The Kansas City Subdivision is operated as a working railroad with the focus on inter-railroad transfers and local industry switching.
(or - why does this railroad exist?)
The Milwaukee Road services industries in Coburg Yard, Sugar Creek. Centropolis and Indepenence. Sugar Creek is home to a large Standard Oil Refinery, requiring pickup of petroleum products and delivery of crude oil. The Rock Hill Gravel Company is also located at Sugar Creek. Independence is home to the Lumber Yard and a Team Track. Centropolis is the location of Sykes Cold Storage, Freight House and General Mills. Coburg Yard hosts a small Grain Elevator and Standard Oil Company depot.
The Milwaukee Road agreed to service these customers as the other carriers did not want to become involved in industrial switching around their Main lines. The Milwaukee Road restored the small locomotive service facility in Coburg Yard.
Since Coburg Yard, with its 20 tracks in extremely poor condition would not be practical for a small operation, the Milwaukee decided to fully restore 3 of the original tracks for simple classification requirements.
Armed with a small, economical diesel fleet, a compact switching yard and service facility, the Milwaukee Road - Kansas City Sub began operations on September 9th, 2003. The shippers have been pleased with the quick turnaround provided by the Milwaukee Road and this has kept the business well in the black.
A typical day at the Milwaukee Road - Kansas City Sub begins with the Yardmaster checking for foreign line deliveries and switching out the Yard industries at Coburg (the grain elevator and Standard Oil Co). If there are cars for a foregin railroad, the Yardmaster will notify the Dispatcher, who will call the crew of the foreign railroad transfer run. See Take a trip with the KCS Transfer for details. The following railroads exchange cars with the Milwaukee Road at Coburg - KCS, Burlington Northern, Santa Fe and Frisco. There are also Milwaukee Road manifests to exchange cars bound for destinations along the Milwaukee Road mainline to Chicago.
The Yardmaster will then make up cars for the Independence/Sugar Creek Turn and the Centropolis Turn as cars are available for delivery. The Indepdendence/Sugar Creek turns takes a the GP9 or MP15AC and departs with cars for delivery and will bring back some cars destined for exchange with the foreign railroads.
Transfer runs can happen anytime with the Milwaukee Road, Santa Fe, Frisco, Burlington Northern and KCS. The Milwaukee Road usually brings through one of their Chicago-bound manifests to drop off and pick up a block of cars at Coburg.
The Yardmaster is kept busy switching out the transfer cars into blocks bound for Independence, Sugar Creek and Centropolis. Any cars bound for the Coburg Industries are handled by the yard crew.
Later in the day, a string of cars is ready to be delivered to Centropolis and a GP30 on loan from the KCS is ready to answer the call. The Centropolis turn will deliver and pickup from General Mills, Freight Station and Sykes Cold Storage.
By this time, the Independence/Sugar Creek turn is coming back into Coburg with a couple of cars ready for transfer. These will be switched into a single block and put onto the foreign transfer trains when they run.
After the switching is complete, the Centropolis Turn has arrived back at Coburg with some more cars for transfer. The Yardmaster may call for another transfer train.
Before operating on the Kansas City Subdivision, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the layout. As you look at the layout, you are facing south. East is therefore to your left and west is to your right. North is behind you. Starting from the far left, there is Southwest Junction staging behind the buildings.
In front of the buildings is Centropolis Industrial district which serves Sykes Cold Storage, the Freight House and General Mills. Moving across the Blue River bridge is Sheffield Junction.
Over the level crossing is Rock Creek Junction. The track loops around to the front of the layout. Here is Freight Line Junction and Coburg Yard.
The outside main track is the North Main and the inside main track is the South Main.
On the South Main at Rock Creek Jct, you will find Independence Business Lead which serves Hillside Lumber and a Team track.
On the North Main at Rock Creek Jct, you will find Sugar Creek which serves Standard Oil refinery and Rock Hill Gravel.
Railroads exist to move freight from one point to another point. These points may be simply a location, or be the loading dock of an industry. The Kansas City Subdivision moves cars by means of waybills. The waybill specifies where the car is to go and what load it is carrying.
Let’s take a look at each of these parts. Part 1 is the Car Type, which is taken from the American Association of Railroads car code register. All you need to know about this code is that it should match the code on the car card. More about the car card later.
Part 2 (To: <Station>) tells us which location on or off of the layout the car will be delivered to. Likewise with Part 3 – this is the Industry which will receive the car.
Part 4 tells us that the car will be delivered to it’s ultimate destination VIA another railroad company. For example, we want to send a load to St. Louis, but that city is not on the layout! Easy – we send the load VIA the SLSF (Frisco), who will deliver the car to its final destination.
Part 5 tells us where the car came from.
Finally, part 6 tells us what the car contains, e.g. Frozen Food, Peanut Butter, Lumber, Fertilizer, etc. etc.
Waybills will send a car to one of two places, either an industry on the layout or a foreign railroad company. Here is the basic movement pattern for all cars.
Transfer train => Coburg Yard => Local Turn train => Industry => Local Turn train => Coburg Yard => Transfer train
The Car card shows the Type, Road, Description and Number of the car for which it is issued. Car cards have a pocket on the front to hold the current waybill for the car. Car cards stay with their cars at all times. If a car is in staging, its card will be in the collection for that train, held at the dispatchers desk. If the car is at an industry, its card will be in a holder near the industry. All industry card holders are clearly labeled for their industries. If the car is in Coburg Yard, its card will be in the Yardmasters card holders.
The Waybill tells the operator where the car goes. The Car Card identifies the car and holds the Waybill. Car Cards stay with their cars wherever they go, but waybills can be changed to suit.
There are two types of train on the Kansas City Subdivision, Transfer and Local Turn.
Transfer trains operate from their respective staging yard over the subdivision. They stop at Freight Line Junction on the South Main track and exchange 1 or more cars with Coburg Yard. The Yardmaster co-ordinates the exchange. The Transfer train then continues over the subdivision and terminates in the other staging yard.
Local Turn trains originate from Coburg Yard and travel to their respective industry tracks. On arriving at their industry track, the Local Turn will pick up and set out cars according to the waybills on their cars. After they complete their switching, Local Turns then return to Coburg Yard, return their engine to the fuel track and are finished.
The movement of all trains operating over the subdivision is monitored and controlled by the Train Dispatcher.
The Kansas City Subdivsion is fully signalled on all main tracks. Coburg Yard, Centropolis, Broadway Tower staging are all within Yard Limits and movements should be made at restricted speed whilst looking out for other train movements.
CTC rules are in effect from Southwest Junction to Broadway Tower. All train movements in CTC territory are made on signal indication.
The Kansas City Subdivision uses EasyDCC with wireless throttles.
To select a locomotive, press the hash key (#). The Forward and Reverse lights will both illuminate. Key the locomotive number e.g. 7 1 0 then the hash key (#). The Forward light will be on steady. To test that you are controlling the locomotive, press the 0 key to control the headlight. Turn the knob clockwise to increase speed and counter-clockwise to decrease speed. To change direction, press the large red key just below the knob. The lamp shows the current direction ( R or F ).