road and Rock Island. Chicago and North Western trains work industries along the route. Milwaukee Road transfers cars at Owatonna Yard and the Milwaukee Yard. Rock Island trains are turns and work two industries on the way home.

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Layout Details

Layout Owner

Shane Lambert

Location

Zimmerman, MN

Scale

Layout Size

43 ft x 28 ft

Mainline Size

100 ft

Era

1980 Something

Crew Complement

3 - 6

Completion

Track: 25%
Scenery: 10%
Electrical: 50%

Control System

Digitrax - Duplex only

Wi-Fi Throttles

Yes

Dispatching Method

Verbal/Mother-May-I

Car Forwarding

Car Cards/Waybills

Fast Clock

4:1

Health and Safety

Pets

Yes - We have 2 cats who are NOT allowed in the basement.

CNW Switcher at Owatonna Yard

This staging yard represents the CNW in Rochester, MN and the Milwaukee Road in Austin, MN

This photo shows we are somewhere in the Midwest. It's the most sceniced section of the railroad at this time.

The East end of Owatonna Yard shows storage tracks for Interstate Mills (right) the yard and caboose tracks.

The crews can grab an ice cold beverage while they wait for their train to be ready.

The Owatonna Yard engine ready for duty.

The West end of Owatonna yard on a very busy day.

Scratch built Farmers Feed & Seed waiting for cars to arrive.

East end of the shops building. We wouldn't be known as the "Cheap and Nothing Wasted" if we didn't buy up every used switcher we can find!

The East end of the shops area. Yes, that is a 2-8-0 on the far track being repaired for active service. No, we aren't CHEAP!

Expansion Time! That's the Rock Island's Albert Lea, MN staging yard in the distance.

Standard Oil is served by the Milwaukee Job.

It looks like the Milwaukee Road borrowed some CNW F3's for todays transfer. That's their yard on the right and the expansive Chiquita packing plant on the left.

A view from the North end of Chiquita. It's canning season so it will be a very busy day switching today.

The South end of Chiquita.

The track plan as of December 11th, 2022.