Sugarwood Railroad

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Well, things have changed a bit over the past two years.  I now have a little bigger space.

 

As this space doubles as my office space (I work for home, I have done so for the past five years) my layout will need to be an around the wall design.  This shows the “Train Space” I will have.

 

I tried several ways of getting the Sulphur plan as outlined previously (see the original post below) in with the best being.

 

But while I would like to pay homage to my parents home town this just did not give me operational functionality I wanted.  So I changed direction.  Since I will not be able to run the big equipment I want to and I have discovered that I like switching and operations, I decided to create a freelance short line and here is the plan I have finally decided upon.

 

Track power will be DCC using CVP’s EasyDCC system and JMRI for car forwarding.

 

The current plans for operation is a sequence type of session with two trains being run per session.

1.       “The Transfer” is a run from Storage Yard to Sugarwood Yard and back to Storage Yard.  As suggested by the name Storage Yard is a cabinet where I store my Locomotives and Rolling Stock not on the layout.  Locomotive and cars from the Storage Yard will be placed on the Staging track.  The train then runs to Sugarwood Yard where inbound cars will be dropped off and outbound cars are picked up. Once the moves at Sugarwood Yard are completed the train heads back to the Staging track where locomotive and cars are placed in the Storage Yard.

2.       “The Local” will then switch the industries on the layout.  A locomotive is kept at Sugarwood Yard for the local and can be changed out occasionally via the Transfer.

 

I have created a blog where I hope to post progress and projects going forward.  Look for this to start in June 2020.

 

Last update: May 2020

 

ORIGINAL POST below.

 

This is the space I had.


What I would really like to do is a " What If " railroad.  A short line that while the rails were there they have long since been abandoned.

My parents are from Sulphur, Oklahoma and still live there.  While I only spent my last 3 years of High School there I do consider Sulphur home.  My dad has talked about trains coming in to town when he was a kid but were gone before he was out of his teens.

Here is what I know:


Here is what I have been able to surmise:


Current Day:

BNSF's (pre-merger AT&SF)north/south line connecting Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Fort Worth, Texas (part of the Red Rock Subdivision) is still here today and has 2 Amtrak trains (The Heartland Flyer) a day, one south in the morning and the other north in the evening.

The Frisco's north/south line connecting Tulsa, Oklahoma and McKinney, Texas and on to Dallas, Texas is there as well though it is now a BNSF line.


Today there is no rail service in Sulphur and few living in town that even remember there ever was.  Close scrutiny of Google Earth has shows the remains of the wye at Davis and Scullin and I believe I can pick out the routes of both branches.  While there is the Chickasaw National Recreational Area and Platt National Park and Arbuckle Lake this is mostly camping.  The Artesian Hotel has been rebuilt and is drawing some attention and a Super 8 Motel is on the west side of town.  There are a few industries, Ker Pumps being one of the largest.   


Currently I am trying to locate copies of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps for Sulphur.  Specifically the 1911 and 1928 maps.

A 1936 map of Murray county shows the two branch lines.


My World:

The track through Scullin belongs to UP, this will provide two interchange railroads.

A short line operation now exist where the branches have been tied together and a two or three track yard exist northeast of town.  

The AT&SF track to the station and the station have been cleared and the High School exist where it does today.

The Feed-Mill has managed to grow some and still exist in the location it once stood.

Nigh's Cabinet Shop will be moved to the business park and exaggerated to need a boxcar or two a week and lumber as well.

Ker Pumps, which exist today on the southeast corner of the business park, but has only truck facilities will be modified to have rail facilities as well.

Swarts Bakery has grown out of its tiny store front on the east side of town to be a bigger facility in the business park.

OG&E Power Plant is still there but with the plant being a natural gas power plant only occasional replacement parts will need rail service.


Operations:

The day crew's day starts at 6:00am, with a interchange run to Davis.  In Davis the day crew drops off cars for BNSF and then takes any cars for Sulphur back to the Sulphuryard.  If they have any time  the day crew will begin sorting the interchange cars from BNSF along with UP brought over the day before.

The day crew will complete what they can before having to be at Sulphur station at 9:00am to pick up the passenger coach then move it to Davis.  The day crew must have the passenger coach in Davis before the Southbound Heartland Flyer passes through Davis at 10:00am.  The day crew will wait for the Heartland Flyer because they will drop off a passenger coach as well as pickup the coach from Sulphur.  After the Heartland Flyer leaves Davis, the evening crew will collect the coach for Sulphur and return to the Sulphur station.  Once the passenger coach has been dropped off at Sulphur day crew proceeds back to the Sulphur yard.

Arriving back at Sulphur yard the day crew completes the sorting then delivered and deliver cars to the local industries.  (Ker Pumps, the Feed-Mill, Nigh's Cabinets, Swarts Bakery and OG&E)

When the deliveries have been completed the day crew will then make a trip to Scullin taking any cars that need to interchange with the UP and bring any cars the UP has for Sulphur.  The day crew will drop the cars in the yard and tie up the power at the Sulphur yard office.   The day crew should finish by 4:00pm.

There is only the evening passenger run to Davis and back, this is performed by the evening crew.
The evening crew comes on about 6:00pm, they pickup the power from Sulphur yard and head to  the Sulphur station at 6:30pm to pick up the passenger coach then move it to Davis to meet the Northbound Heartland Flyer is due about 7:30pm.  As in the morning Heartland Flyer will drop off a passenger coach as well as pickup the coach from Sulphur.  After the Heartland Flyer leaves Davis, the evening crew will collect the coach for Sulphur and return to the Sulphur station.  Once the passenger coach has been dropped off at Sulphur day crew proceeds back to the Sulphur yard.

With the evening passenger run completed the evening crew will tie up the power at the Sulphur yard office and the evening crew's job should well completed by 9:00pm.

 

Updates to follow.

Last update: March 2018