Tim Blackwell’s

Whitehurst & Pine Ridge Railroad

and Northwest Tarrant & Pacific

Whitehurst & Pine Ridge Railroad

The Whitehurst & Pine Ridge Railroad is an N-scale Class II short line midway along a fictional Union Pacific route between Dallas and Kansas City in the early 1990s. The W&PRR is part of a larger operational footprint that features Class I mainline running in big-city and small-town settings.

At a time when the UP was well into absorbing other railroads, the W&PRR, a UP subsidiary known as the Arkansas Pine Route, emerged to handle the last mile for customers in western Arkansas. Cars containing various commodities − including cement, flour, paper, and petroleum products − are switched at industries in Van Buren, Whitehurst, and Pine Ridge and interchanged with UP and Kansas City Southern in Fort Smith.

Missouri Pacific, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, and Western Pacific power are routinely intermingled with UP’s fleet of four- and six-axle diesels. While the mergers haven’t been completed, Southern Pacific and St. Louis & Southwestern (Cotton Belt) leased power are occasionally utilized for manifest runs.

UP and KCS main line traffic includes manifest and unit grain and tank trains that work interchanges in Texarkana, Fort Smith, and Pine Ridge (W&PRR), where appropriate. UP runs a unit coal train from Mount Pleasant to Dallas and Indiana City (lower staging).

The latest iteration of the W&PRR has been underway since late 2018 and is fully operational. Jobs include two mainline runs, Dallas Yard, the W&PRR, and KCS Yard in Texarkana. Scenery is about 90 percent complete. The layout has three peninsulas and design is DC walk-around,

Other reading: https://cowcatchermagazine.com/the-whitehurst-pine-ridge-railroad-2/

Northwest Tarrant & Pacific

The Northwest Tarrant & Pacific is a DCC HO-scale shelf layout in the fictional town of Norwood, TX. The NT&P is approximately 23 feet long and set in the modern era. The railroad has a small yard to sort freight dropped off by Union Pacific for four industries – DC Cement, Lars & Long Grain, Shannon Brewery and American Warehouse.

The main line passes through Norwood, which has a main street scene. A few early buildings from plastic kits line the street and fade into a photo backdrop created by a shot of downtown Grapevine, TX, home of the 2023 Texas Express.

The track layout is linear and focuses on switching short cuts of cars. Jobs include Bear Creek Yard and the NT&P local.

The real story behind the NT&P? It was created as a backdrop for photographing products that appear in Cowcatcher Magazine!

Other reading: https://cowcatchermagazine.com/the-northwest-tarrant-pacific/ and https://cowcatchermagazine.com/northwest-tarrant-pacific/