PHOTOS BY BILL SCHAUMBURG Visiting the NPSF R.R. A former secondary main becomes an independent regional/Nicolo Platas
been a Santa Fe modeler for many years and was sad to see the merger of the Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe. Choosing to still model the Santa Fe was the easy part. It was the decision mak- ing which followed that took time. I knew the layout would be set some- where in the Southwest, but I was not quite sure where the exact location would be. Even with a full basement to work with, it became obvious that a de- sign allowing typical Santa Fe mainline trains probably would not look right. As much as I wanted to run intermodal and long freight trains, I also wanted space between towns and not have a train with the locomotives in one town while the rear car was in the last. While I did not want to model a branchline, going that route was starting to make sense. As the design evolved, my friend, Charlie Tobin, helped by coming up with the concept of modeling a line that was sold off or abandoned, but I still did not have a location. When rail- roads merge they usually close down service on unprofitable lines. Their fo-
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t the end of 1996, my dream of having a basement filled with an HO scale layout was born. I had
cus is on the transcontinental routes where intermodal traffic is the big business. I have always liked Southern
California, Arizona and New Mexico, so I started to look for areas there that would fit my wishes. It would make
Seventy-two hundred horsepower lead an eastbound NPSF ethanol train over Ojita Ar- royo (top) into Ojita (above) on Nicolo Platas’ HO scale basement layout. The train is headed for La Junta, Colorado, behind a secondhand U36C and an SD45. Note the “idler” covered hopper positioned for safety between the engines and the loaded tanks. The line is an adaptation of the ex-AT&SF Raton Pass route, and ATSF colors live on.
MARCH 2014
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