Route of The Eagles – The River Division
(Updated December 2018)
The experience gained over the past 10 years operating on some outstanding layouts in both the Springfield, MO and Kansas City area, has been invaluable in helping me develop the current Eagle River Division layout. I have been fortunate to participate in and witness first-hand the craftsmanship and operations on the layouts of Ron White and Ron Williams of Springfield; Rick McClelland, Mike Porter, and Joe Kasper of Kansas City; the outstanding KCS 3rd Sub of Steve Davis, and
Jim Senese’s magnificent Kansas City Terminal.
Mr. White has been a tremendous resource and source of support, providing feedback, alternate track arrangements, and always asking the right questions that cause me to take a second look at what it is I am trying to accomplish. He and Ron Williams are both experts in the area of track planning for efficient operation.
Trains on the Eagle River Division move from left to right to travel Eastward. The western-most location on the layout is known as South Park, with E. Ferritin* being the eastern-most. I enjoy the creative freedom that employing fictitious location names gives me. My goal is more to capture and recreate the feeling of an area, rather than create a miniature duplicate of a specific town or industry.
*In March 2020 the town of E. Ferritin was renamed Williamsville in memory of Ron Williams.
At Riverside (aka Zone 4), the Frisco services a large Quarry and Concrete Factory, inspired by River Cement along the Mississippi River. The Missouri Pacific and Frisco share trackage rights from South Park Yard to RC Junction. Frisco joins the Mopac at Riverside Junction with the Mopac right-of-way stretching to the Illinois side of the Mississippi River,to the fictitious towns of Ferritin City and Williamsville. Ferritin City Steel and a large industrial park provide for lots of train operation in that location.
Missouri-Kansas-Texas trains operate over their own track which connects Sassafras, Beaver Cove, and Oak Hill. A lumber yard, Coca-cola bottling plant, grocery wholesaler, grain elevator, and several other industries including a large Purina Mills plant are serviced by the Katy at Oak Hill. The Katy crosses the Mopac main at Eagle Junction. T.R.R.A. (Terminal RR of St. Louis) trains and sometimes Alton & Southern locomotives operate over the Mo-pac right of way to reach Ferritin City. Mopac serves the power plant and steel mill operations at Ferritin City, while the TRRA works the industrial park at Williamsville.
In 2016, the ERD permanently abandoned car cards and waybills in favor of computer-generated switch lists and manifests. Manifest Creator formats and prints the manifests. I’m using my car card boxes to hold gondola and hopper loads nowadays – they work pretty good for that.
After multiple changes over the years, my track plans are outdated. The map below represents the layout right-of-way.
