The Hills Line is an eight-mile industrial spur of the Iowa Interstate Railroad serving the eastern Iowa towns of Iowa City and Hills. This HO Scale version replicates the practices, policies, and procedures found on the prototype to provide guests and operators a flavor of real-life railroading.
Recent Posts
Fallen Flags
I’m used to life imitating art, but this could be a case of art imitating life. Eight years after I was forced to abandon my version of the IAIS Grimes Line, the Iowa Interstate and Norfolk Southern have formally filed to abandon the real thing. The writing has been on the wall, as traffic levels … Continue reading Fallen Flags
Stutsman Warehouse: The Core
Enough messing around. It’s time to finish up the last blank spot on The Hills Line… the Stutsman Warehouse and Corporate Office. The warehouse itself is a multi-level, multi-structure building that’s interconnected at a variety of angles, all taking up seven feet of linear space, or roughly one-third of the Hills portion of the layout. … Continue reading Stutsman Warehouse: The Core
Overweight
My freight car fleet is still woefully inadequate. I’m continuing to research the types of cars that run on The Hills Line so I can best represent them on the layout. But even if I were to find the absolute perfect replica of what I need, I know they’ll still need work. To start, they … Continue reading Overweight
Gap Insurance
Our basement is a less-than-stellar layout space. That simple statement has driven the design of The Hills Line, and continues to do so. Despite improvements made to the space over the years, I’m still making improvements to the layout due to the space. Case in point, the two lift-out sections. To allow access to both … Continue reading Gap Insurance
The Hills Line 