Frisco - River Division

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Keith Robinson’s - Frisco River Division

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Cape Girardeau Riverfront during the 1993 flood

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Keith’s great grandfather Goley Robinson (right) and his brother, Ivan. Golly Robinson was a fireman on the Frisco.

I am reproducing the Frisco (St Louis - San Francisco Rwy) and the MoP (Missouri Pacific) railroads in my home town of Cape Girardeau, Missouri which is on the Mississippi River about halfway between St Louis and Memphis. The layout represents about 5 mile of track for both railroads.

The Frisco ran along the Mississippi from St Louis to Memphis and the MoP had a spur that crossed the river south of Cape and served industries in the western part of the city. The largest industry was Marquette Cement (the seventh largest cement plant in the U.S. in 1950 by volume), followed by International Shoe Company.

My plan is to follow the changes in the two railroads beginning in 1950 and ending in 1979 with accompanying changes in motive power and rolling stock. In that time period, Cape did not change very much, with only a few buildings disappearing, including the replacement of the Frisco passenger depot with a parking lot, so it is do-able.
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Track plan

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SLSF #2021 on Sunnyland

Layout at a Glance 
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Layout at a glance
  • HO
  • The layout is a single-level linear
  • point to point design
  • ranging in height from 48 to 50 inches from the floor
  • one duck-under.
  • The DCC system is Digitrax with wireless UT-4R throttles.
  • All locomotives are equipped with the excellent Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders taking advantage of the built-in braking function.
  • Car cards are used, with multi-cycle waybills.
  • Cape Girardeau was dark territory on the Frisco, so Timetable-Train order operations are employed.
About the layout owner 
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About the layout owner
Keith Robinson was born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. He attended Southeast Missouri State University, started in the Electrical Engineering curriculum, but changed majors to Computer Science. Employment brought him to Kansas City in 1984 and during most of his career with Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Keith has been a Service Training Specialist (technical training instructor).

Keith's hobby interests aside from model railroading have included R/C airplanes and cars, woodworking and most importantly, electronics.

Since becoming part of the model railroad operating group in Kansas City, Keith has assisted in the construction and maintenance of numerous layouts. He also has provided Soundtraxx decoder installation services to the local model railroaders.
More about the layout 
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More about the Layout
There is a sidewalk with steps around the side of the house to access the walk-out basement layout.
Jobs on the Layout 
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Jobs on the Layout
The Frisco River Division requires a local switching crewman to work the local industries including setouts/pickups at Marquette Cement and two road crews.

Marquette Cement requires at least one crewman to work the plant.

The Missouri Pacific requires one crewman to run its train into Cape and work the industries in west Cape and to setout/pickup cars at Marquette Cement.

The railroad requires one dispatcher.

Prototype Photos and Layout Planning Information

Construction Photos

Map and Directions to the Layout

You can click on the “show directions” tab to print directions from the host hotel to the layout. Or you can download them in Apple Maps or Google Maps on your portable device.
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