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LDE - Rainy Junction

Rainy Junction is where the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific and DM&IR meet up in a yard just south of Virginia, MN proper.  The yard was home to the Rouchleau ore crusher and the Extaca experimental taconite plant.  The yard featured a wye for road engines, the interchange with the 'Peg and empty and load yards adjacent to the crusher.  The Minnewas natural ore yard and "downtown" Virginia yards also flowed into Rainy.  This was a LARGE physical plant, and one of the biggest north end yards on the Missabe, shipping 400 cars a day (!!!) at its peak..

The model version needs to capture the crushing plant activity, and must provide a wye for the road engines as well.  With the curve of the peninsula, I was hard pressed to find enough straight-away to put the plant in.  It looks like the crusher approach tracks must be ignored to get everything to fit.

I have done a bunch of work in the Rainy Junction / Virginia area.  The opposite side of this section of the layout is Wilpen, and the junction at Wilpen shares the wye for turning locos at Virginia.

This is a string of photos on the current effort.

Above: The wye at Virginia crosses the wye at Wilpen to the mid-left.  Oliver's shop tracks hold a few OIMCO diesels.  A load-bearing wall separates Virginia and Wilpen, and will require a backdrop.

Above: Looking from Rainy Junction Yard towards the Virginia wye.  The far leg of the wye that will run parallel to the far wall will also carry Wilpen Junction (to the right past the stud wall) tracks to the Sherman plant (WAY to the left out of the photo).

Above: A foam panel serves as mock-up for the Rouchleau crusher.  Rainy yard is in front.  I will include some of the Extaca and Coarse/Fines loadout structures.

Above: Another view of the plant mock-up looking "south" along Rainy yard.  The already-complete Hull Rust Crusher is visible at the far end of the yard.  I was using it for a size reference before I made the foam mock-up.