The Columbia and Western Railway
Mark Dance's Columbia and Western RailwayThe N-scale Columbia & Western is a model of the Canadian Pacific’s torturous Southern mainline through the Kootenay Mountains of South-Eastern BC. Constructed in four levels, the layout has 6 scale miles of mainline with a pusher grade in both directions, and a 2 scale mile branch line which simulates rail/barge operations on Slocan lake. The layout is 100% operational and about 75% sceniced. The layout, like the prototype, features ore and lumber industry traffic with several large mills on the modeled portion. We use TT&TO for train movement and tag-on-car for car movement. Scheduled trains are run Westbound while all Eastbounds run as extras. The through freights are normally 20 to 30 cars led by 3 to 4 locos. Like the prototype the locos come from a variety of builders with approximately 50% of Fairbanks Morse design. The layout can accommodate up to 8 operators plus a dispatcher. Positions can include Nelson yard and hostler positions, branch line/barge and pulp mill switching jobs, plow trains and pushers, and through and wayfreights. Easy to use, Digitrax UT4R radio throttles are available for mainline freights. The Dispatcher controls the Train Order signal indications directly through the Digitrax Loconet bus and governs the fast clock, normally set at 5:1. Changes to the C&W since Vanrail 2013 include completion of the remaining large bridges, additional through and wayfreight jobs, completion of the pulp mill scene and the addition of sound-equipped locos to most trains.
Published in:
 MR Aug.2016 |  RMC May 2013 |  RMC Feb.2014 |  RMC March 2014 |  GMR 2016 |  MRP 2012 |  MRP 2016 |  MRP 2017 |  May-June 2012 |  July-August 2014 |  November-December 2017 |  CRM Aug-Sept 2012 |  DO 2-2014 |  DO Oct 2014 |  LDJ 38 |
Columbia and Western
- Dispatching---Timetable and Train Order
- Communication---VTec cordless phones
- Control---Digitrax Radio with support for WiThrottle/EngineDriver
- Clock Speed---5:1
- Car Forwarding---Tab on car
- Session length---3 hours
- Crew size---8
- Session atmosphere---As casual as TT&TO can get
- Dispatcher---Manages the movement of trains over the railway using the timetable, trainorders, clearances and a trainsheet.
- Nelson yard west---Switches the west end, acts as yardmaster clearing trains in and out, making up and breaking down trains, classifying cars and communicating with the dispatcher.
- Nelson yard east---Generally switches the east end, switches local spots and assists the yardmaster.
- Kraft Switcher---Works the Kraft paper plant at Castlegar
