Alvin Kathage 1997

Over eight hundred miles of shining rails, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico through Texas and into the vast plains of Wyoming and Montana, an endless procession of unit coal and grain trains, piggyback and double stacks, and a passenger service in the best traditions of railroading.

This is the story of a magnificent railroad which transformed the west and southwest of the United States, a railroad built by dreamers, a railroad with growing pains and one which survived intact into the nineties. This is a railroad which exceeded even its founders grandiose plans, a railroad which today stands as a monument to the American railroad industry.
 

THE NAME

    The name Westfalen comes from the coal mines once owned by the Kathage family around Ipswich in Queensland, so named for the area from which the family originated in Germany. The model started out as a coal mine on a layout, owned by the fictitious Kathage Mining Company, for which two diesels and a fleet of hoppers were painted. This evolved into the Westfalen & Gulf Railway as a means to give a bit more modellers license than modelling my favourite railroad, Santa Fe.
 

THE EARLY YEARS

   In the 1840's German immigrants settled in the area 100 miles west of Galveston on the Gulf of Mexico, the town they founded was named Westfalen after their homeland. A group of the Germans on their way to enlist in the civil war discovered coal deposits in northeast Texas in 1860. After the war this coal began to be exploited by the Westfalen Coal Company who constructed the Fort Worth & Red River Railroad to transport their product to markets in the Dallas area. The port of Westfalen was seen as a vital destination for the company's coal and plans were made to extend the FW&RR southwards, plans which were blocked in the Texas Legislature by the AT&SF subsidiary Gulf Coast & Santa Fe Railroad desiring to protect its traffic to Galveston.

   The coal company incorporated the Westfalen & Gulf Railroad to connect the city of Westfalen with the port being developed on the shores of Matagorda Bay about five miles from downtown. However, due to some clever work by the company's legal department in drawing up the road's charter, construction was able to continue beyond Westfalen to Rosenberg and a connection with the GC&SF. The company's coal could now travel via the GC&SF between Fort Worth and Rosenberg to reach the company's port and markets in the north-eastern states. After more legalities and the odd brawl between W&G and GC&SF construction crews, a crossing was installed at Rosenberg and the W&G entered Houston gaining more business for the Westfalen's bustling port, in the process turning the small western town into a prosperous city which soon outgrew Galveston and equalled Houston in size.

   Change came to the W&G in July 1960 when the Fort Worth & Red River was merged into the Westfalen & Gulf after many years of existence only on paper and operation as a division of the parent road. At the same time, as a cost cutting exercise by the Westfalen Coal Company the original section of the W&G between Westfalen and Houston was leased to the Santa Fe. The line was then operated as the Santa Fe's Westfalen District, the two remaining daily Westfalen to Houston passenger trains being replaced by a section of the Texas Chief until the start up of Amtrak. The mining company retained its operation of the former FW&RR.
 

TO THE PRESENT AND BEYOND

   In the 1970's Australian based Kathage Mining Company turned their attention to the newly developed Powder River Basin coal fields in Wyoming and Montana. KMC purchased the Westfalen Coal Company and its railroad assets in 1978, including the buyout of Santa Fe's lease on the Westfalen to Houston line in return for trackage rights to allow Santa Fe to continue serving Westfalen. This line and the former FW&RR became the Gulf coast and Red River Subdivisions of the reformed Westfalen & Gulf Railway. The Kathage Mining Company then set into motion the most ambitious railroad project seen in North America for many decades.

   During the late 1970's public transport was returning to vouge and the Gulf coast Subdivision was extensively rebuilt and electrified using funds provided by the cities of Westfalen and Houston for commuter service between the two cities. Rosenberg and Dallas were connected by a state of the art double track railroad utilising rebuilt, ex Southern Pacific trackage and much new construction. A large bulk coal and grain and inter-modal terminal was built at Angler Islands, on the coast ten miles south of Westfalen.

   Trackage rights on the AT&SF and BN would be used to reach Alliance, Nebraska, from where the W&G's Wyoming Subdivision was constructed north through the Powder River coal fields to Gillette, Wyoming, and onwards to southern Montana. Yard and shop facilities were built at New Bluff, five miles from Alliance. Beginning in 1994 work started on the Montana Subdivision west across Montana to Billings and a connection with Montana Rail Link, 534 miles from Alliance. Work on this line has been delayed by environmental concerns, but is expected to be in operation by the end of 1997, bringing service to eight KMC mines in the Powder River Basin.

   The main line between Dallas and the gulf coast, being the most direct route between the two points, has attracted much traffic from what are now the BNSF and UP, the Gulf coast Sub with its added commuter service has become the busiest stretch of railroad west of the Mississippi. A large percentage of the grain and inter-modal traffic from the Mid and Southwest is funnelled down the W&G to Angler Islands. As the original Westfalen & Gulf was never a member of Amtrak, the railroad operates its own passenger service. The pride of this service are the three daily Westfalen to Fort Worth named trains, The Yellow Rose, The Starlight Express and The Ranger, with morning, evening and overnight departures respectively.

   The Westfalen has survived twenty years of mergers which have seen Frisco, Katy, MP, D&RGW and others absorbed into the two western giants, BNSF and UP, because of the financial backing of the parent KMC which has prevented any hostile takeovers. On the other hand, it is no secret in the railroad industry that the W&G has for some time had its eye on fellow independent class one, Kansas City Southern as a prospective partner, although some sort of operating alliance is more likely than a full merger. With KCS's recent expansions and acquisitions, the Westfalen would gain control of a rail empire stretching from Chicago to Yucatan if the KCS can be persuaded into such a partnership.  

908 running light out of 40th Street Yard
 

THE MODEL W&G

   The model Westfalen consists at the moment of group of N-Trak modules representing Westfalen's 40th Street Yard, the Wharf Branch and a section of main line. 40th Street is a small yard representing the W&G's original facility in Westfalen, which now serves only as a base for local freights working the Wharf Branch. 40th Street engine terminal is also home to the fleet of passenger locomotives, a variety of power works into the yard on transfer runs, and just about anything can be seen passing on the busy Gulf coast Sub main line.

40th Street Yard - Locomotive Servicing