Hello guys, I'm a german model railroad beginner and searching for some nice spots in Texas to begin my planning of a layout. But I'm a bit frustrated that this country seems to have no nice spots so I need a bit help from you. I choose this country because it's the only one I bear reference to. I like the storybook america and Texas has those different types of climate. From deserts to tropical climate as well as hills and prairie but it seems to have boring train routes. Moreover it is not a country which is often modelled like Californien. I'm just modelling a small shelf layout about 7'x 15'' but I'm thinking about the background and that's not unimportant i think. So maybe you can help me to fortify my intentions.
Not exactly clear on what you mean by "nice"? Assuming you mean nice scenery, and then we would need to know what scenery you like best....since, like you say, there's a lot of variation in Texas. Anyway I'll take a shot at it... 1. Pineywoods - UP has some nice bigtime mainline ops on the upper part of East Texas, including Amtrak too. BNSF is also present but more branch line kinda stuff. Then you get SE Texas and the gulf/Houston area....TONS of railroading, heavy industry. (petrochemicals, port operations) 2. Central/Hill Country - UP in Hearne and BNSF in Temple, (Houston-bound) down through Austin/San Antonio. Austin isn't a huge railroad town but Amtrak plus lots of branches and good scenery...hills, lakes, trees,etc. Industry is heavily rock quarries. 3. Dallas/Fort Worth. Tower 55 is the center...plenty of industry, Intermodal, yards, grain elevators, commuter lines, et al. Plains/flat scenery. 4. BNSF Transcon - tons of Trains, plus the coal routes crossing at Amarillo. Plains/desert plateau type scenes. 5. Far West Texas. The area I'm least familiar with, but lots of mainline railroading for UP and the exSP Sunset Route. Desert and mountainous regions. Very oversimplified but those are some of the better options.
What era are you interested in modeling? There are plenty of models available for modern UP and BNSF. The farther back in time that you go, the less is available to model the heritage railroads. In the transition era (late 1940s through early 1950s), there were many different railroads operating in Texas. The major railroads owned many of the small railroads that ran in Texas. The major railroads were the ATSF, CB&Q, CRI&P, KCS, MKT, MP, SL&SF, SP, TM and T&P.
I'm interested in modern era. And yes I mean nice scenery. I feel that Texas seems really flat "I once heard that Texas is so flat, you can watch your dog run away for three days" and I'm missing some hills and tunnels. Texas has many rivers so bridges are very common but I didnt found any picture of a tunnel at railpictures maybe they doesn't exist? I'm just searching for a nice urban spot maybe with street running to start my switching layout and a nice route to imagine or to give my trains a destination or to expand my layout later. Something like this: http://www.frankenmodell.de/dh21.09.09.html it's at Albany, NY. It's a mixture of fictitious and reality because this bicycle faction was a bit smaller without train connection in 80s to 90s. At the beginning I thought about Fort Worth because of its old charm. I think I am a person who wants to have all natural conditions of america in one train route. For example mountains with tunnels, trestles and woods, desert, street running and trains driving near the beach (really impressive for me in California but I guess its rar). It's still a dream and I am at the beginning of my hobby (besides I'm at an early age than most model railroaders are I'm guessing) but I want to free hold this expandation. Maybe I am thinkin about those things to much than starting my project but I want to feel certain.
Parts of Texas are flat, parts are not. At one time they even had a few tunnels out in West Texas on the Sunset route until a high bridge was built over the Pecos River. The central portion of the state has rolling hills, rivers, bridges, forests and fields. A few photos from my collection. Pecos River High Bridge. The canyon drops way down below it. This shows the Pecos River from the railroad bridge. Colorado River valley looking down from the bluff south of La Grange. The silver bridge is the highway while the dark bridge right behind it is the old MKT railroad bridge now used by the UP. Much of central Texas is just winding track going around the hills. This is north of Temple on the BNSF.
The STRAIGHT of Texas Texas has a LOT of straight tangent track. View from the back window of the Texas Mexican Express crossing the Wild Horse Desert east of Laredo, 1986. Union Pacific tracks between Refugio and Victoria. I would pull the car off the road when I saw a headlight in the distance so I could get in position to shoot a train picture... and my wife would tromp into the ditch to appreciate the wildflowers. Missouri Pacific (now UP) overpass over US Hwy 77 north of Refugio. Of course, there are so bends, and ups and downs, and rarely, up-and-over.
Thank you. I've been searching more and found some more nice spots but aren't there any street running? Just found one in La Grange (no industry) and something in Sulphur Springs (KCS?)
Outside of some industrial areas and of course light rail there's not much street running to be had. It's historically been a bad idea anyway so these days it's pretty rare. I cannot think of a place where an actual main or branch line ran on the streets in Texas other than LaGrange, although I'm sure there are plenty historically that did. A Google search turned up a DVD called "Street Running" that has San Antonio as one of its destinations, so there certainly must be some place in San Antonio that is noteworthy. One interesting setup is in Austin, where the "MoPac" freeway has the rail line running right down the center, between the divided highway lanes. And it is pretty scenic through there as well.
In San Antonio, the Texas Transportation Company ran an electric operation down the middle of the street from the Pearl Brewery to the interchange with the SOUTHERN PACIFIC and lasted until 2001. Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk 2
I recorded the route of the Texas Transportation Company in San Antonio in the early 1980s. It cut off from the Southern Pacific at Burleson Street, just east of Interstate Hwy 37. Then the track ducked under Interstate 37. (Well, the tracks and electric were there three-quarters of a century BEFORE the Interstate, so it would be more correct to sau IH-37 was built OVER it. The single track ran west down the middle of West Jones Avenue, with businesses on the left side of this view, and Maverick Park on the right a block in the distance. An SP steamer was on display in the park, since moved. (Restored I hope...) The electric rwy track and West Jones Ave. continued west on a concrete bridge over the San Antonio River. (continued)
The electric railway serving the Pearl Brewery passed competitor Lone State Brewery. Lone Star has been converted to the San Antonio Museum of Art. The Heljan plastic kit would a good candidate for capturing the general appearance of Lone Star. Past Lone Star, the electric line took a turn on private right-of-way... Then crossed over the San Antonio River on a timber trestle and under Interstate Hwy 35. (continued)
After running a mile, the electric line ended behind the fence at Pearl Brewery. A closer shot of the venerable electric freight motor in 1988. For twelve years, I passed through San Antonio two or three times a year and always checked to see if I could catch the electric railway hauled freight cars down the street, but never saw it in operation.
Not exactly street running, but something similar I have seen several Texas towns. The railroad was there first and when a town developed, it built a pair of main streets, one right on each side of the rail line. Main downtown business buildings front on each street, on the side of the street across from the tracks. A few of the buildings may look a bit like "wild west." A couple of towns built on this pattern: Hondo, Texas, where the sign at the edge of town reads. "This is God's country; don't drive through it like hell." Hondo is west of San Antonio, on the UP, ex-Southern Pacific Sunset line. Another example, little Benavides, Texas in Duval County. Also not exactly STREET running. Expressway running. A Union Pacific mainline runs down the median of the MoPac expressway on the west side of Austin, Texas. I don't have a photo on railimages I can display right now, but I designed a small layout a few years back with the expressway running as a feature. Maybe can find some photos online to link later...
Links to Austin scenes--- Image of freight train on freeway median http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ef/Mopac_Expressway.jpg/220px-Mopac_Expressway.jpg video of Amtrak train on freeway median http://wn.com/amtrak_texas_eagle_approaches_austin,_tx_station Edit: Oops, looks like you have to go down through a couple of clips to get to the expressway shot...
I had the priviledge of photographing that operation in 1994-5 just before it closed. Hands down the worst track I've ever seen in actual operation. I've got a first class shot of the elecric freight motor towing a Conrail boxcar of beer in front of the art museum, and I treasure that one now. The SP steamer is moved down to the Sunset depot.
seems to me that Austin used to have some significant street running on.... 4th St? All the way down toward Power & Light? Austin Steam Train used to come into town on it and now it looks like it is the streetcar route to the Convention Center. I remember it with tracks in it all the way down quite a ways.
