Great Northwestern Coastline Ry.
An HO pike by Gary Gelzer
Gary Gelzer's Great Northwestern
Coastline Railway is one of several operationally oriented model railroad
layouts in the Phoenix area. The current HO railroad is his 6th layout,
the previous 5 layouts were in n-
scale.
Designed as an industrial switching road, the GNC is optimized for a small
group of operators to simulate the running of a railroad in a busy ocean
port. Operations sessions are conducted twice monthly, with crews drawn
from PCMRC members and other operators from the Phoenix area. Gary, a
former railroad operating officer, is a member of the NMRA OPSig (operations
special interest group), along with the Great Northern Railway Historical
Society and the Chicago &
Northwestern Historical Society.
The GNC is set around the harbor of Tacoma, Washington in the late 60's. Motive power for the GNC is all first and second generation diesels from ALCO and EMD. As a belt line railroad that serves the docks, piers and harbor industries, the GNC interchanges with several class 1 railroads at Tacoma including the Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, and Milwaukee Road. The Great Northern Railway hauls the GNC's mainline tonnage north to Seattle and south to Portland. In addition to interchange runs, several terminal transfers between the GNC's Coastline Yard and the Water Street Yard will be run during an operations session.
GNC has strong marine operations with a car ferry and barges sailing for Port Townsend and the Port Angeles Branch several times during an operations session. The railway uses car-cards and waybills, but no scale clock. As Superintendent Gelzer says, "switching is done in real time." GNC control is via Digitrax DCC with some sound equipped engines. Even better is the nautical port sounds often heard during operations.
GOLDEN SPIKE -- Golden Spike Ceremony - Aug 24, 2004
Barge loading on the GNC. The road operates two six-car barges pulled by the Steam tug Charlotte K. The tug is from Model Shipways. Barges are hand crafted.
Car ferry operation pauses after unloading.
GNC Steam Tug "Charlotte K" crosses over to Seattle.