Santa Fe Northern...... The Junction Route

The Santa Fe Northern is a model railroad with a Santa Fe theme centered on operations at La Junta, Colorado just before the BNSF merger.  Current operations have been moved back 5 years to about 1990 from 1995 during the 2006 Prairie Rail.   The coal business is booming on the new the York Canyon mine and the inter-modal trains move quickly over the line.  Amtrak 3 and 4 pull long trains daily and business on the Cimarron Valley sub-division  is  busy. It is obvious this is a thriving part of the AT&SF.

The Junction Scheme

The layout centers on the operation of the yard at La Junta, Colorado (Spanish for the junction).   Four Santa Fe Routes converge at La Junta.   Trains from these routes bring in traffic from Denver and Pueblo off the “Joint Line”, from Newton, Kansas and Kansas City off the old Northern Division passenger main, from Albuquerque over Raton pass, and from the lonely line via Amarillo, Texas and Las Animas, Colorado. Five states are represented, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.