Soeobo Pacific Model Railroad

The  Burlington rostered 10 USRA design 0-8-0 locomotives in the F-1 class. They are one of the few classes of CB&Q steamers that can be accurately modeled from a mass-produced plastic model. On the whole, the CB&Q preferred 0-6-0s for most switching duties and had comparatively few 0-8-0s. The F-1 switchers were mainly used in the large classification yards such as Cicero, IL or Beardstown in Southern Illinois coal country. Several years ago, I purchased a Walthers Proto USRA 0-8-0 that was factory painted as CB&Q 542. The engine is very well detailed and is a quiet runner. It came with a QSI sound decoder that was a little….meh.    It ran fine and sounded okay. I used it on my home layout but never gave it any upgrades or improvements. Eventually the tinny chuff and generic whistle began to get on my nerves. With the first section of my new layout under construction, I was inspired to spiff up the 542 and do some switching on what will eventually become an i...

The EMD F2 was a transition model and introduced the general architecture that carried on through the remainder of F-unit production all the way to the F9 of the mid 1950’s. Offered only for 5 months at the end of 1946, the F2 sported a revised carbody and improvements to the arrangement of internal components compared to the FT. Belt-driven radiator fans and traction motor blowers were replaced with electrically driven ones. The F2 used the same D8 main generator as the FT, which limited power output to the same 1,350hp. Development of a new generator coincided with the beginning of F3 production in December 1946. The Burlington’s 10 F2As were delivered in July 1946. They were ordered specifically to pair with FTA/B sets to make 3-unit 4050hp locomotives for use on trains where 4-unit sets were overpowered. Since the Burlington considered each set a single locomotive, road numbers were shared across the sets with letter suffixes to distinguish each unit (e.g. 150-A, -B, & -C)....

Like many railroads, the CB&Q’s first road freight diesel was the EMD FT. They received 16 4-unit FT locomotives in 1943-44. The A-B-B-A sets were semi-permanently coupled and were considered single 5,400hp locomotives. In the immediate postwar years, 5 of the FT sets were broken up and paired with 10 F2 cab units built in 1946 to create 4050hp 3-unit F2A - FTB - FTA locomotives. The Burlington operated a large fleet of F units during the years I model, so I couldn’t resist having one of these uniquely Q sets on my layout. While models of the later F unit versions are plentiful, FT’s have only been made in plastic by Bachmann, Intermountain, and Stewart. (As of this writing, Rapido has also announced FTs.) The Bachmann FT is inaccurate as it uses the same chassis as a later-model F-unit and is too long as a result. The Intermountain offering would have been my first choice from a detail perspective, but they are out of production and very hard to find on the secondary market. Stewa...

The area around the Chicago River just south of CUS was home to a wide variety of industries, ranging from grocers and grain elevators to foundries and asphalt plants to lumber yards and glass manufacturers. A spiderweb of spurs served these businesses from a street-running branch that extended from the PRR/B&OCT/CB&Q rail corridor along Western Ave. eastward along Cermak Rd. and Lumber St. to a connection with the PRR mainline south of CUS. Another connection to the branch extended south from Burlington’s Western Avenue Yard and joined the branch at Cermak and Canalport. As recently as 2010, some of the track along Cermak road was still active, but it has since been abandoned.   The modern satellite view above shows the corridor highlighted in yellow. I worked from historic  Sanborn maps  of the area to get a general idea of the businesses and track arrangement. A “faithful” depiction of the entire district would take up the entire room, so I tried to focus on a ...

Over the last few months, I began construction on my home layout, the Burlington Route Chicago Terminal (BRCT). I’m setting the layout in 1948 and depicting the CB&Q roughly from Chicago Union Station (CUS) to the suburb of Downers Grove, IL. My goals for the layout are: Mainline run that accommodates full size passenger trains and the largest steam engines run by the CB&Q (4-8-4s and 2-10-4s) Depict passenger train switching of mail and express cars around CUS Run suburban service operations with trains terminating in Downers Grove Model freight switching and interchange within the Chicago terminal area. The layout will occupy a basement room roughly 23’x14’. The track plan is a loop-to-loop design that wraps around the walls and onto a central peninsula. The main level will have the main line between CUS and Downers Grove. There will be a partial lower level modeling the Burlington’s industrial trackage serving factories on Cermak Road and Lumber Street along the South Branch...