Prototype…
Derby is a tiny town where the original Illinois Southern Rwy and the MR&BT crossed. Once merged, the M-I maintained a 2-track yard at this important location. The Junction served as an interchange point between the predominantly east-west Ste. Genevieve subdivision and the predominately north-south Bonne Terre (BT) subdivision serving the Old Lead Belt.
Layout adaptation…
Derby Jct holds a run-around and a 2-track yard which serves as the southern terminus of my point-to-point operation. If the layout were ever to be extended, the next point would be 8 miles further south at Bismarck, where the M-I interchanges with the MoPac’s DeSoto sub. For the foreseeable future, MoPac interchange traffic is cut from the train and left here for the MoPac to come grab.
Sessions typically open with the northbound local Train No. 92 staged at Derby Jct. The Road crew boards and proceeds with switching the interchange traffic.
Interchange traffic at Derby Jct. includes lime products destined for the Old Lead Belt on the BT sub and coal from Illinois. The Valley Dolomite Company in Desloge, Missouri, ships its namesake product to Illinois steel plants for firing blast furnaces. Interchange traffic also includes gondolas of chat from the St. Joseph Lead Co. in Bonne Terre. Chat is used in concrete aggregate, roadstone, railroad ballast and fluxing. Derby Jct also serves as the interchange point on the layout for MoPac interchange traffic.
Operators may notice the tan “mountain” on the background – that is a 30-story tall pile of chat located miles away!
