Steve Priest's Sante Fe Emporia Sub

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The Santa Fe Emporia Subdivision, circa 1978. This medium sized HO layout depicts modern, heavy power pulling fast piggyback trains, autoracks, and merchandise trains. Dispatching is by CTC and the entire railroad is 99.9 percent scenicked. Crew size is 6-7, including a dispatcher, a yard crew, and the Augusta switcher. Radio communication and CTC80 command control.

Division or location: Mainline between Kansas City, Kansas and Wellington, Kansas
Interchange Railroads: Rock Island
Owner: Stephen & Cinthia Priest
Size of Railroad: 35’ by 25’
Scale: HO
Era: 1978
Throttle system: CTC80
Scale Clock Speed: 6:1
Length of Session: 24 hours (fast time)
Number of Crew: 6-7
Train Control: CTC signaled, US&S Dispatcher Board, and Radio Communications. Radio’s required
Listed Jobs: Dispatcher, Yard/Switch job, Augusta, Ks Switcher & 4 Road Crews.

This beautiful HO scale railroad is only 4 years old but is basically finished. The motive power fleet has recently undergone a major rebuild replacing all drive mechanisms on older and/or brass locomotives with newer (standardized) drives (KATO-ATLAS etc.) The mainline is 1/3 double track with the remaining 2/3rds single track with passing sidings. Fast piggyback trains are featured. The Railroad is Self-Staging so operations can continue past 24 hours if the crew and owner see fit. The Railroad is fully signaled and the dispatcher controls the trains with a US&S style dispatching board.

NEW! Link to the Emporia Sub Home Page!

Stephen says:
I was born in Ohio and my love for the Santa Fe began when I came “west” to visit my grandparents in Wichita, Kansas. I fell in love with the blue and yellow locomotives that kept me from sleeping at night while at my grandparents. I have struggled to create a model railroad that has balance between all the model railroad disciplines. I believe that this balance is the key and the railroad not only looks good, but runs well, is interesting well engineered and is placed in a nice setting. The electronics run very well and the locomotive and car fleets are nearly flawless.

We run a variety of trains; hot piggy back trains are led by the Santa Fe’s premium train of that era, the Super “C”. Several other pigs are operated as well. Auto-rack, grain and manifest trains are present also.

All of this action is directed via a dispatcher utilizing a US&S style CTC panel and searchlight trackside signals. Many of the signal locations are ATSF style cantilevers and or signal bridges, several are scratch built.

For those interested, the signaling system is the CMRI from Bruce Chubb. I use the distributed serial option with three nodes. The largest node is located at the CTC panel. That node is twice the size of the other nodes due to all the lights and switches in the panel. The trackside signals are from Sunrise and/or are scratchbuilt for specific locations. The programming is done through Quick Basic 4.5 and is so easy to use and make changes. Joe Kasper has been my programmer and has modified the program at least 20 (seems like a thousand) times to suit my mood or adjust for better operation.

Operating positions:

	Emporia Yard Master. This job requires a radio and you get the entire yard to yourself including an east and west end switch job. Controls at each end of the yard prevent movement in and out of the yard without permission from you and the dispatcher. Communication with the road crews is also required to direct them to their yard track assignment. Usually assigned to build and block trains outbound. Expect to do more.
	Emporia Bum Job: Works the large Bunge grain elevator and several industries located off the double track mainline.
	Dispatcher: You must be familiar with US&S style CTC panel operation. Train crews will be assigned by you when you can take them. You will also control the track routing in and out of staging through the use of rotary matrix panels mounted on the CTC panel Always check with road crews for Emporia setouts in their trains. These must be made from Main 2. All train movements are protected against collision by the CTC machine. Any attempt at a conflict will be met with by an audible tone for all to hear (DFU). This tone is really to let you know you can't do what you are trying to do. A train sheet is provided to log train movements but is not required.
	Augusta Switch Job: This job is responsible for keeping the hungry Texaco refinery filled with cars. Several trains will be setting out/picking up cuts for/from the plant. Communication is critical between you and the dispatcher at all times. You are required to work both sides of the mainline while working with mainline trains that are setting out and picking up cars with you. This job is never done so expect to stay busy! There are several other industries that will also need spotting during the session. Radio required.

About the layout host:
Stephen Priest is married to Dr. Cinthia Priest (also a modeler), father of one (Joel Christian Priest). Stephen and Cinthia run a railroad based publishing company called Paired Rail Railroad Publications, Ltd. They will be releasing their 15^th home published book this year. Cinthia works in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. She is a Doctor of Pharmacy. Stephen, when not building 3D models, can often be found in their home studio behind one of three high-end Macintosh computers creating 2D artwork for Intermountain Railway, Athearn or Life-Like. Many of the paint schemes you have operating on your railroad were designed in this studio.

This is a relatively new railroad and will be participating in Prairie Rail for the first time this year. This is Stephen’s 11^th model railroad, three of which have been featured in modeling magazines. Stephen retired from the BNSF (ATSF) two years ago (this February) to work full time for Intermountain Railway of Longmont, Colorado and to home-publish. He worked both as management and as a union craft train service employee (AKA Hoghead {Engineer}) while with the ATSF-BNSF. As part of the management team, he served as an assistant trainmaster, trainmaster and assistant manager of the Track Geometry Department (Engineering). As part of this department he was responsible for his own passenger train that constantly toured the BNSF system at speed logging/checking track conditions.

Layout photos (click on thumbnail to enlarge)