Riverside, Chicago & Baltimore (RC&B)
Riverside, Chicago and Baltimore Railroad (the RC&B) was originally started in 1986. It was moved to it’s current location in 1991 and included just the yard, Hillside, Billz, Summit and Waynesburg. It was extensively re-built in 1993 to add Chesterfield, Metropolis and some staging. With minor ongoing refinements, it operated in that configuration for 22 years. In September 2015 the final operating session on the old RC&B was held. Afterward, the railroad was de-constructed with a piece of Metropolis, all of Chesterfield and Summit salvaged to be re-incorporated into the new two deck railroad. The interior wall seperating the railroad from staging was removed and the exterior doors accessing staging walled in. The remaining area was finished and incorporated into the railroad room. The new railroad is a 2 deck railroad where the mainline is laid out as a two loop helix with staging at either end. Essentially each town from Metropolis to Summit is at a slightly higer elevation than the last. Construction to allow operations (except the mine branch) was completed in May 2018 and the first operating session held that month. Upper staging has 11 tracks and lower staging has 13. The newly designed railroad features longer runs between towns, additional towns for the locals to switch and wider aisles and a design geared to reduce overcrowding for the operators.
The railroad depicts a free lance modern era class one railroad that runs from a major coastal city (Metropolis) to the Appalaician mountain pass in Summit. The lower deck includes Metropolis, the subruban areas of Layton and Chesterfield and the farming community of Farmville. From there you travel to Blackrock Yard. Also feeding the yard on the lower deck is a single track branch line that runs to Franklin and Waynesburg. Blackrock Yard is at the exact mid-point of the railroad. Leaving Blackrock and running uphill you enter a single track transition track that runs behind Metropolis buildings and arrives on the upper level in the town of Hillside. From there you travel to Billz and Summit. Past Summit is the entry to upper staging. At Summit is the small independent railroad, Western Pennsylvania, that switches a flood loader in Summit and runs a small branch line to a couple of coal lines that are still managing to put out product.
The railroad is designed to use a minimum of 7 operators for full operation and can accomidate more. There is a dedicated yard operator and two people are needed to operate Metropolis, switching the 13 industries and the unit trains that run between staging and Metroplis. Three local trains originate at the yard and do “out and back” jobs. One runs to Metropolis switching the 3 towns on the way, the other to Summit switching the upper deck towns, and one to Waynesburg that also switches Franklin. There are many trains that run from staging to staging. The general merchandise trains that run will stop in Metropolis and Blackrock yard to exchange blocks of cars. There are unit trains of grain, container/TOFC, oil, and coal. Amtrack may also make an appearance at an operating session.
The RC&B has hosted ProRail and Desert Ops guests and we look forward to sharing the railroad with Desert Ops operators again.
| Owner | Roger Brendecke |
| Location | Tempe AZ |
| Prototype | Freelance Class 1 |
| with Branch Line | |
| Scale | HO |
| Era | Modern |
| Locale | Eastern US |
| Forwarding | Car Card / Waybill |
| Verbal Dispatch | |
| Control System | NCE DCC |
| Size | 20′ x 33′ |
| Style | Walk around |
| Communication | Verbal, visual rules |
| Access | Separate building, |
| removable duck-under | |
| at entry | |
| Pets in home | none |
| Smoking | No |
| Website | none |
| Crew Size | 6 |
| Jobs | |
| Yardmaster | |
| Terminal Operator | |
| Four | Multiple Locals and |
| Positions | Merchandise Trains |