Union Pacific Burns & Pike Creek Canyon Branch Line

This plan is a freelance layout based loosely on the Union Pacific's branch line to Burns, Oregon. The time period is around September of 1944, with World War II raging in both Europe and the Pacific.

N scale, 12' x 7', built as a bookshelf 2' wide (or less) that hugs the walls in an alcove of a room. Track and turnouts are Peco Code 80, with minimum radius curves of 12", and #6 (medium) turnouts throughout (with the exception of two #8s (large) on the main line), but the spur line up to the Pike Creek Canyon is be code 55. The track elevation is level at 0", except for the Pike Creek Canyon spur, which reaches an elevation of 4" just before the mine. The power control is DCC (Digitrax Super Chief), and the turnouts are powered by Tortoise toggled by DPDT switches. Because this is my first layout, some decisions, such as using the code 80 flex track and turnouts were made to simplify the track laying and wiring process.

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Plan and Topo	Designed using XTrkCad

The goal was to create a layout that allowed for continuous runs, the ability to handle trains arriving and departing the Burns yard, model locomotive maintenance, and recreate "small-town America" in the mid 1940s. My wife and I love southeastern Oregon, and so I decided to blend fact with fantasy and extended the UP Ontario to Burns line with a spur line to a cinnabar mine on the Alvord side of Steens Mountain, southeast of Burns. I also extended the line to continue on through Burns and west to Lakeview, which gives the yard and locomotive facilities in Burns a reason to be as large and busy as planned.

The downtown core of Burns sits at the end of the yard, and nearby is the fictitious Fort Burns, a US Army base where troops are trained and supplies are warehoused -- not modeled, but the troops and supplies will of course increase rail traffic, and that will be represented.

There actually were small cinnabar (a mercury ore) mines scattered around Steens, and you can still find remnants of mining equipment in the canyons leading up from the Alvord desert. In fact there is even a short roadbed in Pike Creek Canyon that was used to bring the ore down the steep terrain. The need for mercury for the "war effort" is the primary reason for the spur line leading up to the hugely exaggerated mine in Pike Creek Canyon. A 2 truck shay will push a small set of ore cars up the canyon, and pull the full ore cars back down.

There was a significant timber rail operation between Burns and Seneca during this time, and while this line will not be included in the layout, timber will provide much of the freight out from Burns.

Alvord Lake is part of the great basin, and used to be a significant source for borax. Chinese laborers (complete with coolie hats) would slave long hours to boil away water from the Alvord to extract the borax. The borax was loaded onto wagons pulled by the famous 16-mule teams, which would bring them to town. The great semi-cylindrical vats used to boil out the borax are still present, rusting away, as are less obvious signs of the labor camps. I have extended this operation into the 1940s, only now the borax will be shipped out by rail.

Cattle was and is an important commodity in the region, and this too will provide transport opportunities with a cattle pen sharing the siding with the borax camp.

UP ran a single train per week to Burns, but I have increased the size of the town and local industries (in addition to the mine, smelter, borax and cattle will be various factories yet to be determined) and added a large military base, and so two trains will provide daily service between Burns and the main UP line, with additional daily passenger service -- alas, but with the twelve inch radius curves, the cars will be older smaller units.

A single dedicated freight train will run west from Ontario to Burns each day, and one east from Burns to Ontario. Upon arrival at Burns, the west bound train will be split into cars to be unloaded at Burns, and those that will make up smaller trains to service the local industries, or continue on west to Lakeview. The east bound train is assembled from cars pulled in from these same areas. The Ontario to Burns (and back) trains will be pulled by a 4-6-6-4 Challenger. Multiple smaller trains will provide pickup and delivery to the industries in and around Burns, plus all of the timber coming in from Lakeview. A special train, with locomotive power provided by a Shay, will make the trek up to the mine in Pike Creek Canyon in a push/pull mode.

In addition to freight, passenger service will be provided between Lakeview and Burns, and between Burns to Ontario. The service between Burns and Ontario will be more frequent because of demand from the military personel at Fort Burns.