The Milwaukee Road Kansas City Subdivision is operated as a freight railroad with a focus on inter-railroad transfers and local industry switching in 6 main locations :-
Coburg Yard hosts a grain elevator and a Standard Oil depot. Sugar Creek is home to a Standard Oil Refinery, requiring pickup of petroleum products and delivery of crude oil. A lumber yard is serviced in Independence.
Centropolis is the location of Sykes Cold Storage, Freight House and General Mills. The Team Track and Stone Container Manufacturing are located at Lydia Avenue.
12th Street has the Montgomery Wards Warehouse and ADM Milling. The Rock Hill Gravel Company and KC Scrap Metal are located at Armourdale.
The central point in the operation is Coburg Yard. Milwaukee Road trains from Bensenville (staging) arrive at Coburg Yard and exchange cars for return to Bensenville. Local Switch Jobs originate from Coburg, travel to their respective locations, switch cars and then return to Coburg. These trains are all handled by Milwaukee Road Crews and Motive Power. Transfer Jobs originate from either:- Burlington Northern Murray Yard (BN), Frisco Rosedale Yard (SLSF), Missouri Pacific Neff Yard (MP), Kansas City Southern Kenoche Yard (KCS) or Santa Fe Argentine Yard (ATSF)
Coburg Yard is equipped with 4 tracks plus a diesel roundhouse engine facility.
A typical day at the Milwaukee Road - Kansas City Sub begins with the Yardmaster checking for foreign railroad deliveries and switching out the Yard industries at Coburg (the grain elevator and Standard Oil Co). If there are cars for a foreign railroad, the Yardmaster will make up a clearance card and give it to the Dispatcher, who will call the crew of the foreign railroad transfer run. See Take a trip with the KCS Transfer for details. The following railroads exchange cars with the Milwaukee Road at Coburg -
The Yardmaster will then make up cars for the Lydia Avenue, Armourdale, Centropolis or the Independence Turns as cars are available for delivery. Sometimes Independence or Sugar Creek may be combined with a Lydia Avenue job or 12th Street job. All of the "Turn" jobs will bring back cars destined for exchange with foreign railroads or Milwaukee Road Bensenville Yard.
Transfer runs can happen anytime with the Santa Fe, Frisco, Missouri Pacific, Burlington Northern and KCS. The Milwaukee Road will also bring a Bensenville manifest to drop off and pick up a block of cars at Coburg.
Before we operate trains on the Kansas City Subdivision, let's take a moment to get familiar with the layout. Click here for a black and white track diagram. Or download a colour track diagram. As we look at the layout, we are facing south, with East is to the left and west is to the right, leaving North behind us. Starting from the far left, there is Southwest Junction with Milwaukee Road Bensenville Yard behind the buildings.
In front of the buildings is Centropolis Industrial district which serves Sykes Cold Storage, the Freight House and General Mills. Moving across the Blue River bridge is Sheffield Junction.
Over the level crossing is Rock Creek Junction where the track loops around to the front of the layout. At the front of the layout are Freight Line Junction and Coburg Yard.
The outside main track is the North Main and the inside main track is the South Main.
The Independence Business Lead which serves Hillside Lumber, is located on the South Main Track at Rock Creek Jct. Sugar Creek which serves Standard Oil refinery, is located on the North Main at Rock Creek Jct
Traveling further along to Broadway Tower leads to the foreign railroad yards (BN, SLSF, MP, KCS, ATSF) plus Lydia Avenue, and Armourdale. Lydia Avenue has the Team Track and Stone Container Manufacturing, 12th Street serves Montgomery Wards and ADM Milling, Rock Hill Gravel and KC Scrap are at Armourdale.
Next - Car Movement