NEW MEXICO DIVISION
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway
Owner: Bob Foltz
The New Mexico Division attempts to recreate the Santa Fe’s crossing of Glorieta Pass, New Mexico in 1951. Operations focus on the helper district, “Redball” freights and the numerous famous passenger trains that run over the railroad. Several locals also work the division to serve on-line customers.
A thirteen track-staging yard simulates Raton and points east as well as Albuquerque and western destinations. Only the railroad between Waldo and Springer, NM is actually modeled.
The railroad’s major yard is in Las Vegas, NM which sits approximately at the midpoint of the mainline. The three-man crew keeps busy swapping blocks of cars with the through freights and making up and breaking down the locals. The other yard at Lamy, NM is much smaller and basically serves the branches to Santa Fe and Madrid.
Timetable and Train Orders (TT/TO) are used to control traffic. APB (Absolute Permissive Block—red / green only) signals tell the engineer whether the track ahead is occupied or vacant, but they provide no authority. A telephone system connects each station to the dispatcher’s office. Each station also has operating train order signals that are controlled by the dispatcher.
The layout occupies 2000 square foot basement and is single decked with the exception of the branch to Santa Fe and a short segment of the D&RGW narrow gauge “Chili Line” running north out of Santa Fe. A normal session sees around thirty-two trains running across the division. These include fifteen passenger trains (from the Super Chiefs to gas electrics), three hot scheduled freights, eight freight extras, four mixed trains, two D&RGW narrow gauge trains and six helper operations.
NCE DCC is used to power the HO scale railroad and seven of the seventeen throttles are radio cabs. Seventeen locos are currently sound equipped, but this number grows steadily. Fast clocks run at a 6:1 ratio and car cards and four-sided waybills are used to control car movements.