Bob Brady’s St. Louis Sub

Chaffee, MO Station

LAYOUT DESCRIPTION OF THE FRISCO IN EASTERN MISSOURI

Theme is “Transition Era” late 1940’s to early 1950’s built as a switching layout.

My research has been from maps and timetables, notes, and stories from various websites.

SLSF (Frisco) River Division – St. Louis Sub (St. Louis to Chaffee)

SLSF (Frisco) River Division – Chaffee Sub (Chaffee to Memphis)

Interactions with other railroads are the CE&I, MI, and MP at different locations along Frisco’s mainline.

Mainline is approximately 265′ point-to-point representing 285 miles.

Staging is represented by St. Louis and Memphis with Chaffee as the midpoint and crew change.

Construction is triple deck, height 37″ to 68″ gradual climb, no helix.

The layout room is 15′ x 30′ with an isle width of 34″.

Fast clock running at 2 to 1 is centrally located in layout room near the ceiling.

Four sessions complete a 24 hour day. One session is a 6 hour shift.

5 operators are required for a full session, Verbal dispatching, no radios, and run regarding Timetable.

6 operators if including the Dispatcher for TT&TO. Radios on the fascia are used as telephones.

Car forwarding is accomplished using 3″ x 5″ cards having check boxes for current location. OUT boxes indicates which cars are to be picked up, and IN boxes for cars that have been delivered or remain at the current location.

All jobs involve switching with some light and some heavy.

Digitrax UT 4R throttles are provided, and please refrain from using 400 throttles.

Many locomotives now have sound, function controls are listed on their engine card along with the correct two-digit address.

House rules and things to observe while you enjoy yourselves.

  • Drinks in the refrigerator and bathroom are in the laundry room area.
  • Personal throttles (except 400 type) can be used with permission but are not required.
  • Layout room is tight, wait in the laundry room for your job to come up.
  • Give each other room to do their work.
  • Be gentle with ground throws, uncoupling cars, and reaching into scenic areas.
  • Many switches in hard to reach areas will have a toggle switch on the fascia.
  • Maximum speed running trains is 35 mph, 10 mph in towns, yards, bridges, drop-ins, and staging areas.
  • Sound units have a slower response time to throttle movement, patience is a must when switching and changing directions. Two-address is located on the Locomotive Card.
  • Radios are used as telephones at specified stations along with Train Registers which you must sign showing arrival and departure times.
  • Check your pockets and aprons for car cards and picks before leaving after the session.
  • It is OK to take pictures.
Crystal City Station
Oran, MO saw mill on MoPac Line
Bridge over Black Creek
Stock Pens at Farmers Co-op
Frisco/MoPac Crossing south end of Cape
Logging Company
Loading Dock

The following link will take you to the Brady page on the Arch Rails site with more information and photos: http://archrails.com/layouts/slsf-brady/.

The following link will take you to Bob Brady’s page on OperatingSessions.com: https://www.operatingsessions.com/Layouts/Brady.