Having now moved into our new home in March 2020, construction of my new layout commenced in July of 2020. The construction of the Northern Divison of the Wisconsin Southern came first and there are now two levels of trackwork down with turnout motors and block detection. The third and final level of that section of the layout will be installed in 2021. That will connect to the Waukesha Sub Division deck 1, the construction of which started over the Christmas New Year Period of 2020/2021.

The Prototype

The Waukesha Sub Division is part of the Canadian National Railway (CN) in South Eastern Wisconsin. The route is over 150 miles long starting in Chicago and ending in Fond-Du-Lac Wisconsin. It sees over 40 trains per day, incorporates the steepest grade in Wisconsin, Byron Hill. Byron Hill is a 0.9% Grade south of Fond-Du-Lac that was double tracked following the take over of the Wisconsin Central (WC) by CN.

It also incoporates a section of trackage rights for the Wisconsin Southern (WSOR) a WATCO owned shortline in South Eastern Wisconsin. This gives the WSOR acces to its Northern and Southern Division. There is a daily transfer run in both directions to connect these two divisions. The trackage rights extends from Slinger WI at milepost 122.6 and runs south to Grand Avenue, Waukesha at milepost 97.2.

There is a further interchange with the WSOR at Ackerville WI which also allows the CN to access their trackage around Milwaukee exercising their trackage rights over the WSOR Milwaukee Sub Division.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waukesha_Subdivision

What are we modelling?

With the inclusion of the Northern Sub Division of the WSOR in the same layout room as the Waukesha Sub Divison it makes sense that we include part of the sub divison with WSOR trackage rights.

Deck one will include Ackerville, Rugby Junction and Waukesha Yard. Waukesha yard will be on scene staging, however hidden staging may be added at a later date.

Trains from the WSOR will arrive on the Wauksha sub behind the Helix between Deck 1 & 2 at Ackerville. This allows trains to run over a removeable section from the WSOR Northern Sub Division yard at Horicon. The Milwaukee Sub Division of the WSOR will be included as far as Rugby Junction.

Waukesha will have a 7 track staging yard with a loco servicing facility. None of these exisited in real life. the yard at Waukesha being 5 tracks and in modern times the yard is gone and just one spur in front of the old depot remains. However this is staging and will enable us to change consists on trains and also add pushers for deck 2. Just beyond the southern end of the Waukesha Yard is Grand Avenue. The WSOR trains will take the Grand Avenue junction and will connect onto the Milwaukee Sub at Rugby Junction. Effectively reversing all WSOR trains to return to Horicon. The Milwaukee Sub division will come under the WSOR dispatcher who is also in control of the whole of the Northern WSOR Division including Horicon Yard and the Oshkosh Sub Division.

Deck 2 will be accessed from a Helix hidden inside the penisula, which could be the home of future hidden staging. Deck 2 is a very simple track plan that represents a section of Byron Hill. Whilst the deck will not be on a grade trains will leave Waukesha and need to navigate the Helix from Deck 1 to 2. Pushers will be used as per the prototype, but as the route is double tracked it will be easy for meets etc and may be broken into blocks to enable the Dispatcher to have multiple Northbound trains but the pushers will always be a choke on Southbound trains with the exception of the local which doesn’t use pushers.

Track Plans

Deck 1 Waukesha to Ackerville

Deck 2 Byron Hill

Wisconsin Southern Northern Division

The Wisconsin Southern Sub Division is in the lower left hand corner of the layout room. It is lower than the CN Waukesha Sub so that shortern operators can use it. The track is also KATO unitrack so its pretty indestructable for younger paws. Deck 1 & 2 are installed but the Horicon Yard is to be added and connected to the CN Waukesha Sub Division. Note deck 3 of the WSOR is at the same height about the ground as deck 1 of the CN Waukesha Sub.

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I added a small video to Youtube of the sub baseboard construction for the Waukesha Sub Division it can be found here: