Latest Work

The mainline and passing sidings of the San Antonio Northern Railroad are complete and fully operational.  Ninety-five percent of the industrial spurs and sidings are in place which allows for prototypical operations of the railroad.  The fun-run yard is also operational so that member’s complete trains may be placed on the railroad for fun runs without interrupting the flow of traffic on the mainline.

The Narrow Pass Yard area of Fort Worth is complete.  The operational car limit of the NP yard is approximately eighty (80) fifty foot cars and there are four arrival/departure tracks associated with this yard.

The track in the San Antonio Yard is also complete along with their four arrival/departure tracks.  The working car limit for the SA yard is 115 fifty foot cars.

Track work for the approaches to the engine facilities at both yard locations is still going on.  Building sizes and shapes for both areas will be determined before the final track is laid.

The final plans for the traction line that will link the San Antonio Sunset Station area with Pearl Brewery are being made.  Once the plans are finalized,  the roadbed will be installed.

Work is ongoing on the first control panel for Clarke Center.  The panel will feature a blue on white color scheme, selector knobs for the electromagnetic uncouplers, push buttons to control turnouts and a tally light to alert local operators when the mainline switches are under dispatcher control.

The woodwork boxes for the final eleven control panels should be finished and hung by Thanksgiving.

The Scenery committee is nearing completion of the area associated with Zengerle bridge.  This will be one of the most viewed and notable areas of the layout.

The Signal Team has installed and tested circuit boards under the layout in Clarke Center.  Signal posts will be erected as the testing of the circuits is completed..
 

Geographic Representation

The layout follows a fictional path through the "Hill Country" of Texas between San Antonio and Fort Worth. The San Antonio & Northern cuts away from the old MKT and MOPAC lines in New Braunfels and heads west into the hill country, winds through remote areas, interchanges with the Santa Fe in the Lampasas area then heads back east into Ft Worth.

Benchwork

The layout's "studwall" benchwork is complete as of October 2007.  Modifications for the traction line and construction of the fascia and lower trim panels will complete the job.

Track / Electrical

The track on the San Antonio & Northern RR is Atlas code 83.  Turnouts are Walther’s code 83 and are DCC friendly.  A few turnouts are remaining to be modified so that the railroad will be 100% DCC friendly.

12 gauge solid buss wire is used throughout the layout.  Drops or track feeders are of multi-stranded 22 gauge wire and are connected to each section of track and turnouts to insure good electrical continuity

Signals / CTC

The signal / CTC system is still in the early planning stage pending more track construction and completion of scenery. The club has not finalized a comprehensive equipment souloution for the signals, however, of great promise is Bruce Chubb's computer controlled signalling system recently published in Model Railroader.

We are also evaluating a system based on DigiTraxx equipment incorporating Protrak with Grapevine for operations, signals, turnout controls, car routing, loads, motive power assignment, etc.

A CTC dispatchers desk is planned to be installed in the loft overlooking the layout. At the moment, we have a combination dispatcher's system in the works using both flatscreen computer panels and an older style conventional dispatch panel with pushbuttons.

Operating rules will also need to be further developed before the signal systems can be installed.

Scenery & Structures

Some scenery has been installed on the layout.  The scenery committee has decided that all plaster and rock work should be completed before final details are added to the scenes.  With the benchwork finished and the basic rock work near completion, the dust problems caused by that work will be greatly reduced and allow for the fine details to be added.

Several members have excellent skills for building structures for the railroad.  Many of their scratchbuilt structures populate the layout at this time.  Several structures were obtained from SAMRA founding member’s families and friends and have been added to the layout or plans have been made for their location.