A long, long time ago, I was requested to post a track diagram of the Glacier Line.
Easier said than done.
I had to make three separate drawings. The drawing in blue is of the upper level which we call Shelby--the track is all 60 inches above the floor. The drawing in green is the yard area the very lowest level of the track at 36 which we call Whitefish.
The blue and the green areas are virtually directly over and under one another. Their separation in elevation is 24 in. If you look at the main line drawing you can see that it starts at 36 in from the floor and Rises to 60 in above the floor.
The glacier line is a point-to-point railroad that is a single line track with long passing sidings. That is how the Great Northern Railway, a fallen flag, was set up. Today that line in real life is operated by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.
At both ends of the glacier line, there is a hidden fiddle area where Rolling Stock is exchanged off of the layout and onto the layout. The two hidden staging areas hold approximately 400 + rail cars.
There are seven separate Spurs which support various commodities. A few are simply team tracks where virtually any commodity may be dropped off or picked up. As you can see, there is a great deal of potential for simulating actual railroad operation in this area mimicking actual reality.
Note that all of the trackage is connected. Any train May reach any track and run in any direction at any time. This is why the railroads dispatcher must be very careful when coordinating the movement. Very very soon hopefully there will be a signaling system in place in addition to timetable Movement supplemented by radio communication on the glacier line. It is not unusual for there to be 5 trains operating at one time on this layout.
